The Oil Reserve to The Tree House... Life in transition.

4/30/17
The following text was written years ago when I was living at the tree farm.  I never published the blog post for whatever reason. (I think I intended to add pictures)  Anyway, The Oil Reserve really was something special for me and I'm pretty sure it affected a few others that way too.  For that reason, despite being way out dated, here is the lost blog post.

5/26/14
For starters, ever since Dylan and I returned from our backpacking adventure my life has been less than organized.  For this very reason I have completely ignored my duty on this blog.  My intention is for blogging to become part of my weekly activities, however, only time can really tell.   If there is in fact anyone who has been awaiting a new post or followed the Europe trip blogging, I apologize for my tardiness.  Now.... Let's get down to business.

    After returning to the states my one and only focus was hanging out with my roommates.  Dueker, Klay, Eric, and myself have known each other since childhood.  I met them in kindergarten and as you can tell the bond has carried on into our early twenties.  When college finally came around we ended up in Columbia together and naturally, chose to live together. We can be a fun group to be around but i'm not sure we realized how much fun we would truly have.

    This brings me to.... The Oil Reserve.  302 Nikki Way was my home from august of 2009 to June 2013 and we worked that duplex hard.  That first year brought on a slew of house parties and helped in creating some of my favorite memories from my days at Mizzou.  Our new home had become a local watering hole for our friends and brought a group of us together, creating a bond I hope doesn't ever break.

   Before I start to recap some of the many glorious moments at our home, I think it is only fair to address, as well as I can, the reason for the name "Oil Reserve".  Sometime before we moved in Klay had gone on a float trip with some friends.  On the trip they came across many people yelling "Oil" while chugging beer or other alcoholic drinks.  Klay brought the tradition back with him and it became a staple in our nights at 302.  A water tower stood directly behind our house and, as you know, is a reserve of water for the people.  These two factors ultimately led to 302 Nikki way being known as "The Oil Reserve".

   I could never recap all the memories that were created, nor could I even remember all of them.  We had some great costume parties and we went to some good ones too.  We had Snowpocalypse and got 16 inches of snow.   No one left the house we just made snow creations and drank beer.  We had dance parties, Funday Sundays, cook outs, contests, movie parties, super bowl parties, and about a million other social gatherings
  The Oil Reserve doesn't just stir up memories created in that house.  It represents our "adult" life in college.  We were children of college, freshmen year in the dorms, learning the do's and don'ts, adjusting to a new environment and town.  The Oil Reserve is the second part to the whole story.   The name truly represents those 4 years of our lives and all that took part during that time.

For more pictures of our partying days you'd have to check out my facebook page.  my name is nick sunderman.  You know how to find me.

   We all left 302 in some way or another.  Dueker to Nebraska, Eric to the other side of the duplex, Klay across town with Dylan, and myself to a tree farm in Fulton.  We all try to keep in touch but it's hard, and its even harder to keep in touch with those who didn't live there, but who were a part of the experience.  Obviously I hope to maintain every relationship, and obviously that won't happen, but I will never forget those people and those times.  They help make me, and all of us, who we are today.  Farewell Oil Reserve, I hope you make it back into our lives one day.

For anyone reading that was part of that magical place.  I love you all.  We shall reminisce again one day.

The Tree House by The Den

 

 Leaving Nikki Way and The Oil Reserve was a sad experience.  Our group of friends hung out, more or less, on a daily basis.  When we left that duplex a chapter closed, and it was a great chapter at that.  Eric moved into the other side of the duplex, 300.  He has new roommates, but he still gets a great view of that water tower.  Klay moved in with Dylan and their new place is on the opposite side of town. Dueker migrated up to Nebraska to get in some more schooling.  Lastly, I moved to Millersburg (Technically Fulton) and live on a tree nursery.  

  I work for a Landscaping company and they recently bought the nursery so they could start providing the trees they install.  The property has a big red shed up next to the road and a third of it has been sectioned off into a living space.  For a one person apartment it isn't a bad size.   I even found a place to sneak in a piano that fell into my hands.  

   The place comes with some perks too.  There are 18 acres which gives me all kinds of space for activities.  There is a small pond, though I have yet to try and catch any of the fish that may or may not be there.  The Yardsport is kept in the shed and has been used for varies things.  My favorite thus far was when a couple friends came out and we all played golf in the rough.  The game didn't last long but the Yardsport was handy and it toted the beer around for us.  Lastly, I have access to a ton of tools.  There are more things in there with names I don't know than names I do know. 

   I didn't get to really move in until the beginning of October after I came back from a short stint in Maryville. Shortly after that my boss sold his house last minute despite not having a replacement home.  Which brings me to "The Den".  When the shed was built a small room was also created apart from the main living quarters.  The apparent purpose was for an office.  The room is around 12'' by 12'' and has a small bathroom with no shower.  I assume you see where this is going.  

   My boss, his wife, his 3 year old daughter, their 3 (was four) dogs, and their cat, all live in that space..... I almost didn't believe it either.  For this reason, I refer to there home as "The Den".  Jason, Jen, and Sydney are my shed mates.  Seeing as how they have no shower and not much of kitchen, other than a few appliances, the living situation is quite similar to Nikki Way.  However, instead of a bunch of ridiculous college students I live with a family.  They may not be my best friends but I don't remember my friends ever doing my laundry or cooking me pot roast.  

   I originally moved out here because I would have space to myself, but considering it is a temporary situation and I'm benefiting pretty well from it, I'm still very happy with the move.  It's nice living out here and I'm still close enough to bother my friends that still live in Como.  The Tree House is my new home and hopefully one day I'll get to look back on it with fond memories. 

Over and Out,

We painted the 30 year old lawnmower

Bonfire for Pig Roast

The first Fireball

Rome and the final night

Hello Readers,

     I'm sorry for the ridiculous delay in this post, but I've been enjoying being back home and getting settled into a routine again.  Next thing I know it is a month later and I still haven't written a thing. So... better late than never, here is the rest of our story....
 
     For starters, while staying in venice Dylan and I decided to make a last minute trip to Naples.  We had 6 days left before our flight back to the states and we figured we could squeeze in one more stop before ending in Rome.  We arrived in the afternoon after a 5 hour train ride and quickly found our hostel.  Again, we had a bar in the hostel and finally had a kitchen again.  The first day we wondered the city and enjoyed the shops.  When we got back to our hostel we cooked pasta for dinner, typical, and followed it up with some drinking at the bar.  We talked to other guests from Chile, Canada, Illinois, Ireland, and a couple other places. There was a quite diverse group there that night.
     We spent the next day taking trains to the beach.   We got some good seats and laid in the sun for hours.  The day was hot and our skin was pale.  After four or five hours we decided it was time to save our skin and head back.  It was too late. We were lobsters from head to toe and you could feel it.  That night we had one of Naples' famous pizzas (delicious) and then went back to the bar for drinks.  We met two girls from Canada, Shireen and Jennifer.  We talked for a few hours and then headed to bed.  We had talked about meeting back up in Rome and so we exchanged information in preparation for final stop in Rome.

     Rome was my most anticipated stop on the trip and I couldn't wait to get there.  The frist night we were there we skipped out on doing any sightseeing and we roamed the streets near our hostel.   We found a small sandwich shop and a gelato shop right next to each other we camped out there for the night.  We had some ice-cream and then drank cheap beer from the sandwich shop. Peroni was the beer of choice.
      We did not know it at the time but out of the four nights we stayed in Rome we spent three of them at Fouriscourso (the sandwich shop).  There were four workers to our knowledge.  There was the guy who owned the joint, his wife, his brother, and a girl we believe to be the brother's sister.   The first two nights we were there the owner and his wife were working.  His wife was a beautiful italian woman and so was the brother's girlfriend.  To be honest that was the only reason we came back to the shop the second night.  Despite the lack of available female workers the crew was awesome.  They spoke very weak english but we made do with hand signals and slow speaking.  When we went to Fouricourso at night it was not a short trip we spent 3 or four hours drinking beer and talking to locals on the street along with the Fouricourso staff.  We had a lot of wild conversations and met some fun people.  The atmosphere was awesome.  I got the address of Fouricourso and promised to send them pictures of five guys burgers and fries.  (He had heard of that restaurant and mentioned it to us)

     We spent our days in Rome going to places like the Collosseum, Palatine hill, Trevi fountain, Pantheon, the Vatican and other smaller sites.  We managed to find our way into a free tour at Palatine hill (location that all Roman emperors built their palaces) and then also had a tour of the Collosseum with just the two of us and a guide.  We had good luck with tours and Rome was a good place to aquire said luck.   The amount of knowledge those guides laid on you was insane and incredibly interested.   From a history and culture perspective Rome was solid choice.  (to no surprise)
     Rome was also the city we got a few souvenirs from.  I got a few tattoos and Dylan got a good ole Euro Mullet.   The local barbor did not possess the ability to cut a euro mullet so Dylan made his way into a salon and with in minutes he had a fresh italian hair cut.  For my souvenirs I got two tattoos on my fingers which are mustaches and then a nice "YOLO" tattoo on my lip, haha.  Not your typical souvenirs but we liked the outcome.

     For the most part  Rome was pretty relaxed with nothing to wild going on.  That all changed on the final day, or maybe just the night.  After visiting the Vatican we headed down to Fouricourso for our usual beers.  We finally had a burger on the last night and it was delicious.  I would recommend it to anyone.  After that we headed back to the hostel to see if the girls from Naples wanted to meet up.  At about 10 pm we left for the bar even though we had a flight out at 8 AM.  Shireen, Jennifer, and Anna met us at a local hostel that was known for it's partying and we joined in.  We started on the patio for drinks and maybe opened a couple tabs to get things going.  At midnight the hostel closed it's doors to those who weren't guests.   At that time they opened up their basement for beer pong and a DJ and dancing to follow.  When we learned of this routine we made sure to find a way to stay inside.
     Around 20 minutes before the doors were shut we made our way to the basement to wait out the lock out.  To kill some time we rounded up some other drunks and started an epic beer pong match.  There were two teams and six people on each team.  That in and of itself makes for a wild match but the real kicker is that it was USA vs. Canada.  We met some other Americans and then found some Canadians for the girls to adopt and had an epic almost olympic style game.  It was chaos with everyone yelling at each other, making fun of the opposing countries, and just simply enjoying the energy.  This went on for an hour before the music started.
     Seeing as how it was our last night we made the decision to forget about our self-set curfew and enjoy the ride.  As soon as the music started all the people made their way over two the bar in the corner while Dylan, myself, and the girls got the dance party started.  It was just the five of us for 20 minutes or so and then everyone started to join in.  I have to say, I don't think there has ever been a night in my life in which I have danced harder or longer. Someone even asked me if I was ecstasy  (for those who are worried, I assure you I had no drugs in my body) After an hour of letting lose on the dance floor and finally winning a dance off I realized I had no idea were anyone was.  With all the booze and the sweating and the dancing I had just lost track of our crew.  When I finally found them I was drenched in sweat from all the rug cutting.  Someone even asked me if I had a drink poured on me.  Kinda gross, haha.  Dylan had made friends with Anna and they went back down with me to the basement to continue the dancing.
     At some point in the night I met a short little Chilean girl and started to dance with her.   When I talked to her she did not say much and I assumed she did not speak much english.  After dancing with her for a good hour or more we went upstairs for one more drink before the doors really closed (3 am).  All of sudden this girl speaking perfect english. Just chatting my ear off and we are having a hell of a time.  At this point Dylan and Anna are together outside and then there is myself and "Sol" my newest friend.  Her name means the sun in spanish...I mean come on... Who doesn't want to hang out with someone named after the SUN.  Anyway, this is the point in the story where things get a little silly.
    At this time Dylan approaches me to tell me he is going to walk Anna home and so he was going to give me the directions back to the hostel. However, at the same time Sol, her friend, and some italian guy are getting into a Smart car.  Sol yelled over to me and told me to come with them.  For whatever reason, I got in the car, no questions asked.  So here I am, back seat of a smart car with Sol, her friend in the passenger street, and the italian guy driving.  After about ten minutes of travel I ask "where are we going?"  To my surprise Sol replies with "I have no idea."  She asked her friend  where we were going and she also had no idea.  This came as a surprise to me considering I had assumed these girls knew the driver... They didn't.  Not only had they just met this guy minutes before he didn't speak a word of english so none of us could even ask him what the hell was going on.  I was rather drunk and considering the fact that I was already in the car and had no choice but to ride along, I relaxed and just enjoyed talking to Sol. Twenty minutes later we are outside the city on a tall hill just looking at the lights of Rome.

               Mystery Italian Man,
                       You'll never read this blog but thank you for the safe ride.  You took me and a couple strangers to the most romantic spot I've probably ever been in.  Also, I'd like to thank you for not killing me or anything of that nature.

   By the time the mystery man got us back to the party hostel it was around 430 am.  I talked to Sol for almost another hour and then finally had to say my goodbye.  Thanks to the metro attendant I got a free ride back to my hostel.  At this time it's 530 am and I have to wake up in a couple of hours and I had no idea if Dylan was even going to be in the room when I arrived.  Luckily he was and for the moment I was relieved.  The next day we woke up late, got to the airport late, and missed our flight.  Thankfully the airline had one more flight out that day, hooked us up and off we when two hours later.  It was a love/hate relationship.  I was excited to be home but not looking forward to ending the most amazing month of my life.



      EuroTrip 2013 gave me some of the best days of my life and really showed me how passionate I am about traveling and meeting new people.  I can not believe how above and beyond my expectations this trip went.  We were able to see so much and enjoyed so many amazing people that it seems unreal. I still get sad when I think about the trip and how badly I want to be back.  I can't wait to do it again.  Next stop Austrailia!

Dylan,
    I don't have to tell you how much I loved each thing about this trip and we would have to be in person to really review and enjoy all the stories we created together.  This trip all kind of fell together in a slow but perfect process.  I couldn't have found a better friend to go on this adventure with.  We had our moments but overall our ability to tolerate another person in that much excess was rather impressive.  We made a hell of a team and realized we can do and go wherever we want if we have the desire.  I hope this trip impacted you as positively as it did to me.  With results like that I don't see how we can't do this together again.  I'll see you in the outback!

Jackie,
     I'm not sure if you read this blog at all, but if you do,  it needs to be mentioned that you made this trip so much easier to plan for us.  Your help tips kept us from running around completely clueless and also showed us how to plan so we could accomplish the things we wanted.  I may have survived without you but I wouldn't have loved it nearly as much if I hadn't had you to prepare me.  I can't wait to see you again. Hopefully in Florida next spring.  Thanks again.

Mom,
     Your involvement in this trip is rather extensive.  It's your graduation gift that got me a plane ticket and your generosity that found Dylan and I our own place to stay while in Venice.  So, thank you for that.  Beyond that, you never once turned down the idea for me to backpack and explore.  You have always been supportive of my habits to travel.  Your upbringing has led me to the point that I am at today and I'm very satisfied being where I am.  I wouldn't be in the place in my life without and I thank you for that.


The rest of you,
      I may know you or I may not but I appreciate you taking the time to read. I hope you enjoyed some of the stories we had to share with you and I hope you can continue to follow my blog, possibly blogs, in the future.  We only get one chance to live a life, if you aren't doing the things that make you happy then what the hell are you doing?

Thanks again for reading,
I love you all,
Hope you enjoyed!