Visiting Max

My mom was surprisingly relaxed about the idea of me taking a gap year to travel. In fact, she encouraged it.
"YES! get out there, live a little," she said.
I was taken aback a little by this. I had expected the conversation to be a lot more tense and wasn't prepared to get her blessing so easily. Actually, her quick response freaked me out. I panicked. What if she asks me my plans, I thought. I don't have any plans, fuck, this could be bad.
"So, do you have any plans? How exactly do you plan on supporting yourself, umm, financially during your time away?" was her next contribution to the conversation.
She brought up the two words I had been dreading the most "plans" and "financially," rats what do I say? I tried to come up with something off the top of my head.
"Well, I was thinking of starting by going on a road trip to visit Max at school in Montana," I squeaked out.
"Max, like Mary's brother, Harry's cousin," she responded.
"Yeah, that Max," I said back.
"Sounds like an interesting idea," she said with a contemplative look on her face.
"Out of all people why Max, when was the last time you even saw him?" she added.
This was a good question. Why was going to visit Max Rodriguez the first thing that came to mind when I thought about my gap year? My mom had a point, I hadn't seen the guy in like a year. Growing up though, Max was my definition of cool. Long boarding, BMX bike riding, football, baseball, girls, this dude did everything. A year older than me and my friends, Max and his pals were the trendsetters. Now, he had become a mountain man while studying at Montana State University in Bozeman.  I'd seen a lot of Facebook and Instagram posts of him backpacking and snowboarding in the mountains around his school and I wanted to a chance explore the area with a local expert.
Another part of me was curious to get to know this area because I had just read (or tried to read) Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. I found the book pretty much unbearable and got through about half of it, but I reached the part when the narrator described the mountains of Montana, and I was enamored.
After my conversation with my mother I sent Max a text.
"Yo, would it be chill if I crashed at your place in Bozeman for a little while in September?"
"LOL. Dude, you're going to be in Bozeman, awesome. Of course you can stay here as long as you want," he responded.
His enthusiasm definitely calmed me down and inspired me to really follow through with this plan.
"Yeah, I'm taking a gap year and want to get to know Montana."
"Look at you, finally doing something adventurous instead of studying all the time. I love it, bro." Typical Max response.
With that it was set, I would be spending a few weeks with Max in Montana and I couldn't be more excited. I was finally getting a chance to do my own thing. No more papers, presentations, or exams. In the mountains of Montana, grades don't matter. I would have to rely on my wilderness abilities to survive. Max, the mountain man, and me, out there all alone. I can't wait.