I thought this as interesting. Between Telluride and Lasal Junction there are at least four automobile graveyards. All clearly out of service, mostly trucks. Guess when they died someone brought them home (these are mostly near little towns) then decided it wasn’t worth moving them ever again.
I dyed my hair green. It looked turquoise at first. Now it looks like a putting green on my head. Sweet
If I don’t already have plans to meet you and you’re going to be in any of these areas, get in touch!
April 8-18: Moab
April 19-23: backpacking, probably in Escalante
April 24-27: Flagstaff area
April 28: Joshua Tree
April 29: Claremont
May 1: Altadena
May 2-4: Claremont
May 6-7: Santa Monica
May 8-9: Port Hueneme
May 10-11: Santa Margarita Lake
May 12: Park City
May 15-June 18: Wind River Range (WY)
June 19: Park City
June 21: Stanford
If this works then expect more posts from the road. Below is hopefully a picture of a straight highway in the middle of nowhere (western Wyoming). My car misses Wyoming but we’re working through it.
Yesterday was my first day of unemployment, and to celebrate I decided to drive to Colorado to visit some friends in Boulder and my cousin in Montrose. So far my vacation’s been going great. I’m still alive and it’s been an adventure.
I can totally understand falling in love with wide open spaces, so I don’t feel I can be too upset about my car falling in love with Wyoming. Unfortunately I wanted to get to Boulder, so we had to part ways yesterday. My buddy Jordan Kunz was kind enough to pick me up the middle-of-nowhere town of Laramie where my car decided it wanted to hang out. A very friendly mechanice happened to come into work on Saturday after the also very friendly I-80 Towing tow-man called by the friendly AAA operator brought me and the Cabrio over to visit.
So the mechanic has my name and key and promised to have a chat with my car on Monday. I had to leave the car before Jordan came so I’m currently living off my “just enough to survive overnight” bag and the charity of others (e.g. for fresh socks and most other amenities of civilization like toothpaste and a razor). Here’s to hoping that the Cab’s fling with Wyoming is just a 3- or 4- night stand and not true love.
Two experiences from the past year really struck me, and I’m grateful to have this transition to give me time to think about them. One was playing with my 5-year-old cousin in her parents’ backyard. She had a T-ball stand (just a hollow plastic tube) in her kiddie pool and was submerging it and then pulling it out. She was amazed that every time she lifted it out, all the water in it drained through one end! Then she could put it up to her eye and see through it!
I was stunned. I’ve always thought I’m good at appreciating little things, but this kid kicked my butt. It’s been a long time since observing gravity has filled me with a sense of wonder.
Room for improvement…
The second thing was discussing arguments for vegetarianism with two friends from college during a roadtrip (courtesy The Omnivore’s Dilemma, which I’m seriously considering reading now). This was the first time I’ve thought critically about a moral issue since I started my job (other than very specific health benefits questions). That also stunned me.
Now that I have a transition and a pause, I think I need to plan a way to continue some reflection and self-critique during my next period of career-submersion — the next one may be a lot longer than 18 months.
I haven’t posted about long-term plans in about 6 months because I had to get things in order with my current employer before going public. Now I finally have.
On June 21 I start a 1-year Masters of Science degree at Stanford University in Management Science & Engineering. My job here is great and I love Park City, but for the next year there’s no place I’d rather be.
Before that, from May 15 - June 18, I will participate in an Mountain Instructor Course with the National Outdoor Leadership School. This will cause me to miss two of my friends’ weddings but, again, there’s no place I’d rather be.
I’m totally psyched about this next chapter…
I moved to Park City, UT almost exactly 18 months ago. I’d been here for three weeks before — enough to know that it’s the ideal combination of small mountain town and cosmopolitan interest. We beat the socks off of Aspen or Jackson for limiting our yuppieness (thank you Church of Latter-Day Saints for scaring off many of the wealthy would-be suburbanites) and we have much better bars, concert halls, and access to civilization (40min to CostCo) than Mammoth Lakes. So yeah, Park City rocks.
The part that Park City didn’t cover at all when I moved here was friends. Every time I’d log in to Facebook to keep track of people who didn’t live near me, isolation confronted me on every friend’s profile that showed “Salt Lake City (1)”, usually preceded by “Claremont (349)” or “New York (112)” or similar. “Yes, Tom,” said Facebook, “you’re the only fool known to you or any of your friends to be living in Utah. That (1) is You.”
When I moved here my plan was basically “Apply to grad school, work butt off for 9 months, snowboard, and leave for graduate school when the startup fails.” I reasoned that the unlimited outdoor and exercise stimulants available and the exciting and all-consuming work, combined with some trips to the West Coast would keep me pretty happy for 9 months. It really did, but my startup didn’t fail on schedule and now I’ve been here 18 months. The startup still hasn’t failed (quite the contrary) but I’m running out of time for grad school so I am leaving in one more month. The weird thing is, I have friends here. I’m not really sure when that happened or what I did to deserve it.
It’s pretty cool though.
