The road trip: Teslas, IVs and tiny buffalo
I recently went on a road trip in the U.S. with my good friend Joseph, and hallelujah we made it back in one piece! I was reminded of the sheer expansiveness of the U.S. and had a lot of fun.
Rather than doing the newsletter in the regular format, here are a few things we got up to + some recommendations and ideas mixed in.
The road trip: Teslas, IVs and tiny buffalo
Our journey lasted roughly two weeks and started in Dallas, Texas and ended in an epic hike on the Stuart Fork Trailhead in northern California, then back to Dallas. We went through Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado and Arizona. Deserts, mountains, lakes, buffalo, seedy truck stops, Wholefoods, ice baths, lots of caffeine and Neurogum (L-theanine+caffeine, very effective). Yes we did a lot of driving, but...
We rented a 2017 Tesla Model S from the car-sharing marketplace Turo.com for $100/day. It’s like airbnb for cars. Tons of options, mostly in the U.S., and they provide additional insurance coverage. I managed to back into a pole and bottom-out in a dirt road pothole. Fortunately my accidents happened at 2 mph with minimal damage, and we sorted it out directly with the owner.
The Tesla is like a smartphone on wheels. Everything is controlled from the large screen in the center of the car. The UX is great and there are a lot of small touches. For example, the brights automatically dim when they sense a car coming towards you. Self-driving mode made the long stretches of barren and desolate Nevada a lot more bearable. It’s good in traffic, too.
There is a Mars mode, which transforms your map into Martian geography. Very useful. There’s also a Paint function on the screen where you can draw large large penises if you so please. The doge king would approve.
We took an obligatory tour of a buffalo ranch (Terry Bison Ranch) in Wyoming on a train ride clearly geared towards small kids and families (which included a 15-minute faux-train robbery). I was slightly surprised at the size of the buffalo, who were nothing like the 10-foot tall behemoths I had pictured. Apparently, a near-extinction of the buffalo led to decades of inbreeding amongst a small population, thereby stunting their growth and leaving us with these tiny buffalo.No more buffalo jerky for me, these little guys are too cute.
today's buffalo
VS.
past buffalo
Somewhere between Nowhere, Nevada and Nowhere, Arizona, we listened to a very alarming podcast: Dr. Shanna Swan on Joe Roegan. Fertility has dropped more than50% in the last 50 years. Why? According to Dr. Swan, who’s been researching the topic for 20 years, chemicals found in plastics like phthalates and BPA have become ubiquitous and are impacting our ability to reproduce as humans. She estimates in the next 25 years thesperm count of men will be zeroand most people will need fertility treatment/assistance to have kids. Grab a metal water bottle and never heat food in plastic containers. More tipshere.
Every few hours we’d have to stop and take 30 minutes - 1 hour of down time to charge the Tesla at a supercharging station. This gave us time to explore if there was anything around.
At one stop near Reno, we popped into a casino and went to the roulette tables. I put $20 on red. I was up $80 and then walked away, using the well-earned money to buy us a vomit-inducing lunch at the casino (pro tip: never eat casino food).
Picking one color for roulette is a good strategy because you have a 47.4% chance of getting either black or red (the reason it’s not 50/50 is b/c of the 2 green pockets that it could land in). If you win, cash out and don’t play with the money you win. ‘Only’ doubling your money and taking profit is less thrilling, but your odds of winning and staying in the game are higher. A good read on roulette strategies here.
After baby back ribs at Applebees and finding a hotel last minute to spend the night (usually the Holiday Inn, or somewhere with a gym) we uncovered a poorly-disguised sting operation in progress.
As we approached Colorado, days of driving fatigue led to our discovery of mobile IV drip services in Denver. Back in the 80’s, investment bankers were looking for quick remedies to all-night benders. The IV-hydration service was born: a reinvigorating cocktail of Vitamin C, B-vitamins, zinc, glutathione, and anti-nausea meds injected directly into your bloodstream. It’s perfectly safe and administered by registered nurses.
Naturally, we decided to up the sketchy-ness levels and had our IV’s administered to us in the parking lot where we were charging the Tesla. I felt a little giggly, but overall fresh and, well, hydrated. (BTW this would be a great business in Japan targeting the hungover salaryman).
Camping in Utah (near Flaming Gorge) and then at our final destination California (Lake Tahoe, then Emerald Lake in the north) was beautiful. We came prepared with dried grasshoppers, sardines, Quest peanut butter cups, and a large bowie knife from Walmart that my friend bought in case we faced an angry mama Grizzly and needed to wrestle it like Leo in theRevenant. Thankfully no grizzlies, but we did see a fairly decent-sized brown bear that was gazing at us from several meters away. We clapped our hands and said, “Shoo bear!” and it left.
The hike onStuart Fork Hilltrail starting from Trinity Center campgrounds to Emerald Lake is about 25 km one way. We did that in one day, camped and hiked back down, essentially walking an ultra-marathon at high elevation in less than 24 hours. It was rough on the legs to say the least, but well worth it.
The trail winds through rocky paths, a large meadow nestled in the mountains, and a river peppered with small pools perfect for cooling off. At the end of the trail you get to enjoy swimming in the picturesque lake below.
All in all, it was a solid trip. I was reminded that it’s easy to get caught up in a negative media frenzy, focus on what’s wrong and even make sweeping judgements on an entire country (read the boo kHumankind for a fascinating history of our tendency to do this). But you know, overall, everybody we met along the way was pretty friendly (and talkative!).
From the girl at the Beef Jerky store in Nowhere, Arizona saving up to travel the world, to the man dressed as Darth Vader brandishing two lightsabers recounting tales of a mischievous pre-2000’s Lake Tahoe (I think he was homeless), to the gas station owner ranting about a worker he hired that immediately quit to collect unemployment benefits — everybody had a story and they wanted to share it. That’s mostly been my experience meeting people anywhere in the world.
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Thanks for reading and see you next week! :~)
Best,
Misha