Flickr.com (Photo taken by Jason Tester)

The sun was barely breaking the horizon as my coworker and I arrived at Bradley International Airport’s United Airlines terminal. We checked-in rather quickly considering the flight was at 6:22am and made it through the security checkpoint only after a few minutes. Within about five minutes of getting comfortable near the boarding gate we were told by an airline agent that our flight to Chicago O’Hare International Airport would be delayed. Wonderful. We only gave ourselves a little over an hour to make our connecting flight to Calgary International Airport. This wasn’t a good start and was just about to get worse. The agent got back on the microphone and let us know that our flight would be delayed for at least four hours because an airline part needed to be shipped from Boston Logan International Airport. I couldn’t stop wondering how one of the first flights out of Hartford, CT would require a part that needed to be shipped in. Wouldn’t they have hopefully known the day before? Ridiculous.

Instead of jumping in line with other passengers I thought it would be better to call United Airlines. They quickly informed me that the only other available flight to Calgary would be an afternoon flight on Delta Airlines into Dallas/Fort Worth, TX. This involved us leaving our current terminal which brought us to a possible frightening airport security horror story at the security gate. A guy in a hooded sweater walked up behind the on duty TSA agent and in a muffled voice says, “Give me all your money!. The slightly overweight guard jumped out of his seat and was ready to lay a beat down on the security threat. To our happiness he quickly realized the person was a co-worker but made me double-think why the TSA agents would make such jokes at security check points (in front of passengers nonetheless!).

We reached our newly assigned boarding gate in which we threw on our iPod earbuds to pass the time causing my coworker to laugh as the first song on his shuffled playlist was “Bad Day” by Daniel Powter.

I found it a bit entertaining that we were going on vacation that involved skiing and snow but ended up in Dallas, TX. The greatest part was that my ski boots were my carry on luggage which really wouldn’t help much on a warm Dallas afternoon. We walked around the airport for a bit and ended up at our boarding gate to Calgary Canada. A few local Canadians sitting nearby struck up a conversation with us after they realized we were going heli-skiing. They warned us right away about our five hour drive we had to do once we landed in Calgary so we could reach Revelstoke, BC Canada. Steep Cliffs. Caribou. Falling Rocks. Psycholumberjacks. We couldn’t wait!

We somehow managed to arrive in Calgary around 11:25am local time even though we were a bit sore and tired from traveling all day with only a five hour drive standing in our way. Hertz car rental agency didn’t have the car I reserved but let us upgrade to a pickup truck for the same price. I probably owe Hertz my life considering that that an economy car cannot handle logging roads like a pickup truck. We loaded up the pickup truck with our gear and headed over to the local gas station to pick up something legal to keep us awake. Red Bull! I still think it would have been easier to get all jacked up on the substance used by truck drivers and fighter pilots to stay awake.

We drove through places with interesting names like Dead Man’s Flats outside of Calgary. Navigated through Banff National Park, Yoho National Park and Glacier National Park at night which was a bit funny considering I thought I needed a pass to enter the park. I gave up after walking around a ranger station at the entrance Banff National Park for a few minutes. I learned that if you are just driving through you do not need a park pass. We also made it through Roger’s Pass and Kicking Horse Canyon with some major sleep deprivation to reach Revelstoke, BC Canada.

About 3000 miles on planes, a little over 250 miles by car, sitting in airports for almost 9 hours, traveling for 25 hours straight when it should have only taken about 10 hours. Priceless.

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Clark Dever and Joe DiNardo

How did you both meet and become friends at the University of Buffalo?
We met through Clark’s cousin bryan who I was friends with, we just kinda clicked..we both have very outgoing personalities so we became fast friends.

What city and activity are you both looking most forward to during your ‘Twelve Hours in a City’ trip?
Joe: I can’t wait to eat In ‘n’ Out Burger on the beach in LA.
Clark: I’m really excited to meet new people in each city.

Clark, how did it feel to leave your corporate desk job to focus on pursuing your passions and would you ever go back to working in the corporate world?
It was a long time coming. I had been preparing to quit to take on photography full time anyway, this trip was just a catalyst to do it sooner.

Joe, I understand from your online biography that you are afraid of flying and taking off on an airplane. Do you think you’ll be over these fears at the end of this trip?
If this trip doesn’t get me over my fear of flying, nothing will.

So you’ll be sleeping at airports and on the airplanes but it appears a few of your flights are only a few hours apart. Think you’ll be getting enough sleep to function for thirty-one days straight or should I be investing in caffeine related company?
We’ll be relying on caffeine, A LOT. Thankfully Dunkin Donuts has sponsored us.

I know that I usually feel pretty grimy after sitting in an airport and airplane for a few hours. The both of you will be doing this as well as walking around your destinations. How will you manage taking showers and acquiring clean clothes?
We have a lot of friends in a lot of cities who are willing to let us shower there. When we’re in a city we don’t know anyone we’ve gotten a great response from fans offering laundry and shower services.

Are you both shocked at the sudden media craze regarding your travels or was it part of your master plan all along?
We never expected it to get as big as it has before we took our first flight but we knew with the right social marketing we’d be able to make a sizable media impact pretty quickly.

What do you both hope to learn about yourself, life or the world, at the end of this thirty-one day trip?
This trip will without a doubt teach us who we really are. How we handle stress, how we interact with the world (are we participating or just observing?). We’re really excited to see all the micro culture of each city because while we often think of America as homogeneous each city has its own unique culture.

I wish them both all the luck on their month long journey and I appreciate them both for taking time out of your trip for this interview. If you are interested in learning more about their travels at each destination, make sure you check out their Twelve Hours in a City blog.

1. We arrived at Bradley International Airport at around 5:00am (EST), giving us about an hour before boarding began, which is normal protocol for this less-traveled airport. In about ten minutes, we both checked our luggage and made it through security, only to be greeted by the dreaded phrase, over the microphone, when you have a connecting flight, “Your flight has been delayed due to maintenance, as a part needs to be flown in from Logan International Airport.” In summary, we missed our connecting flight from Chicago, IL to Calgary, Canada.




2. “You can either select a mini-van, pickup truck, or small economy car.” the rental car attendant asks me after about 19 hours of travel through Hartford, CT to Dallas, TX to Calgary, Canada. My frugal side kicked in and reminded me that if we selected the two gas guzzlers, it would be painful on the wallet while driving into the mountains for about 5 hours. The voice of reality slapped my sleep deprived mind around a bit and let me know that I had no idea what type of roads or conditions I would be driving through. Ford pickup truck? Check. A few cans of Red Bull? Check. That just left the dangerous threat of avalanches on Roger’s Pass and the steep drop-offs of Kicking Horse Canyon in our way.




3. The first day of this vacation ended with the following statistics; 2985 miles via plane, 258 miles via car, and 8.5 hours sitting in airports. This gave us about 25 hours of travel to make it from Hartford, CT to Revelstoke, British Columbia, Canada.


Day 2:

4. “Bryan and John! You better be driving up here now! We have a bluebird sky up here! We will give you all the rescue and helicopter training and then get you into the mountains around lunch.”, said Claude in a heavy French Canadian accent. When the general manager of the lodge tells you that today was the first day that it has been sunny for the entire season, you just can’t pass it up.




5. We drove north on Route 23, which ran parallel with the glacial blue green Columbia River for about one and half hours before reaching a metal shed, which our crudely drawn map directed us to make a right onto a logging road. I’m happy that I listened to the voice in my head and picked the pickup truck.




6. After a few introductions to the housekeeping staff, a 30 minute avalanche training, and some real-life practice using the transceivers, it was time to suit up. We got into the pickup truck of a helicopter pilot and drove back down the logging road and onto Route 23. The goal was to reach a refueling depot, get picked up, and then dropped off on the top of a mountain peak with a pack of heli-skiers staying at the lodge.




7. To be honest, not many life experiences can challenge the sound of the helicopter blades cutting through the mountain air, as you put your goggles over your eyes and jump out of a helicopter after it has landed on a snow covered peak. To say that I was in pure rapture as my eyes gazed over the Selkirks and Monashees, as tiny pieces of ice and hard-packed snow pelted my face from wind produced by the helicopter’s rotary blades would be an understatement.




8. It probably was the nervousness of being in a helicopter or the chance that I didn’t get that much time to ski some powder on the East Coast, as I performed about 5 front flips, 2 somersaults, and spent about ten minutes digging for a ski that was eaten by the powder. It took me a few more runs, but I finally was able to reposition my body so that I wasn’t leaning back so much. I have to admit that John picked it up pretty quickly, which I was a bit jealous, as I think my body was physically destroyed at that point.




9. Once I was able to readjust my terrible habit of leaning back, I finally could enjoy the feeling of hopping through the powder for a few runs before we had to head back in. The accomplishment of making for a few runs without falling and cursing to myself was well worth it.




10. In a modified reenactment of the movie Top Gun, our helicopter pilot performed a low level fly-by of our home base, the Gothics Lodge. To my surprise, the outside desk of the lodge was filled with the other skiers, snowboarders, and lodge staff, in what could be classified as a ‘beach party’ with a bar made of snow. Skiing, Cold Kokanee Glacier Beer, and Bikinis. As spoken by the late big mountain skier Shane McConkey, “Today was a good day.”


Day 3:

11. The next morning started off with a bell ringing throughout the lodge, as a method to wake up everyone for stretching class, than breakfast. The only confusing part of the morning was why they woke us up an hour early. We finally figured out that as the heli-skiing company operates various lodges within the Mountain and Pacific time zones, it is easier for radio operators to use a single time zone for responding to emergencies. Let me just say that it is very strange to know that your in Pacific time, but forced to use Mountain time.




12. It’s time to switch up the groups! As we walked out of breakfast for what was planning to be another sunny spring-like day up in the mountains, John and I noticed we were placed in a new group of skiers. The new group consisted of a British couple (Mark and Caroline), an Italian father and his daughter (Mario and Fredricha), a wine importing CEO from British Columbia (Rob), three Austrians (Hubert, Johanna, and Michael) and a software company CEO from Chicago (Avi) who only skied one or two runs with us.




13. We bought some suntan lotion at the local lodge clothing and repair shop, only to find a huge community dispenser of “suncream” for us to all use. Go figure.




14. I’ve become strangely addicted to the strange sports drink mixture that has been placed in little flasks within a crate, near the helicopter door. You’d be surprised how dehydrated you get from powder skiing in the mountains, even though we weren’t in high altitude.




15. Endless Journey. Dream. Ego. Starlight. These runs were a bit ‘windhammered’ due to the warm temperatures the day before, the freezing overnight, and a bit wind at the top of the mountains. This resulted in a crusty layer of ice that we had to break through for most of the morning, but most of it melted away by late morning. Each of these runs were pretty long and made my calf and hamstring muscles a bit sore as it was almost non-stop from top to bottom for about 1,200 vertical meters per run.




16. This day ended with me walking into the drying room, which is a sealed off room with PVC pipes sticking out of the wall, that continuously pumps warm air onto the gear placed at the end of each pipe. Now imagine a bunch of sweaty gloves, jackets, hats, and the worst of them all, ski boots. Not much can be done to prepare a person for that nauseating smell.


Day 4:

17. Woke up for my last day of skiing without ability to feel a single muscle in my body. The both of us have reached about 11,000 vertical meters and only had about 2,000 vertical meters left before we reached our limit. Think we went over by the end of the day? Of course!




18. One of the pilots mentioned how fueling cycles work when dealing with three groups of heli-skiers and how to balance the weight of everyone along with the fuel. For those statistic lovers out there; the pilot told us that they burn about 100 pounds of fuel every ten minutes.




19. Crème De Le Crème (or Crème De Le Crunch), Poacher, and Sibley Creek. The room for error was a bit small today because of tree wells (windblown ditches that surround a tree), steep drop offs, frozen waterfalls, and avalanche debris. You really just had to throw all fear out the window of the helicopter and trust your ability.




20. Have you heard of a ’sun dog’? I didn’t know the term until I looked up and saw a massive halo surrounding the sun. One of the guides, James, let us know that natural phenomenon means the weather was changing and that the bluebird sky that we’ve enjoyed the past few days would soon be ending.




21. Sitting on the bottom of my powder skis, I bit into a delicious roast beef sandwich and a massive chocolate chip cookie while staring at the majestic mountains surrounding me. In the distance, you could hear a thunderous noise, which was avalanches occurring nearby, but thankfully not near us. The refreshing sounds of nature were finally unsettled when cheering could be heard in the far distance. The noise seemed to come from over a hill near by, so I fixed my eyes in that direction to spot the source of the noise. Within a few minutes a bare chested guy named Avi came down the hill along with all the young female staff members without a jacket or shirt on (and yes, the girls did have sports bras on). Awesome.

These are my notes from my trip with my girlfriend Lauren.

1. Upon leaving the airport, we were hassled by hundreds of taxi drivers looking for a fare.  We heard that taking a shuttle bus was probably the cheapest and easiest way to get to our hotel, The Sheraton Hacienda del Mar Resort & Spa, as it only cost $15.00 USD per person.  While this was an affordable way to travel, it became a bit time consuming due to the fact they stop at almost every resort and attempt to sell you a time share.  If I’m to visit this lovely area again, I’ll be haggling with a taxi driver at the airport for a better price.




2. That brings me to my next major point, a taxi cab is beyond expensive in Los Cabos.  If you do need to take a taxi from a hotel to the Cabo San Lucas Harbor, please make sure to confirm the price with the driver.  There is no need to tip the driver as this is a general rule considering the local inhabitants do not tip either.




3. I’ve rarely been wrong with staying at any Starwood Hotel & Resort location, but it might not be what some people expect if that really want to fit in with the locals.  I didn’t realize that the resort was approximately fifteen minutes away from the Cabo San Lucas Harbor, as is the same with most of the other resorts.




4. Unexpected welcoming gifts inside a hotel room are probably one of the few best ways to begin a relaxing vacation.  One of my co-workers, Steve, had ordered us an amazing fruit basket that we quickly devoured on our balcony.  We both freaked out once we realized that the enticing fruit basket was also on the menu for hundreds of ants that invaded the room.  I quickly brought this to the attention of  the hotel staff and was given 2,000 Starwood Points (which I’m a huge fan of).  This award made the problem basically go away for me, but not really for Lauren.  Whoops.




5. “I want to recreate a Corona commercial.”, says Lauren as she sips down another sip of cold beer while gazing out over the peaceful infinity pool, with the light blue Pacific Ocean in the background. I really don’t think many things in life are more relaxing then sitting under an umbrella in warm weather and no humidity, drinking a cold beer, and the sounds of seagulls in the distance.  Life can be just so tough sometimes.





6. “One Tequila. Two Tequila. Three Tequila.  Floor.”  We both knew that we had to check out the well-known Cabo Wabo Cantina, famous for the blue agave tequila produced by rock legend Sammy Hagar.  This is where Lauren experienced one of those “the world is so small moments” when she bumped into a woman that she used to work in a retail store with while in high school.  So crazy.




7. “The Office on the Beach” was my type of office, at least when I’m taking break from enjoying the winter.  This restaurant, located on the white sands of Medano Beach, offered us some elegant dining under the stars with views of the famous “Land End’s Arch” and Playa de Amor (”Lover’s Beach”) which is the most southern most point of the Baja Peninsula.  The walk from the Cabo San Lucas Harbor to the Medano Beach was a bit nerve wracking for Lauren, as the streets did not seem friendly and the area was not well-lit.  There was a ton of construction happening at the time, therefore the surrounding area was not built up all the way yet.  We arrived at the restaurant and sat at a table on the beach, in what was my attempt at trying to be romantic.  The food was delicious, especially the made-at-you-table-Caesar salad-for-two, even though a bit over-priced; however, the constant nagging of local children trying to sell us souvenirs while we sat inside a roped off area became a bit annoying.  The hawking of goods was to be expected, but I was hoping it would just be contained at the Cabo San Lucas Harbor.  I was completely wrong on that thought.

Rome (Roma):

1. The day began by flying across the pond from Newark, NJ to Rome, Italy, with a connecting flight in between to Amsterdam, Belgium. Once we landed in Rome, we took a taxi ride to our hotel (Albergo Della Lunetta), located a few seconds away from Campo de’ Fiori. The hotel did not have the typical American amenities, but who cares for them when you want to see the normal way of life in a country. I dropped my bags off at the hotel and decided to explore the surrounding area, just to get my bearings straight, so why not Campo De’ Fiori first? This rectangular plaza holds a fresh good market on the weekdays; however, I just missed this by a few hours as it was mid-afternoon. I met up with a few family members and we all decided on getting a local beer and people watch in the plaza.




2. The next few days spent in Rome, Italy was visiting the typical tourist sites, such as; Trevi Fountain, the Colosseum, the Pantheon, and the Vatican, as we only had a few days before going boarding our cruise ship to reach Naples, Sicily and then Venice.




3. As touristy as it sounds everyone should visit the Colosseum, just based on the sheer historical factor that about an estimated 500,000 people and over 1,000,000 animals have died in the Colosseum games. I saw a lot of people try to take pictures with locals dressed up as Roman soldiers or gladiators, but be wary as if you take a picture of them, you are supposed to tip them. They did get a bit angry at a few people from what I saw.






4. We got to the Vatican pretty early as we were told that the lines to enter can get pretty long at times. Speaking of churches and such, let me remind the men reading this that you CANNOT wear shorts in churches in Italy, while women CANNOT wear short skirts, dresses, or shorts. The rule of thumb I was told is not to show your knees. Secondly, for the women, be careful showing your shoulders while entering a church, as you will not be allowed to enter. They might have scarves at the entryway, but if not, you probably should wear clothing that does now showcase your shoulders (e.g., no tank tops). With that being said, I highly recommend to anyone to explore the Vatican or any other local churches throughout Rome or even Italy for that matter. The history behind each of them is so overwhelming.




5. As our time in Rome came to an end, we all took a taxi to Civitavecchia, a port town located northwest of Rome. I always despise waiting to board a cruise ship as it seems to take forever. The next stop on this cruise would be Naples, mostly known for the Island of Capri, the Amalfi Coast, Pompeii and Mount Vesuvius.





Naples (Napoli):

6. We arrived at Naples and disembarked to meet the driver of the private luxury van company to transport us down the Amalfi Coast. The roads were beyond twisty and curvy, which made a few family members of mine pretty sick due to how steep some of the cliff faces. We stopped at a restaurant right off the road, as it was recommended by our driver. We ordered many different local favorites that included mostly shellfish and pasta. Delicious! On top of the great food, we also had a great view of the Mediterranean Sea through the open windows.




7. While we did not have time to visit the Blue Grotto at the Island of Capri, we did manage to make our way to Pompeii to see the destruction brought on by Mount Vesuvius in AD 79. As told within numerous history text books, the volcano erupted on August 24th and buried the towns of Pompeii and other smaller nearby settlements in nearly 2.8 meters (9 feet) of pumice. I found it amazing to see many of the buildings still standing with no damage. This helped me visualize what life was like in these barren streets with guides leading tourists around. It was a bit breathtaking to see the towering Mount Vesuvius in the distance, along with the outline of the crater. I was also surprised by the teams of archeologists still on-site within the ruins of Pompeii who were still excavating buried items.





Sicily:

8. The next stop on the trip was to the largest island, Sicily, in the Mediterranean Sea to visit Taormina and Mount Etna.




9. We made our way by bus to Taormina, the Gem of Sicily, in which was filled with various stores selling souvenirs and postcards. Once we made our way past all the touristy shops we reached the ancient Greek theater that Andrea Bocelli once performed on. I couldn’t imagine how neat it would have been to watch this performance with the local environs.




10. We re-boarded the bus and drove towards Mount Etna, one of the three active volcanoes within Italy (as of August 2005). It was intense to walk up volcanic rocks along the side of the mountain. If I was to do it again, I would have left the sandals on the ship and brought some sneakers as those rocks ripped my feet apart on my trek. It was crazy to look down on the craters formed by the continuous eruptions knowing that at some point they had the ability to be devastating.




Venice (Venezia):

11. Our second to last stop in Italy was the famous island city of Venice, known for the water canals, gondolas and Venetian masks. While travel on gondolas is mostly used for tourists, weddings or other ceremonies, it is rarely used by locals, considering how expensive it is to travel on them (80 euros for about 30 minutes). The locals use the vaporetti (”water taxi”) to make their way through the canals which is more budget friendly. A few cultural landmarks to stop by at while in this city should be; Saint Mark’s Square (known for the way to friendly pigeions), Saint Mark’s Basilica, The Rialto Bridge and The Bridge of Sighs.




12. On a side note for parents of those families with older teenagers or young adults is to give them time to make friends near their ages on a cruise ship. We formed a group of about fifteen of us or so on the cruise ship that led us to explore Venice at night and hang out at a local’s bar. This was great time as it allowed us to talk with locals in broken Italian and learn more of the city. This led us to get a bit tipsy by the end of the night in which we drank a few more beers on the vaporetti back to the cruise ship. Overall, good times for all involved.





Florence (Firenze):

13. Finally, we reached the port city of Livorno on the western coast of Italy. We disembarked the cruise ship and boarded our private van to head east into the center of Tuscany. The van dropped us off near the Accademia dell’Arte del Disegno (Academy of the Fine Arts) allowing us to quickly get in line to view Michelangelo’s Statue of David. If you do not wish to view the original statue, they also have a reproduction of the statue that sits outside in Palazzo Vecchio. It’s also important to know that you CANNOT take pictures of the statue as the guards will yell at you. My sister found this out the hard way. If you want to take pictures, I recommend you find the reproduction in Palazzo Vecchio.




14. The rest of the cruise brought us to Dubrovnik (Croatia), Nice (France) and Barcelona (Spain), which were all amazing; however, due to the limited time at each of these countries my travel notes are a bit sparse. If you are looking for additional photos from these countries, please check out my Flickr.com Photostream.

Most people will argue that the best time to go to the Dominican Republic is between January and May to avoid the hotter weather and hurricane season. I know from my personal experience that going in June the weather can get pretty hot but thankfully we did experience any massive storms. The other thing that I noted was that the hotel and surround hotels were basically empty. So, if you do travel between January and May just remember that American college students on spring-break (usually in March) know that Puerto Plata and Punta Cana are the places to go on this island.

We took outside of the resort area to visit Anthony’s aunt, allowing us to see how life on the island really is outside of the glamor of these Caribbean resorts. Immediately upon arrival, I realized I should have paid a bit more attention in my Spanish classes as everyone was speaking so quickly. I was only able to pick up on a few words such as cervezas(”beer”, but I hope all you readers know that key word). We all nodded as his aunt quickly ran to the phone to call the local store. Within a few minutes, a young boy walked in carrying two 40 ounce beers which we proceeded to pour into small disposable cups. The three of us told Anthony’s aunt how much fun we were having and what we’ve been up to on the island, such as snorkeling outside of the resort property. She started speaking Spanish, but I was able to pick up on the fact that a few swimmers have died in the same area we were snorkeling. This made me dramatically respond with “muerta!?” which showed my ill ability to speak Spanish in full sentences.


During our trip, we also ventured to a local bar that Anthony’s cousin brought us too late at night. This was a fun experience considering that we all felt so out of place but that was the exciting part.

The rest of our time was mostly just spent relaxing at the resort beach or the pool while drinking down some drinks at the all-inclusive bar. We started running out of suntan lotion near the end of the trip which forced me to go buy some at a local store which basically cost triple the price I should have paid for it normally. I highly recommend all visitors bring enough suntan lotion with you instead of buying it at the resort or island stores.