Finished. Done. Completed.

Guess what. It's OVER! Well, all but about three and a half hours from over. I have succeeded. I lasted an entire summer in Wyoming! Do not be fooled, I am no super hero. John Stuart is. He lived in this barren, treeless, female lacking land for a year! Wow!

I must thank a few people for helping me to a grand exit from the equality state. I begin with JA and one who will probably never read this, Kristy Knapp. As Justin arrived in Denver I knew the summer was coming to a close. He flew into Denver, a solid three and a half hours from Rawlins, early Wednesday afternoon. We met up with Denver local Kristy in order to see the best of Denver on this long awaited reunion. Possibly a poor decision due to the fact that we got back to Rawlins at 4 am and I had to be in Rock Springs, 2 hours west of Rawlins, by 8:30 am for a meeting. I'm not a morning person.

The next few days were spent in Rawlins. Rawlins sucks, but we toured the old state prison built in the late 1800's, and learned as JA puts it, "Our action do in fact have consequences." I really wanted to buy a sticker which stated, "I spent time in Rawlins, WY" with an eerie picture of the prison on it, but I believe burning those memories is probably the best way to deal with them.

Then my final weekend as a semi-resident of the equality state came. We met up with actual resident J Stu and these last days were spent with a couple of Okies and our fair share of alcoholic beverages. Marijuana Party of Wyoming and a slightly odd reference to a founding father made for some inside jokes that will carry us through at least the next six months.

So this brings us to where I sit tonight. Denver. Ahh... I truly do love this place. JA and I attended a couple of Rockies vs Cubs games and met up with my family for dinner and a night game. Back to the city though. I have been in and out of Denver all summer long and have met a number of people who live in the city. I can see myself here. Let's compare a couple of statistics.

Oklahoma - 6th most obese state

Colorado - 1st most fit state

OKC - 2nd most obese city in America

Tulsa - 16th most obese city in America

Denver - 4th fittest city in America

Ok, so I know there is more to a city than it's ability to eat less food and exercise, but I find these statistics a little frightening. I love the elevation, and I love the mountains. These are things I will never have in Oklahoma. For now though, I have a year and nine months left in school. That is all. Then I will enter into this real world that I have merely gotten a taste of over the last 3 months.

Fair Week!

Yes, you read it correctly, it is that time again. The time when Rawlins, WY comes alive with the Carbon Country Fair! According to the locals this is the time of year they all look forward to. There are Rodeos all week which all culminate in the grand finale of the demolition derby. Keep a close watch on this blog because I plan on updating you on all of the grand events of this most glorious week.

I Reached Another Mountain Top, but this One wasn't Figurative

Hiking and walking have a lot in common, right? So a hiking trail marked, "Difficult" is nothing more than a difficult walk. I feel as if I am a pretty advanced walker, so I decided to head towards the Medicine Bow Peak trail, a 7 mile, 1,600 ft gain, trail boasting atop the 12,013 ft peak of Medicine Bow Mountain. Although this entry begins with a slight foreshadowing of a struggle to reach the peak of the tallest mountain in souther Wyoming, I reached the peak with little frustration. The peak was beautiful. To look down upon the place I started and see how far I had come was a feeling of great accomplishment. Not to mention it was my first literal mountain to hike to the top of. It was here that I met two nice guys, who came up the mountain from the opposite side, that advised me there was another trail just down the way that was a quicker, easier way home. Although my original plan was to head back down the trail I came up, I felt assured by the guy who stated that he had made this hike several times. Not wanting to get lost in the mountains, I asked him if it was a pretty easy to find the intersecting trail back to the trail head. He assured me, "You can't miss it."

This is where the story really begins. I missed it. I hiked about a mile only to see on my map that there was no way I hadn't gone too far. So I retreated back towards my original trail dreading the 300 ft climb back up the boulder ridden peak only to have to make the 7 mile hike back down the original trail. It was on the way back that I saw what faintly resembled the trail I was looking for. It wasn't. I didn't know this at the time so I started to venture down it looking on with amazement the 5 foot snow drift that covered the entire mountain side. Soon I ran out of solid ground and had to venture onto this large area of snow. Now, as I prepared for this trip I did not realize how much snow could still be present in July. JULY! So I wore my Chacos and I have since learned that Chacos were not intended for the snow. Ok, so I am heading onto the vast snow covered mountain side only to realize that the nice walkable incline has turned into what resembled to me a double black diamond ski run. Luckily, I have spent much time on my but on double black diamonds, so I proceeded to sit down, dig my Chacos into the snow, and sled down the mountain on my butt, sometimes trying to stand up and ski. Although by this time I had realized that I was not on the trail, I knew I couldn't go back up, and I was loosing daylight.

It was on my way sledding down the mountain that I saw a trail off in the distance as well as a parking lot with a number of cars in it. Hope. I immediately tossed all survivor man thoughts aside and resorted to my little girl find people and beg for help side. I trekked across the rocky mountain terrain to get to this trail and follow it to the parking lot I had spotted from above.

It was here that I met Dave and Bob. These were nice guys. It was Dave I approached, explaining my situation, and asked for a ride back to my truck. He had no problem with this and told me he and Bob were waiting on the rest of their party and then we could go. It was in this time that I noticed he was wearing a shirt with a picture of the great state of Oklahoma, so I simply asked him if he was from there. He was currently living in California, but had spent 20 years in Oklahoma working in the oil and gas industry as a geologist. Ah! We proceeded with solid conversation until they eventually drove me the five miles back to my truck. Bob was a super nice guy too. He told me a story of the time he got lost hiking and approached a lonely cabin out in the middle of nowhere. He also warned me of about 10 animals that could jump out in front of my vehicle on the way home and any given moment.

On the way out of the mountains I saw a moose. MOOSE! It was a real moose this time too, not some creepy guy in a suit that my mother persuaded me to take a picture with.

Side view of the mountain a approximate place of sledding. I started my hike just to the left of the lake on the top of the picture.

This was a piece of the trail. I now understand, "difficult hike," is different from difficult walk.

Wyomin

After approximately 2 months in Wyoming I have developed a theory based upon an in depth study of the state's phonetics. I hypothesize the state of Wyoming will soon drop the "g" and officially become Wyomin.  

I currently live in Rawlins, WY, which I assume was once known as Rawlings, but simply transformed to Rawlins over time as the local dialect continued to develop. Those who have lived in the ever so great city of Rawlins love to go campin.  While campin they will usually do some fishin.  People stay in shape up here in the mountains too.  You just can't beat a good day hikin, bikin, or runnin.  

Catch my drift?

Elk, Bison, and Bears, OH MY!

So this last weekend was a good one. My family came to Wyoming to visit me and we trekked up to the Grand Teton mountains and Yellowstone National Park.  I could probably write a book about all of the ridiculous things my family and I do, but for your reading sake I will only highlight one occurrence from each day.

Our first night was spent at Jackson lake in the Grand Teton National forest. This is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been.  We stayed in a little cabin right on the lake.  After we arrived my sister and I decided to go and do some fishing.  We actually did pretty well too, catching 4 trout in less than 2 hours, tripling my summer fish total.  On my way out I was approached by a kind lady who asked me if the trail I had just come from was open. I responded yes, and quizzed her to why she asked.  I then found out only the day before there was a moose with her baby chasing people off the trail.  Shortly after this I found out that they assumed everything was ok because a bear had eaten the baby moose.  

Day 2.  On our second day we made our way north into Yellowstone National Park.  This is a beautiful place but terribly inefficient.  While in Yellowstone we saw 2 elk, tons of buffalo, and a bear (ok, it was actually in the Tetons, but close enough). We spent the entire day driving around the park and we saw only 3 species of animals. I feel that if you are out to see animals, you should probably stick to the zoo. 

Day 2, part 2.  That is not a story from day 2.  Our original plan was to camp inside of Yellowstone. We had a campground reserved, but about the time we were going to make our way to camp we encountered a furious rain storm. It was only hours before this that we had bought hot dogs and stuff to make s'mores on the camp fire.  Due to this torrential downpour we mad our way into Jackson where we tacked on an extra night to our resort.  After we arrived to our nice two bed accommodation, my mom had become deeply saddened due to the fact that we had bought outrageously expensive hot dogs to roast and we would not even be able to eat them because there wasn't even a microwave in our room. To this I responded, "It's ok, I'm an engineer."  I proceeded to use the mini coffee pot to cook dinner. Mmm mmm coffee pot boiled hot dogs!

Day 3.  We spent the day shopping in Jackson and then went to the rodeo.  I am curious as to when in life one decides to strap his hand to a bull and see how long he can hold on. I also wonder how I get started in this industry.

Day 4. We drove home. It was somewhat good to be back in Rawlins after a jam packed weekend including 2 national parks, 2 lakes, and a ski resort. I love my family. I am sad they are gone. 

5 1/2 weeks left.

Montana Sucks, North Dakota has Oil, and South Dakota needs to Learn How to Sing

I love a good adventure. I also enjoy a little reggae music.  Take those two things, 2 national parks, and karaoke night in South Dakota and it comes out to be a pretty good weekend.

I spent last week working in North Dakota.  I had never been to North Dakota.  There's not much to it.  Especially in Crosby, ND, population 1,089 (1,090 last week).  I left on Monday and traveled through Montana, and arrived upon my destination, just 5 miles south of Canada, just in time to enjoy a t-bone steak on Samson's tab.  If you have been following my blog this summer you have probably learned that I like lists.  And since I'm always trying to look at the cup half full, here is my list of things I enjoyed from North Dakota.

• Northern Accents

Ok, so North Dakota sucks.  It's ok though, because they have oil and I got paid.  This entry isn't about ND though.  It is about adventure.  It all began on the way home.  I left ND Friday with some bread, gatorade, and my sleeping bag in the back of my truck.  I drove throughout the day and arrived in Rapid City, SD around 7 or so.  My plans were simply to find a coffee shop with free internet and waste about 3 hours.  I found what has become one of my favorite coffee shops (although chances are I will never go there again) in Alternative Fuels, located in downtown Rapid City.  This place was great, but like all great things, not perfect.  Karaoke.  It is not necessarily a bad thing, but I think SD needs a few lessons in Karaoke.

1. It's not a concert. I feel as if I should be able to answer my phone whenever I please without having to exit the building.
2. A few bad singers are kind of fun to make fun of every now and then, but it gets old when the same crappy person sings 3 songs in a row.
3. If no one wants to sing, just give it a break. DJ funky mamma needs to take a few minutes off.

So this was a solid few hours of entertainment.  After the coffee shop closed I walked outside only to hear the sounds of South Africa.  Just down the street from the coffee shop there was a reggae band playing at a block party.  This was great, and I listened to every Bob Marley song on my ipod after the concert.  It was finally time for sleep.  Now when you are by yourself in a tourist town where you can't find a decent room for under $100 dollars what do you do? You got it, I busted out my sleeping bag in the back seat of the truck and slept like a baby for 6 straight hours.  

I woke up the next morning hungry and with an idea.  In this tourist town with many many expensive hotels, I figured it would be easy to find a free breakfast.  I was right.  I drove down to the local Quality Inn and found their breakfast bar where I enjoyed a waffle and delightful conversation from a nice family from Kansas. 

Now it was time to continue my along my journey to the main attraction. Mount Rushmore. I understand many people may find this national monument lame and not everything it's cracked up to be, but I am not one of those people.  I am the nerdy guy who goes there by himself and spends two hours taking pictures (some of which can be seen on fbook) and watching the video on how it was made. If you haven't been to Mount Rushmore before I would suggest you put it somewhere around half way down your list for semi-near future enjoyment. After seeing the giant heads of my country's great presidents, I went to the second national park on my list, Devil's Tower. This was neat, but once again in a nerdy geologist kind of way. Finally my adventure was over and I continued home.

So what did I learn from this experience you ask? I love tourism. I'm a sucker for it. Some people want to go to the places where there is no one, but not me. I mean, if there are thousands and thousands of people who want to see this "tourist trap" every year, it's got to be pretty cool right? So there, I said it. I'm not ashamed.  I'm a tourist. Bring on Jackson Hole and Yellowstone!

If April Showers bring May Flowers, What do June Snows Bring?

You know that 10,000 ft above sea level, side of a mountain looking straight down a 300 ft cliff in your Saturn Ion after you had just driven past a sign that definitely didn't have a picture of your vehicle, "What the hell am I doing" feeling? Ok, well maybe it isn't as common as I might have perceived at first, but it really is quite the rush.  I felt this rush for most of my day on Saturday as I decided to go exploring in the vast Wyoming wilderness.

On my adventure last Saturday I encountered snow.  At first I was excited. For a kid from Oklahoma, the snow comes few and far between, so whenever I saw piles of snow in the mountains I instantly pulled over the car and started to play in it.  A little childish yes, but still fun.  Now if this were the end of my snow story, things would be great. Sadly though I must continue.  As my Saturn Ion and I both continued to try and be things we are not, on off road vehicle and a mountain man, we came upon a section of road covered in snow with tire tracks going through it.  The snow was fairly deep, but to turn around and go back would cost me an extra 25 miles of mountain terrain to cross.  I should have turned around.  About 10 ft into this snow my car came to a stop.  A complete stop that is, where it will go neither forward nor backward.  Hmm... After 30 minutes of trying to solve this problem I was faced with a dilemma. Do I call someone from work and open myself up to be ridiculed for another 10 weeks, or do I go Man vs Wild on the situation? You guessed right, I took on the mountain in a fierce battle.

Step 1: Identify the problem - I was stuck.

Step 2: Ration Food and Water. You never know how long you are going to be out there.

Step 3: Become Oriented with your Surrounding - There was snow all around.  

Step 4: Locate items that could be useful; hammer, sticks, baby pine trees, rocks, snow, 

Step 5: Go MacGyver and get out of the snow

So here is what I did.  I got the jack out of the back of my car and lifted the front end of my car.  I wandered around in the forest until I found a handful of branches and put them under my tires.  I then cut down a few small pine trees to lay down as a track to get the car backed out.  Guess what? It worked! I was free and took the long way back around and safely arrived back in Rawlins.  Crisis averted once again.

So I know there is one question that is still bugging you.  Did I go fishing? Yes.  I suck at fishing.