Ya'll. What's kickin? Just got back from Saint George and Zion, UT. Let me tell you, Zion is a sick place that everybody who ever liked or likes nature, should go. Be sure to check out my photos online! (http://picasaweb.google.com/aldsmith3/SaintGeorgeZion#)
Otherwise, for those not in the know (my bad), I have taken an assistantship with Appalachian State University as a residence director (RD). I will be working towards my graduate degree in College Student Development (possibly with a concentration in Outdoor Program Administration). I am excited and nervous for my transition as well as move back across the country. I see life as dynamic and I find myself excited for the challenges and new perspectives ahead. All in all it will be good and I know I'll look back on my time here in Gunny and in Boone, NC as allllll good :[]
Hope ya'll are well. I apologize if my prose reaches many of you before my voice over the phone. Know I care and wonder about you all in some way or another. Get a hold of me if you think of it. Catch ya soon...
<3
Al
Showing posts with label On the Road. Show all posts
Showing posts with label On the Road. Show all posts
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Monday, December 7, 2009
Where to Enter...
This post poses a problem from the start. I highly desire to update ya'll but how do I do it without drowning on and on about boring this, perhaps exciting that? Flow with me...
The road back to Colorado was long in length and time, but never boring in retrospect. Some may recall me lamenting for a few moments about the drab landscape of Nebraska; well a change of heart occurred. While this didn't happen during the trip, I came across a photo of beautiful forest in northern Nebraska and immediately recant my one-sided and underexposed opinion.
Flash back 8, maybe 10 hours earlier. The lights of E cubed were in my rear-view along with Champaign, IL. I was traveling mostly alone amongst a few dedicated souls, trucking their way to the next pick-up or drop-off. The moon shone bright over my left shoulder as my bearing pointed northerly. I can extract thoughts of feeling not so alone; the moon has that companionship about it. Like most things though, it was not to last. Before the sun's introduction into that part of late evening/early morning, I found the back of my eyelids satiation for my slightly sleep-deprived body. When I awoke, the bright orb star, colored a yellowish orange, was just beginning its tract up and out of the earth, from somewhere else. At this point, a unique situation presented itself: I was now heading due West, while on my six o'clock, the sun was ascending.
Picture for yourself the situation. Many, perhaps all of us have seen a sun-rise and its welcomed beauty, but have we ever found ourselves on the back side of sun-rise? To see the world illuminate as if a bright light were shinning from over your shoulder, brings thoughts of an unparalleled nature. At the time, my current thought train was held up, as if the conductor of the locomotive spied a potential danger in the track ahead. I was struck with a non-violent but surreal thought: the reversed perspective on a seemingly familiar event, item, or otherwise, elicits a new shade of understanding. Looking down at the ant, as he crawls across your kitchen floor carrying some booty of useful nature, you think how small he is; but the ant looks back and thinks how large you are. Is the ant really that tiny or are we just that big? Perspective dictates which answer fits.
Pregnant with that thought, think of a time in your life when perspective played out; where the chance presented itself for you to understand both sides of the coin. Would you go back and change the outcome? Nebraska is less boring glancing back to the moment. I know for sure reconsideration of perspective in my own life would change a lot of previously held notions of x, y, or z. Today will be yesterday and tomorrow will be today; guaranteed. Live not in the past, but reflect upon it's imagery to serve as a guide for where you are going. The reflecting pool of memory is a beautiful and individually-unique place, but keep focus on the larger body of water known as life, for it holds many unknowns - on the surface and deep down in the depths. At times your road will be traveled alone, with others passing, caring not to glance at you or your situation. Find those that cherish you and you them; share openly and honestly all you can.
Respect perspective. What's mine is yours, but what's yours isn't always mine. I definitely gaze rearward and think.........................analyzing things past overwhelms. I'm glad the road revealed to me a new perspective. The application of implications bore into me. I will not succeed every time I try, but I will seek to spectate the various angles, and then decide what, where, or why.
I leave not knowing where to exit. As a story begins, so does an ending. Whether or not it is finalized now or ever, is not important. How it shapes you in the process of being told is what counts indefinitely. Past is permanent. Future is impressionable. Make it as you may.
Alan
The road back to Colorado was long in length and time, but never boring in retrospect. Some may recall me lamenting for a few moments about the drab landscape of Nebraska; well a change of heart occurred. While this didn't happen during the trip, I came across a photo of beautiful forest in northern Nebraska and immediately recant my one-sided and underexposed opinion.
Flash back 8, maybe 10 hours earlier. The lights of E cubed were in my rear-view along with Champaign, IL. I was traveling mostly alone amongst a few dedicated souls, trucking their way to the next pick-up or drop-off. The moon shone bright over my left shoulder as my bearing pointed northerly. I can extract thoughts of feeling not so alone; the moon has that companionship about it. Like most things though, it was not to last. Before the sun's introduction into that part of late evening/early morning, I found the back of my eyelids satiation for my slightly sleep-deprived body. When I awoke, the bright orb star, colored a yellowish orange, was just beginning its tract up and out of the earth, from somewhere else. At this point, a unique situation presented itself: I was now heading due West, while on my six o'clock, the sun was ascending.
Picture for yourself the situation. Many, perhaps all of us have seen a sun-rise and its welcomed beauty, but have we ever found ourselves on the back side of sun-rise? To see the world illuminate as if a bright light were shinning from over your shoulder, brings thoughts of an unparalleled nature. At the time, my current thought train was held up, as if the conductor of the locomotive spied a potential danger in the track ahead. I was struck with a non-violent but surreal thought: the reversed perspective on a seemingly familiar event, item, or otherwise, elicits a new shade of understanding. Looking down at the ant, as he crawls across your kitchen floor carrying some booty of useful nature, you think how small he is; but the ant looks back and thinks how large you are. Is the ant really that tiny or are we just that big? Perspective dictates which answer fits.
Pregnant with that thought, think of a time in your life when perspective played out; where the chance presented itself for you to understand both sides of the coin. Would you go back and change the outcome? Nebraska is less boring glancing back to the moment. I know for sure reconsideration of perspective in my own life would change a lot of previously held notions of x, y, or z. Today will be yesterday and tomorrow will be today; guaranteed. Live not in the past, but reflect upon it's imagery to serve as a guide for where you are going. The reflecting pool of memory is a beautiful and individually-unique place, but keep focus on the larger body of water known as life, for it holds many unknowns - on the surface and deep down in the depths. At times your road will be traveled alone, with others passing, caring not to glance at you or your situation. Find those that cherish you and you them; share openly and honestly all you can.
Respect perspective. What's mine is yours, but what's yours isn't always mine. I definitely gaze rearward and think.........................analyzing things past overwhelms. I'm glad the road revealed to me a new perspective. The application of implications bore into me. I will not succeed every time I try, but I will seek to spectate the various angles, and then decide what, where, or why.
I leave not knowing where to exit. As a story begins, so does an ending. Whether or not it is finalized now or ever, is not important. How it shapes you in the process of being told is what counts indefinitely. Past is permanent. Future is impressionable. Make it as you may.
Alan
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Back at it
Hello again. Just a quick diddy about my trip this past week. As some and most of you may know I was over in the Colorado Springs (Front Range as it is called here) the past week for recruiting purposes at the college. Normally, a person such as myself does not attend such college fairs for highschool recruitment, but being that we are a larger department, I convinced my bosses to let me go. They paid the meals for the week and travel and living accommodations were courtesy of my friend Ben's admission travel budget. As you can see from the pictures (http://picasaweb.google.com/aldsmith3) we had a lot of free time between fairs to get into the outdoors! Most other admission counselors and recruiters at the fairs from other colleges opted to eat, drink, and be merry but Ben and I had other intentions. It was great to experience a handful of new areas in Colorado. Definitely hard to judge places until you try them. Found some beauty and so forth I wasn't expecting in the Colorado Springs area.
In other news, for those of you wondering how my "W" Mountain Race finished 2 Saturdays ago, I took 35th out of 90 or so racers. 23:50 was my final time. The course was 2.6 miles and gained about 1,000 feet over that 2.6 miles. Ben and I followed up the race morning with an epic mountain bike ride at Hartman's Rocks for the better part of 3 hours on a sunny, mildly warm, and beautiful afternoon.
It snowed here in Gunnison today! It was so exciting to see snow again. I know some of you are dreading it but the snow really adds another layer of beauty to the scenery out here-crested mountain tops, dusted sage brush, etc. Also, the presence of snow excites me for the ice hockey season, which started yesterday (Monday), though I didn't sign up till today because of monetary issues. My first game is tomorrow night. I am excited! Glad to get back on the ice and have some competitive fun.
Not too much else going on...looking forward to coming home for Thanksgiving and time with family (especially the Baker clan) and friends. Hope ya'll are doing well. Keep in touch if I don't hear from you or see you as this holiday season approaches.
Later ya'll
Al
As always, check out the photos online (link is above) if you haven't already seen them on facebook.
In other news, for those of you wondering how my "W" Mountain Race finished 2 Saturdays ago, I took 35th out of 90 or so racers. 23:50 was my final time. The course was 2.6 miles and gained about 1,000 feet over that 2.6 miles. Ben and I followed up the race morning with an epic mountain bike ride at Hartman's Rocks for the better part of 3 hours on a sunny, mildly warm, and beautiful afternoon.
It snowed here in Gunnison today! It was so exciting to see snow again. I know some of you are dreading it but the snow really adds another layer of beauty to the scenery out here-crested mountain tops, dusted sage brush, etc. Also, the presence of snow excites me for the ice hockey season, which started yesterday (Monday), though I didn't sign up till today because of monetary issues. My first game is tomorrow night. I am excited! Glad to get back on the ice and have some competitive fun.
Not too much else going on...looking forward to coming home for Thanksgiving and time with family (especially the Baker clan) and friends. Hope ya'll are doing well. Keep in touch if I don't hear from you or see you as this holiday season approaches.
Later ya'll
Al
As always, check out the photos online (link is above) if you haven't already seen them on facebook.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
News News
Hello again. Good news and an update real quick. I am leaving Sunday afternoon for a week-long trip to the Front Range (Denver, Colorado Springs, etc.) to do recruiting for the RESS (Rec. and Exercise & Sport Science) program here at Western, as well as the college in general because lord knows, not many high schoolers know what they want to pursue in college. I will be tagging along with my friend Ben Johnson from Admissions as he attends different college fairs all next week. It will be a nice outing from the lab for me. I am getting funding for food from my department and luckily I can stay on Ben's admission tab for lodging and transportation. Yay.
I'm really fairly excited about this trip. I think it will provide some valuable experience and definitely I always enjoy mixing it up with newbs (new people).
If you haven't seen my photos from God's Crag yet, do yourself a favor and give them a checking out! (http://picasaweb.google.com/aldsmith3)
Hope ya'll are well as always. More to come after the trip. Tune back in a week or 2. Peace!
Al
I'm really fairly excited about this trip. I think it will provide some valuable experience and definitely I always enjoy mixing it up with newbs (new people).
If you haven't seen my photos from God's Crag yet, do yourself a favor and give them a checking out! (http://picasaweb.google.com/aldsmith3)
Hope ya'll are well as always. More to come after the trip. Tune back in a week or 2. Peace!
Al
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Wow, I'm slow at updating, but...
I have a really good excuse because I have been busy, busy, and more busy! Most of my last month has been spent getting ready for my first mountaineering trip out to the Cascade Mountain range in the Pacific Northwest; namely Oregon and Washington. My brother in-law Robert and his friend Paul planned a trip to attempt summits of 3 separate peaks in the 9 days we had in the region. To give you the short and skinny, we only made summit to one :*(
Reasons: first attempt up Mt. Hood, was blunted by hard driving cross-face snow chilling us as well as taking our vision away beyond 30 feet in front of us; first and only attempt up Mt. Rainer (the grand daddy! and tallest peak in the Cascades) was halted a quarter-way into the morning of day 2 by constant snow all day the previous day and the conversion to rain in the night - which slowly was causing our snow cave to collapse, and thus freaking me out a bit. I'm not necessarily claustrophobic but I definitely wasn't comfortable with at least a foot of snow above me and the sounds of avalanches off in the distance above us in elevation on the mountain. Avalanches really do sound like a train coming, kind of funny in a non-humorous way to experience! So since avalanches would make it unsafe for further climbing upward, we decided at around 3 or so in the morning to pack up what we had packed in our packs and make trail for the van. Slept the remainder of the morning in the van until around 6 or so when we made the drive back out of Mt. Rainer National Park and to a Denny's! Thank goodness for 24 hour food service. I won't lie, we had some funny early morning, lack of sleep laughs at Denny's; some of which may not be suited to be discussed on this blog. haha. :)
Let's see...second attempt up Mt. Hood was successful! *(at least for Rob and I). Michael, the 4th member of our party, who is a good friend of Rob and Paul and who's father taught Paul and Rob pretty much everything they know about mountaineering also in turn taught me some things...yay. Anyways, we started off after sleeping in the parking lot either in the van or by the shelter, up the mountain at around 2 am. Michael started with us as well but turned around after about 10 minutes of hiking upwards because of difficulties with breathing due to his recently acquired acute sickness (which I eventually got and am just getting over now!). Fairly uneventful hike up the mountain...very quiet and the light from a half-moon was sufficient to light our way. I definitely prefer climbing/hiking in a calm evening/early morning vs. a blazing sunshiney day. Stops were made every 40-60 minutes either for clothing additions or subtractions, urination, or nutrition until we got to about 9,000+ feet, at which point the glacier started and crampons on boots happened! After said happening of cramponing-up, we came across a climber who had got hit by some chauce from above on the ice cliffs and managed to crampon herself in the leg somewhere in the series of being hit and falling a short distance; or something of that sort. Anywho, Robert, being Doctor Duty, rendered the climber and her friends with some first-aid assistance. Additionally, he helped fashion a foot harness for her to hold her legs up so sliding or "glacading" down the mountain would be a bit easier. After the short medical stop, Paul, Rob, and I continued up to what is known as the Hog's Back (picture in the upper left corner of the blog post). At said point, Paul was feeling severely dehydrated after lugging his 250 pound self and 40 or so pound pack up thus far, so he rested with us for a while on the Hogs Back (which is what we are doing in the picture...resting) and then proceeded to work his way down the mountain to safety and euhyrdration. At which point, Rob and I continued our trek onwards and upwards! I was a little bit nervous b/c the Hog's Back was definitively a razor-like edge that allowed little traversing except for with well-placed cramponed steps or in existing tracks the people before us had left. After reaching the top of the Back, we traversed left to approach the 'shooting gallery' as we referred to it as, because of the falling chauce and ice from climbers above. Are you loving the play-by-play yet? Anyways, steep-ish 60 degree or more of upward slope climbing and we made the top of the ridge, which was a razor edge as well with a thousand foot plunge down the other side of the mountain! Another 2 or so minutes of simple hiking to our right along the razor edge and we were on the summit! Summit time was approximately 9:20am. So a little over 7 hours of climbing/mountaineering/etc. to reach the top. Had there been less people perhaps we would of made it in faster time. A weekend with great weather made for a popular place on the mountain that day.
Our final story of a mountain for the trip was to be Mt. Jefferson. In between the attempts on the 1st two mountains, we stayed in Portland (for the Hood attempts) at Rob's friend from medical school Nicole's pad, and at McChord Airforce Base, in Washington because of Paul's job in the airforce. So anyways the Jefferson story...
Planned to hike into what is known as a base area called Jefferson Park the night before a summit attempt. Driving up to the trail head we were halted by deep snow on the road and were forced to park approximately 2 miles from the trail head and post-holed (hiking in snow while subsequently punching through it up to your ankles and often half-way up your calves) our way up to the trail head in shorts and tee shirts! It was a good 60 some degrees but the snow was stubborn and a few weeks off from melting completely. Arrived at the trail head after an hour and half trek upwards. Discovered shortly after that trail to Jefferson Park was not marked at all and our topo map only showed us following a creek. Furthermore, our trail was snow covered and required more post-holing to make any progress. After about a half hour, we decided a summit was g0ing to be impossible b/c the snow was too deep and our arrival was a few weeks early for the season. Also, J. Park was another 5 miles and the sun was starting it's decent to the horizon; so with a smiling disappointment, we made way back to the trail head for a night of camping, food, and fun campfire (our first of the trip!) stories, before tucking all 4 of us into a mega-mit (tent-like structure with no floor, designed to be set up/torn down quickly). The next morning found us hiking back the 2 miles to the car in 45 minutes and then back to Portland evenutally for our final evening together as a group. Tears :_(
Dinner that night was awesome and came thanks to a restaraunt called Henry's in downtown Portland. If you are ever there, do yourself a huge favor and check it out. Amazing food, huge, HUGE beer list :)
Okay so that's my story. Not much else to add, and I've been typing a shit-ton.
Final story while I'm blogging to update those that haven't spoken to me or heard from me in 23 some days since the last post.
Ran the 2nd annual Sage Burner 25k Trail Run here in Gunnison yesterday! There was a 50k version of it too, but I was not feeling up to attempting 31.8 miles of trail running, the 16.2 was plenty for me; especially considering the furtherest I've ever ran in a day was 6 miles! Had a fun time doing it, despite having tired and sore legs later last night and today; T-storms and showers held off and the temperature was nice. I'm proud to say I finished 46th out of 114 entrants for the 25k! Not too bad for my first ever race. I look to do more in the near future. Oh, my final time for 16.2 miles (approx. 25km) was 2 hours 52 minutes and some seconds.
Hope things are well with ya'll. Sorry for the long over-due post. Easier sometimes to save up all the big things to talk about. Keep on keeping on...love ya'll!
Al
P.S. check out all my photos from the trip at my website for pictures!!!! (http://picasaweb.google.com/aldsmith3)
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Back in Gunny...for now.
Hello all. I am back from my Sacramento trip. All went well. The sunshine was quite a relief because with the sunshine, there was warm weather and not snow! (though it is all about melted again here in Gunny)
A lot was done in the short 3 days we visited. First off, we stayed with my cousins Shawn and Katie Claybomb. Be sure to check out my Picasa website pictures (follow the link to the left, or this one http://picasaweb.google.com/aldsmith3). Secondly, I, Scott, and Tim visited Chico California (just north of Sacramento by about 80 miles) to see one of Scott's former classmates from his doctoral program at Univ. of Northern Colorado-Greely. His friend Chen is a Biomechanics professor at Chico State. The University is a lot like my alumna matter IUP. It is a division 2 school with about 15,ooo students; and the university resides in Chico, which is about 60,000+ residents. Very beautiful campus; in fact, much more so than IUP, possibly because of the longer warm months. I am seriously considering applying there for Graduate school. As I may have stated in an earlier blog post, I intend to apply for a graduate assitantship or teacher's assistantship to defray completely or partially tution. I know I just mentioned that I look to possibly go to school in North Carolina, but perhaps I can do my doctoral work there?! The key difference is the contact I now have in the Kinesiology program at Chico state in the form of Chen (whom is in a few of the pictures).
Not forgetting the whole purpose of our trip to Sacramento though. Tim's 50 mile (!) race was on Saturday. The race started at 6 am sharp so we all got up and ready around 3:45 in the morning! Whew, talk about early. If you follow the pictures in order, they take you through the course in a sequential fashion. Scott and I were crewing for him, so after each aid station we would hop into the rental car and rush off to the next station about 5 or so miles down the course to offer him food, gatorade, water, mental support, etc. Made for a busy morning. Cousin Shawn met me at the 2nd to last aid station (Rattlesnake Bar nature area) and got some photos as well. For those of you that keep in touch with him, feel free to email him for his take and perhaps photos. One nice thing about starting a race at 6 am is that it finishes decently early too! Tim finished 5th overall and was only 12 minutes behind the winner. He finished at 6 hours and 16 minutes! What an accomplishment. 650 people entered the race and an unknown amount probably didn't finish.
The wager for next year is that Shawn will pay for both Scott, Tim, and I's race registration costs, if we all enter it and finish it! Can you imagine me doing 50 miles in a day!? Haha, lucky for me I have a year to train...going to climb lots of mountains as a cross-training effect rather than purely running distances.
Other fun things about Sacramento: Shawn has gotten into Long-Boarding (a longer skate board), and taught Scott and I how to. I took a bit more passionately to the sport than Scott did but at least he tried it a number of times. I will try to put some videos up from our few skating sessions in Shawn's neighborhood. By the way, the pictures of his house and the houses around are quite beautiful. Do check them out please! (http://picasaweb.google.com/aldsmith3)
Things continue to go well. I had 1 Lactate Threshold test in the lab yesterday; one today, and a VO2 max test later today as well as tomorrow! Thursday morning will find me off on a field trip to Denver with the college to tour exercise physiology facilities and sports-related businesses. The trip lasts till Friday afternoon, at which point I am planning to head to Renee Early's (my 1st cousin) house for Easter weekend. Her sister Lory, my cousin as well, will be coming into town Friday night as well. Should be a fun weekend with extended family; though I will be missing all of you back in Indiana for the first Easter in memory. Do take care this Easter season and cherish what you have; never know when it could go away.
Talk to you peoples soon.
Love,
Alan
P.S. Oh and before I forget, I did hear about the job at the country club in Crested Butte; they are still undergoing budget restraints - partially due to the economy, and their 2 million dollar renovation, so if I do get hired it won't be until late May before the grand-reopening. I'm not crossing my fingers on it, but I am hopeful. We'll see. ttyl.
A lot was done in the short 3 days we visited. First off, we stayed with my cousins Shawn and Katie Claybomb. Be sure to check out my Picasa website pictures (follow the link to the left, or this one http://picasaweb.google.com/aldsmith3). Secondly, I, Scott, and Tim visited Chico California (just north of Sacramento by about 80 miles) to see one of Scott's former classmates from his doctoral program at Univ. of Northern Colorado-Greely. His friend Chen is a Biomechanics professor at Chico State. The University is a lot like my alumna matter IUP. It is a division 2 school with about 15,ooo students; and the university resides in Chico, which is about 60,000+ residents. Very beautiful campus; in fact, much more so than IUP, possibly because of the longer warm months. I am seriously considering applying there for Graduate school. As I may have stated in an earlier blog post, I intend to apply for a graduate assitantship or teacher's assistantship to defray completely or partially tution. I know I just mentioned that I look to possibly go to school in North Carolina, but perhaps I can do my doctoral work there?! The key difference is the contact I now have in the Kinesiology program at Chico state in the form of Chen (whom is in a few of the pictures).
Not forgetting the whole purpose of our trip to Sacramento though. Tim's 50 mile (!) race was on Saturday. The race started at 6 am sharp so we all got up and ready around 3:45 in the morning! Whew, talk about early. If you follow the pictures in order, they take you through the course in a sequential fashion. Scott and I were crewing for him, so after each aid station we would hop into the rental car and rush off to the next station about 5 or so miles down the course to offer him food, gatorade, water, mental support, etc. Made for a busy morning. Cousin Shawn met me at the 2nd to last aid station (Rattlesnake Bar nature area) and got some photos as well. For those of you that keep in touch with him, feel free to email him for his take and perhaps photos. One nice thing about starting a race at 6 am is that it finishes decently early too! Tim finished 5th overall and was only 12 minutes behind the winner. He finished at 6 hours and 16 minutes! What an accomplishment. 650 people entered the race and an unknown amount probably didn't finish.
The wager for next year is that Shawn will pay for both Scott, Tim, and I's race registration costs, if we all enter it and finish it! Can you imagine me doing 50 miles in a day!? Haha, lucky for me I have a year to train...going to climb lots of mountains as a cross-training effect rather than purely running distances.
Other fun things about Sacramento: Shawn has gotten into Long-Boarding (a longer skate board), and taught Scott and I how to. I took a bit more passionately to the sport than Scott did but at least he tried it a number of times. I will try to put some videos up from our few skating sessions in Shawn's neighborhood. By the way, the pictures of his house and the houses around are quite beautiful. Do check them out please! (http://picasaweb.google.com/aldsmith3)
Things continue to go well. I had 1 Lactate Threshold test in the lab yesterday; one today, and a VO2 max test later today as well as tomorrow! Thursday morning will find me off on a field trip to Denver with the college to tour exercise physiology facilities and sports-related businesses. The trip lasts till Friday afternoon, at which point I am planning to head to Renee Early's (my 1st cousin) house for Easter weekend. Her sister Lory, my cousin as well, will be coming into town Friday night as well. Should be a fun weekend with extended family; though I will be missing all of you back in Indiana for the first Easter in memory. Do take care this Easter season and cherish what you have; never know when it could go away.
Talk to you peoples soon.
Love,
Alan
P.S. Oh and before I forget, I did hear about the job at the country club in Crested Butte; they are still undergoing budget restraints - partially due to the economy, and their 2 million dollar renovation, so if I do get hired it won't be until late May before the grand-reopening. I'm not crossing my fingers on it, but I am hopeful. We'll see. ttyl.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
April 1st...
Well I could start this off by saying it snowed last night...APRIL FOOL'S!!!! but then I would be disappointing in more than one way. Sadly, it did snow last night and is still currently putting down such as I write! I'd say there is an easy 6 to 8 inches on the ground right now, and it's increasing! So much for a good April Fool's day trick. Perhaps I'm getting too old...hmm...NEVER! Since I already broke the ice for the April Fool's thing, I feel it is too late to start with a new one so let's just move on.
For those of you that read this and had a chance to be in town this past weekend, then you probably might have gotten to see me. For those of you that live in Indiana but did not get to see me, I apologize. Even my family - Mom, Dad, Steph and Rob only got to see me for a good solid evening of dinner. You probably think I flew home right? Wrong; I had the grand idea to drive home...haha. The real reason was so I could switch out mom and dad's vehicle that I had used to haul out the uhaul, in favor of my small 4 door Mazda Protege. So I left here in Gunnison last Wednesday morning (the 25th) and traveled to Lincoln Nebraska to stay with Lory Baker, my cousin. After a delicious dinner, good conversation, and a few card games I went to sleep in order to wake up early to drive to Erica and Ev's in Champaign, IL. I was delighted to reach their house by about 3 pm local time. Getting there early allowed me time to visit and play with that beautifully cute niece of mine, Elana Kay. Not forgetting the important part either, I got to visit with Erica and Ev as well! Early Friday morn found me on the road again for good ol' Indiana, PA!
I arrived by about 3 pm in the afternoon eastern standard time, dr0pped my car off to be looked at before it's trip back West, and then had a wonderful evening with friends uptown. I did not get to see all the friends I would have liked to, but the most important ones I did get to see and that was fine with me. Can't please everyone. Saturday, I was invited to play in a wiffleball tournament at the Rose Inn with my good friend Adam, as well as some other friends from Indiana that I know. After which, I hung out with Rotten Robbie (oh how he hates that name, haha) and then eventually had dinner that evening with the fam at Steph and Rob's pad. Sunday morn found me up early packing and anticipating a delicious breakfast with mom and dad at home. I was sad to have spent so little time with mom and dad...next time you two!
I repeated the same route on the way back out except for one small detail. I first traveled to Erica and Ev's; slept the night, and then headed West on the same route as I had come East except that instead of staying with Lory I went straight for her sister Renee's house in Loveland, Colorado. Needless to say, after 15+ hours of driving, I made it! I wasn't exhausted as you might think; I think at that point you are beyond tired and just wired for survival! haha. That was Monday, and of course Tuesday morning found me driving from Loveland (which is just North of Denver aka the Front Range) to Gunny.
So I'm back into the swing of things. All in all I traveled ohhh easily 3,500 miles by car in 7 days!!!!! Wow, that seems a lot, and it's not terribly bad by yourself I think b/c at least you have no one to argue with when you get cranky...
So today is Wednesday and tomorrow obviously Thursday...well, where I'm going with this is that I'm actually headed back out the door tomorrow at noon time; this time though with Scott and our friend Tim Par. We first will be driving to Denver International Airport from which we will be flying to Sacramento International!! A little bit about Tim Par, 23 or so years of age, lean and muscular, exceptional distance runner. He is the reason for this trip further West. He is running, on Saturday, in the American River 50 mile race (http://www.run100s.com/AR50/)...check out the link to learn more! Lucky for us though, Shawn and Katie Claycomb are graciously offering their house and hospitality for the duration of our stay; which goes till Sunday afternoon. Scott and I are fairly confident Tim will do quite well and maybe/probably win the race, if his head is straight. He has been training hard for this race and Scott is pretty much his coach. I joke with Scott and say that if he's the coach then I'm the road manager...planning the trip, lodging, etc. And, lucky for us, since I am an employee of Hertz, we are renting a car using my employee discount for a mere 14 bucks a day! Lucky/fortunate us!
So, that is the news from the past week and the news yet to come for this week/weekend. Wow, the snow continues to come down...jolly good (hope you caught the sarcasm). Take care and would love to talk to any and all of you soon. Haven't heard from some people in a while. Oh well, Happy April!
Oh and P.S., as always, Pictures have been posted to my Picasa website...click the link that follows to view (http://picasaweb.google.com/aldsmith3)
Alan
For those of you that read this and had a chance to be in town this past weekend, then you probably might have gotten to see me. For those of you that live in Indiana but did not get to see me, I apologize. Even my family - Mom, Dad, Steph and Rob only got to see me for a good solid evening of dinner. You probably think I flew home right? Wrong; I had the grand idea to drive home...haha. The real reason was so I could switch out mom and dad's vehicle that I had used to haul out the uhaul, in favor of my small 4 door Mazda Protege. So I left here in Gunnison last Wednesday morning (the 25th) and traveled to Lincoln Nebraska to stay with Lory Baker, my cousin. After a delicious dinner, good conversation, and a few card games I went to sleep in order to wake up early to drive to Erica and Ev's in Champaign, IL. I was delighted to reach their house by about 3 pm local time. Getting there early allowed me time to visit and play with that beautifully cute niece of mine, Elana Kay. Not forgetting the important part either, I got to visit with Erica and Ev as well! Early Friday morn found me on the road again for good ol' Indiana, PA!
I arrived by about 3 pm in the afternoon eastern standard time, dr0pped my car off to be looked at before it's trip back West, and then had a wonderful evening with friends uptown. I did not get to see all the friends I would have liked to, but the most important ones I did get to see and that was fine with me. Can't please everyone. Saturday, I was invited to play in a wiffleball tournament at the Rose Inn with my good friend Adam, as well as some other friends from Indiana that I know. After which, I hung out with Rotten Robbie (oh how he hates that name, haha) and then eventually had dinner that evening with the fam at Steph and Rob's pad. Sunday morn found me up early packing and anticipating a delicious breakfast with mom and dad at home. I was sad to have spent so little time with mom and dad...next time you two!
I repeated the same route on the way back out except for one small detail. I first traveled to Erica and Ev's; slept the night, and then headed West on the same route as I had come East except that instead of staying with Lory I went straight for her sister Renee's house in Loveland, Colorado. Needless to say, after 15+ hours of driving, I made it! I wasn't exhausted as you might think; I think at that point you are beyond tired and just wired for survival! haha. That was Monday, and of course Tuesday morning found me driving from Loveland (which is just North of Denver aka the Front Range) to Gunny.
So I'm back into the swing of things. All in all I traveled ohhh easily 3,500 miles by car in 7 days!!!!! Wow, that seems a lot, and it's not terribly bad by yourself I think b/c at least you have no one to argue with when you get cranky...
So today is Wednesday and tomorrow obviously Thursday...well, where I'm going with this is that I'm actually headed back out the door tomorrow at noon time; this time though with Scott and our friend Tim Par. We first will be driving to Denver International Airport from which we will be flying to Sacramento International!! A little bit about Tim Par, 23 or so years of age, lean and muscular, exceptional distance runner. He is the reason for this trip further West. He is running, on Saturday, in the American River 50 mile race (http://www.run100s.com/AR50/)...check out the link to learn more! Lucky for us though, Shawn and Katie Claycomb are graciously offering their house and hospitality for the duration of our stay; which goes till Sunday afternoon. Scott and I are fairly confident Tim will do quite well and maybe/probably win the race, if his head is straight. He has been training hard for this race and Scott is pretty much his coach. I joke with Scott and say that if he's the coach then I'm the road manager...planning the trip, lodging, etc. And, lucky for us, since I am an employee of Hertz, we are renting a car using my employee discount for a mere 14 bucks a day! Lucky/fortunate us!
So, that is the news from the past week and the news yet to come for this week/weekend. Wow, the snow continues to come down...jolly good (hope you caught the sarcasm). Take care and would love to talk to any and all of you soon. Haven't heard from some people in a while. Oh well, Happy April!
Oh and P.S., as always, Pictures have been posted to my Picasa website...click the link that follows to view (http://picasaweb.google.com/aldsmith3)
Alan
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Friday the 13th! (at least here in CO still)
It looks chilly with long pants and a fleece on but just the cool breeze from the ocean kept me a tad chilled. The sun was warm and lovely :)
So, beyond that exciting chunk of news, I was privileged to travel further west to sunny San Diego from last Saturday till Tuesday evening. My friend Madison here at the college was driving back to her home for spring break and invited me. I obliged and proceeded to secure a plane flight home Tuesday afternoon b/c I had to work Wednesday through Sunday at Hertz. It was awesome to get out of CO for a bit and see some new beautiful country. We spent 15 hours driving all day Saturday to arrive in San Diego Saturday evening. Please check out my pictures to see all of the lovely shots I got!!! Here is the link for those that forget to bookmark it!!!! (http://picasaweb.google.com/aldsmith3) Do check out those photos, in may ways, it is self-explanatory, though if you would like further clarification, etc. please feel free to email me (aldsmith3@gmail.com) or call me (724 388 5449).
Let us see...what else. OH! Also another reason why I'm glad I put off blogging till tonight. This morning I had the great opportunity to go up to Crested Butte (the beautiful and much more plush-monetarily speaking-ski resort community 30 miles north of I) to interview at the Country Club @ Crested Butte. I was interviewing for a position as a personal trainer. A non-traditional student and mother of another student at the college personal trains there and she spoke highly of me to the managers. From which of course, I sent a formal cover letter and my resume and 1 week later I am asked to come interview. Yay! Anyways, I spoke with Madelyn (the mother of my friend Tim and non-traditional student) called me later today after my interview saying they were very impressed with me. I thanked her for getting my foot in the door and speaking highly of me. So, it's not official yet but I imagine I will have a job opportunity coming my way soon hopefully! Besides a beautiful drive up to CB everyday that I'd work, the club is undergoing a 2 plus million dollar renovation and everything in the health club is getting updated! What a great way to start for me and for them! (Pending I get the job of course). Oh and also, the going rate for personal training is $60 bucks an hour! Not too shabby eh? I'll keep yins up on that.
For now the love/social life continues to go well. No new developments. I am not upset by such though b/c I have enough women friends to fulfill my company for women (read: non-sexually). Hope all is well else where! Is it me or does it seem like spring will maybe spring early this year?
Take care ya'll :)
Alan
Thursday, January 8, 2009
No.16
Greetings from Loveland, Colorado! Today I crossed into the land known as Colorado; home of the Rockies amongst other great things. My first impression was suprising because I thought I would immeditiely see mountains and be in aw; but, it took the better part of the evening till I arrived here in Loveland until I saw the Rockies. Lets just say, once I finally got to see them I was amazed. If you would like to look on a map, I came in on Interstate 76 from Nebraska and then headed West on Route 14 towards Windsor and then on to Loveland.
The mountains at first were just clouds and I was really wondering when they would appear. As the clouds across the horizon got closer the further West I headed, I realized that they weren't just clouds but mountains! Haha, ohh entertainment.
So, tonight I am staying my last night on the road and I am very grateful to be staying with my cousin Renee (who is the sister of my other cousin Lory-whom I stayed with last night). So this has been a tour of country side with a touch of family visiting-both of which I enjoy.
When asked if I was bored with the road I reply 'no,' because around every turn (well to be politically correct about the landscape out here) over every little rise in the road I see new territory I've never seen before and because of such, the entertainment is endless.
As you may know, tomorrow marks the last and shortest day of traveling. I will be finally reaching my destination in Gunnison! Whoop whoop. I have been checking the weather right now in the area I will be traveling to, and hopefully I will get into town before the snow hits.
Keep me in your thoughts as I make my final push. It may be a few days till I update again as I will need to get my computer set up and everything, but I promise you I will splurge much more about my impressions of traveling West once I have more time on my hands. Also, I have been taking lots of pictures so I will be posting those as well. Catch ya'll on the flip side!
The mountains at first were just clouds and I was really wondering when they would appear. As the clouds across the horizon got closer the further West I headed, I realized that they weren't just clouds but mountains! Haha, ohh entertainment.
So, tonight I am staying my last night on the road and I am very grateful to be staying with my cousin Renee (who is the sister of my other cousin Lory-whom I stayed with last night). So this has been a tour of country side with a touch of family visiting-both of which I enjoy.
When asked if I was bored with the road I reply 'no,' because around every turn (well to be politically correct about the landscape out here) over every little rise in the road I see new territory I've never seen before and because of such, the entertainment is endless.
As you may know, tomorrow marks the last and shortest day of traveling. I will be finally reaching my destination in Gunnison! Whoop whoop. I have been checking the weather right now in the area I will be traveling to, and hopefully I will get into town before the snow hits.
Keep me in your thoughts as I make my final push. It may be a few days till I update again as I will need to get my computer set up and everything, but I promise you I will splurge much more about my impressions of traveling West once I have more time on my hands. Also, I have been taking lots of pictures so I will be posting those as well. Catch ya'll on the flip side!
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
No. 15
Well today finds me in Lincoln Nebraska staying with my cousin Lory. So far the trip has been uneventful-which is good. I had some freezing rain coming out of PA yesterday on my way to Illinois and my sister Erica, brother-in law Ev, and darling niece Elana. I had a nice stay with them though very short.
In other news, Lory showed me where she worked at the Univ. of Nebraska. Pretty neat stuff, she works in the stadium there with athletes and I got a tour of the expensive and expansive facilities. Always nice to catch up with family. Tomorrow I am off to Renee Early's (a Baker girl too). Her and her husband Todd live in Loveland, CO (just north of Denver). I'll stay the night there and have some good eats I hear:)
The road has been good to me. Today was the longest part of the trip and the next 2 days will be cake comparatively. The winds of norther Illinois and Eastern Iowa really did a number on my gas mileage; I got the worst of the trip so far pulling the trailer through there. The whole time it felt like I was pulling a parachute and not a trailer because of the damn wind. Glad that's past! Tomorrow's trip should be a delight because the mountains are about to rise up before me. Yay for scenery. I'll be sure to take some nice photos for posting later.
Tune back in soon. I'll try to update tomorrow. Later ya'll.
In other news, Lory showed me where she worked at the Univ. of Nebraska. Pretty neat stuff, she works in the stadium there with athletes and I got a tour of the expensive and expansive facilities. Always nice to catch up with family. Tomorrow I am off to Renee Early's (a Baker girl too). Her and her husband Todd live in Loveland, CO (just north of Denver). I'll stay the night there and have some good eats I hear:)
The road has been good to me. Today was the longest part of the trip and the next 2 days will be cake comparatively. The winds of norther Illinois and Eastern Iowa really did a number on my gas mileage; I got the worst of the trip so far pulling the trailer through there. The whole time it felt like I was pulling a parachute and not a trailer because of the damn wind. Glad that's past! Tomorrow's trip should be a delight because the mountains are about to rise up before me. Yay for scenery. I'll be sure to take some nice photos for posting later.
Tune back in soon. I'll try to update tomorrow. Later ya'll.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
No. 14.5
Let this be my last official post from Indiana. I am going to miss this place; the people; and the comfort of calling this home. I'm not feeling big on words right now-can't say I'm choking on them either-just feel preoccupied too much to think a proper final post.
Perhaps a trek on the open road today will help jostle the mind some for a better chronicle of Day 1 on the road.
As I have said to some, be well and stay active! Love in all you do and say. An easy guidepost to go by: If I wouldn't do it, then you probably shouldn't either. Much Love to everyone. Thank you for a good solid 24 years of overall bliss. We shall meet again...
Alan
Perhaps a trek on the open road today will help jostle the mind some for a better chronicle of Day 1 on the road.
As I have said to some, be well and stay active! Love in all you do and say. An easy guidepost to go by: If I wouldn't do it, then you probably shouldn't either. Much Love to everyone. Thank you for a good solid 24 years of overall bliss. We shall meet again...
Alan
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