September 2010 Archives

It's Wednesday morning, and I'm up writing this blog at my Aunt Debbie's house in Titusville, PA.  I just met Debbie and her husband Steve and two of their three kids, Greg and Dan yesterday afternoon for the first time.  Debbie is one of Daddy Joe's siblings and before 2006, they had not seen each other in 35 years.  They've made a point to stay in touch since then though. Debbie and Steve were actually down in SC about a week after i left in april so i just missed them but luckily got to make up for it on this trip home.  I told y'all the vegetarian inside me went on vacation, and for sure because i had three helpings of homemade lasagna last night and loved every bite of it.  I thought i gained some weight in yellowstone--nothing in comparison to what i've gained on the trip home!  tme for a fitness regimen which i would like to start as soon as i get home if shane benfield would bother to call me back!!!  before supper we hung out on the front porch in absolutely perfect weather and we have had such a blast here, the most relaxingand fun time of the trip so far!  My Daddy Joe and I have had a decent trip for the most part--in spite of a few incidents that could have put quite a damper on things had we not laughed about them...

upon leaving sturgis, south dakota, we stopped off at mt rushmore, the ongoing project that will probably never be finished known as the crazy horse memorial, and we drove though custer state park to get back to the interstate.  this put us about three hours behind schedule and to our dismay, we figured out there was not a cracker barrel in SD until sioux falls. while SD is an awesome state in the western portion, it gets increasingly less awesome as you drive east on 90 with cracker barrel being your light at the end of this dark tunnel--until you figure out you have to change interstates and drive 15 miles out of your way to get to it.  the alternate plan involves a truck top called schmooter's that is all at once a casino, a bar, AND a restaurant.  we ate some chili and country fried steak, drank a beer, and headed on down the road.  somehow we failed to realize we had a headlight out  but a nice cop in minnesota pulled us over to let us know and to pull me out of the car to ask me why my car smells like a headshop.  well, officer, why do YOU know what a headshop smells like?  naw, but i showed him my pilot's license which convinced him i'm drug free and proud AND the other cop who had come as back up (i mean, Beppo and I ARE srsly intimidating--srsly) goes and asks beppo what we are doing...somehow, miraculously, don't know how, but our stories MATCH UP, cuz gah, stupid minnesota cops with nothing better to do than harrass hippies and old men, we're telling the truth (well, except for the fact i have weapons in my car, i did lie about that cuz that's just really none of their business, IMHO).  so i hate minnesota because of this ordeal and because, well, there just isn't much to see, not from 90 at least...my friend tim fast lives there and i really don't know why.  sorry, tim, move permanently to the south, man.  so we got off the road asap after that close encounter.  we went and got a new headlamp monday morning which was sort of an ordeal...anyway, didn't get on the road until 9am which was gonna put us in chicago much later than the noon time we were shooting for.  lindsey naively recommended that we have the car and trailer valet parked. first of all we hit chi-town in rush hour.  one of the traffic enforcement officers would not even give me 15 seconds to grab a valet, she said she would write me a ticket so i decided to pull into a parking deck...daddy joe's sphincter tightened when we got into downtown (or uptown, whatever) traffic and absolutely got tied in a knot when i drove into the parking deck with the uhaul trailer.  all i could do was laugh, and by laugh i mean, riotously...and at the same time try to drive this land cruiser with this baby of a trailer attached to us by its metallic umbilical cord.  well, needless to say, it cost us six bucks to ride around in the parking deck.  so we did a drive-by visit where linds jumped in the car as beppo jumped out and we rode around the block exchanging circes and beppo jumped back in and we hauled ass and got out of chicago like it was on fire...again.  daddy joe has absolutely no desire to return to the midwest after cops in minnesota, dowtown chicago madness, traffic on 90, having to ask for keys to bathrooms, toll roads, and no beer at gas stations. he will not even return for wisconsin cheese curds.  i will go back to wisconsin (if i need to) and i will go back to chicago (to visit) but the majority of the midwest to me is undesirable.  driving into chicago, all i could think is, "why does my friend like living here?" skyscrapers are no substitute for mountains, and i have been spoiled rotten the last few months, constantly surrounded by some of the most beautiful scenery in the country.  we got 90% of the way across indiana before pulling off and coincidentally ending up in sturgis again...sturgis, michigan.  two sturgises, one trip, HA.  we had to plop down at applebee's because there just wasn't much else but it turned ut alright. cedric webb was our bartender and he made the worries of the day melt away with every adult beverage he served us.  cedric is interested in moving out west. i recommended bozeman of course, i recommend bozeman to everyone, it's awesome.  we stayed across the street so we didn't have to drink and drive.  awesome end to a hectic day! 

 

so, friday night was my last in bozeman for a while, stayed at my favorite place--the Lewis and Clark (if you ever go to the Bozone, you MUST stay at the LandC!!!) the love affair between bozeman and me (yep, correct english, there are exceptions to the rule) is over but no worries, we're still friends, LOVE that town, always will, BUT i'm now IN LOVE with Seward, Alaska, and absolutely cannot wait to get there!  Daddy Joe and I cut out around 11am, after trying to fly (weather wasn't good enough) and then getting the folks at the yellowstone harley dealership to strap the bike down. we stopped at the little big horn battlefield near the crow reservation and at devil's tower right before sundown.  both were worth the time and distance out of the way, for sure.  we ended up in sturgis for the night.  we stopped for some brews abd food at rosco'z and then went to the days inn which is located right beside a casino den known as poker alice's...i asked the front desk if there was a bar in the casino and she said there was, complete with dollar beers...well, when we walked in, it was all video gaming with a ady who would give you beer out of a fridge for a buck, which really doesn't fit my definition of a bar, but daddy joe and i drank a couple of beers and wasted a few bucks on video poker in the process. we are fixin to head out of sturgis as soon as my clothes are done drying--you can wash and dry your clothes here for a buck! 

ok, so in alaska a german dude with dreads showed me how to dump the waste water on the rv the first time i had to do it...his dreads were nice and mine just turned a year old today and he said i wouldn't believe the difference between year one and two.  they've come along way since i left home but i'm ready for them to be mature--all in good time, i reckon...

On thursday before leaving seward we stopped off at the alaska sea life center where we saw all kinds of animals, up close and personal and i bought katie a surviving alaska book; then, coming out of seward, we stopped off at exit glacier, and i picked up rockwell kent's book from his time on the peninsula back in the day. Simon and Seaforts's was Mark Shipham's recommendation for supper in Anchorage so we went there on our last night and it was wonderful.  An awesome lady name Faith was like the millie hagins of alaska and treated us very well while we were there. amazing food, ambience, staff, etc... on our plane ride b/w seattle and bozeman, they gave beer away...we were not in first class--that's the first time i've ever experienced FREE BEER anywhere but especially on a plane where normally it is way overpriced.  t was only one kidn though--mactarnahan's amber out of portland. 

i'm too tired to write about last night and today...

i am so lucky to be able to have the adventures that i do...i have had the time of my life this summer, doing a lot of things in a few months that most people do not get to do in a lifetime.  I am thankful for all of my opportunities and hope i haven't squandered a single moment.  we are fixin to head out of anchorage, daddy joe is headed to bozeman with me to ride along on my way back to south carolina, and mama and grandma fred are flying back to charlotte. 

 

we left seward yesterday and i would be really upset about it except for the fact that i am moving there in march of 2011.  it is the most beautiful place i have ever seen!  Alaska>Montana  and montana is pretty freakin awesome!  really, the only thing on my mind right now is getting the heck home.  yeah, i will be there a short while before i am ready to head out again BUT i really wanna be home and recharge and see all the awesome york county folks that are my family and friends. i hope y'all are ready to ride bicycles, motorcycles, play tennis, go hiking, drink some SC beers, go tailgatin, and get a lot of bear hugs from me cuz i am on my way, and if i love you, i might tackle you when i see you!!!   

Look, not to pick on Wasilla, BUT Sarah Palin does hail from there AND on the way back to Anchorage I couldn't help noticing the tattoo parlor on the left hand side of the hwy when you're headed south on 3 that will never get my business--ARTIC tattoos.  WHY will they never get my business, do you ask? Because if they can't spell ARCTIC correctly when they live in the ARCTIC, then I'm not trusting them to write anything on my body in permanence!

 

Yesterday (wednesday) I went to the Breeze Inn for breakfast and coffee.  YESTERDAY i also thought that the tourist strip main drag was the downtown of seward.  WRONG! i will get to that in a bit, but yesterday at the breeze inn, a nice irish lady waited on me and i had a pile of biscuits and gravy.  I'm job scouting while on this vacation and the five hour Resurrection Bay tour was a good start because i met local water taxi owner Matt Cline who had some helpful information about the area in general and then on the boat, i met seasonal employee Lisa from colorado who spoke highly of her company major marine tours.  This is her second season running tours out of resurrection bay and she was genuinely happy with her job which speaks volumes.  She said the pay was good but that better pay was with the fishing charters, which makes sense, and i'm not opposed to cleaning fish for folks who have an affinity for fishing.  daddy joe mentioned smokey the bear on the tour yesterday which made me remember when erin, susan, and chris visited me this summer and i think i said this out loud to them but i'm not certain:  dan savage hates when commercials/tv/movies show mythical creatures because it creates an unrealizable fetish in the minds of folks that he then has to deal with.  you KNOW that tons of people fetishized smokey the bear when he came about, just sayin'...i know i thought it, just can't remember if i said it.  so our ranger tour guide on the boat yesterday summed up why seward is so attractive:  it has the ocean AND mile-high moutnains surrounding it which makes the age-old debate about the mountains or the beach obsolete, best of both worlds here!  oh, gah, and get this, in the 60sm the government was trying to get folks out to the kenai peninsula so they were doing a land lottery where if your name was drawn you got a five acre parcel for the cost of the land survey--HOLY S***!!!  we got back to the dock around 5pm--none of us were hungry because we were fed on the boat.  i struck out to the seward alehouse that lisa had mentioned which gets us to the REAL downtown of Seward.  i met the owner of the alehouse saul, who told me a bit about the town, made me fall in love with it more!  and i met a visitor greg from wisconsin. he was trying to meet up with a friend that he presumed to be stuck on the aleutian islands due to weather.  greg showed me where a waterfall called the blow hole is right down the street from the alehouse.  the alehouse has all kinds of local draft beer of which i tried four kinds. greg bought me a beer while i was there--cheers, greg, hopefully run into ya again in seward sometime!   everyone was super nice and i cannot wait to come back to seward to live/work/play. 

 

 

we left the svage river campsite around 830 tuesday morning and i was intending to fly with talkeetna air taxi but i didn't want to make everyone wait on me (no one else wanted to go, it was an hour out of the way, plus an hour and a half or so of flying) so i cruised on by the talkeetna turn off. BUT i stopped off at this place called willow air, owned by a lady named gwen to try and get a sectional of the area and she GAVE me two sectionals--one of anchorage and one that connects it to denali (mcgrath sectional) and gave me a complete breakdown of all the hours i would need to be hireable in alaska as a pilot.  i have a lot of work to do, but i'm looking forward to every bit of it. 

 

I don't know what i was expecting as far as denali national park. maybe i wasn't expecting anything.  the mountain itself is amazing (and i don't mean to confuse anyone by calling mckinley denali, denali is the native and hiker-preferred name so that's what i go with). the landscape was as close to himalayan as i think anything could be without being in asia--it was breathtaking, and we saw all kinds of animals, but i had an unsettled feeling while we were there--outside of the tremendous mountains, the whole place is wide open, exposed.  i felt like we were  gonna get peeled off the earth's surface at any moment--i mean, that sounds crazy but there was no  protection from anything.  to contrast it, we drove south toward seward upon leaving denali and i immediately fell in love with the kenai peninsula.  it had a completely different feel--deep green valleys with turquoise glacier lakes, pristine and absolutely still.  the mountains remind me of the beartooths and also of northern europe.  it was difficult to drive because i was trying to take in all the sights, but i managed not to kill us before we got to seward's resurrection bay camp site, where you camp right at the edge of the bay.  we cooked probably six pounds of halibut on a grill that it all barely fit on and made a campfire and had a big ol' time.  we are going on a six hour tour of the bay today so i will get some pictures and let everyone know how it goes.  I could totally see being in this area year! 

I got into Anchorage seven hours before mama, daddy joe, and grandma fred and got picked up by a guy named "root," which is just the phonetic sound, i have no idea how to spell it. he was a very nice native-looking guy, and he drove me over to great alaskan holiday rv rentals where i had to watch an orientation video. after picking up the rv and driving around in circles for 30 minutes, i met up with trayce and doug at their place in anchorage. i had totally blanked on them being in the area, but luckily trayce had seen on facebook that i was coming into town. they took me to some nbeat places in downtown anchorage and then they took me to the grocery store which was a TREMENDOUS help--i would have been in there forever by myself WHEN ieventually found the place. they had some awesome freebie coupons that made selection easy. whenever i have more than two options, my brain goes haywire trying to evaluate all the pros and cons all at once over something as simple as peanut butter (which is not really so simple if you know a lot about peanut butter!!!). then tracye had a volunteer function and i had to go pick up the folks. doug gave us some halibut and salmon which we cooked sunday night and it was AMAZING...best piece of halibut EVAH! anyway, back to saturday--picked up the fam in the rv without damaging it at all and got a move on to ward Denali. we tried to find talkeetna lodge and wound up on some dirt road that nearly shook our brains out of our skulls. when we finally got on the correct road and found the lodge, we tried to sneak into the parking lot against daddy joe's better judgment. as soon as we got parked, security was on us like stink on poo and recommended a spot down the road for us to dry camp. he recommended a spot down the road where we could dry camp for the night. not long after we had gone to bed, some rowdy jerks pulled up right beside the rv when there was plenty of space all around us. about the point i was irritated enough to get up and ask them to quiet down, they drove off...all i can figure is they were talkeetna lodge employees going off campus to smoke some dope. Other than the kids, some trains, and a liquorcycle, the night was uneventful and we all woke up staring at the highest point in north america--Denali, "the great one," aka, Mt. McKinley. AMAZING! wilbur justin and i talked about climbing denali in 2012, but circumstances within all our lives is gonna put that off for a few years--BUT after actually SEEING the mountain, it has renewed my interest, and i DEFINITELY want to climb it at some point, much to my mother's dismay...Anyway, after oooohing and ahhhhhhing the view for a while, we headed to a restaurant called Latitude 62 that a wooly booger of a man had told us was great. The food was good (reindeer sausage like trayce had told me about!) and the decor was NUTS--dead animals all over the walls, an eccentric unofficial host, a beergarden that could also serve as a fight cage, and a ceiling fan complete with snowshoes as paddles. some folks from kokomo, indiana were sitting next to us at breakfast and from them i heard for the 100th time that we needed to do a flightseeing tour outta talkeetna. BTW, due to doug, trayce, and all the good tasting dead animalsthat exist, my inner vegetarian has gone on vacation somewhere besides alaska. I'm fixin to go to france in a few months anyway so she might be gone til after christmas. talkeetna was still pretty much asleep when we got there but we are going back today (tuesday, sept 14th) so i can get on a plane out of talkeetna air taxi and fly around for a minute. before we went into the park sunday, we stopped in the village to get daddy joe some coors light and pick up some random stuff mama wanted so i ran over to the closest place to get a beer called the salmon bake restaurant and got myself their signature beer called baked blonde and an amazing bloody mary that had olives, cheese, meat, and a salted rim--yum! I also got some elk sliders and the best fish tacos i have ever had in my life!!! I talked to the bartender a minute about summer work. it sounds a few degrees more intense than the seasonal life in the yellowstone area and doug had kinda already clued me into that when we were chattin on saturday. I took a nap after we ot pulled into the park sunday afternoon and after i woke up, we started supper and the halibut that doug and trayce gave us turned out to be the best fish EVAH! i think mama wants to buy 100 pounds of it to send home.

alright, so we had to go redump the black and grey water monday morning prior to going on the 92 mile bus tour to kantishna. kim, our tour guide, looked kinda like Pat from SNL, as in the character julia sweeney did such a good job with from the skit, "It's Pat!" and she sounded like the narrator of some kind of kids' pbs show like, "Barney Goes to Denali...and Falls Asleep." she also crunched her burnt popcorn over her mic while shushing us...anyway, we had seven folks from korea in front of us on the 11 hour bus ride through the park and they were super-nice! they were doing his funny thing where they poked each other in the face and i taught them the circle lower than the waist thing, where if someone looks you punch them in the arm. they gave me a website they are affiliated with cafe.daum.net/auroratour (speaking of aurora, we saw the aurora borealis monday night just before going to bed!!!). so on this tour we saw pretty much every animal--dall sheep, moose, wolf, alaskan ground squirrel, caribou, grizzlies, and arctic hare and we got what seemed so close to denali/mckinley. when we got to kantishna, we got to get out of the bus for 45 minutes and pick wild blueberries. there are some private airstrips back in kantishna at the denali backcountry lodge so i got to see some planes and helicopters fly out of there. we had to cross a creek that had the absolute coldest water i have ever felt in my life, straight off a glacier i reckon. on the way back out (there's only one road) denali looked like an abominable snowman snoozing in the afternoon sun. at one of our stops,i managed to accidentally stab myself in the eyeball with my sunglasses so i have a wonked up looking peeper now. we got back, lit a campfire, drank some beer, and cooked red beans and rice with reindeer sausage. then we play some scrabble and went to bed. today we are headed like i already mentioned, back to talkeetna, then back to anchorage then on to seward and kenai fjords...

Summer looks and feels to be over in Montana--it was cold this morning as I hauled the last of my things to the car, and on the flight out of Bozeman, all the peaks between Montana and Seattle were covered in snow.  I saw Mount St. Helen for the first time--i knew exactly what it was and my seat mate susan, who lives in seattle as a malt supplier, confirmed my suspicions.  i also caught sight of the berkeley pit which i visited in butte a couple of weeks back.  both the pit and mt st helen are distintive sights from the air--the pit, slowly filling with its toxic water and the mountain rising far above any other features on the landscape--they serve as great inverses to each other. 

i went straight from one plane to the next without delay and my second flight was already calling final boarding when i got to it.  i have learned on this second leg why exactly my parents do not like for me to cuss--the guy behind me is cussing gratuitously, and it is ANNOYING. 

so back to the first flight:  susan was my seatmate--she read most of the time and i wrote most of the time, but we conversated a bit the last few minutes.  she was in bozeman for the montana brewers' association's annual brewfest as a malt supplier.  how did jessica leigh dunlap, beer's number one fan, miss this craft brewhaha???  i had no idea it was going on last night and i am so upset to have missed it.  luckily, it happens every year; so, good lord willing, i will make it in 2011.  good excuse to go back to montana!  anyway, i consider susan to be super cool for being an integral part of the beer-making process.  she lives in seattle and her favorite local beer is Mack and Jack.  she told me some fun things to do if i make it to seattle for more than 20 minutes. 

The summer is drawing to a close--the unofficial end known as Labor Day has come and gone and the official end, the autumnal equinox, fast approaches.  I left home secretly terrified of what the West held in store for me.  Soon, I will return home, scared of nothing in the world.  This has been a season of learning.  I came out here with the impression that I did not have much to learn, that I would be imparting knowledge more than receiving.  As soon as you have this mentality, someone, something or a wicked combination of someones and somethings will come along to prove you wrong.  I am humbled by my experiences.  More so, I am humbled by the amazing friends that I have who have helped me sift through lifes hard lessons as archaeologists excavating an ancient settlement, trying to make sense of the findings.  I hope I am as supportive of my friends as they have been of me. 
I don't regret being in love.  "Everybody plays the fool," so goes the saying. My turn came around this summer, and again, when i thought i was invulnerable, I was judo chopped in the heart to prove me wrong.  This is a good thing, though.  I needed it.  I now have all my self-destructive tendencies out of my system (except for that whole tattoo thing--which isn't necessarily self-destructive, just PERMANENT!). While I have an outer self-confidence that won't quit, the inner needed (and still needs to some degree) a swift kick in the rear end and there's nothing to do that for you like a bad relationship, fully equipped with a sadisitic loser alcoholic asshole who wants to use you as an emotional punching bag.  It's like miracle grow for the spine.  A reasonable degree of flexibility is expected in love.  I've heard dan savage say conditions that normally serve as deal breakers will be overlooked through the lenses of love and i have accepted deal breaker conditions because of my love for people.  Love, however, is not unconditional and it is not boundless.  While I have no empirical evidence to back me up, I believe it is a serious disservice to raise people on the misconception that love has no limits.  That idea makes us vulnerable to abuse and causes people to linger in bad relationships FAR longer than they should.  I'm not saying that people shoul bail at the first sign of rain, but to suffer within a relationship is unnecessary and many times we do so because we are taught to "hang in there."  SCientifically speaking, monogmay is not a natural state for humans (or any other creatures for that matter).  I'm not advocating adultery but if we could find a comfortable balance between teaching die-hard monogamy and for lack of a better term, "free love," the world would be a happier place.  That being said, the most important thing we could teach kids about relationships is honesty.  As long as you are honest with anyone you are involved with, it is impossible to go wrong.  The downside to that, however,  is that honest people normally assume that everyone else is honest too and can get taken advantage of as a result. 

Outside of the lessons in love i received this summer, I also attended a literal school--flight school at Summit Aviation right next to the scenic Bridger Mountain range. Flight school is the single-most mentally challenging activity I have ever done.  Not only did I GO to flight school but I FINISHED part 141 for a private pilot's certificate.  While it took me only 3 months of training, getting my private was far more taxing than getting a BA in English ever thought of being--probably because language comes naturally to us and flight obviously does not.  Less of a mental challenge but equally as fun has been learning to ride my motorcycle and in the process learning how dumb other motorists can be.  I laid the bike down recently  but I had learned from Wilbur that everyone is out ot kill you when you're on a bike so act accordingly.  I saw a guy at a stop sign, he began to inch out.  i anticipated him pulling out in front of me, and as a result of anticipation, I ended up with a bruised leg instead of a trip to the hospital or the morgue.  

The greatest thing I learned this summer is that I can do anything.  All I have to do is get off my fat ass and whatever I dream up will be realized with enough gumption.  I have a list of things I would like to accomplish in the next few years and I will undoubtedly get these things done!  This excites me--I DO have perseverance, I DO have sticktoitiveness, I DO have options for omnidirectional dispersement of my potential which means I will never get bored.  There's just too much to do to ever be bored or idle.  As I approach what is considered the prime of my life, I realize there is little time for self-pity, even less time for whining, and no time for self-loathing and its subsequent, associated behaviors.  There's only time for realizing your potential and surrounding yourself with those who support you in the process.

Taking it back a few days...
I went into stealth mode early monday morning to seriously study for my written exam--no facebook to distract me from passing!  Kester called me Sunday when she got back into the area to chat while she waited for wendy duncan to come pick her up, and she mentioned going to korea as an option for our next adventure.  I have a couple of friends who are currently teaching in Asia so i hit up chartsa who is in korea, specifically and he immediately responded with enthusiasm and loads of information--information that makes going to south korea sound amazing even if i would be teaching (i despise teaching).  so chartsa sold me on the idea of korea already and i forwarded all the information to kester but i have yet to hear her reaction--i haven't had much time to chat though with getting myself prepared for my written and the check ride with an faa examiner.  flight school has been the most challenging thing i have ever done.  there were a number of times that i got discouraged and had it been a few years prior i probably would have given up, but either my perseverance has increased or i was simply disgusted by the amount of money i would waste if i didn't finish.  i studied for 12 solid hours monday between flying and reading--yikes!  i really didn't know i was capable of that.  i took my study break at the gallatin river lodge where one of my supplemental instructors works.  sam steensland is a super-cool cat.  laid back and nice as he can be.  i've never met his fiancee but she is a lucky gal, for sure!  sam was running around like a chicken with its head cut off monday night, which is good because that should mean you're making money.  gallatin river lodge is a great place--ZEN!!!--with its peaceful trout pond, view of the mountains and THE FOOD!  all they need is a little ambient music, like some neil young or something.
Tuesday, i flew myself to helena for my written test at vetter aviation FBO.  i did a lot better on the radios this time than when i went on my cc solo.  the lady who administered my test was super nice. she made sure i had everything i needed and explained some interesting local stuff to me--for instance, the name of the flying club in helena is the sleeping giant flying club which i didn't understand but thought was cute so i took a picture of their information board.  she asked me why and i told her and she said, as she pointed out the window, there is the sleeping giant--it's a series of hills and mountains that looks like a giant lying on its back sleeping.   great stuff!  i totally forgot to take a picture of him though...i was too nerve-wracked to be doing much of anything that morning though.  i passed the written test by the skin of my teeth and flew back to bozeman without incident. i packed up 95% of my stuff then  i took myself out to looie's for crab legs tuesday night.  seth and jamie saw my bike downtown so they hollered at me to come have a drink with them at crystal bar.  i called ashley heinz for the first time in about 15 years and left her a message on her vmail.  i went straight to bed after hanging out with seth and jamie for 2 drinks.  then i got up early Wednesday and headed over to summit for more practice in the plane with lance and scott.  after flying all day, and having a bad run with scott, we went for some more landing and i managed to nail them all--but i was scared for a minute that i wasn't going to be able to get cleared for the check ride because i was doing so horribly prior to the last run.  actually, i was gonna be kind of relievd if scott had not cleared me, just like i was gonna be relieved if the weather was foul because then it would give me an excuse to not succeed but be relieved of blame for it.  I finished getting the last of my things from the michael grove apartment wednesday and then checked into the lewis and clark hotel.  i went to supper with jeramy and leanne at 18 miles form the border then scooted over to summit to start a flight plan for my check ride.  the dedicated office manager teri was painting and i didn't lst very long with my flight plan because i was exhausted. ahley called me back while i was studying at summit which i would have much rather talk to her than do a flight plan but she was headed to go do fun stuff.  it was awesome to get to chat with her for a few minutes though!
Thursday when i woke up, the weather was craptastic and like i said, that kind of relieved me, because i was thinking, oh, i can get out of this ordeal maybe...BUT kent potter who had driven himself from billings for this exam was not so easily thwarted.  he determined that we would do the oral part of the exam and see if the weather improved in the mean time--which it did but only after 5 hours of the most pleasant interrogation ever.  kent's way of asking questions and testing one's knowledge is super-socratic...i thought socrates himself was sitting across from me at one point.  kent made me prove that i KNEW the knowledge (meta cognition, mary???) and wasn't just parroting my instructors.  at times when he did think i was simply regurgitating information, he would pry.  he would dig and ask, "well, WHY, though?"  i wasn't always able to answer him immediately but after considering his inquiries for a few minutes i was able to work out the answers...i would LOVE to go take classes from him some day--he would be an amazing teacher.  the weather cleared up around 1pm, good enough for us to go up and have kent evaluate my flying skills.  i passed just as another storm was moving in...everything went perfectly, PERFECTLY! 
taxiing back to summit, i reminded the ATC guys about the crystal bar throw down and i had already invited kent ut he had to get back to billings unfortunately because not only would he be a good teacher but he would be fun to drink some beers with as well.  so some great folks met up with me at crystal bar and we drank danced and talked well into the night.  randall from the tower came down and i thanked him for not coming down and wringing my neck upon occasion.  he said,"we're not god," to which my response was to start introducing him as god to everyone.  then i started calling him the wizard. when rachel got introduced to him, she took it to the next level and called him the wizard of BOZ which put me into a hysterical laughing fit (big surprise for those of you who know me) and i delared that i would get t-shirts made for all the tower guys.  lance and drew made it by but they could only stay for one.  these guys are all hard-working fellas--i say fellas but amber novak, who was brave enough to go up with me a couple of weeks ago, she's a hard-working gal herself and janine, head instructor over there at summit works her butt off as well.  i have had a good time at summit and would love to start an aviation school down south some time and get it hooked up with york tech or gaston community college through an aviation science program.  palmetto aviation?  haha, georgia, who waited on me at looie's tuesday night mentioned palmetto bugs as a reason to not live in the south!  so true, pretty sure some ive seen are as big as the da-20 i fly.  
thursday night was great fun, some of my favorite people were able to make it out and help me celebrate my accomplishment.  it's amazing how differently people look at you when they know youa re a pilot-- went to bed around 430am, which i have not done in a very long while.  then i somehow sprang to life at 830am and fiddle-farted around all day with adam rachel and steve.  steve and i went flying friday afternoon.  he is my first official passenger.  i said bye on the way out to all my summit friends and went and napped for a few hours at the lewis and clark.  leanne and i went to the dock to grab some grub that night and then i asked her if she's go to colonel black's with me to play stalker on this girl jestine i had met the night before.  jestine wasn't there and it's probably because the town of bozeman gets overrun with super-drunken college kids on the weekends that no normal folks want to be near.  jestine and i were gonna talk outside of colonel black's thursday night but i got side-tracked by this CRAZY woman who had lost her car and her friends.  she was in hysterics and i was too intoxicated to deal with it, thank god for ashlie because she able to handle the sitch--she found the lady's car and sent her on her way after she settled her down a bit.  i don't know what happened to her before she ran into us but it wasn't good AND she had to be a little screwy on top of it.  ive had weird experiences with people that i didn't know very well that i thought were friendly but i didn't completely lose my shit over it.  poor gal. earlier when we were at plonk, adam was adamant to get in the hot tub at the lewis and clark.  i got all on board with this idea until ashlie pipes up and says, "the hot tub is CLOSED--you're hanging out in the hot tub in your head!"  ashlie brought the hot craotion Iva from west yellowstone with her.  i started talking in a borat-ish accent and i hope it didn't offend the girl. 
i got up at 5am this morning, packed up the few things in the hotel room and asked the guy at the front desk if i could leave my guitar with him so it wouldn't be subject to warping in the car with extreme temps up and down all week.  i parked at summit to avoid paying parking fees at the airport and made it to my flight on time.  alaska, here we come! we are passing by mt st helen's right now on the way into seattle.  my first time to washington state and i wish i had time to explore but it's straight on north to alaska--i cannot wait to see my folks! 

adam and rachel are just amazing!  on thursday, i met up with them after i got out of class and we checked into the lewis and clark motel so as not to annoy the pee out of my roommate and so we wouldn't be drivin drunk. i met some fab ladies at chico hot springs, lori and dee, who live in bozeman and they joined adam and me at crystal bar while rachel took a nappy nap.  they brought their friend TQ with them who is a total hottie AND nice to boot, gah, almost makes me wish i was stayin in bozeman! i'd be like that MAD TV skit "can i getcho numba, can i, can i, can i?" if i were to see her again.  anyway, they were fun to hangout with, hilarious actually, hate i didn't meet them earlier.  so then adam and i went to get rachel outta bed and rub a dub grub.  we went to ted's montana grill and this here vegan ate bison--and it was GOOD!  imma eat me some meat when i go to france too, cannot wait!  so then we had dessert at plonk! because rachel and i love their thai iced coffees, then we weregettin buzzed pretty good so we moseyed back to the lewis and clark, had some vino and crashed.  i went to class friday and had a tremendously productive day soloing and then getting instruction from amber.  as soon as i got on the ground, i bolted for big sky.  rachel put us up at the huntley lodge which was awesome and we ate supper at the restaurant there, our server was caitlin from georgia.  then we waited for the willie shuttle to take us down to the concert.  i haven't been on a charter bus since high school marching band, it felt weird!  so we get down to he concert and immediately run into other park folk, aka, yellowstoners, zach leppert and nick lehnberg being among them, awesome dudes.the line for drinks was far far away from where we were stationed so rachel and i loaded up, 5 drinks each and precariously made our way back through the crowd.  willie came on not too long after we got back withcocktails and he was just the best!  i dialed up some folks, my mama was not amused by this at all, this drunk dialing from a concert so i didn't stay on the phone with her long...hee hee hee.  anyway, willie nelson's ancient behind played for 2 hours straight without a break and i loved every second of it.  then we went back to the huntley lodge, annaliese called me enroute, so great to talk to that girl.  she's home for her brother's wedding right this second which makes me feel a little sad, not having her close by.  that may sound weird but whatever, i love me some kester kester bear molester! so i was all kinds of silly back at the hotel bar--STUNT MAN! this guy troy punked out on me...dang it, troy!  but he was dressed all kindsa cute.  anyway, so one of my boyfriends from the concert showed up at our hotel and his friend sha was with him and i was just completely smitten with that man, like in a i am SO supposed to marry you kind of way--the jessica dunlap modus operandi.  this is after i'd been hitting on tammy from bozeman all night who kept telling me, "i am FIFTY SIX years old!" like that ever stopped me, lady.  had to get up early and head to summit aviation for a stage check that i didn't get to do because of some SNAFU but monday it'll happen and then i'm taking the big written test and then i'm supposed to do my check ride wednesday, good lord willin'!  i soloed instead of the stage check and then went to get my tattoo!!!!!!!!!! i lurv it SO!

so, the guy who did my stage III check yesterday afternoon, scott ervin, he is living the dream--salaried pilot for a rich dude, just flies this guy to his different businesses all over the country and to his son's motorcross races.  NICE!  and at summit, he gets the fun stuff of mt and tail-wheel endorsements and stage checks.  wizard.  and he's a nice guy on top of it.  he signed me off no prob with my stage III stuff yesterday so the next few days will just be getting me ready for my written exam and the practical.  i'm scared to death but i've had good instructors.  i have a cumulative review today which i need and will be reassuring when i can nail all the stuff lance and i go over today.  i should come home a pilot if the weather and my brain cooperate with me the next few days!

rachel and adam are coming up from the park today.  they're getting tattoos, then we are partying and then friday we are all going to see willie nelson in big sky!!! i'm getting a tattoo saturday--i opted for saturday to make sure adam and rachel could get squeezed in with the little bit of time they have on today.  the guy i picked to do my tattoo, sean, he is a character.  i've never met a tattoo artist with an overly-friendly attitude BUT unlike the person i talked to the other day, this guy looked me in the eye when he talked to me and i took a liking to him immediately. alright, few more hours of sleepy time before i have my 8am lesson with lance... 

so i may well finish up my private pilot's license here.  that would be splendid, to say the least.  while the 141 program is a federal program and transferable to any locale, the process of transferring is a pain--it requires getting to know a new instructor who has to evaluate your skills for themselves--they cannot take the word of another instructor at another school because it puts their own license in jeopardy to do so.  when you go before an FAA examiner, you have the endorsement of your instructor saying that you have the skills necessary to breeze through the practical so to avoid potential embarrassment, an instructor in rock hill would have to take some time to review my skills with me and as we all know, time is money.  i am mere lessons away from my practical--we are talking early next week for this intensely stressful sphincter-tightening experience.  what would be cool is f ii could wrap this private pilot's license up early next week, get a tail-wheel and mt endorsement right before alaska and then get a sea plane rating while in alaska...WOW, i would be  all kinds of impressed with myself.

tonight is free salsa lessons at bacchus pub and before that, i'm eating at the BEST italian restaurant this side of napoli--damasco's!!!...i will say again, dave andrade, BETTER THAN PORTOFINO'S--hands down, no contest!