The Beginning

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So, there I was, driving a rental car I was not insured on through the perilous roads of Utah; for any of you familiar with my colorful history in that state, this event shouldn't be surprising. The time was 3:30am, and my first stint driving in an effort to keep everybody awake behind the wheel (a good idea). This is really where our adventure began as it was the first moment were we all nearly died. I was adhering strictly to the posted speed limit of 75 MPH, when I rounded a corner on the highway and was greeted by a herd of eight or so giant freaking elk in the damn road. Most of these stupid creatures were in my lane, thus causing me to break hard and swerve around them. As it turns out, stopping from 75MPH is not an immediate process, yet still I managed to somehow avoid the entire lot of them...mostly. I had slowed to a crawl, but still unfortunately connected with one of the elk in its hindquarters. Chad, naturally very concerned with his deposit pending with the car, had me pull over to examine the damage. Amazingly, everyone (including the elk) was able to walk away from the encounter without injury. Looking back, I'm not exactly sure how we got out of that mess in one piece, but am happy nonetheless that our journey didn't end a few hours in. From there, the rest of the trip has been relatively uneventful; the flight was long and terrible but fitting after a long and terrible drive. Still, we have successfully arrived in New Zealand and are currently staying with friends Chad made from a previous trip. Already this journey has been exciting and without tragedy, and I hope it continues in that fashion. Tomorrow morning the tramping begins, as we shall spend New Years Eve in the wild. I hope everyone has an excellent start to 2011, and I'll be checking in sometime next week. Later!

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Comments

[Luke McGuinness]

Elk
That is crazy and awesome, happy everything turned out alright. Oh and since somehow I'm talking to you in the past, 2011 is awesome!