Why is Life so Delicious?

Sticking snow in Saint George? I didn't think so either. But we had a couple inches last night, and it was fun to watch the neighborhood kids playing in it, potentially for the first time. It sounds like it hasn't snowed like this in a decade.

We already had plans to go skiing today, but the forecast for snow and a huge storm passing through made the prospect all the more exciting. We left Saint George early in the morning and headed Northeast to Brian Head Resort. Saint George's elevation is a little under 3000 feet, and the base of the mountain is over 9000 feet, so we went up the entire way there. It was still snowing vigorously this morning and the interstate and back highways were blanketed in snow and ice. Days like today are what our Subaru was made for. I'm glad my parents kept it.



We got there this morning to find that there was still a massive blizzard going on and winds were too strong to go all the way to the top of the hill, so we messed around in bitter wind chill and blinding snow on the lower slopes for a while. It's rather difficult to ski/snowboard well when the lighting and visibility is such that you can't see the terrain you're going down.



I skied, Ian snowboarded. He's holding poles because I needed hands to take the picture.



Then they opened one lift to the top when the sky suddenly turned blue, and up we went. I realize that this picture doesn't look particularly blue-skyish, but just go with it.



The view from nearly 11000 feet is stunning, especially with all the surrounding terrain being several thousand feet lower.





The afternoon was all about finding powder. Growing up skiing in Alaska, the best we usually got was hard-pack, icy slopes. This was the complete opposite end of the spectrum, with over a foot of fresh powder in the last 24 hours. Some runs that hadn't been groomed yet this year were covered with 2-3 feet of nothing but powder. We had to learn a slightly different style of getting down the hill with all the fresh snow. Steep slopes became our friends, flatter slopes our enemies that liked to pull us under and bring us to a stop.



And of course with that learning curve comes a crash or two. It's the softest landing ever, but the downside is you have to dig yourself out of the hole you create just to get going again. I cracked up for a good 5 minutes as I watched Ian get unstuck from this one, only to start out goofy and miss the narrow packed trail before falling into powder again at slow speed.



I had two good crashes on the day. The first was when I somehow sunk in a ski tip going across several other people's tracks in deep powder. I face planted pretty nicely and was confused to find myself on my back. At least one somersault must have taken place. This was still during the stormy part of the morning, and I initially couldn't tell which way was up the hill and which way was down. Nor could I figure out where one of my skis went. I spent several minutes digging for it before finding it. Next time I'm selecting skier level III instead of II so they don't pop off so easily.

The other fabulous crash also involved losing a ski, but this one in a slightly more original manner. I was skiing in deep powder near the edge of a run and was noticing little 3-4 foot tall Pine trees sticking out of the snow. I was dodging them easily until one snuck up on me when it was too late to avoid. I figured I could glide right over it since only 3-4 inches were sticking above snow, but I wasn't thinking about the fact that my skis were actually below the surface a bit. The tree ripped my right ski off and I spent a few moments ragdolling down the slope in a most comfortable fashion.

All that skiing and crashing and getting unstuck was a nice way to burn off some energy.



Now off to some sort of exciting evening adventure, such as playing cards or watching a movie or working on a ridiculously hard puzzle where all of the pieces look the same (and there are 2000 of them). Seriously, someone must have felt particularly evil the day they decided the entire bottom third of the puzzle should be a bunch of fall-colored leaves.



Oh, and the post title? That was my brother talking about cereal this morning.

Snow Day!

We've got a good 3-4 inches of snow in Portland, with more potentially on the way and a week of freezing weather to go with it. Not that I haven't seen snow recently... and I suppose I am from Alaska, but it is still exciting since this much snow in Oregon is a rarity. We used the day to sit around drinking tea, eating homemade rolls, playing Hearts and Rummy, and I even prepped for my interview in the morning a bit.

It should be a lovely time tomorrow morning scurrying around trying to get to my interview. As it snowed today, the weather got colder and it transitioned from melting to freezing, which means there will be a nice layer of ice on everything tomorrow. I'm taking public transportation, which is probably more reliable than driving would be. Wish me luck. If nothing else, it'll be some good interview experience. Then it's off to Saint George, where the forecast is snow! I think there are already plans to go skiing when I get there.

Right Place, Right Time

The more time I spend in Portland, the more I feel like it would be a great place to call home in the near future.

I mean, how can you beat free Starbucks...



Unique Salvation Army Bell Ringers...





Friendly Chewbaccas (and cousins, for that matter)...



Frozen people (flash-mob style)...



(The pictures really don't do it justice, since it's basically taking a freeze-frame of frozen people)



Even the anti-Church of Scientology people joined in the fun.



Voodoo Donuts...



Saturday Market (which for some reason also happens on Sunday, in spite of the name)...



Tuba Christmas...



A dragon tuba?



Nike Town (both figuratively and literally)...



And we just went downtown to do some random Christmas shopping.

Top that off with some Thai food and Will Ferrell and you've got yourself a rather enjoyable day.

Notable Places Visited

Same as the sidebar column, only now in a post to save for future reference.

• Denver, CO December 11
• Boulder, CO December 10
• Albaquerque, NM December 9
• Las Vegas, NV December 3-8
• Bakersfield, CA December 2
• Redding, CA December 1
• Portland, OR December 1
• Seattle, WA Nov 25-30
• Eugene, OR Nov 23-24
• San Francisco, CA Nov 21-22
• Bakersfield, CA Nov 20
• St. George, UT Nov 19
• Flagstaff, AZ Nov 18
• Albaquerque, NM Nov 17
• Dallas, TX Nov 16
• San Antonio, TX Nov 12-16
• Eugene, OR Nov 6-11
• San Antonio, TX November 5
• Houston, TX November 4
• Birmingham, AL November 3
• Staunton, VA November 2
• New York, NY Oct 29 - Nov 1
• Morristown, NJ October 27-28
• Washington, DC October 21-26
• Pittsburgh, PA October 20
• Detroit, MI October 15-19
• Grand Haven, MI October 14
• Chicago, IL October 9-13
• Omaha, NE October 8
• Cheyenne, WY October 7
• Elko, NV October 6
• San Jose, CA October 1-5
• San Francisco CA September 26-30
• Reno, NV September 25
• Lincoln, NE September 23
• Philadelphia, PA September 16-21
• Baltimore, MD September 15
• Washington DC, September 9-14
• St. George, UT September 4-8
• Washington DC, September 2-3
• Virginia Beach, VA August 27-31
• Charleston, WV August 26
• Chicago, IL August 21-25
• Milwaukee, WI August 20
• Minneapolis, MN August 19
• Missoula, MT August 18
• Seattle/Bellevue, WA August 14-17
• Portland, OR August 11-13
• Eugene, OR August 8-10
• Bend, OR August 7-8
• Park City, UT August 3-6
• Copper, CO August 1-3
• Boulder, CO July 31
• Fort Collins, CO July 30
• Omaha, NE July 29
• Newark, NJ July 27
• Webster, MA July 27
• Worcester, MA July 25-26
• Boston, MA July 22-24
• Dedham, MA July 21
• New London/Mystic, CT July 21
• Mendham, NJ July 20
• New York, NY July 17-20
• Princeton, NJ July 16-17
• Allentown, PA July 15
• Jim Thorpe/Lehighton, PA July 15
• Toledo, Ohio July 14
• Pleasant Priarie, WI July 10-13
• Chicago, IL July 9-10
• Louisville, KY July 9
• Nashville, TN July 6 - 9
• Atlanta, GA July 1 - 6
• Portland OR June 30

Some things I've learned...

- Every hotel has HBO, but it's whether or not they have Comedy Central that makes the difference.

- Credit cards are anything but secure. Pretty much anyone can use anyone's card.

- Trucks carrying bees are not supposed to stop for gas during the day.

- You don't use the "J" key on your keyboard as much as you'd think.

- Parking large vehicles is a pain pretty much everywhere.

- Always listen to your instincts. You don't have to act on them, but it's usually a good idea.

- Finding new things to explore is much less about where you are, and much more the state of mind you're in.

- The distance between coasts becomes shorter each time you drive it.

- If you act like you're know what you're doing, people will rarely question you.

- A negative split is when you run faster as the race progresses. This is good.

- It's really easy to just talk to people.

- Someone needs to franchise Chop't nationwide RIGHT NOW.

- Asking everyone a question about something you already know the answer to is lame.

- College was a long time ago. Last month was a long time ago. Last event was a long time ago.

- Close friends only become closer when you have to travel to visit them.

- I want a mountain bike.

- The whole "East Coast mentality" isn't as pronounced as West Coasters make it seem.

- When driving a truck, reading every road sign is useful, if not absolutely necessary.

- The longer you travel, the less important "where" becomes.

- Keeping a blog can result in keeping sanity.

- It gets darker a full hour earlier on the eastern side of a time zone than it does on the western side of the same time zone. Duh.

- A job, a purpose, and financial security breeds self-confidence.

- I met a ton of people in college, but I got to know far too few of them.

- Happy is simply a state of mind. You don't need a reason to be happy.

- I shop for clothes like a girl.

- The iPhone is the most useful tool I've ever owned.

- Unless you like burning a hole in your wallet, 2.5 star hotels are as high a ranking as you'll ever really need. You go up to 3 stars and everything from food to internet costs extra.

- Avoid the 1 star hotels though.

- And the 5 star was pretty nice.

- Base part of your tip calculation on whether or not your server can keep up with the rate at which you consume water.

- Swimming is like other aerobic activities except you can't breathe very well.

- Running is actually kind of fun.

- I'm incredibly lucky to have found and gotten this job.

Statistics

In the past 5 months 11 days*,

- 35,000 miles driven
- 400 miles walked on foot
- 150 miles run
- 200 miles biked
- 1.5 miles swum
- 19 tour events worked
- 73 different stops along the way
- 56 cities visited
- 37 states visited
- 57.5 Million Subway Sandwich stops
- 18 thousand other fast food stops
- 9 times ate at Chop't
- 4 times ate at Yumm
- Total food spending: $3,200
- Total other bill spending: $0
- 15 different public transit systems utilized (DC Metro takes the cake)
- 139 blog posts
- 2000 camera phone pictures
- 900 SLR pictures
- 9 Apple stores visited
- 3 truck break-downs
- 50+ weigh station stops
- 4 truck inspection warnings
- 3 parking tickets
- 0 other tickets
- 0 accidents
- 4 arguments with union workers
- 17 near-arguments with union workers
- 42 hours spent sitting around waiting on union workers
- 50 tons lifted
- 1 back injury
- 1 times overslept
- 12 VIP areas entered
- 4 race entries comped
- 164 times realized that I had an awesome job

*Many figures are accurate. Many others are estimates. Still others are completely made up.

That's a Wrap

While this blog is not over, the tour officially is as of today. The events are done, the trucks delivered to Crocs in Boulder after a washing and detailing...



Final reports are in, exit interviews taken, expense reports ready to be sent... now all that's left is a night in Denver and a flight out to Portland tomorrow.

We dropped the trucks off at the Crocs truck graveyard, or at least what I was hoping would more resemble what I imagine a truck graveyard would be. I was thinking dark lighting, snow covered vehicles, and frowny faces on the trucks themselves. It would have been the perfect setting for the tagline "where good Crocs trucks go to die." Instead, this is what we got:



Way too sunny, not enough snow, and the trucks don't look very somber. Plus a bunch of the trucks aren't there right now. Oh well, it's what I've got to work with. Croc 1 and 2, I'll miss you both for your great views and good turning radii and stupid breakdowns. But not that much.

Tonight is the last hotel night, tomorrow the last day on per diem. I'm headed to Portland for a long weekend to see some family and friends and to ace a job interview, and then from there it's off to St. George for Christmas with the family - I still have a little while before I've officially been in the same location for more than a week for the first time since June.

There is still another tour-related blog post or two up my sleeve, but then this blog will certainly not cease to exist. It will be... something. I'm just not sure what yet. But never fear all you regular blog readers. You'll be getting a fresh dose of something. It may well even be more creative and interesting than my posts of late.

A project I plan to tackle is to re-read the entire blog (138 posts) this weekend. I expect it may take the better part of 4-5 hours. I wonder how many hours I've spent writing...