the eve of departure's eve

...does that even make sense? I just like the word "eve."
So my time as a Crested Buttian (possibly pronounced byoo-shun) is drawing to a close. I've spent most of today packing packing packing. I stupidly packed my radio early in the day, so I had to listen to neighborhood sounds while I continued.
I dont know if it's the altitude or just Colorado, but there are no crickets or cicadas or any noisemaking creatures here. So at night, instead of a constant din, there is only silence. It still weirds me out when I'm trying to fall asleep. And when I visited Pittsburgh, I felt like I was in the jungle. All in all I had a very nice visit home. I saw friends and family, though not everyone I wanted to see. There wasn't enough time, sorry if you didn't hear from me.
Thursday morning I am heading out. I'll jump back on Rte. 50 into Utah, where I plan to stop at Arches Nat'l Park. In high school I got a bookmark that had a picture of Delicate Arch and ever since, I've wanted to visit. After that I'm stopping in Salt Lake City to rest at some friend of a friend of a friend's house, so I dont have to drive 11 hours in one day. Friday I'm off to Boise, ID to spend Labor Day weekend with Kathryn. YAY! Then on to Portland on Tuesday, where the journey I set off on on May 25th finally comes to rest.

still love it

this is the lake that hurt my foot. it's an awesome place, just enter the water by any other means than jumping.

where did the summer go?

well it looks like i've neglected the blog for over a month, sorry. July was spent mostly just working 45hrs a week. It was a little more than I had hoped for and I felt like I couldnt do anything fun because I was working so much, and such a weird combination of hours in the day that I couldnt coordinate activities with other people very often. Eight members of my family came to CB to visit Julie and me for the last week of July. I worked less while they were here and I was psyched to do some hiking and biking. But I stupidly, and against caution swung off a rope swing into a beautiful lake at a depth of about 3 feet. So after hiking back down to the car and then waiting tables (AKA running around) on my aching, throbbing foot for 6 hours, I decided I might have broken a toe or part of my foot. I iced and elevated for a few days, but since the restaurant had recently lost a number of servers, I couldnt call off and had to work two more shifts. Great. So four days after the incident I finally went to get x-rays. They told me it was a sprain and to stay off it. yeah right.
I ruined my chances to play outdoors with the fam, they went off hiking and biking without me.

As soon as they left, Julie and I packed up, I taught her how to drive a stick, and we headed west (July 30). We drove along Rt. 50 "The Lonliest Road in America." It starts out winding out of Gunny, loops around Blue Mesa Reservoir (beautiful), starts to straighten out around Grand Junction, and finally stretches countless miles straight through deserts of Utah and Nevada. It was extremely hot driving through the desert and we were nervous to run the A/C for fear of overheating the car. So we stuck it out with the windows down, blasting music and sweating through our clothes. We spent the night in a motel in Ely, NV which seemed about halfway. We debated about how to pronounce the name of the town, she guessed right. (Rhymes with "really") The next day we finished NV and as we crossed the border into California, everything was suddenly green and lush. Then the trees parted to reveal fabulous Lake Tahoe. It was like a mystical oasis at the end of a day and half driving through desert and salt flats (see white streak that looks like a lake in photo above). Rt. 50 took us on a tour around the lake, then toward Sacramento. There we turned north and drove through vinyards, orange (or were they almond?) groves, strawberry fields, and sunflower fields. One of the farms had funny signs along the road advertising their fruit. My favorite sign said "Peach be With Ya."
Eventually we started seeing the famous redwood trees and we knew we were close. Humbolt County, CA, one third of the famous Emerald Triangle. Our friend Caleb lives just outside of Garberville and we spent the next two days with him and his family, setting up for the festival and enjoying the weather and a secret(ish) falls/swimming hole. On Thursday evening we set up camp in our prime location, just behind backstage, and the party began. Reggae Rising (formerly Reggae on the River, but changed because of political/community strife) was a 3-day reggae festival with a ton of famous artists and bands, pretty good vendor food, 12,400 people, and lots of floating on the Eel River (along which many people were camped). It was reggae, so of course there was a cloud above the festival site the whole time, but what else would you expect? Afterward, when everything was being broken down until next year, we returned to Caleb's where we spent a few more days visting with him and his family. Wednesday morning we headed south (then east) again, after taking some photos in the Avenue of the Giants.

Tomorrow I'm going back to Pittsburgh for a few days. Then after two short weeks left in CB, I'm off to Portland.