Made it to Montana!

Put in about 550 miles today and arrived in the pitch dark of 6pm. Long stretches of the highway were covered with ice, but amazingly everyone drove just fine on it. We were all going 75 mph on ice around corners and stuff! Only once, going up a steep hill did I accelerate too fast and lose traction for a second. I guess there's going to be snow and ice in my life for the next few months... Now it's time to find a place, get my moto winterized, ski, move in, and start work!

Dispatch from Sheridan

Today I traversed most most of South Dakota and made it deep into Wyoming. The temperature was around 9 degrees Fahrenheit while the sun was out, but quickly dropped to zero and eventually -4. Despite the cold the roads are fine and there is no traffic. I-90 gained 4000 feet of elevation from S Dakota to here and my gas mileage went down to 10 MPG. Just S of here lies Cloud Peak, which is over 13,000 feet and I very much look forward to getting a look in the morning.

I tried to get a room in Gilette, WY but the hotels were all booked. A deskperson told me that the oil and gas industry is booming in Wyoming from Bush & Cheney's energy policy and Gilette is the nerve center for business right now. While on the road today I saw the Corn Palace, based on Andrew's recommendation (thanks Andrew) and it was very impressive. I was pleased to learn that Mitchell is a college town and has good espresso.

Thanksgiving with Mark Cannon

Happy Thanksgiving! After 3 days with my good friend Mark Cannon in Bloomington my stomach is twice as big, and I am healed from a headcold that hit me in Illinois. Mark and I went moutain biking on sweet, buttery singletrack, hiking and squeezing through a tight cave, and feasting for Thanksgiving at Mark's girlfriend's house and at John Yate's house. Yes indeed, fabulous times and wonderful people.

Now I am in Iowa City at a "Quality Inn" (misnomer). The plants and I are making good time on the open road. John's motorcycle trailer is perfect, though I'm only getting about 15 MPG on the rolling continental hills.

Goodbye DC...

Hee Haw! The start to the trip went well: I loaded up my sketchy storage pod one night and loaded up the Subaru and trailer on another night, after enjoying a fantastic happy hour with my wonderful colleagues (thanks everyone) and hitting a 5 am departure time to avoid traffic. I also repotted my 4 plants and they will be my company along the way...

How it all began...

I try to steer my way through life, while letting it go where it will. Sometimes I get bummed that I am not somewhere else doing something else with some person or another. But in the end I am utterly amazed by the people, places, and events that surround me wherever I end up. I surrender... Life is just way bigger than my conception of it, and I am such a fool wandering through it all. I know what I want and am trying to get there: those moments where everything fits and flows, in the sheer moment blown away by the magnitude of the situation. On a mountain, in a river, in conversation, savoring food and music, feeling connected with a person, or immersed in people. I want to take it all in and spread it all out. To give the world every last ounce of myself. Yet, what comes out is pretty rediculous sometimes. Ultimately I have no idea what really waits around the corner, or next year. I'll try to get somewhere specific without limiting myself to what my mind can make of the world, in this tiny fragment of time and slice of space. So, I just keep on truckin'...