DAY 25

Final Days: the last picture of us not taken in New York...

I am hesitant to write this blog post, since I know it is one of our last. It will also be about our last adventure on the road, since the final day consisted mainly of driving home through shitty turnpike traffic. I'll probably just spill my heart out about how much I love Nicole, road trips, freedom, frugality, dirt, and tents anyway.

In any case, here we go. Even with our 700 miles of driving the day before (which I think was actually our longest stint), we still had a full day of various adventures. Mine started a little earlier than Nicole's. Somehow, Danielle has this magical power to convince me to run with her-- I woke up at 7:30 to bang out a "comfortable" six miles (she ran seven, I refused to go on). I was pretty surprised at how I felt; normally six miles isn't too terrible for me, but I hadn't ran in about a month, changing up my routine exercise from running to a mix of hiking, scrambling up rocks, and sitting in cars. Still, my legs felt good and my body wasn't in shell-shock. Hooooray.

After showering and breakfast (I had oatmeal, why the hell not), Nicole, Danielle and I hopped on the metro and headed into DC. Sadly, Nic and I were actually splitting up: she was meeting a friend to check out some art galleries, and Danielle and I were going to the zoo! I aint gonna lie, it was weird leaving Nicole. This was the second time that I really missed her on the trip--the first being when I was bleaching Happy's pool in Arizona while she was inside making raw-vegan oatmeal.

Nonetheless, Danielle and I had a wonderful time at the zooooo. We made some animal friends, of course.

After a fun afternoon with lions, crabs, monkeys and butterflies, we headed to the grocery store to pick up some food for a small BBQ back at home. We got some burgers, hotdogs, veggie burgs, assorted veggies, and beans....along with a decent amount of beer. We reconvened with Nicole and started cooking away! Danielle had a few friends over, and we enjoyed our food out on the back porch. Evening turned into the night, and the beers took over as the main guest. I think that these past few weeks hit Nic and I at that very moment, and I must say that intoxication mixed with exhaustion is an...odd feeling. We mustered up what energy we had to go to the bars, and while it was fun for a bit, we did not last long.

Here was the final sip I took with Danielle before deciding I could not stay awake any longer.

We stopped on our way home to eat some drunken fried ravioli (yum?) and then enjoyed a nice 30 minute stroll through campus to get back to the house. We passed out soon after, in a bed, together, for the last time.