portland!

I made it! I'm sitting near the one window in my apartment that anyone can get an internet signal through. The whole city has free wireless, but for some reason it doesnt penetrate buildings very well. So I dont have to really hang out the window, but we did have to push a desk right up against it. No problem, free internet!
I've unloaded most of what I need from my car, and I've arranged to rent a storage locker in an apartment building across town. I'm trying to decide if I should bother with it, though, because last night I met a woman with a lot of connections, one being free storage space. She's a nurse at Good Samaritan Hospital and wants to help me get a job there because they will pay 75% of your tuition for medical-based degrees. Which would be awesome! She was very friendly and wants to offer me all sorts of help getting situated. I'm waiting for her to call me around noon, we're going to have lunch and she will show me around.
The apartment is big and my room already has a queen-sized bed in it, so no more air mattress for me. hooray! my roommate is very nice. he works at planned parenthood. i think he's a nurse. right now i'm starving because i havent gone grocery shopping yet and i dont want to eat his food. so i'm off to get food and laundry supplies because i got bike grease all over my new shorts last night while unloading my bike from the roof of my car.
hasta luego

couch surfing

Rather than on a couch, actually, I spent Thursday night on climbing crash pads in the gear room at the house of a friend of a friend of a friend. Got a brief look at SLC, but I didnt want to waste time walking around. I drove to the Temple Square Friday morning after a nice breakfast out at a place called Eggs in the City. It was surrounded by a high wall, looked unwelcoming. So I didnt park or go in.
Friday I drove to Boise and had a nice evening with Kathryn. We went to dinner at a restaurant called Bardenay, where they also distill their own liquor. It was a neat atmosphere, with a big copper distillery thing and lots of handsome waiters. Afterwards, we saw Death at a Funeral at the local movie theatre. Very funny English flick. Highly recommend it! Saturday morning while Kathryn had a class at Boise State, Blake took me out on his sweet new motorcycle to Big City Cafe where we had a great breakfast. I had Belgian waffles with honey, yogurt, raisins, and granola on them; an unlikely but delicious combination. Later, the three of us hung around the house for a few hours, listening to music and catching up. Blake went to work and Kathryn and I threw our bikes in the back of the truck and drove to a really nice park, where we mounted the bikes and rode along the Green Belt, a paved bike path that follows the Boise River. That night, we showered and got dressed up pretty to go to dinner where Blake is a server. We sat in his section, of course, and he pampered us with a four-course steak dinner at his expense. He served us delicious appetizers and salads, expensive wines and fantastic steaks. We ordered berries napoleon for dessert and he brought a caramel creme brulee in addition! We were so full we could barely get out of our seats! Our leftovers were actually our dinner tonight as well.
This morning Kathryn, Blake, and two of Kathryn's Boise friends and I went to brunch at another fancy shmancy restaurant. I feel like a princess with their star treatment! We gorged on the brunch buffet and then drove back to the same park where we rode bikes. We dropped off a car there and drove to another park about 5 miles away. There, we inflated tractor inner tubes and floated down the Boise River for over 2 hours. It was relaxing, and exciting when we had to go over little rapids and baby waterfalls. There were hundreds of people doing the same thing, on rafts and tubes of all shapes and sizes. It was a gorgeous day, sunny and warm. The river was cold, but not unbearably so. We had our bottoms in the water the whole time because we were in tubes instead of rafts. It really was a great day. Now Kathryn and I are planning to have dessert out in town somewhere since all of our leftovers are gone. (There were no dessert leftovers because of course we found our appetites again once dessert arrived!) Tomorrow is Labor Day, we will grill out for lunch before Blake has to work again. Other than that, we havent made plans for the day yet. But Tuesday I get back on the road, so we'll have some sort of a last hurrah for this visit I'm sure.

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.

Getting into the Colorado Groove

By now Julia is all healed up and back to normal. I've decided I pretty much hate my air mattress bed but am too cheap to get a real bed for only two months. I'm gonna stick it out, neck-aches and all. I've gone rock climbing a few times and I love it. I somehow managed to get a free pair of brand new climbing shoes (which are usually about $50) and a chalk bag for $2 so I figure I can splurge on a good harness (safety!). So far I've been sharing Julia's harness but I want my own. The first photo is me celebrating the awesome knots I just tied. Oh the glorious knots! Ha ha. The second is me getting started on my first outdoor climb. Yessssss.
Two days ago my friend took me kayaking for the first time! I didnt have a lesson on how to roll back up if I got flipped, he just explained how to escape from the boat if I found myself upside down. We went on a relatively meandering part of the Gunnison River and I had a blast. I dont think, however, that I will be buying kayak gear anytime soon. Outdoor sports are pricey.

This past week was Fat Tire Bike Week, celebrating mountain bikes (which have fatter tires than road bikes). There were a bunch of representatives with bikes that people could demo out on the trails for free, unfortunately I didnt get a spare day to do it. I was hoping to do it tomorrow but I think they're packing up. There were also a few tents from the New Belgium Brewing Co. because they make a beer called Fat Tire. There have been a few races and dirt jumping competitions. But last night's race was the coolest. It was the "chainless race." People on all sorts of crazy looking bikes (as well as normal bikes) removed the chains, so you can't pedal, and raced from Kebler Pass into town. They had haybales at the bottom because it ended in a big curve and a number of people wrecked, but mostly everyone was okay. People had wild costumes on and some were enjoying a brew as they coasted down the gravel path. I had to work at the restaurant, but it was slow enough that I could dash outside and watch some riders careen around the bend. Tonight the restaurant is closed for a wedding reception, our boss told us to dress nice, but out uniform is jeans and a t-shirt. So I'm not sure if I'm supposed to nice that up, or wear something completely different. Hmm.

Acclimating

I've been in Crested Butte for one week. I have a job at a BBQ restaurant called Cowboys and might snag a day job somewhere else as well. Gotta save up to replace all that dough I just spent on my 3,000-mile trip. Julia and I have settled in to our place for the most part, there are still a few boxes lying around. Yesterday, not because of any boxes, Julia tripped and sprained her foot. We had a nice little adventure to the hospital (30min away) and now she's maneuvering pretty well on her new crutches. I think this summer is going to pan out nicely. Write or call!!