Back Again

Well... I can't believe a year has gone by since I was felling trees and pooping in the woods with the best of 'em. I did not adjust back into city life as planned, SO i decided to go back to the woods.. or at least a happy medium. I'm currently in my bed in RI for the last time in......let's say 5 months. In 2 hours I'm driving up to Montreal to graduate and leave my college years behind me. It's been a fun ride, but honestly "i'm over it" (now traditionally I know this is a phrase used by betches to move past the actions of guys that they are in reality not over). Montreal may not have been a complete asshole that didn't return my calls, he did sometimes take my dignity and most definitely my money. Allors, au revoir mon ami compliqué- I'm over you. I will of course miss the friends I have made who are in various locations across the globe and unrealistically say we will see each other again. "Oh yea I'll totally come to Europe over christmas and I'm sure you'll come visit me in the middle of the Colorado wilderness". Maybe once we are all making the big post-college bucks it's more apt to happen.

Last week I moved out to CO to begin my work with the state forest service. My official title is Forest Inventory Technician, which is just a fancy way of saying I collect data about trees. The move began with the infamous road trip from RI to CO. I was accompanied by the lovely Grace and although we were not driving a giant sheepdog which we would later sell in order acquire a moped in Nebraska, we did have to sell a dead bird to a blind kid.

The first day we drove from RI to Akron, OH to crash at Alex's (remember from last year's Goodfellers my dutiful readers?? If I must reduce his identity down to the physical, he was the blonde dreads one). We had to of course make the pilgrimage to Scranton, PA to plant beets with Dwight and go see Scrantonicity II play at Poor Richard's Pub. Welllllll maybe we didn't get that far, but we did go to the Steamtown Mall (home of Women's Appreciation episode) and take a picture with the sign from the opening credits. Prison Mike made an appearance as well... he kept saying something about gruel and dementors... weird. We arrived in Akron after a lonnngggg 12 hour day of driving. But it was nice to see a familiar face and have some local brews outside in the sunshine. We ended up crashing wicked early because we were tired and had the longest leg of the trip the following day. 4am rolled around and we rolled out of bed. On the road again.

Day 2 took us to Red Wing, MN where Jake "fumanchu" MacDougall eagerly awaited our arrival. It was a lonnngggggg ass day of 14 hours driving (and Chicago really brought out the east coast driver in me), but we made it!! Just in time for the pizza farm too! This place was awesome. It's a farm typically. Rolling fields, cows, goats, sheep, vegetables, that whole deal... THEN on Tues nights they decided to use all of these super fresh ingredients to make delicious pizza. Naturally, we got something with olives and feta because those are the besttttt. Basically everyone just chills on the grass with blankets. It's byob, so very laid-back vibe and people didn't think RI was part of NY!!! Quite delightful.

Day 3 brought us through MN and SD to Badlands National Park. This day was rough because the roads became all farmland. We did get to stop in Blue Earth, MN to visit with the Jolly Green Giant. I hope I never live in a town where there are more 100' green statues than people... that's for sure. But he and his size 78 shoe were all smiles for us weary road travelers, thus giving us the drive (pun OBVIOUSLY intended) to keep going. We reached our Badlands campsite with plenty of time to set up the tent and cook a great dinner sans fire. The next morning after showers at the all too familiar KOA we departed for the final leg of the trip.

Day 4 took us all the way to Steamboat Springs. We had to make some stops along the way of course. The first was Wall Drug in Wall, SD. Let me preface by saying that we had planned on going there originally, but even if we hadn't I think it would have been morally daft to have not stopped given there were signs for like 400 freakin miles. South Dakota: "we put up billboards because there's not much else to see here". They pretty much just had any random sentence and just put Wall Drug after it. "They're back" with a painting of a Dino and then Wall Drug. "Free Ice Water"- Wall Drug. "In case you didn't see the last 50 signs" - Wall Drug. "Haha, you've been driving for sooooo long" - Wall Drug. Don't get me wrong it was fabulous in the tackiest road side attraction way possible. But we were too cold to get the ice water (RIP OFFFFFF). Then, it was off to Mount Rushmore. Now don't send the CIA to my house, but it was kind of underwhelming. The black hills were cool, but I guess i just really had hoped Washington's head was going to open up and Team America was going to fly out while "America, Fuck Yea" blasted from the sky and hoards of bald eagles lifted us up and carried us to get our faces painted with red white and blue awesomeness... Well, that didn't happen. In fact they wanted to charge us $11 to see something we could see from the road, so that was Mt. Rushmore. Final pitstop, Carhenge. Alliance, NE. Middle of nowhere. It was the weirdest thing... these junk cars in this strange formation. I wonder if it was some sort of Pagan tribute site back in the day. Where ancient Nascar fans got packs of Natural Ice tattooed across their stomachs in the hopes of convincing people their beer gut is in fact a six-pack. Guess we'll never know the truth...

FINALLYYYYY Steamboat!!! We got in at about 10pm to my apartment, which was lovely. It's right on the Yampa with a view of mountains in the back. We have a grill and horseshoe pit and there are a lot of grisly mountain men to oogle at! These are not the trailgoggles talking this time. Anyways, that was the adventure, thus far. Once I get back to CO from graduation I will be undergoing job training with the other seasonal forestry techs in Boulder. I'll keep you guys posted until I feel self-conscious for having a blog that only my mom follows.

tata for now