Mt Garfield Hike

That is an 18.9% average grade, 'nuff said. Mount Garfield is the most distinct 'peak' of the bookcliff range of mesas north of town.

That's Mt. Garfield waaay up there, above the beautiful CRV. Another beautiful day to be outside, it was in the 80's during the hike. I need more sunscreen though.

This is the first plateau you come to after scrambling up the steep debris fields and boulders at the base of the mesa. There are wild horses roaming around up here somewhere. No, I do not know how they got there, where they go, what they eat, or anything else. I just know they're there (watch out for poop).

Looking east from above the first plateau. If you look to the left, you can see the parking lot and if you zoom in you can even sorta see the car. You can also see the vineyards of Clifton and Palisade in the picture and one of the irrigation canals that runs near I-70.

Downtown GJ from the top. The land to the right is managed by the Bureau of Land Management. It looks like sand but is really a very hard packed adobe soil.

Looking west toward Fruita. See, we really do live in the desert. Its just a really nice area of the desert.


It took me 2 hours to get to the top and about 40 minutes to get down. Now if I can get Kelly to come along next time...

Sunday!!

This morning we got up at 6am for hike in Rough Canyon. It was a cool 50 something degrees at the top of the Mesa where our hike started, about 15 minutes out of town.

We hiked down a dry creek bed and back up for about an hour and got to watch the sun come up through the canyon.

For lunch we hit up the Wrigley Field sports bar then went to my new place and hung out and put together a futon.

We finished up with some Chinese food and watching the Bungles lose their first game of the year, its only pre-season though...

We made it!!!!!!!!!!!!

We’re home! We have finally arrived in Grand Junction, CO. It was no easy trip, however.

It began when the movers never showed up Tuesday morning. Wonderful, huh? So we quickly (and VERY fortunately) found new movers who promised to get everything done that day. However, they did not show up until 5 pm. Five hours later, they were still loading up the truck. Will and I passed the time sitting on his old front porch (his house keys already turned in) with a citronella candle lit and a blanket layed out. We enjoyed Cloudy with a Chance on the ipad and waited to make our way to Colorado. When the movers were finally almost finished and the house was fairly clean, we left them a key to lock up and climbed in the car and started our 1900 mile drive! We drove until about 11 pm before stopping for the night. Ridley was exhausted...

Before the sun rose the next morning, we climbed in the car, (Will quipped with coffee) and began our lo-ong day of driving! We made our way up past Spartanburg, past Asheville, through Knoxville, right past downtown Nashville, to St. Louis, and through Kansas City, to Topeka, and into Salina, KS where we finally stopped for the night (after 18 hours of driving).

Then, we woke up at sun rise and worked our way to the great state of Colorado and through Denver and onto GRAND JUNCTION!!! (More pictures of our drive and stops along the way to come!)

29 driving hours later we are here and ready to find homes before the moving truck arrives early next week! Can’t wait to share our adventures!

Close but no cigar...

So Sunday and Monday were interesting. It all began Sunday leaving Baltimore and heading towards Richmond to meet Will’s family for a DELICIOUS lunch of hamburgers, mashed potatoes, and green beans, and then heading back to Columbia. Total hours spent in the car: 9 hours. And this was just a warm-up for the driving we’ll be doing this week. But we finally had our kitty, Ridley, back in the car with us (she’d been with Will’s fam for 4 weeks -THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to them] But the drive went smooth and we safely made it back into Columbia around 10 pm. Only to find our house was infested with some fleas. Honestly, we pretty much expected it because it had been an issue before. But still a bummer. Soo we made our way on over to Will’s to sleep there. Only to find the power turned off and the house at about 100 degrees. Blah. So at this point my parents kindly recommended getting a hotel room, but we weren’t exactly up for that either. Especially with Ridley in tow. Sneaking a cat into a hotel or finding a cat friendly hotel… All three of our options (fleas, pitch black heat, and random hotel at 11 pm) did not sound appeasing. We went with the fleas. Fortunately Ridley had her flea repelling meds and she was able to kill off any fleas that were around. Thank you Ridley!

We woke up bright and early (flea-less mind you!) the next morning and began packing in anticipation for the packers to come pack up the house. They were supposed to be there at 9 am. 9 am came and went. So did 10 am… an hour later they were still nowhere to be seen and we finally learned there was a miscommunication. They would not show up to pack AND move us until Tuesday morning. I’m not sure if they understand how much crap we have…

Anywho. Our day changed drastically. We ended up cleaning, moving, packing more, taking lots of stuff to Goodwill, and moving Will’s mattresses over to my house. Thank goodness for our new car. We looked uber ghetto moving the mattresses 4 blocks down the street. Then we finished the night off with dinner with some Hawley-ites at Rockaways.



Tomorrow hopefully brings movers and packing and leaving for Colorado!!! (We are leaving no matter what)

Wedding Weekend

Congratulations to Matt and Dori who were married Saturday, July 31st at 7:00 pm in Baltimore, MD!

We arrived in Baltimore Friday afternoon and quickly realized this was no ordinary weekend in Baltimore. This was the weekend of the Anime convention in Baltimore. The second largest conv (as the anime-ans referred to it as) next to the one in LA. And boy did they show up. Some of the highlights include a man dressed as a cow, a man dressed entirely as a ninja, face mask included, and my personal favorite, the woman covered in fake blood carrying around a grenade launcher by a lovely fountain near Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. The ceremony and reception were in the Radisson’s Lord Baltimore hotel, which provided prime people watching for those of us not participating in the wedding.

Friday night was spent wedding rehearsing and at the rehearsal dinner at Rusty Scupper overlooking the Inner Harbour! After dinner, Krissy, another girlfriend of one of the groomsmen, and I hit the town, exploring the city a little. We were able to find a couple eclectic bars, including one Brew Pub where we bought some beer (see picture below) to take back and share with the boys. We have yet to try it, but we’ll let you know how it is. It was my first time in Baltimore but it seemed like a really pretty and fun city with a lot to do and I greatly enjoyed my time exploring the city.

Saturday morning was again spent exploring. We checked out some of the stores by the Inner Harbour, did some anime-an watching, and had lunch at Uno’s overlooking the water! After lunch a nap was a must, followed by getting ready for the wedding. Will, the rest of the groomsmen and the groom, spent their afternoon standing around, talking, and making their faces hurt from smiling for all the pictures. Will looked very James Bond- esque in his spiffy tux.

The ceremony was beautiful and the reception was a blast. Will entered the reception doing the classic dance move, the sprinkler, and then we spent the night dancing to “I Gotta Feeling”, “Your Love”,”Wagon Wheel”, “Piano Man” and other wedding classics. All in all, a wonderful weekend and a perfect way to end our month of travel. Best wishes to the bride and groom!

Catching up on July...

This week begins our trip out west to our new home, Grand Junction, CO. The movers arrive bright and early Tuesday morning to load up the truck and head out. Neither of us have a place to live yet, but hopefully we will be able to find one before the movers join us in the Centennial State! The past 4 weeks have been pretty amazing, lazy, and fun!

Four weeks ago I spent in Italy with my little brother, Matt. We were able to visit Rome, Riomaggiore, and Florence in a week’s time. It was a great trip. Some of the highlights include seeing the Coliseum, taking the train using our Euro-Passes (ridiculously awesome), seeing the Mediterranean, naked David, briefly stopping in Pisa for the classic picture and watching some of the world cup matches in Europe, where we learned first hand that Netherlands girls are both gorgeous and don’t mess around when it comes to their futbol!

The coast of Riomaggiore...

Will was able to make some hard earned money during this time, working around the house in Richmond. He was able to catch up on the Tour, some World Cup matches, and kick it with Nate, his bestie.

Once I arrived back in the states, Will and I made our way to DC to watch the World Cup Final match with his friend Matt and Matt’s fiancé Dori! Bummer loss for the Netherlands, (especially since we were stuck wearing our recently purchased Netherland’s jerseys all around DC) but we still had a good time and Matt and Will enjoyed icing each other and racing to finish a Smirnoff 6 pack.

From DC we quickly transitioned to beach mode and worked our way down to Topsail Beach in NC to spend the week with his fam… all 23 of them! We spent the week doing all sorts of beach stuff. Like taking walks, watching the Tour, eating oysters, playing bocci ball, volleyball, booggey boarding, and hot tubbing! It was a rough week.

(Will on right)

From Topsail, we moved up north to Corolla in the Outerbanks where we met some of our college friends for a week of shenanigans. This week was a little more hectic than the first, with pretty much the same mentality of doing nothing, but with a little more alcohol and going out. It was great to pack a cooler, walk down to the beach, and hang out all day with friends we hadn’t seen in a year.

Our final week was again spent in the Outerbanks, just a little South of Corolla, in Nags Head, where we met my family for our final week at the beach. Due to the extreme heat, we took to moving our chairs to the edge of the water and re-applying sunscreen vs sitting under the tent. Coronas were a must to keep us properly hydrated. One day the boys went an hour out to The Point (the edge of the Continental Shelf where water depth drops from 300 and 5,000+ feet) to do a little deep sea fishing on our boat Sore Subject. Unfortunately, no fish were caught and so they spent the day cruising around, drinking beer, and watching Anchorman and Out Cold on the boat.

Now that the month of beaches has come to an end, we are on our way to celebrate our friends, Matt and Dori, getting married this weekend in Baltimore, MD!

How do you say meow in Italian?

Waiting for the train in Riomaggiore...

Hiding in Pisa...

Napping in the Colliseum (see bottome right-hand corner)...