What's up? What's good? What's new? What's going on? How ya been? How ya doin? Hanging in there? Staying outta trouble? Whatcha been up to? Where you been hiding? Which way ya going? You come here often? Have we meet before? Hows life?
Life is going pretty well here. Its' been interesting, as usual. So here we go... After the last one of these I returned to Milwaukee for a few days of work and then pretty much headed right to Fort Stockton, TX. I spent a work weeking out there replacing ladder sections inside of the turbines. This is the view when you pop your head out of the top.
Once I finished in TX I returned to CO and was lucky enough to find a great place to live in Boulder. I have two roommates in this house (we all went climbing today). If you know how many mountains are a stones throw away from Boulder, you could imagine I'm as snug as a bug in a rug.I was intending to go back to MN for a few weeks over x=mas but an opportunity came into my life that I couldn't pass up. I spent my x=mas in Mexico with people I met over the internet (it's not as bad as it sounds... though I still dont know why I woke up in a seedy motel room in a tub full of ice). *This first black and white is a photo of an old church in the middle of the desert.
We left Colorado one night (we drove to Mexico) and ended up heading straight into one of the worst blizzards that I have ever seen. All the major highways heading to TX were closed. We ended up getting a hotel room and trying again in the morning. After many other mishaps and pure luck we got to where we were going... El Potrero Chico. It is this awesome national park that boasts some of the tallest bolted climbing routes in the world.
There are a number of camps right at the entrance of the park that really cater to the climbers that go there. The campgrounds have a big community kitchen, showers, and a nice restaurant. Here is a pic of the mountains scraping the sky behind the kitchen. Some of the taller cliffs in the park were over 2000'.
We ended up staying there for about 10 days in total. The weather was actually pretty cold but it warmed up to the 80s the last few days we were there. I got to climb some really cool routes. It is nice to climb a big route and not worry about all the gear. I also got to meet some great people and climb with new found friends.
On our 20 hour push to get back to CO, we awoke to this on the last morning of driving, well hopefully not the driver. It seemed a great conclusion to our trip and a good omen of things to come.So if you read my last blog you might wonder if I am writing this in Florida right now. The answer is no. Some b.s. got kicked around and we ended up getting ousted from the job last minute. But not to worry. I have been pretty much just been relaxing and enjoying the cool new place I live.
Here is a pic of the Flatirons. These are a great place to hike and also to climb, though I have yet to climb there. I will be heading back to TX for some more turbine work. Soon after that I will be attending my level 3 certification course for rope access. I am very excited about that, so keep your fingers crossed for me. Anyways, I suppose that should about catch you up for now. Hope you all are doing well. Have fun!
Dan
