Gretta Gets a Bath

In preparation for my totally awesome weekend plans, I decided it was time to clean all the bugs off Gretta.

Not bad for a Thursday, huh? Also, just pretend like you don’t see my license plate number.

Oh poor, neglected blog…

If I’m not careful, this post might not even get on the blog before February is over.

Well, I guess it’s a good thing I’m careful.

I tell you, readers, lately I feel like a new man. I just bought groceries, I purchased a new plant for my house, and life is looking great. We’ll see how long I can manage to keep that plant alive, but for right now, it’s still suckin’ in the CO2 and blowing out good ol’ oxygen. Gretta has an appointment with the car doctor tomorrow afternoon for an oil change – who knows,  I might even buy her a new set o’ tires.

Work has been keeping me out of trouble lately, and then some. Next week I’ll start part two of the intensive Reinsurance training I started as a new hire nine months ago. It’s a little hectic because of the time of year, but I’ve got my fingers crossed that things will work out for the best.

In other news, my buddy Joe just left the country to go to China. He’ll be teaching there and having all kinds of adventures. If you care to follow his blog, you can find it here. Since Joe was going away, he bequeathed me his super nice scrabble board. It’s baller.

I would take a picture of it for you, but then what would I have to blog about later? And that, my friends, is how you create narrative tension. Thanks for reading.

The Longest Post Ever

Well dear readers, I promised you an account of my spring break shenanigans, so without much further adieu, here they are:

My good friend Tom and I cruised on down to a lil’ ranch near Black, Missouri (pronounced “Mah-zur-ruh” for those not in-the-know) to begin our backpacking adventure. After a brief 11 hour drive from Minneapolis, we parked ourselves at Brushy Creek Lodge, set up camp next to Gretta (my car, for those not in-the-know), and layed down for the night on a nice piece of non-frozen soil.

We hit the trail right on time the next morning, thanks to our Head ranch man Bob. Bob was something of a hiking enthusiast himself, and took pleasure in providing us with the exact names and locations of his favorite hiking trails along “The Canyon” (which means “the grand canyon,” for those not in-the-know).

Apart from his occasional exclamations like, “That trail was a bear-cat! Ooohweeee!” Bob pointed out key landmarks on the trail as the three of us whizzed past them in his ridiculously empty fifteen passenger van.

We got on trail, hiked, saw some things, yadda yadda yadda. The trail was a bit easier going than we had initially anticipated, so Tom and I covered between 9 and 12 miles each day. We got on trail Sunday Morning and had completed our planned section and then some by Tuesday afternoon.

There were, fair reader, certain trials and tribulations during the trip. There were some river crossings. And we did get lost. Kind of. Twice.

The only times we got “lost” were at the very beginning of the trail, trying to figure out which path to follow; and at the very end of the trail, looking for the path back to our car. As navigator, I take full responsibility for both of these blunders, and can soberly admit that it was a good learning experience.

We eventually realized our error once we crossed over a stream that we weren’t supposed to, but by that time we were a solid mile downhill of where we wanted to be.

But, we regained our bearings after a two minute scouting expedition and had found ourselves back at Gretta’s side just after 1 PM.

The three of us (Tom, myself, and Gretta) hightailed it on out of there on Tuesday afternoon. Cruising through the smoothly paved highways of the sunny Missouri backcountry, it was a pleasure to get a chance to sit down, sip a cool Sonic beverage, and ride the open interstate back to Minneapolis.