Ten years ago, with graduation from Syracuse University meaning an end to my college career, I took the opportunity to make plans for a cross-country trip with my pup Halley. Realizing that when I got a job once I was done with school, the opportunity to take six weeks off of life to drive around and see the country was limited unless I became a teacher. The anticipation for the trip brew from the late April when plans started to come together and became a reality when I walked through Commencement Exercises in The Carrier Dome.
It wasn't easy to make it to graduation. I flunked out of Syracuse after two years. In the Fall of 1997, I was not enrolled at Syracuse University and found myself living in the third floor of a house on Livingston Ave with former fraternity brothers. Our house closed because a current member turned us into the national headquarters for drinking beer and smoking weed in the fraternity house. Of all the things we could have done, the most basic college and fraternity obligations were what did us in. Working at Hungry Charley's, aka Chucks was the saving grace for that next year, until the bar closed in June of 1998. It was the end of an era for Syracuse students and alumni. I took a couple of classes in the Spring and Summer of 1998 but I still wasn't cutting it. In the fall of 1998, I was unemployed, living with four other guys, only one of which I could classify as a friend. I almost didn't live there but I lucked out with a spare bedroom. I was taking two classes again in the spring and was starting to realize that I had to get my shit together and get back on track to finish up at Syracuse.
Fall of 1999 I was back in school, enrolled fulltime living with my friend Derek and new roommate and friend Kate. Life got back to being fun, punctuated by adopting my dog Halley in November and attending Phish's Millennium celebration at the Big Cypress Seminole Indian Reservation in southern Florida. The year 2000 started out well, continued with a few Phish shows that summer and ended with some more summer classes at Syracuse alongside working at Sabastino's Pizza and Grocery 40 hours a week. In the fall I started dating Hillary, one of my longest relationships to date. It was fun but it wasn't right, and ended shortly after New Years, since I went out of my way to not tell her I had planned to go to Florida with another girl. While this decision that I made would bring loads of bad karma into my life later on, it actually helped to make out friendship stronger, and although we weren't officially boyfriend/girlfriend after getting back together in late February of 2001, we were, for all intense and purposes a couple. And I wasn't going to be cheating on her again, regardless of the nomenclature of our relationship.
So I started to plan a trip in April and while the initial plan was just me and Halley, it felt right to ask Hillary to come along for the ride, as we were getting closer and it wouldn't have been right without her along for at least half the trip. A day later Phish frontman Trey Anastasio announced a summer tour that neatly coincided with my plans. I saw 10 Trey Anastasio shows, drove through 30 states amassing more than 10,000 miles by the end and knew that the touring and traveling life was for me. Starting in late June, I'll be posting day-to-day happenings from 10 years ago, with pictures, commentary and insight after 10 years of continuing to cross the country in search of adventure and live music with my dog and friends. Stay Tuned.
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