There and Gone Again

So I had actually been back to Princeton for about two weeks. But things were kind of busy. You know how it goes. You show up and your room is barren. Then you fill it up with everything in the car. And then you continue to fill it up when you take everything down from storage on top of the closet. Then is looks like a huge mess.

And when it comes to messes, a mess in my room is something that just grates on me until it gets taken care of. So, several days later, and zero blog updates later, the room got finished. Why don't I have a picture of the finished product? Because then classes started. And then I went to a wedding. And then I got back and got caught up with classes.

So my last post has me sitting by a small lake just north of Coos Bay Oregon. Let's see if I can give a few highlights as I crossed the country.


Oregon

I heart Oregon. And I heart Eugene. I was really shocked at how much I liked this city. Here's a shot of an inlet in southern Oregon, before I hit Coos Bay (home of Steve Prefontaine!).


I stayed with two friends, Mike and Megan in Eugene. They are awesome. If you ever meet a Mike and/or Megan, I will hold up these two as the standards against which you should measure your so-called "Mike" and "Megan" friends. We went around town. We visited an REI. We went to Hayward Field. We went on a hike at sunet that overlooked Eugene. Good times.



Washington

I drove up to Mount St. Helen's. Did you know it still smokes? That's because it is in an active cone building stage. I'm not kidding.


I took a hike out there, farther away from the volcano. Although it was miles away, there was old mining equipment on the trail that got pounded and mangled when Helen's exploded in 1980. This is me, farther away from Helen's, and without any mangled equipment in the shot. Am I wering the same shirt...again? Hmm. Life on the road will do that.


I stopped in Chehalis, Washington and rolled by Adam's house (THE GUS THACKER HOME!) and saw him and Sarah. They are going to get married. Notice that while Adam and Sarah are great, I still got a shot of them WITH the Gus Thacker plaque. It deserved to be in the shot.


I then settled in Seattle where I visited two more friends from camp: Tiffany (aka Rainbow) and her boyfriend Kyle. I was an idiot, however, and forgot to get a picture. Sad. But here's a picture of the Space Needle. It does not look like Rainbow or Kyle. But it is in Seattle.



Nick and Wyoming

I went to Boise and picked up Nick. It turns out that I didn't take a single picure in Boise. It was great to ride the bike, meet some of Nick's buddies, and just rest for a day. I do, however, have this flattering picture of Nick sleeping in the car while I drive. Mouth hanging open.


We stopped in Jackson, Wyoming:


And while we were there Nick ate this:

It's bread. And tuna. And mustard.
Gross.

But we eventually made our way to the Tetons...

And to Yellowstone...

(That is not the most exciting pic in Yellowstone, but Old Faithful is a classic, and I just really like the picture. How rugged does Nick look there? Like a rancher. Like a weathered rancher.)

So, after spending the night in Cody (also a great town) we were off to Devil's Rock.



South Dakota

South Dakota is not the most exciting state. We didn't stop at Mt. Rushmore as I had already seen it and frankly, I was not all that impressed... and we had bigger fish to fry. Like Wall Drug.


And then there were the Badlands (most wind ever).




Minnesota

From there we went to a little nook in southeastern Minnesota. Nick found a good lead on a decent bikepath. It was just what the doctor ordered after days of driving. Decent weather. A great bike path. A 30 mile ride that gave us a fairly good sampling of the trail. We started in Preston, MN. Beautiful area.


And Nick got a bug in his eye. It was gross and funny. It was grunny.


But he recovered and demonstrated his biking skills. Hoss.


Wisconsin and Ohio

From there it was off to Madison. We walked around, we had a boot of beer, I ate a great Wisconsin brat.


The next stop was Oxford, Ohio. Home of Miami of Ohio. Pete works in a lab there so we dropped in. We went out for a great night on the town. I won't get into the details. But, suffice to say that we visited some of the coolest places in Oxford. Drinks were had. Shots in a convenience store were had. Food was eaten off of the sidewalk. And some people got in random cars that were sitting around.



Pennsylvania

From there it was off to central Pennsylvania to visit Jim, another friend from college. Jim is getting a PhD in biogeochemisry. He's, like, smart and stuff. We went around the campus and just hung out.


Nick got to pose with Joe Paterno (statue, not the actual guy). Look at those glasses! Apparently the original ones were not really attached very well and got stolen. So those are the replacements.


We also got to take a ride on the Nittany Lion. I think we might be doing some kind of Penn State blasphemy, seeing as how neither of us are alumni or students there.


Princeton

Then, at long last, we got back to campus. We got back and we emptied the car, which had been full of stuff for about 3 weeks. It had been full for long enough that it looked odd for it to be empty.


The room, on the other hand was empty and looked odd to have stuff in it. I think I'm still straightening stuff out.


So now I'm here. Classes are in full swing. And now, a new year begins. A year on the other coast. 9 months on the other coast. But I'll get back to The Coast soon enough. I'll return....