Notes from a week in Flagstaff

• Three grocery store trips in one day
• Dried vomit on the toilet seat at the bowling alley
• Ants! in the bathroom, in my room, in my cabinet (twice), eating my food
• Very first ski attempt (after forcing myself to fall 5 or 6 times, I just walked down the bunny slope...)
• Discovery Hike volunteer assistant, at Wupatki (a pretty neat place, as you can see below...)

WUPATKI PUEBLO

BLACK CINDERS FROM A VOLCANIC ERUPTION

TOP: PAINTED DESERT
MIDDLE: VEGETATION ALONG THE LITTLE COLORADO RIVER
BOTTOM: RED MOENKOPI SANDSTONE TALUS SLOPES

Notes from the Field

MY TENT

First day of work at Petrified Forest National Park (PEFO): Eight mile hike in the badlands. Fence post pounding. Barbed wire tightening. Back at camp, my tent clung to the ground by one staked corner. (The rest of the tent blew upside down in the wind, contents toppled, door hanging open).

I sleep in a Greatland Outdoors tent. Something my dad bought years ago, I think from Target. After six months of intense use, the poles are still functional and the material remains more or less waterproof. 

All is well except for the entrance zipper. It started sticking near the bottom, and since then I have had some fun times trying to escape from inside the tent. Annoying, I'll admit, but the zipper was functional. Until this week. High winds ripped at my tent, and the entire zipper split.  It wasn't terribly cold, and there weren't coyotes or skunks to wander in, but I did end up living with a layer of fine red sand...

BADLAND SAND HILLS

Sand is really the best word to describe the week. Everything covered in sand. Eyes full of sand. Winds at least 40 mph throwing sand. Hiking up and skiing down badland hills of sand. Sweeping accumulated sand from the PEFO maintenance yard and park road. Six days later, I'm still cleaning sand from my ears and sweeping sand from my floor.

Highlights from the fencing project at PEFO: driving on and off bumpy roads, avoiding bovine park intruders, Knife City (actually not that exciting), snow (rough week for weather...), and holding a winter-lulled collared lizard. 

COLLARED LIZARD

NEAT MUSHROOM ROCKS

Getting Ready

Tomorrow I head East to Petrified Forest National Park, for 8 days of fence repair work. Forecast: a patchwork of sunny, cloudy, windy, rainy. Last week's winds shattered someone's tent poles. So far I've been too cheap to buy rain pants. Tonight I'm just too lazy. Sorry, legs.

Almost ready to crawl into "bed." I've spent the last few hours packing. Tossing bags and boxes of food into a plastic bin. Shoving laundromat-clean clothes into my backpack. Eating Irish Soda Bread (I'll be at work on St. Patty's day...). Marathon watching "3rd Rock From the Sun" (Oh my God-I'm GORgeous!). With headphones. So as not to annoy my roommate.

"Bed" is a pile of folded blankets on the hardwood floor. And tonight it's sure to be less comfortable. I packed up my soft, cozy, expansive Mountain Hardware -15 degree sleeping bag. (That's the bag I take with me to work). Tonight, I sleep beneath my short-length 25 degree REI Polar Pod. I sleep atop small glass slivers. Remnants of the mirror I broke earlier today. It slipped from my hand. Landed right on top of my laptop, sitting on top of my blankets. Oops.

Sunday Fun Day

It's Sunday. Not 'Sunday.' (I don't work until Wednesday). But it still feels like Sunday.

This is my Sunday Morning:

COFFEE in a Ouray, Colorado mug. (The Switzerland of America). 

I own three not-for-travel mugs. One is small. One is broken. One is pictured here.

*Dunkin' Donuts blend coffee. I like their logo. Check out their not-so-interesting blog: Behind the Beans. 

Garrison Keillor and PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION. 

'I hear that old piano, from down the avenue.' 

I plugged in my radio/alarm clock just for the occasion. The clock is flashing red numbers at me.

GLASSES. I hate my glasses. They hurt my ears. They separate me from the real world. 

My glasses are OK when worn with my sweatpants and my slippers.

BREAKFAST, and here's where things get interesting. My pantry is poorly stocked. My milk expired two weeks ago. I have two eggs left in the fridge. Eggs over-easy, sounds delicious... but wait. I have Bisquick. Can I make pancakes with Bisquick and an egg? Nope: milk required. Hmm... 

I opened the milk. I smelled the milk. I tasted the milk. I took a bigger sip. Seems okay??

BREAKFAST: pancakes with butter, and a single egg cooked over-easy. 

*Note: hot chocolate mix on pancakes is a poor substitute for maple syrup...