Camping in the Rain

Camping exclusively in California can spoil a person in about 0.3 seconds. From April to October, it almost never rains. This ill prepared me for our camping as we drove across the US. The weather report ended up like this:

• Yosemite - located in California. Therefore, no rain
• Tetons - rain
• Yellowstone - rain
• Badlands - tremendous thunderstorm, including lots of lightning, and rain

That last one was especially exciting. When you wake up at 2AM and the tent is flashing more than a strobe light, that's a problem. The storm was far away at that point, but it proceeded to come directly overhead, and resulted in a couple hours of pondering what happens in the event that a tent is struck by lightning.
Despite the rain, we enjoyed the trip immensely. We saw some gorgeous scenery, a black bear on a hike, and stopped at Wall Drug where I had the biggest sticky bun I've ever seen.

Una casa para mi?

Sara and I are fresh off a weekend of looking for places to live in Ann Arbor. I think everyone knows how frustrating this can be: despite attempting to do a lot of research prior to actually visiting a place, there's a lot of misses and very few hits. Sometimes, it's easy to tell almost instantly.

Mr. Landlord, you may think you have the greatest place ever, but I think it's a downstairs unit where I can already hear the neighbors overhead, it's on a busy street that will be a tremendous pain to turn into and out of, and it's half underground. When I can barely see because there is so little natural light, and I'm viewing the house at noon, I consider that to be a bad sign.

At this point, I'm always tempted to say, "Look, let's not waste time here. There is no way we're going to live here, so why don't we skip the tour of the second bedroom and just go our respective ways." Instead, I wander around and feign interest for about five minutes before bolting. Good times all around.

Moving Day

Thanks to Joe LaMacchia Moving and Photography, our semi trailer was packed, tied town, photographed, and ready to go. The difference between us and the Beverly Hillbillies – our stuff is on the inside.

Here we go

Hola amigos,

We have an interesting summer on the horizon, and rather than bombard anyone with long emails they pretend to read when, I thought I'd go with a blog. No more untimely reminders in your inbox that I'm on a beach in Spain, or that I'm stranded somewhere and could really use your help.

Here's the basic schedule for the summer:

• pack the surprisingly large amount of stuff from our apartment into a moving van
• visit some national parks (Yosemite, Yellowstone, Badlands, etc.) on our move back to the Midwest
  
• spend a frantic four days moving our stuff into storage and finding a place to live. We may actually buy a house, which is only slightly terrifying
  
• head to Spain for July (this is the part where I'll actually write and provide updates)
  
• relax in Wisconsin and Vermont for most of August
• start school (me) and work (Sara) in Ann Arbor
  

Everyone working a real job is pondering whether they too can take a summer off to travel (you know you want to). Take it from someone who's been preparing for this for a long time - it takes imprudent financial decisions, a complete lack of saving for retirement, and a willingness to spend long hours eating tapas and drinking wine.

If you're so inclined, bookmark this site and see what shenanigans ensue. If that doesn't sound like your cup of tea, bookmark it anyway. No one is going to read this who doesn't already know me, and I need readership.

Adios...