Another pic of the troublemaker...

...and by troublemaker, for once I don't mean myself. ;)

My first Thanksgiving away from Michigan and my family was... full of GUNS! The night before, I whipped up my little yams side dish for the huge party at Tea and Chuck's (Tea is sisters with Kerri, whom I watch the Eagles with Bruce and Tim every Sunday - for some reason, lots of people out here are from Pennsylvania, including all those guys and Tim). I guess a lot of people really don't have family or anything else to do on Turkey day, so they just start inviting people over... and suddenly there's 15-25 people showing up at their place. Since I had my "kitchen duties" taken care of, instead of slaving away and doing the domestic thing with the other girls all morning... I got to go out shooting with the guys! Yeeeee haw! Hey, I have a little bit of Pennsylvania in me too so I guess it's in the blood or something. ;)  Mike, Doug, Chuck, Scott, Bruce, and Tim... and little ol' me. We had pistols, revolvers, shotguns, rifles... specifically, an AK 47 assault rifle. As in, do some damage. IT WAS FREAKIN' SWEET! (Thanks dad for making me part redneck.) I was RIGHT ON with that rifle and took out all the targets we set up. Heh heh heh. With the shotgun, Tim pulled the clay pigeons for me... and I've never ever hit a moving target... And I hit my very first two! I impressed/scared the boyfriend... But then when I couldn't hit anything else after that, he felt a little better. ;)  He was probably one of the better shots of the day.

We showed up to the house smelling like gunpowder and PBR while the girls were still busy peeling and chopping potatos. It was a great dinner, with 4 turkeys and just insane amounts of mashed potatos... lots of alcohol of course... It was just a great way to spend thanksgiving, with many of my new friends out here. As the night went on, people started getting tired and leaving, but the real troopers stayed and eventually Celine started a dance party in the living room - the best of Squeeze, the Buggles, 80's hits mix - and soon it was just Chuck, Tea, Tim, Celine, Melios, and myself still bouncing around while the kids were upstairs trying to sleep and the rest of us (except good little designated driver me)got schnockered.

The next night - the biggest bar night of the year, of course - we went to the Rock Inn for the post-Parade party (we didn't make it to the parade... sick of tourists!!) and it was freaking insane. Needless to say, it was another late night. Saturday, Tim and I didn't even get up until almost 1:30 and spent the day watching Seinfeld and Northern Exposure. It's been a pretty sweet weekend...

Until I came down with the flu on Saturday night. Figures - everybody else is getting drunk and I'm drinking water... and I'm the one that ends up puking. It's just not fair, ha ha! So I didn't get to watch the Eagles get annihilated by the Colts last night, but I did discover this great online "Game Center"  on CBS - I don't have TV channels, but I did get to watch each drive and it even announces fumbles and touchdowns. Pretty handy! Pretty depressing game from what it looked like. At least Tim can't say they always lose when I watch the game with him! ;)

I just might be working for a couple weeks here soon... getting a job with Mike's Tree Service helping out with a thinning project if I'm lucky. A little extra $$ never hurt anybody. Besides that, just keeping busy, working out, hanging out, and watching lots of Northern Exposure. The finer things in life. :)  I did have a dream last night that since I spent all my vacation money on fixing my cars, I decided to hike from here to Glacier in the winter. If you've ever read "A Walk Across America", it was kindof like that.

We haven't had any snow in quite a while now. Sounds like MI has gotten more than we have! Nothing is even on the ground. But over in Summit County, they're constantly being hit. Which is great, because my friends are officially getting that huge condo and at least 8 of them will be out here to party and ski. That's about all for now!

GO BLUE!

Ok I might be shot for sharing top secret MMBones (Michigan Marching Band trombone section) literature, but I just saw this and it's A. Really funny, even if you don't know what is going on and B. I miss those guys. Here's the Leaky Bugle.

Ironic that I haven't driven the Focus all summer, but the weekend of the big game and I'm cruising around with Michigan plates and a University of Michigan sticket plastered across the back of my hatchback. Coincidence? Fate, my friends. Fate.

I'll put more pics of Logan up too. It was hard to get any good ones cuz they kept moving and then my batteries died!

Last night Jessie and I went to see Hells Bells, an ACDC cover band... I didn't even realize they were all chicks. They freaking rocked hard! Jessie had met the guys in the opening band, Fall From Grace, and got us on their VIP list so we got in for free and got to hang out upstairs in the "private" room (really, not much to brag about) and on the balcony (ok, that was kindof cool). Jessie is now officially a groupie. ;)

Now, I am going to show these mountain folk how to cheer for a real football team! GO BLUE! I passed a bunch of Michigan fans on my way up the canyon today, so I honked and waved and made an arsch out of myself... then blew by an Ohio car in town, just to make a point. I love this rivalry. Gonna be one hell of a game!

Bo Schembechler!! :(

On the eve of the HUGE Michigan-Ohio State football game, Bo Schembechler died! He was the winningest coach for U of M. I got to meet him once while I was in the Michigan Marching Band in 1999; he gave one hell of a motivational speech. Not that I'm like hardcore about these types of things, but he seemed like a good guy and I am SUPER pumped for the game on Saturday.

Latest puppy picture, at 3 weeks old!

Well Focus got fixed, now it's Yota's turn. I forgot just how fun that little car is to drive!

Stephanie and Jessie are back in town so I might be going to Hells Bells (an ACDC cover band) tonight, perhaps snowboarding this weekend... and of course watching that football game tomorrow.

Yeah, I'm watching Jaws. This movie is so freaking good. If you haven't seen it in a while, I highly recommend it. ;)

 

A picture of Logan from my visit earlier today!

Detour...

Colorado National Monument with Tim was a lot of fun, we did some 4x4ing on BLM land to Rattlesnake Canyon, then went on a 5 mile hike into and on top of the canyon to check out all the arches. Tim's big on photography, so he snapped quite a few that I'm sure will turn out fantastic. Mine... well they're ok, and they're posted on my Shutterfly site with the rest of my road trip pictures.

Yesterday we both drove back to Estes. I wasn't planning on coming back, but I had a few things I had to take care of. Was planning on leaving for Glacier NP today, but well plans have changed and we'll just say my heart isn't really into being on the road for another 3 weeks. I'm really not happy about it, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. :(

So, going to hang out at Kerri and Bruce's today and figure some things out...

The Adventure Continues! And the sweet coincidences of a good road trip

Greetings from Grand Junction, Colorado!

Thus far, this fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants roadtrip is turning out even better than I had planned! Let me back up to my reunion with Maria in Flagstaff...

Although she is down to the punch line with finishing her thesis and defending on Nov. 13th, she graciously invited me out for the weekend. I hadn't seen her in 3 years, and she was one of my best friends in Colorado when I moved out there right after college in 2003. Our lives almost crossed path many times - from trying to get in with the same professor for grad school at Montana State, to me being offered a last minute grad research position (that I obviously didn't accept) that would have landed me in the same office as her at Northern Arizona - but it was now or never if I wanted to visit her in the city I almost called home.

After a 12-13 hr drive from Lyons, I rolled into Flagstaff on Friday afternoon and it was like no time had passed between us. That's the sign of good friends. :) We spent the evening strolling through downtown and around campus, catching up on everything and enjoying the warm, moonlit evening. Flagstaff is beautiful, and the campus reminded me more of the University of Michigan than even Boulder does. I would have loved living there; but it's a good thing I didn't take the offer because the advisor is overloading the poor student she picked and she's having a stressful, terrible time. It was also the Day of the Dead (Día de los Muertos) and downtown was having an Art Festival Open House - so we ate dinner for free, feasting off the goodies and enjoying the display at local art shops.

The next morning, she took me down to Sedona for a hike in the Coconino National Forest. There had been a fire there earlier this year and a few trails were closed due to flash flooding/rock slides, but we did a nice little hike in the Red Rocks district (don't remember the trail name) and I decided that I need to convince my dad to move out there - warm in the winter, but still has deciduous trees that are beautiful in the fall and just beautiful country.

After we stopped and bought Apple Cider and Maria bought a turquoise ring (it's all the craze out there, since it's abundant and important to the local indian tribes), we went back and took a nap. Isn't that great?? We haven't seen eachother in years and we took a nap. ;) But we needed it. That night we went out and at Karma Sushi - good place - and went to bed early again so we could be ready to head to the Grand Canyon on Sunday.

The Grand Canyon = just as breathtaking as you can imagine. We just stayed on the South Rim Trail (as opposed to hiking down to the river) so I could see as much of the park as possibe. I think we probably hiked about 9 miles (flat and easy) and watched a beautiful sun set and a full moon rise simultaniously over the Canyon.

Monday, Maria had to get back to reality and I needed to be on my way. She'll hopefully be moving back to CO in the next few months and we'll hang out again. :)

From Flagstaff I drove 6 hours to Moab, Utah where I knew I would have free camping on the river. I decided to watch some football and have a quick bite to eat at the Moab Brewery. As I'm sitting there, sipping my beer by myself, I glanced over to the door and in walks a very tall guy and a short girl... It took me a second to register that I KNOW THESE PEOPLE... I work with these people... They look at me with the same sort of astonished "I should know you but you're out of place" expression and say, "Lisa!" I say, "Oh my gosh!" It was Travis, a maintenance worker on the west side of the Park, and Tina his girlfriend, who worked the gate on the west side. What a totally random and pleasant coincidence.

We sat down and caught up; their season ended about a week ago and were on a 2 month road trip before she heads off to grad school in Texas. They invited me to camp and hike with them the next couple days, which I was thrilled to hear. The Colorado River had flooded a few weeks previous, so the road to our free camping area was an absolute mess and only those with good 4x4 and who knew the way around the deep ruts in the road could get back there; needless to say, we had that whole area to ourselves for the whole time. We had a bonfire, drank boxed wine, and watched the nearly-full moon come up over the canyon walls and illuminate the river. I love that camping spot!

Tuesday we went to Arches National Park and got a pass to hike in the "Fiery Furnace" - a maze of rock pillars and arches, with fragile "cryptobiotic crust" that we aren't supposed to walk on ("What we're following is NOT A TRAIL" - a favorite saying as we followed some well worn cryptobiotic crust, which you're not supposed to do but it's impossible in some spots) - and we clambored through "Crawl-Through Arch", squeeze between tight slot canyons, scrambled steep rock jumbles and sat on top of large rock bridges. Travis knew the area well, so he showed me neat rock formations and areas that I would have probably never found by myself... or at least gotten severely lost in the process. ;)

Wednesday, Travis used his knowledge as a winter local to find us this "No Name Canyon" that supposedly only locals are familiar with. We went through a gap in this fence and bushwhacked our way through the jumble of trees, shrubs, rock washes and debris that had been jarred around by the same flooding that gave us our solitude at our campsite. It was wet, humid and relatively lush at the bottom of this canyon, and at the end we reach this deep pool underneath a tall rock face that spouts a temporary waterfall when it rains enough; it was dry now but was probably a sight to see when it was flowing. We even brought Travis' dog Chewy and she climbed up the slickrock with us like a pro. We kept going from one canyon into another, alternately travelling on the striated sandstone slick rock, and walking along the sandy washes in the bottom. I'm so lucky I ran into those guys, because I would never have seen this "hidden treasure"!

In the meantime, Tim had invited me to come out to the National Monument in Grand Junction, Colorado for a few nights for some hiking and off-roading. Met up with him and the trails guys at a sushi place last night and today, I went to town for an oil change and some online errands while he is finishing his last day of work here. For most of his crew, it's the last day of the season. When he gets back to CO, he is going to start "Blaster Training" - training to blow rocks and crap up with explosives for trail work. I'm mildly envious. ;)

Now, I will just post a link to my pictures so far (click on "Epic Road Trip" - no captions yet, maybe in a few days), pack this computer up and head back through the busy town of Grand Junction up to this little pocket of rock arches and canyons - Colorado National Monument. It's awesome that this little park is a neat little contained area of geologic wonder, all the while looking down on busy cities.

I'll be here until Saturday probably... then, off to Glacier National Park in Montana, most likely!!

Wish me luck! ;)

The latest puppy picture:

 

ps: Tara if you really wanna meet me somewhere, we'd just split gas money and stay in hostels... Just say where and when! ;)