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Shares
Dexter Walters, Nolan Bailey and I were excited to start our journey across the west from the small college town of Laramie, WY to the peaceful hills of Topanga valley, CA. Our minds drifted away in excitement at what our plans were over this week break while driving down 287 to Fort Collins, CO, where we would stop for food. While making our arrival into Fort Collins at about 4:00 PM, a driver to our left signaled to us that our front, left tire was flat. We pulled over to a gas station to asses our situation. After weighing out our options, we determined that having someone change our tire was necessary since the spare under the car had be eaten with rust and was too difficult to pry off without the correct tools. A middle aged man, his son and their dog pulled up to the gas station two hours later. After an hour of fighting with the spare to cut it from the car, we managed to get the spare off and started to screw it in. The realization that the lug nuts were for a custom rim when the spare was stock made its self an issue quickly. Finally, after arguing and waiting 6 hours in total at this gas station, we found a woman online with her own Uber-like service that could drive us to Breckenridge, CO, where Dexter and Nolan had a ski competition. The three of us arrive in Breckenridge at about 3:00 AM. I got a feel of the lovely ski town of Breckenridge while Dexter and Nolan competed. We drove back to Fort Collins from Breckenridge after their competition to get our car that was now fixed and waiting for us in Fort Collins. We dropped off our things for the competition at the car in Fort Collins and realized we had no place to stay. Our friends in Fort Collins drove us back to Laramie where we would sleep then drive non-stop to Los Angeles, CA the next morning. We each took turns driving while one person slept and one person kept the driver company. During this drive through Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Nevada and finally to California, i experienced the prettiest Rocky mountains, a Utah sunset i will never forget and a sunrise over Los Angeles that welcomed me to California for my first time. While in the Los Angeles area, we stayed at Dexter's father's house in the Topanga valley. We had finally made it to the coast and celebrated by surfing, hiking, mountain biking and sight seeing the Santa Monica area over the next two days. Our celebration came to an end and it was time to say goodbye to the Santa Monica area that had grown on us so much. We left Santa Monica with one last sun set and knew we would be back again one day. Now, we make the stretch to Mammoth Mountain, CA four hours north. Yesterday, we were surfing on the beach in California, now we have the most snow in the country outside our hotel door in Mammoth. As Dexter and Nolan enjoyed the mountain i found myself enjoying the town of Mammoth while taking beautiful photos of the snow-covered mountains. The next day, the three of us drove to Squaw Valley, CA, two hours north, where the ski game of GNAR was born. The snow was falling so heavily this day that i felt i was in a snow globe. After exploring Squaw Valley, it was time for us three to head home. We drove to Salt Lake City, Utah where we stayed the night at a friends house. The next morning we were ready to make the final stretch home back to Laramie. While driving 70mph down the highway past Rock Springs, WY our back right tire exploded. The police helped us get our car towed to the nearest Wal-mart before waiting 3 hours for our friends from Laramie to pick us up and drive us home. At this point we were glad we had not died driving that fast down the highway when our tire popped. We had no idea the adventure we were getting into when we started a week ago, and best of all, i still made it to my 8:00 AM class the next morning.