We were excited to see what Y2K was going to do
Image from Midjourney
Theses are the words from my journal... I may change the way it is written on hard paper, but I can assure you that the stories are exactly the same as they happened.
I learned at a young age to keep a journal when traveling, and this one is all about my very first backpacking adventure on my own, without adult supervision!
Unfortunately, there are almost no photos from this trip.. but hey we'll get creative and read it like a book
I've wanted to tell my story for a long time and the time has finally come to transfer these experiences onto the internet. And who knows, maybe you'll let me know whether these stories are worth making a book or not.
I coudln't tell you what it's like today for 20 somethings to travel the way I did, if it's safer or more dangerous, but I can tell you that it shaped the rest of my life and traveling the world became a winter ritual for me and eventually my family too!
These are the stories of my youth, stories I never want to forget. I hope you enjoy them, but most of all, I hope they inspire you.
December 28 1999
My friends Jesse, Bridget and I were heading for Louisiana. Being all in our early 20's we didn't leave Long Island until about 3 in the afternoon... You know, you have to wake up, have a lazy breakfast, smoke a little, pack the car, eat again. These road trips only really start once you've filled the gas tank to the brim at the station!
We were ready and we were off!
A couple days and 1500 miles later we were in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. As we pulled up to our high school friend who'd moved down here the year before, there he was coming back from wherever at the same time. We were all excited to see each other and happy to be out of the car!
Once we settled in, it was like Christmas all over again, we exchanged gifts. I gave him a bag of kind buds from G back in New York City and he gave me a bunch of stuff for my trip. The rest of the day we lounged around, decompressing from the drive, while our friend went to work 😂. The apartment we were in was like a vacation home with a pool table, by a small lake and ducks running around all over the place.
The next day was our lazy day... we didn't do much but lounge around, watching TV, playing video games, getting high and listening to music. We'd break the day up by playing rounds of pool and taking cigarette breaks.
We had no cell phones back then and this is pretty much how we spent our days, just hanging out all together. That night, we rented a couple movies! Yeah from a video rental shop. Some of you remember those!
On new year's eve day, we pretty much did the same thing though we also went grocery shopping. After bullshiting a while if finally was time to go to a party! Of course the girls took their sweet time getting ready but we eventually made it. I knew no one at this party but this one girl I met back when I had lived in Baton Rouge with my buddy John.
Image from Midjourney
It was the last minutes of 1999 and people were were freaking out about Y2K. Almost everyone on Earth had different theories about what would happen to the computers all over the world, but they all had something to do with a major system crash of sorts that would send us into economical chaos.
As the countdown began, we were all full of excitement and BAM just like that, it was the very beginning of a new year, in a new century. Like every time there were lots of fireworks and people cheering all light long. But I've got to admit... I was a little upset, though mostly disappointed when we found out that this Y2K bug hadn't crawled up anybody's ass causing black-outs and chaos!
Cort and I got together to smoke a bunch of weed as the party was coming to an end, and I drove us all home because I hadn't drank much of anything all night.
January 1 2000, The Day the World Was Supposed to End
image source
On the first day of the year 2000, we woke up around 2 or 3 in the afternoon to find out that nothing crazy had happened... no computer glitches, no nothing. My dream of living in a Mad Maxian world was completely shattered! So, we sat around again just relaxing until dinner time. Everyone thought it would be fitting (of funny) to go to a mexican restaurant, because I was about to be in Mexico for a while!
We ended the night at a good old pool hall, it's one of Cort and Cortney's favorite pastime.
On the second day of this new millennium, we decided to go to this place we called The Alligator Bar (this was one of the only bars open on Sundays in Louisiana!) and I guess their new year's eve party must have been a huge success because they were actually closed for the first time ever!
It's too bad too, this place was a rickety wooden shed half on land, half on water. The bar was built on a low dock over some swamp outside Baton Rouge. It was real rustic in there, people hard to understand and there were always alligators hanging about near the edge waiting for a snack to fall in!
So instead we went to the casino! Jess lost $20, Cort came out even and I won almost 10 dollars. I know it's not much but we played for about an hour and what I got was enough to pay for a meal and cigarettes!!
On the way home we stopped at Blockbuster to rent video games. We had our evening planned out... chicken parmesan, movies and games. Oh and for desert Cort made us some pot brownie milk shakes!!! They were strong enough that the next morning I was still feeling high.
A few more days to hang out and on the road again! By bus this time... Supposed to go all the way to Mexico City by bus from Baton Rouge Louisiana.
It's guaranteed to be an experience, so stay tuned for the next episode.
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