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November 22, 2007

The Incredible Journey... To Ali and Greg's Birthday

So back in October, my friend Ali and her boyfriend Greg had a joint 21st birthday party up at a bar near Hamilton College where they go to school together. Cathy, Molly, Tony, Brent, and I took a little road trip up to Clinton, NY where Hamilton is to help them celebrate turning 21. It ended up not being such a "little" road trip because we took a wrong turn (Google maps are AWFUL) and ended up at the Canadian border, lost in the Adirondack Mountains and had to take back roads through the mountains to get to Hamilton. It was quite an adventure.

Here we are at the beginning of our trip looking so happy thinking we had a 3 and a half hour drive ahead of us:

Brent and his snacks:

Everything was going great. Molly, Cathy, and I were singing Spice Girls in the back, Brent and Tony were eating junk food in the front seat, and we knew that soon we'd be at Hamilton going out for Ali and Greg's birthday dinner and then off to the bar Ali and Greg had rented out at 9pm.

Molly and Me napping (Molly and Tony's picture):

We were a few hours into the drive when we noticed the beautiful foliage. It hardly looked real, it looked more like a painting:

Beautiful scenery all around us:

Here are some pictures of the Adirondacks (even though we didn't realize that's what they were at the time):

This is my favorite part of the picture. I love how if you look in the background at the mountains, they still have the last few rays of sunlight hitting them. When you look to either side of the highway, it's literally endless miles of mountains and absolutely gorgeous:

We were already quite late at this point (we were supposed to be at Hamilton in mid-afternoon) but we figured that the little bit of traffic we had hit coming out of Hartford must have held us up more than we realized. We stopped at a gas station to fuel up, but of course it didn't occur to us to ask directions since we had them so nicely printed out from Google Maps which I will NEVER use again:

By this point it was getting a little dark and a big storm was rolling in. We finally got to our exit (haha...) and were completely perplexed when the road we were supposed to turn onto didn't exist. Even better, we were in the middle of nowhere in what seemed to be a deserted mountain town. How fun!

Hmm... where's Hamilton College?

"This feels like the beginning of a horror movie...." one of us mused. "No no, the road must be up ahead somewhere, it's probably just called something different."

Well, the road was not up ahead somewhere and it was not just called something different. We were completely and totally lost, not to mention WAY out of our element.

We drove down a little mountain road for about a mile and saw a house with a tin roof and... cats? For some reason there were cats on the roof. There was also a man outside with an ax chopping wood but we decided to keep on driving. After the "start of a horror movie" observation we weren't about to take our chances with ax-wielding mountain folk.

We turned around and drove in the opposite direction trying to find a gas station where we could ask where we were. Everything was absolutely deserted, so we turned into the one building that looked like a real building.

Whoops! It was a prison!

And an empty one at that:

The whole "empty prison" thing was making us even more nervous about the deserted town save a few crazy looking mountain folk. When I say the town was deserted, I really mean it. There was nothing there except this half of a hill:

And the empty highway:

Despite being completely terrified, we took our chances on the one ax-less person we saw:

This guy had one of the craziest accents I've ever heard and doubt I will ever hear again. He wasn't able to tell us much except that we weren't anywhere near Hamilton College. I handed him our map and asked him to point to where we were and he just pointed in the general direction of Canada. Great.

We decided to get out of there ASAP and head in the opposite direction. On the way out, we saw this beautiful rainbow:

Clouds:

We stopped at the first legitimate rest stop we could find to try to figure out a way to get to Hamilton in time for Ali's party:

The rest stop was, of course, deserted. Fortunately, they left some "Send Help" signs for people to take with them. Is it really that dangerous out there? We figured we better grab one and document ourselves on my camera with it so that if anyone found our bodies on the side of the road somewhere, they'd at least know to "send help":

We examined the map for a few minutes and found a route to Hamilton that took us directly through the Adirondack Mountains:

How did this happen?

Bear-proof trash cans, of course:

We drove and drove and drove on mountain roads following our own directions we made up based on the map we saw at the rest stop but with no map of our own to keep track of our trip on. We got a little worried after a while because it was dark and rainy and we weren't coming up to the streets we thought we were going to so we stopped at a gas station to ask for directions. This wasn't like any of the gas stations around home, this one sold knives, camping equipment, and many varieties of jerky:

No one ever showed up inside the gas station, so we just looked at one of the maps they were selling and saw that we were headed in the right direction. We got back in the car and tried to find new ways of entertaining ourselves (we had been in the car for about 9 hours at this point and were pretty bored). I told a true story I had read about this creepy cannibal family that lived in Scotland a long time ago (The Sawney Beane Story).

Tony responded with "Wow, that's such a scary story. Does anyone else have any scary stories to tell? Well, I have one. This one time, one of my friends got called up by this really rich guy he knew, and the guy was like 'Listen, I need you to come see something, it's really amazing.' And he took him off in his helicopter to this island. There were all these weird crazy animals on the island... let's call them 'dinosaurs,' and they all got loose and.... COME ON YOU GUYS!!" Brent had caught on right away but Molly, Cathy, and I being the smart girls we are were completely sold on Tony's Jurrassic Park story. Isn't it sad that we totally believed him that his friend visited a dinosaur island? Anyway, Tony's little joke turned into car game (we were desperate) and we all went around in a circle telling "personal stories" that were actually movies to see who would come up with what movie it was first. Cathy was really good at it. She started her first story as "Once there was this guy Rudy..." "Rudy?" "Yeah that's it.

This went on for at least another hour until we were all starving and had to stop for dinner. We stopped at the oh-so-cleverly named steak house, Steak House:

Tony and Molly in Steak House:

Cathy and Me reenacting the heated conversation one table over about Jesus:

Check out the locals in the background:

After our $5 Steak House dinner (that wasn't even worth the $5) we continued on until we finally made it to Clinton, NY!!

At this point it was 11pm putting us at an 11 hour road trip. How fun! We were all completely disgusting from sitting in the car for so long and not in any shape to go to a party. We stopped at a gas station before getting to the bar where Cathy, Molly, and I got into single stall men's bathroom to do hair, makeup, and get dressed. Eww!!

Considering the circumstances, I think we did a pretty good job! 11 hours in a car and then a wardrobe change, hair, and makeup in a men's bathroom stall?

Our very late arrival (Ali's picture):

Cathy, Molly, Me, and Vanessa:

Take 2:

Molly and Ali (the birthday girl!):

Ali, Me, and Molly:

Wow, what a great picture of everyone:

Tony and Brent, happy to be out of the bar and downing Jack & Cokes:

By the time we got there, everyone else was already drunk from the open bar. I love Tony's eye in the middle of Vanessa and Jason here:

The following are some of Vanessa's pictures from the night.

Tony, Molly, Brent, and Me:

Ali and Vanessa:

Tony and Molly:

Greg with a friend from school:

Ali and Greg:

Tony and Molly:

Jason and Molly:

Molly and Me:

Tony, Brent, and Jason:

The next few pictures are from Ali's camera.

Here's Brent, Cathy and Me trying to take a shot. Cathy was being really mean because every time I'd try to take it, she'd wave her hands in my face and scream. What an amazing friend:

Ali, Jason, and Vanessa:

Ali:

Ali with a friend from school (and me forcing alcohol on Brent in the background):

The next few pictures are from Molly and Tony.

Happy Birthday Greg!

Molly and Me:

Who knows what's going on here, it looks like I'm going to bite him or something:

Ali and Greg about to blow out their candles:

Now we're back to pictures from my camera.

Cutting the cakes:

Yum:

Cheers!

Brent, Me, Tony, and Molly:

Vanessa and Jason:

Cathy with one of Greg's roommates:

Tony at the keg:

Brent and Molly:

Molly had been playing "catch up" a little too fast, as evidenced by the coming pictures of her.

Group hug:

Molly insisted on crouching down on the floor, so I got down there to keep her company:

Brent, Ali, and Tony:

Ali, Vanessa, Me, and Molly:

Brent and Me:

Cathy, guy whose name I forgot, and Brent:

Eww! I made her put her shoes back on:

Tony, Brent, and Jason:

Ali had a lot of fun at her birthday (which we've all helped her piece together) and took an early ride home to pass out (from Ali's camera):

At this point, Molly and I went to the bathroom together where Molly had a little problem... It's ok Molly, it's really hard to pee standing up in heels:

We had to take her outside and get her changed. Molly decided a good place for that would be on the sidewalk:

Molly decided the sidewalk was a good place for a lot of things, but that's why we love her. Let's just say that this particular blog entry has the most "too inappropriate to post" pictures.

He looks so happy! What a catch, right Brent?

Brent and Molly after we got her changed and back in the bar:

Cathy and Me:

Tony and Molly (making her sexy face):

Tony keeping his hands to himself:

Out at the car trying to get Molly in:

It was a really long (but really fun!) night and we all had an amazing time (even on our crazy road trip).

Here we are the next morning looking so hot (Molly's picture):

After breakfast the next morning, we all headed home for a long (but much shorter) drive. We kept ourselves occupied by sleeping:

And comparing Molly's toe-thumb with her thumb-toe:

Would I do it all over again? The car ride, the crazy mountain folk, the gas station men's bathroom, changing Molly in the street? Absolutely.

Posted by lauren at November 22, 2007 09:48 PM

Comments

Posted by: your lovER at November 23, 2007 11:55 AM

Posted by: M at November 23, 2007 01:08 PM

Posted by: brent at November 23, 2007 07:41 PM

Posted by: Cascade at November 24, 2007 10:53 AM

Posted by: your lovER at November 24, 2007 12:28 PM

Posted by: Lauren at November 24, 2007 12:38 PM

Posted by: Lauren at November 24, 2007 12:39 PM

Posted by: your lovER at November 24, 2007 05:58 PM