Sydney Schrader holding a baby alligator (Courtesy of Sydney Schrader/CUI)
This piece is from the CU Independent’s opinion section. Any opinions or views do not represent the CU Independent.
By this time of year, just about every student at the University of Colorado Boulder is burnt out from midterms and just one recitation away from mania.
I know what you think this narrative is going to entail; no, we did not drink bottomless margaritas on bar tops at a resort in Cabo, or go on the most radical, sweet road trip to ski Jackson Hole. After much debate, of course at the last minute, my roommates and I decided on the place to go and ‘get away from it all’ — Alabama.
The trip started swimmingly at the airport bar with a 50-dollar tab and was quickly followed by screaming babies on a Frontier flight; legendary, right? About six hours later, we showed up at a cute little condo not too far from the beach. We spent the next day at the beach lying out and swimming. My mom sent me an orange tube to float on, so that was a luxury paired with my new towel from Walmart. The sand was super white, and apparently so was my entire body… call me a crawfish boil, I guess.
We decided to check out the nightlife in Gulf Shores. Let me tell you it was nothing short of a high schooler’s dream. They had a dead hang bar that you could gamble to hang on to for two minutes, so I gave that a go. I lasted 13 seconds and was feeling a little discouraged, so I had a pretty solid Caesar salad to follow my defeat. I’ll spare the context, but I ended that night over the toilet listening to “Strawberry Fields Forever” by the Beatles; my roommates were pretty stoked about that one.
By Thursday, I was rather dehydrated, so we decided to switch it up and take an hour Uber to Alligator Alley. I have a mild fascination with alligators, so I figured Alabama was the place to fulfill my self-asserted prophecy of holding a baby gator. This marsh in “Nowhere Land” was the highlight. Nothing like watching a guy in a cowboy hat feed raw meat to an 800-pound monster named Captain Crunch from a foot away. I did get to hold the gator, and it was honestly awesome. Know what else I got to do? Walk two miles on the side of an interstate highway to go get BBQ in Summerdale, Alabama. The BBQ was actually really good, but the two-hour wait for another Uber back to the condo was questionable. I know this may come as a shock, but no Uber driver wants to pick you up in that podunk… except for a guy named Carlos in his frightful four-door. Carlos was delighted to share that he was contemplating smoking before he picked us up; not so sure he decided against that one, but hey, we made it.
The last day of the trip rolled around. We had to check out of the condo at 10 am, but our flight wasn’t until 7:30 that night, so we got a little creative. We sat at the condo with suitcases poolside, then made our way down the highway again to a small amusement park for about five hours. We got to the airport and got on the plane pretty seamlessly after I got harassed by an older TSA member about my ID not matching my Frontier account or something — awesome!
We got off the plane and made it out of Denver International Airport pretty quickly and were all just thinking about making it back to our own beds. The last Uber of the trip has to be chill, I thought to myself. Think again, Sydney. Joseph, with the most fraudulent 5-star rating, showed up with one tooth and the window down in the pouring rain. Heck yeah. After 45 minutes of strange stories and a good deal of death metal and the Japanese rendition of “Stay” by Kid Laroi, we returned to Boulder. I don’t know if I am refreshed from this trip, but it was a funny time.
In the college atmosphere, it seems to me that there has become an increasing call to go on an expensive trip or somewhere super elaborate. This goal can be difficult for a lot of college students to achieve. Spending time with people you care about, even if it’s just at home or in a small town, can be even better than a tropical soiree. The dollar sign is far less vital to a good time than good company. So, cheers to Gulf Shores, Alabama and all the gators. See you all in class!
Contact CU Independent Writer Sydney Schrader at sydney.schrader@colorado.edu.
