28 April 2009

Back in Cedar City

The drive from Boise to Cedar City made me realize the extraordinary lengths we go for the people we love i.e. my daughter. Yesterday was a long day. When I dated my friend who lived in Bozeman, MT last year I made the 10 hour trip to see her which in the end didn't turn out to be too bad. Yesterday, on the other hand, was different. I think it was the fact that I had been on the road since Thursday and I wanted nothing more than to get to Cedar and move in already. Unlike the other days spent on the road, the drive south was uneventful. I pulled into town at 1930, unpacked my trailer, visited a few friends from the old house I lived in, and spent a couple hundred dollars at wall-mart buying food, dishes, bed sheets, and other things necessary for sanitary life in an apartment. Finally, at 0200 in the morning I managed to make it to bed. Damn it felt good to be back...

A Day With the Daughter!

I don't talk much about my daughter in my blog primarily because there's a lot of things between her mother and I that I'd rather not get into here. I got to spend Sunday afternoon with her and her mother in Boise and it rocked my world. I realized, for the first time, how much of me she has in her. Her attitude, her eyes, her disposition, I see it all in me and that hit me hard...in a good way of course. On top of that, it was nice to sit and be friends if not friendly with her mother again. To just sit there and talk and enjoy our daughter was priceless. Witht he exception of an hour or so I took to run to the store before it closed, I stayed until Maleigha fell asleep later on that night. I kissed her goodnight, said goodbye to her mother, and went back to my hotel room, still speechless from the time I spent with her...




From Miscellaneous Life



From Miscellaneous Life

27 April 2009

Happy 100,000th!!!

The Xterra made it to 100,000 miles and is still kicking. My odometer rolled over almost exactly on the Utah/Wyoming state line on I-80. When my dad and I bought it on 17 February of 2004 it had 1,250 miles on it. A little over 5 years later it has earned it has earned it's second decimal place....I felt like a parent must feel when their kid graduates high school. Anyways, happy 100,000th!



From Zion Helitack 2009

The Last Leg of the Cross-Country Trip

Denver to Boise is not an easy drive. Exciting for me considering I have never driven I-80 across the Rockies, but still pretty mundane and rough none the less. My drive in Wyoming started in dense fog with 30 to 40 feet of visibility for about 50 miles. Talk about scary! Trucks and cars appear right in front of you like ghosts! Hairpin turns appear within enough time to scare you into thinking you're going to roll your vehicle as you caterpault yourself back into your lane as you negotiate the turn.



From Zion Helitack 2009




Because the fog occured in the highest part of I-80 in Wyoming, my excitement slowly departed as I entered back into the ranchland's of most of the I-80 corridor. The most exciting part was my car reaching 100,000 miles since it's 1250 when I first got it in 2004!

Utah was amazing to drive through. I love the mountains of the northern part of the state. I spent most of the driving spotting lines to ski and ridges to climb. Too bad SW Utah didn't get snow or mountains like these...Anyways, these mountains soon faded into the flatness that makes up some of souther Idaho as well as the boredom that plagues the drive from the Utah border to Boise. I managed to pull into Boise near 2300, blood-shot and exhausted. I think I slept for a total of 11 hours last night.



From Zion Helitack 2009

24 April 2009

The Start of the Cross Country Drive

Normally, when I drive across country, unless I have a friend's place in which to crash, I simply pull-over to a rest stop, find a quiet parking spot to park, lock my doors, recline my seat, pull out a pillow and blanket, and sleep until I wake up. I've found that you can cover a lot of this country if you just wake up as early as possible, and drive till you get sleepy at night. I made DC to Flagstaff, AZ in less than 36 hours possible with this interstate assault. There for stopping shortly after Indianapolis when I got tired seemed practical and normal to me. I stopped at the first rest stop west of Indianapolis, found a spot next to some trees and shut my car down. As I took the time to put some new music on my ipod, I noticed a late middle-aged man in a dark minivan was driving around slowly from parking spot to parking spot with his head lights on. I recognized him as a man that caught eyes with me and waved as I was walking from the bathroom. Anyways, after about 30 minutes of watching this guy move around, I noticed that he had been staring at me the entire time. Right when I did, he started flashing his running lights and his dome light at me as if to signal me to come inquire what he wanted. Another 30 minutes of this parking-lot dance and light show occurred before he finally parked in a parking spot 20 feet in front of me and began to signal me and scare me. At this point, wanting absolutely nothing to do with this incredibly creepy person, I turned my car on, along with my headlights, and he drove to the opposite side of the rest stop complex still with in view of me (and I to him). He then continued to signal me! Knowing this wasn't right, I called 911 to report this guy as "suspicious". After I "pretended" to fall asleep, the guy realized that I had let my guard down and came back and parked in front of me again. Thankfully, in the 20 minutes it took the Indiana State Police to show up to the rest stop, this creep didn't once get out of his vehicle. The trooper recognized the vehicle right away based off the description I gave the call taker and had the guy get out of his vehicle to question him. After a pretty stern talking to by the trooper, the guy, seemingly disappointed, got back into his van, and drove off. The entire time I pretended I was sleeping while peering out at him with a cracked eye. After he had left, the trooper had left and I was left in the parking lot with 3 other people trying to sleep yet too nosy to ignore their fatigue as they looked on to this scene of drama. At this time in the night it was 3 AM and I was exhausted. I locked my door again and curled up under my blanket...this time clutching a mag-light I keep in the side of my door for these reasons alone. Yeah I can buy a small LED light if I need a flashlight but sometimes a 'D'-cell mag-light can say "no" a lot easier than your mouth...

I woke up at 0700 and began the drive from Indianapolis to Denver. I knew it was going to suck before I even left. I hate driving across the great plains and I was dreading every second of the drive. I don't even remember Illinois I managed to drive so quickly across it. Missouri was ok because the scenery remained a little interesting. Right before Kansas, however, I caught a glimpse of a fatal motorcycle accident that despite 7 years of firefighting and EMS I still claimed to be one of the most horrific I've ever seen. Thankfully, Kansas was the last major leg of my day's trip. When I drive I look at the mile markers to gauge how long it would take me to drive across a particular state. Seeing "Exit 423" on a sign after crossing the Missouri river made my heart sink. I made it to Kansas sometime after noon. It was well into the night by the time I hit the Colorado border. I made it to my friend's house in Golden/Denver before 11. I came in, had a glass of wine with her, and will soon crash (probably hard) for the night. Thank God the worst part of the drive is over with...

23 April 2009

Last Day

My last day at home was spent packing the trailer and making some phone calls. I left a lot later than I'd normally like to when making a drive of this magnitude (1500 hrs to be exact). I decided to stop in Indianapolis for the night so it really didn't matter to me. It was hard leaving for once. I really wanted to stay for several reasons but my job is too good to turn up. Alas, the journey must be made. I've decided to take I-70 to Denver, then head up to I-80 to take that to 84 and, eventually Boise. Hopefully all will go well. In the end, my departure was simple. Pack, hug mom, say good-bye, and drive. 4 months from now I'll do it all over again...

22 April 2009

Last Day of East Coast Climbing

In the name of procrastination, I decided to take a break from packing and taking care of last minute errands to go climbing with my good friend Shaw. Because of the both of us forgetting our cameras in our cars, I don't have any pictures for you all which, at least for today, may be a good thing. We decided to meet up in Great Falls Park (NPS) to climb in Mather Gorge. Now, both of us knew that there was a chance of showers for the day. That, of course, did not stop us what so ever. Anyways, for those of you that have never been to GF Park, the climbing there is done on a hodge-podge of various igneous and metamorphic rock very close, if not right at, the banks of the Potomac River. Mather Gorge is a canyon about a mile or so long along the river down stream of Great Falls that has a lot of dihedrals some topping out at nearly 20 meters or so. We picked one of the more popular and taller climbs to screw around on. We decided to lead climb everything for the day so we wouldn't waste time setting up top rope anchors. The first couple climbs went great. We then moved our attention to a dihedral with a huge run-out/slab section. While leading it, as I went to place a hex for protection, my foot placement slipped and I started to fall. Luckily two things happened: 1) The hex caught the crack I was trying to place it in and held and 2) my pinky managed to find my way into the loop of the hex and held me from falling 15 to a couple dicey tri-cams placed below me. Unfortunately that luck came at a price of supporting my entire body weight on my pinky curled around the cable loop of a hex. I managed to flail a bit to find a foot hold and take my weight off my piece of protection (and off my pinky thank God!). My finger tip looked like a miniature ice-cream scoop. I managed to shake it off for a few minutes and attempt the run-out section again. As I did, an ominous looking thunderstorm began to approach pretty rapidly. I decided at this point to bail on this climb and climb one of the routes we had already conquered to get back to the top. Normally, you could walk a little ways to walk back up to the top but this option was 5 feet below a swollen, rain-flooded river pushing class V rapids. With climbing back up our only option we made sure to do it very quickly considering the thunder crashing around us was doing so more and more frequently. I made it to the top pretty fast and began belaying Shaw as she followed only to realize that a cam I had placed (an orange TCU) was way over cammed and Shaw was having a hell of a time trying to clean it. I waited patiently while Shaw insistently tried to fish it out of the crack that had imprisoned it (she had a decent reason for being so persistent considering that cam costs $50+). But as the thunder and lightening's separation between their occurrences shrunk from 5 seconds to 1 second, I began screaming "fuck it" a few times and prayed that someone from the Potomac Mountain Club, of which I'm a member, would fish it out later if I left the club a heads up. The worst of the storm hit as we were packing our gear and sprinting the mile back to the parking lot. While running through the monsoon like rain, we passed a news van that had managed to beach itself on the trail. Not thinking much about it, we made it to the parking lot, said our good-byes, and went our ways for the day. I got back only to find this video being talked about on the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club/Potomac Mountain Club (PATC/PMC respectively) discussion group . It turns out we missed this hilarious spectacle by a couple hundred feet! Not bad for my last bout of climbing before heading out west...


[note: these events happened on 22 April hence the time stamp for this post but in actuality I'm writing this on 26 April. Since then I have placed a post on the PMC Discussion Group explaining my predicament and pleading to anyone that happened to climb that climb and free my cam to return it in return for some non-monetary compensation for their troubles. Within 2 days I had a reply and a retrieved cam!]

20 April 2009

Sodom, South Georgia by Iron & Wine

I've been listening to this song very closely for about a month and half now trying to figure out it's meaning and its relation to my life. Today I was able to find a deeper meaning to this song which, for once, I'll keep private to myself for my own personal reflection.

Noe* I recommend that you listen to this song before judging it. If you just listen to the lyrics...it's going to sound very dark and depressing. If you listen to the song as well, hopefully, it will allow you to hear it as the beautiful song I hear it as....

Sodom, South Georgia
by Iron & Wine

Papa died smiling
Wide as the ring of a bell
Gone all star white
Small as a wish in a well
And Sodom, South Georgia
Woke like a tree full of bees
Buried in Christmas
Bows and a blanket of weeds

Papa died Sunday and I understood
All dead white boys say, "God is good"
White tongues hang out, "God is good"

Papa died while my
Girl Lady Edith was born
Both heads fell like
Eyes on a crack in the door
And Sodom, South Georgia
Slept on an acre of bones
Slept through Christmas
Slept like a bucket of snow

Papa died Sunday and I understood
All dead white boys say, "God is good"
White tongues hang out, "God is good"

3 Years

As customary for myself the past couple of years, I've usually spent my April's in a somber mood. This month is nothing different. Today in particular has been rough for me. Today is the anniversary of my father's death in 2006. As I have spent today packing and getting ready for the drive out to Utah in a few days, I've found myself distracted several times today...sometimes to the point where I couldn't focus on the simplest of tasks and activities. I've been thinking about the things I would love to talk to and show him. I've thought about the things I've been dying to ask him ever since he died. For this year in particular, I've been thinking about the extremes of life and death; primarily his death and Maleigha's (my daughter) birth. In a few days I'm going to see her which will be very rough. Every time I think about her or talk about her with her mother, I think of my dad.

Now, I describe this time as somber...not dark or depressing just somber. I look at the positive side of his death. Growing up and maturing out of necessity, becoming closer to my mother, doing things with my life I would have never thought possible...I thank God and him for all of those things. This day will come and go and my thoughts and feelings today will definitely ebb and flow but for the next 5 hours I'll definitely be thinking a lot about him and everything he's done for me.

18 April 2009

Last Night at the Firehouse

One of the hardest things for me to do every time I pick up a move is leaving the firehouse. It's amazing the relationships you bond with people in places and professions such as firefighting. It's part of the reason why I love the job so much. Tonight was my last night on duty before heading out west. The past month and a half I spent back home was pretty busy for me at the fire department. Between several fires, a few accidents and a lot of medical calls at night, there weren't many dull nights on duty while I was back. Most important, it was great to spend time with the many friends I have made over the years just by volunteering in a profession I love so dearly. Oh well, 4 months to go and I'll be back.

From AVFRD