If you go west...

Seemingly it takes me three weeks to post about events. So...hot..outside. I'll blame it on that.
One of my buddies who lives in Seattle popped over for a weekend visit. Hijinks were minimal, but we did get over to the Cascades for some hiking. I present to you some more northwest eye candy:

Snow again! Sammy was pumped. Of course he rolled around in it.

The destination was a small lake. Too cold for swimming--I wish I could say the same about the Tri-Cities....

If you go east...

Look, I don't want to be all doom and gloom. Washington has some kick-ass geography. Earlier last month, we decided to head east, away from the Cascade mountain range and into the Blue Mountains. We picked out a route in the Umatilla National Forest, packed some supplies and headed out.

After about 90 minutes of driving on your standard issue paved highways, we turned off onto this.

Unsealed goodness.

We passed a few farmhouses. I wondered how many people they saw drive by in a day. I'd guess 0-2 would be average.

Plenty of farmland.

OK, getting into some forest now.

We went for about 30 miles on dirt roads. There's something perversely satisfying about the crunch of gravel and dirt underneath the car tires (or is that just me?).

Sammy donned a safety vest so that no one would mistake him for a wild animal.

Every time we ran across some snow, he felt the need to rub himself around on it. Who knows...

The crux of the trail was a fire lookout on 'Oregon Butte' (located in Washington, for those of you at home keeping score). It was unmanned--must not be a fire hazard time of year, or maybe the rangers were the victims of budget cutbacks. I think manning a fire lookout sounds like such a fantastic job, but it's probably one of those that seems awesome for about the first week until you realize you're bored out of your mind. But man, that one fire that happens every couple years or so would be the highlight of your career.

But you can't argue with the view!

The Graduate

I've been somewhat drifting since graduation.

"Hello darkness, my old friend"

I haven't been able to motivate myself to write anything recently. I don't like posts that have a pity-party pouty tone, but I haven't been able to muster something that doesn't fall in that category.

I want to tell you about the fun stuff that we've been doing. The visitors we've had, the 70s swinger pad where we live, and how interesting the area is. I even have a finished object to share. But the cold hard truth is that I'm unhappy in my job so far and I'm very depressed. It colors everything I do and it's getting increasingly hard to hold it together. But I'm going to try, and this is my first stab at getting back to normal.

Arrival + Moving cross country days 4 and 5

So as you can imagine, I've been pretty busy. Moving 2K miles across the country, starting a new job and such. I keep telling myself I need to write some posts, and then saying I'll do it tomorrow, then repeat. The short story is we've gotten all moved into our rental house (that has a pool! we're working on getting it opened for the season now), and I've had a full week of work. Mostly orientation and training as you might imagine, so pretty boring so far.

We've been exploring the area already, and...it's surprisingly pretty sweet. It's not full on desert and there is plentiful beautiful dry weather fauna, and there are a lot of rolling hills (foothills to the Cascades I suppose?). Also, WINE EVERYWHERE and lots of it. Columbia Valley vineyards, yo.

But first I need to take you back to our drive through Montana which was both gorgeous and yarnalicious. I'm very happy to be living Montana adjacent. Our fourth day of travel was spent in Bozeman, MT. They had recently had a snowstorm so we stopped by the Bridger Bowl ski area. The lifts weren't open but Sammy had a good time.

Bozeman supported not one but two yarn shops within a block of each other downtown. The first was called something incredibly generic like "The Yarn Shop" I think. I picked up some Thirteen Mile Lamb and Wool yarn, which is from a farm in southwestern Montana. They produce a lot of products including lamb and beef, yarn, sweaters, hats and all kinds of other wool items. One thing on their tag caught my eye, 'Predator Friendly: Native carnivores pose real risks to sheep ranchers but they are also part of what makes this landscape special and functional. We have made a commitment to use only non-lethal methods to protect our livestock from predators.' This has been a constant debate in Wisconsin among farmers (and I assume in Montana), and it's nice to know that some people are committed to the idea that we have to share our land.  

What should I become?

The second place we visited was called Stix, and had a little more of a funky feel. It was situated in the basement of a building, but the stairway was clearly marked.

They carried a lot of common brands as well as a few unusual ones, including the Bay Area "A Verb for Keeping Warm". The clerk said they are one of 6 vendors in the US that carry the line. The entire time I was in Berkeley I kept trying to get spinning classes arranged there, but it never worked out. I wasn't even tempted to buy any of the yarn though, shit is EXPENSIVE. Instead I went for more local Montana fare, Western Sky Knits. I think it needs to become a big fluffy hat with a poof ball on top.

 

Day five we spent in Missoula, MT, and it was another surprisingly fun town. Loopy Knit/Crochet was my yarn destination this time. If this was my local yarn shop, I don't think I'd ever have to order anything online.

They had an extensive selection of Noro yarns, which I had never seen in person but I know some people go wild for. I have to say, I don't get the love. The colors were...OK, I guess, but the quality of the yarn seemed just awful to me. Maybe the fibers are dusted with crack. I went for Mountain Colors, from Corvallis, MT. I don't think they actually produce the wool there, they just do the dyeing. Local? Still counts.

It's sock yarn, but I don't know if I want socks from it.

Moving cross country, day 3

When we were starting to plan our drive to Washington from Wisconsin, I held a strong opinion on only one subject: I wanted to see Mount Rushmore. I feel like every other kid has had a pilgrimage to Rushmore (usually in the form of a an excruciating road trip crammed into the back of a station wagon), but I've never seen it.

When the metaphorical shit hit fan in regards to getting our move on, the copilot was hot on the idea of trying to get back on our original schedule. Which meant driving for 12 hours and skipping Mount Rushmore. My only ambition for the trip. I put a Mount Rushmore foot down (which is a huge granite presidential foot, of course).

Aaaand BOOYAH! Trip = total unqualified success, everyone go home now. And on Memorial Day no less, very apropos.

Apparently the original plan was to sculpt all of them down to the waist, which would have been at least twice the work of what was actually completed. But the $$ ran out, and what they ended up with is still awe inspiring.

I was feeling a little sad over breakfast about, you know, the whole major life change thing happening. My copilot thought it over. "Would it make you feel better if I took a picture of you where it looked like you were picking George Washington's nose?"

Why yes, yes it would.

On a little bit of a whim, we also went to see the (mostly unfinished) mountain sculpture of Crazy Horse. An absurdly ambitious endeavor that's been in progress since 1948, if it's ever finished (and that's a big if) it will be the largest sculpture in existence. All the heads of Mt Rushmore combined are the size of the Crazy Horse head. We were dubious that it would be worth the price of admission, but a couple minutes after we arrived they blasted a section of the rock with dynamite. Blowing stuff up real good is a quintessential part of the American experience.

Crazy Horseing - the new Tebowing?

On to Bozeman, MT.

Moving cross country, day 2

What to do after getting such a late start? Take it easy. After much debate we decided to mostly just push our schedule back a day and add in a trip to the Badlands National Park.

The National Park system is probably the greatest thing about the US (free speech is OK too. And actually the interstate highway system is coming in pretty handy right now). After my trip to Yellowstone I was fully convinced of the bitchin' nature of the parks. The copilot required some evidence.

Here we go!

The infallible Wikipedia describes the Badlands:

Badlands National Park, in southwest South Dakota, United States preserves 242,756 acres of sharply eroded buttes, pinnacles, and spires blended with the largest protected mixed grass prairie in the United States. Heh heh...they said butte.

These wild rock formations just kept going.

Someone did not enjoy being left in the car.

We ventured onto an unsealed (dirt) road, and more wildlife appeared. Prairie dogs were seemingly everywhere.

Bison X-ing.

"OMG what is that?!"

The Subaru is pretty fun to drive in the dirt, it has the spirit of a kid playing in a mud puddle.

Is it going to be like this all the way to Washington? Sweet!

On to Rapid City to rest for the night.

Last night in Madison - REDUX

Oh. My. Well, that couldn't have gone much worse. I guess the apartment building could have caught fire or maybe some sort of alien invasion, but barring that...first our movers decided at the last minute they only needed Friday to pack and load all of our stuff instead of Thurs. and Fri. Then their truck breaks down and they don't show up until 1 PM on Friday instead of 9 AM. Next we get assurances that they can get done by 8 PM....then maybe 10 PM...then when ten o'clock rolls around and they aren't even close (we've lost our money for our first hotel reservation by this point, of course) they claim they can be done by 9 AM the next day. So naturally, they wrapped everything up by about 1 PM on Saturday and we lost the $$ for our second hotel reservation that we could have made it to if we'd gotten to leave in the morning. Apparently my future employer is as bad at hiring a good moving company as they are at hiring good employees *rimshot*.

I had to vacate the premises on several occasions due to suffering from Barely Concealed Rage Syndrome (BCRS). Sammy didn't seem to mind any of the ruckus and enjoyed nesting in the packing materials.

So it turns out we spent one more night in Madison. On our mattress. On the floor. With all of our toiletries, bedding, and generally useful shit packed away. I groaned when I saw the blanket the copilot dredged up. It was one of the first things that I ever knitted and it is TERRIBLE. I had successfully forgotten it existed. It's all uneven and has mysterious holes everywhere. I didn't know about things like, you know, gauge, or reading patterns, or purling. The thing is probably 5 ft. x 10 ft. (I had no idea it was 10 ft. until it came off the needles...surprise!), which is practical for a really skinny tall person, I guess. It's made with this cheapo yarn I bought at Wal-Mart, the fibers of which seem to get sucked into your lungs and stick if you breathe around it for too long. I hope it isn't carcinogenic.

From the dark days of my knitting history. Pro tip: Don't choose a blanket for one of your first knitting projects.

A good friend suggested we visit the zoo one last time to help ease my BCRS on Friday. My favorite guys were out and about. 

On Saturday I thought this place might help.

Why the hell not?

I grabbed some dust rose colored Malabrigo superwash sock yarn. I didn't take any pictures because a) it got squirreled away in the packing and b) the yarn clerk lady offered to wind it at the store and did a hilariously awful job. It currently looks like a big tangle. Yarn clerk lady was mortified and by that point I was like, "Eh...it's just that kind of day. Put it in the bag."
 
We've made it 7 hours to Sioux Falls, SD (original goal was Rapid City, SD, another 5 hours). Travel plans and hotels have been shuffled and we're a day behind. Who knows where we'll be next?