Driving On

Yesterday I was in my car for almost 12 hours, driving from Austin to New Orleans. It should have been an eight hour drive but I don't think people in Louisiana know how to drive because there were at least three accidents on the road once I go into the state. I had to pull out all the stops to get through the drive. This post is about how I keep myself entertained and awake for anywhere upwards of three hours of solo driving.

First off I download a few podcasts of This American Life or The Moth. These are for when the times get tough. Mostly I like just listening to music while I drive because then my mind can drift and I don't have to worry about missing part of a story. I typically start with a CD or two and skip half the songs, then switch to the country radio station when I can find it. And then when I get to a spot where there are no stations, I bring out the ol' ipod from high school that has some quality stuff on it. Usually when I'm trying to stay awake I put it on shuffle and then skip through pretty much everything. This is the most entertaining because I never know what I'm gonna get. It jumps from Red Hot Chili Peppers to Peterson's bird calls to Dixie Chicks to Sufjan Stevens to Bill Staines to random segments from the 7th Harry Potter book. When the situation gets dire aka I've already listened to a podcast and skipped through the ipod and the radio and the CD and tried to call a bunch of people, I turn to Harry Potter and actually commit to listening to an entire segment. Last time I ended up listening to the Battle of Hogwarts segment where (spoiler) Fred dies and I guess I hadn't read or listened to that part in a while so it made me cry (but in an alert way).

Anyways, the highlight of my trip last night was when I walked into  a gas station to buy a coffee drink and got into a conversation with the lady there about my long drive and how I needed coffee. She ended up giving me a 5 hour energy drink for free! Thinking back on it, perhaps that was a low point for me. I looked so rough and haggard that I got a free energy shot. But hey I didn't even have to use it because my Harry Potter/ music/ radio/ phone method worked just fine!

Sorry for a boring post but this has been on my mind recently-- 3 long solo drive days in two weeks! And I still have to drive all the way to DC in a few days-- luckily with Amelia.

Plane Life

I’m cruising on a flight from Phoenix to Houston and I figured it was high time (ha ha) to write a blog post about flying! I’ll jot down some tips and stuff I’ve thought about over the years I’ve been roaming this country by plane.

Some thoughts from the plane:

1.

Bloody Mary Mix is the way to go for that free drink.  Salty, some substance to fill you up a bit so you don’t have to buy airport food, and on United apparently they’re super fancy and dress it up to almost look like a real Bloody Mary! You know it’s a good airline when they give you a whole can, amirite?

2.

The thing I hate most about seatmates is when they close their window if they have the window seat. Like come ON what is the point of flying if you’re not gonna look out of the window.  Take the aisle if you want the space, duh.

3.

I always try to work the carry-on system.  Take a fully-loaded bag and other random things in my arms and then also a huge backpacking pack stuffed to the gills. Then I go though security and gate check it and save myself $25 and also don’t have to carry it around the airport with me while I go pee. I suppose a better solution would be to pack less but… eh.

4.

Something that just got reemphasized for me just a few moments ago is that the very best way to get exercise is to have a very tight connection in a large airport. I felt like a champion when I made it onto my flight after my dorky Chaco-clad sprint through the Houston airport. No one applauded though; what a letdown.  You can really show yourself as a true hero when you let people who have tighter connections leave the plane before you. The comraderie among plane passengers on a delayed flight is unparalleled, I’d say. That bond is extra fun when you see the people from your first flight sitting on the little airport car things as you huff past looking like a fool. But the run was worth it. Sorry current seatmates for how much I sweated, though.

Hokay well we’re landing and my seatmates just tried to buy 4 Jack and Cokes so there’s that. Can they share?

Time to go!

Well shoot, it's the last morning of our time here at Blue Ridge and I haven't blogged pretty much at all. So instead I have asked Joey to recount his last morning here in the Manor House, as we loiter around until we have to drive to Atlanta.
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Joey's log:
I woke up and thought that it was time for work, but then realized we were leaving today. Looked out of the window and saw Lara packing up-- she left an hour before she said she was going to. Intentionally left soap and shampoo and loofah in the shower-- did not want to bring them with. I have really bad farts from drinking beer. When I walked out of me room people were awake and doing things. We listened to Andy Dwyer sing Pit and Sebastian 5 times each. Put on a pair of pants and a new shirt. Moisturized my face because it was dry from shaving. Put in contacts. Thought I was gonna wear glasses but decided to go with contacts. Successfully packed Annie's car with room to spare. Which is a good thing because that body that we have to bring is taking up a lot of room. I farted a lot. Looked at the poster we made and it occurred to me that our poster is very much like my parents refrigerator. Littered with pictures of Lara. If we were to take off all the pictures of Lara on the poster it would be pretty bare. Walked around for a  little bit, packed my carry-on bag. Took a really gross poop and left it in the toilet. Then after leaving it in the toilet for a bit, I went to flush it because it might become a free-living organism if left too long and take over the house. Said bye to Sarah, she left. I will not see her for a while; Annie will see her tonight. Made a new outgoing phone message. Not a big surprise that it talked about farts. 706-282-1423.
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We're still not leaving yet, got some time to kill, so we're busy stinking up the house and writing weird notes to leave in places. Proudest part of my morning: packing my car so that most everything I own can just fit in the trunk! This is a huge achievement for my pack rat road trip way of life. And once I kick Joey out at the airport, I'll have space for not one but TWO people to fit in the car. Progress.

A coupla hours in the life

Just for kicks and because I happened to jot it down, here is a list of some of the things that are possible to talk about during one hike to the waterfall with a group of 5th graders.

Coconut bras
Mamacitas
Divorce
Mushrooms that can kill you
A mushroom named Yoshi
Good names for mushrooms
Cars
Snails
Woodpeckers
Spider webs
How there are many rocks in the trail
How there are sticks in the trail
Lichen and how much we lichen stuff
Why a silent walk can be nice

Every class is a whirlwind, every day is exhausting, and the weeks are flying by. Weird to think that I only have another month here-- I feel like I just moved in! Perhaps I'll post about what I actually do here before I leave, but no promises.

Here's a pic of the waterfall in all it's glory:

MLIC (My Life Is Camp)

The end-o-summer transition away from camp is never easy. Sure, there's always bird count and there's always small camp reunions throughout the year, but nothing can compare to a magical summer at Cooper's Cove. However, this summer marks a new transition: leaving camp for good (wow, writing that was really hard). For the past two years, and I could go so far as to say the past eight years, my life has been camp. My summers there are a huge part of my identity. I shape my experiences during the entire year around camp. If I pick up a new skill or learn a new fact, I always think about how I can apply it to working at The Cove. I tell camp stories to anyone who will listen, and I tell them even if they won't listen, oops. I look through old boxes of memorabilia and read through old journals and look at pictures and reminisce about all the hilarious things that happened in the collective memory of camp. And then February comes around and I get to work on (or craft) the camp application and fully let myself get excited for another summer, because Spring is right around the corner and camp comes after that.  Camp camp camp, how many times can I write 'camp'?

And now, suddenly, my time working at the best place/job in the world has come to an end. I'm 24, and finally ready to acknowledge that I want to gain other experiences during the summer. I've started a new job in the environmental education field, and it's exciting.

And yet all I want to do I be able to return to camp. I want to take all of the activities and tricks that I've learned in training here in Georgia and apply them to my morning workshops at camp. I want to go back to the comforting schedule of Reflections before dinner every day, and an Inspection Report at lunch, the Bird List at dinner, and Ashokan Farewell at the end of Folklore Night. I want my hair to smell like pond, and I want to be able to recognize by sight which logs will definitely house a salamander (I can't do that log thing at this new place and it's driving me crazy).

Maybe those things are the exact reason that I shouldn't go back. I need to push my comfort zone, I need to grow more, I need to leave what I know to try what I'm wondering about. I grew up and became myself at The Cove, and I learned more than I could ever fully articulate in this blog post. I've learned enough to fend for myself elsewhere, I hope. It breaks my heart to not go back in the same capacity, and the last few weeks have been rough because of that feeling of loss/ of feeling lost. I think that as the season here gets busy and the end of summer gets farther away and hopefully new opportunities loom, I will have an easier time of it. But for now, bear with me on my continuing trip down memory lane.

Speaking of, here's a picture that Vini sent me today of young camper Annie, catchin' bugs. #tbt

things we googled...

...during awards painting! I kept a list during third session of every image us painters looked up to help draw and watercolor each unique camper award. As always, it was a funny combination of words:

roll of film
groundhog
tomato plant
sandstone photographs
spaceman helmet
spaceman cartoons
avengers
papageno
ant
allegheny mountain ant
human heart
honeycomb
bee
wolf spider
pole vaulter
shark fin
cattail
person in inner tube
bunk bed
jam jar
spider cartoons
upright spider
ant
grapevine
canon ae1
someone taking a picture with a camera
cartoon frog
cartoon hand from above
wisdom
shop window
mannequin
foot mannequin

This is my most proud award of all time ever, maybe. It's called 'Amanita Draw This,' depicting a deadly Amanita drawing a self portrait. Things I probably googled for this: Amanita. Easel.
Other notable things about this award: It was a trifecta! Meaning I named it, painted it, and presented it. The Dream.

2nd Session Highlights

Sometimes my schedule lends itself to frequent blog posts, and sometimes I barely have time to get all my postcard writing checked off. Which is more important? Postcards, duh. But I have been unable to share about each camp session fully in just a short postcard, so the time has come to bloggy.

I'll share a few pictures/ highlights from 2nd session, which ended about a week two weeks ago:

Perhaps even winning the honor of Best Nerdy Nature Camp Moment of the Summer, this was certainly a session highlight. To set the scene: It was the end of morning project time, and the table setters bell was about to ring. Suddenly a Barred Owl flew up the stream and landed in a tree, and few people saw and called out. They got the attention of everyone around the lodge, and one by one the entire camp gathered near the stream with binoculars and cameras and quietly stood admiring the owl. The bell rang (lunch for the day was Pizza Bagels, an alltime crowd pleaser) and no one moved. We all just stood and watched the owl. Many teachable moments were had-- nature nerd camp in action!

Another great event of 2nd session: Monongahela! Everyone at 2nd session goes backpacking here for 2 nights and 3 days, but in small groups. My group was named BEAKN'JAMMS, and then we all yelled THUNDER COUGAR FALCONS after our countoff because obviously that's what BEAKN'JAMMS spells! Our theme: Classic South North Blueberry Traverse aka we did it all! Great views, great poos, blueberries, relaxing on epic rocks, all the mud, all the farts, and rock club. I discovered that my new favorite trail in the Dolly Sods Wilderness is the Raven Ridge Trail. The mud is plentiful but the views and field-y spruce-y bits are spectacular. And we found a digging turtle.

Best turtle of second session: Mushroom Turtle (although digging turtle was a close second). We found Mushroom Turtle during project time. We were out by the stream searching for sweet mushrooms to paint, but instead we found this guy with mushrooms ALL over his face. Tell me, is there anything cuter? Nope.

Girls night with Cory 2k15!!! Ok I guess this was after 2nd session but it involved nail polish, sweet tunes, drawing, candles, and table dance parties while everyone else was off watching some movie. Our night was way better.

Getting heat exhaustion while doing the end of session burger cookout. Well I guess it's not a quite a highlight, but it's still something that happened. My advice to you: Don't stand over a really really hot fire for hours on a heat index day and then hike up to the Bald to do final ceremony and awards. It's terrible. Disclaimer: This picture is from the 3rd session cookout where there was zero heat exhaustion involved and I actually had to put on a sweater to serve burgers because it was so cool out.

Now third session is over-- it really took me almost 10 days to write this one blog post.  mark of how busy this summer has been! Maybe I'll post something again maybe.

on the daily

In the Death Valley dorms, a group of people would participate in an ongoing monthly fitness challenge, like abs in January and squats in February. I did a couple sessions, but mostly my excuse for not doing a daily fitness regime was that I hiked miles in the desert every day for work and all I wanted to do was sit around and not exert energy.

But now the days of hiking while carrying 50 lbs of metal are gone, so it’s time to enact a fitness challenge of my own. I have decided to do a headstand every day, to keep the doctor away. Every day this summer (starting today, Day 1 of Staff Week) I will do a headstand in a scenic location for one whole minute. I can move my legs around but they can’t touch the ground, and that’s the only rule.

Maybe it won’t be as effective as an ab workout, but I think I’ll enjoy the view more. And do a lot more tick checks on my head.

mail mail mail

This winter I got to have my very own P.O. box, which was exciting for me, mail nerd that I am. I'm currently back at my favorite address (sans P.O. box) but I'm really getting a kick out of the P.O. boxes that I get to send postcards to.
Here's a list of some fun towns that I've sent mail to in the past week:

Death Valley, CA
Bishop, CA
Moose, WY
Ely, MN
King Salmon, AK
Grand Canyon, AZ
New Orleans, LA
Northfield, MN
St. Paul, MN

Friends, you are in some cool spots! I'm excited to pen-pal it up to all these far-flung places.

The Count

As we reach the last few legs of our road trip, it’s time to tally up some important numbers from the trip thus far.

States visited: 8

Number of nights sleeping in the car: 1.5

Number of nights camping: 1.5

Number of nights in a hotel because of crazy weather: 1

Postcards bought: 132 (Annie’s only)

Friends visited: 14

Weird dinners eaten: …All of them? Except two in a real restaurant

Ice creams eaten: 5*

Number of cows seen: like a million at least

Most times offered to smoke in one day: 2

Number of bison physically on the road: 2

Number of dogs on the highway: 2

These numbers will shift slightly upwards in the next couple of days, but for now it’s a fairly accurate representation of our life for the past two weeks.

*Annie has eaten 4 out of 5, just for the record

One of the weirder dinners. This ice cream was 20 cents!! Thank you Lynn's Dakotamart.

a day in the road trip life

Phew, yesterday was A Day. You know, like when you get to the end of it and can’t believe that all

those things that happened could have possibly occurred on one April 24^th, 2015.

Started off with a walk down nostalgia lane—we slept in Wind Cave National Park, SD. I spent three weeks there on a SCA summer crew right after high school. I strolled through our old campground in the early morning, reminiscing with myself about the spigots we used for a waterfight that one time, and the firepit we gathered around on the first night to play butt darts. Then I got to the visitor center right when it opened so that I could finally get my Jr. Ranger badge, six year later.

Prairie sunrise

We went on a scenic drive, stopping to gaze at some adorable prairie dogs and grazing bison. Then it was nearing lunchtime, and I really needed to go to the Purple Pie Place in Custer for old times sake. So we drove the windy road back out of the park, keeping our eye out for rogue road bison.

A few minutes into our drive, we spy a NPS person walking on the side of the road. My first thought/hope was that it was Ranger Dwayne-- the man, the myth, the legend. My SCA crew had been mildly obsessed with him because we got to spend a day wandering around the hills with him as he tracked elk populations with radio telemetry. So he approaches us, and we shake hands, and I say: “Uhhhhh are you Ranger Dwayne by any chance?” Lo and behold, he is! He was checking on an eagle nest. Casual day at the office.

We chat about what he does, and the fire that just occurred in Wind Cave, and then we talk about where Emily and I are headed (to camp). And that’s how I ended up giving my camp brochure to Ranger Dwayne. Self fiiiiive.

We keep driving, and encounter a herd of bison on the road! Up close and personal.

Then the day continues. We start driving to Custer, as it begins to POUR. Got myself some warm blackberry pie and huckleberry ice cream, and then we kept driving. I had to stop in Hill City, because six years ago it had the best corny postcards I have ever encountered. I bought 49, but like, who’s counting.

Then the sun comes out for our drive to Wall Drug. The build up is worth it—so many life-size replicas and stuffed things to take pictures with, the free ice water and the 5 cent coffee is REAL, and the corny postcards are there in fair numbers (but I’ve seen better).

Then it was time to drive to Badlands while blasting Badlands-- the song. We drive in and immediately see a group of bighorn sheep grazing on the hillside. Bighorn sheep sightings in Death Valley are quite rare, and maybe they’re not quite as rare in South Dakota, but still worth a freak out. So after that excitement we keep driving, with the plan of finding a campsite and a sunset viewing point. 

Bighorns and impending storm of doom.

But then the storm caught up with us. Two hours of torrential downpours interspersed with blue bolts of lightning over the prairie and the badlands. Pretty glad I’ve already been to the park, because I really didn’t get to see anything—it was terrifying out. Needless to say, we scrapped the camping plan and I slowly drove us out and eastward. Right when we got to the eastern edge of the park, we got to witness a break in the storm and a double rainbow. I drove for about another hour, into the storm, and then we saw a magical hotel sign for a Best Western in Murdo (tried to ignore how it sounded a lot like murder), and here we are. Hot breakfast and lots of coffee, and it’s time to drive to Minnesota. Onward and upward, through this foggy gray day.

Badlands or really anywhere where it's raining.