I'm back! I figured I'd wait a couple months and wait for people to stop following my blog before resuming posting again, because who wants people to actually read your blog? That's just silly. Anyways, it's been a crazy couple months since my hike ended. Coming off my journey you would think I'd take it easy for awhile and ease back into the real world, but you would be a fool. I went back to work 5 days after I finished and my first task was to help build a 40 foot bridge. I had no idea what I was doing but luckily enough, there were some people there who knew what they were doing and were more than happy to tell me what to do and yell at me when I screwed up (which was quite a bit). The bridge was completed and looks pretty awesome if you ask me. Check it out sometime just north of the McKenzie Lake parking area along the Ice Age Trail in Polk County.
Usually at work we have sweet trailers to stay in, but Straight Lake has no such luxuries so my coworker and I were relegated to tenting it. I stayed in a tent more in October then I did in either August or September. Temps in the 20's with flurries and that weather bomb or land hurricane that came through in late October kept things fresh. I enjoy sleeping in a tent with trees falling down around me. I was spared, but the tool trailer was not. It could have been avoided but the IAT is reactive, not proactive. Why cut down that dead tree that poses a hazard when you can wait for nature to take its course? It would be silly to remove the hazard when you have the chainsaw gear and folks with strong backs willing to help when you could put the onus on clearing the trail on local chapter members who are usually of the older variety and may take their time getting out to cut up the tree. Yeah, that wouldn't make sense.
What else have I done since September? Well, I went to a bachelor party in Chicago that ended up in Indiana for part of it to go gambling. I'm not much of a gambler, so I stood around and drank while everyone else gambled. I think I've gambled less and less everytime I've been in a casino starting out at $40 the first time and progressing to not even gambling a dime during the party. I'd rather spend my money on beer where I know the results. The bachelor party led to a wedding in Mexico a few weeks ago (not mine, the bachelor's). They wouldn't let me take my bulletproof vest through security so I called my loved ones and wrote my last will and testament figuring the my time on this Earth was short. In the weeks before heading to Mexico, I listened to a radio program (when you live in a tent with no electricity, gas or running water you foster a loving relationship with AM/FM radio) talking about how dangerous the country was and how druglords were kidnapping tourists and slaughtering them. Awesome! My kind of place! People were getting killed all over Mexico so I assumed I was next.
Bullets did not fly, but the weather sucked. We stayed at one of those all-inclusive resorts where the all-inclusive means you are excluded if you want to wear shorts at dinner. I'm on vacation and I have to dress nicer than I do in the States? That's stupid. It's 80 degrees and you want me to wear pants and a shirt with a collar? Maybe some people like doing that, but I am not one of those people. Me wearing shorts really lowers the standards of a place and ruins the dining experience for everyone (oh my god, that guy is wearing shorts. Can we move to another table to get away from that? My food tastes terrible now and I'm going to throw up if someone in shorts is in the same restaurant as me.). I lived in the woods for 3 months so you should be happy that I showered more than once in the past week. I'll dress up when the situation calls for it, weddings and coaching basketball. I'm the guy who everyone's mad at because they want to go a certain bar or restaurant but cant because I only brought shorts and t-shirts (and perhaps my oscar meyer weiner polo if I really want to class it up). I don't like being told I have to dress up when there is no reason to. I'd rather dress up when no one expects it. When I lived in EC, my roommate Jared and I would wear shirts and ties to the bar on random weeknights (and slow dance together at the Pio) just to class it up but on weekends and other big nights, I 'd be back to a t-shirt and shorts. Needless to say, the folks I was eating with in Mexico were not amused with my attire.
Wedding day came along bringing with it the best weather of the trip. The other days it was cloudy and/or rainy which is what you want when you are on the beach in Mexico. I had the joy of wearing a full suit with tie for the wedding. The only times I've worn a tie this year have been for Badger games (which is another place where dressing up is fine with me). I sweated pretty good but it wasn't my day so I was dressing at the pleasure of the bride and groom. The ceremony was nice and shorter than the rehearsal the day before. The newlyweds friend Kent was the photographer and did an amazing job. His talents with a camera put me to shame. You can look him up on the facebook at Kent Drake Photography. The day turned to night and I realized I was way too sober to give a speech so I started pounding liquid courage. The maid of honor told me to go first, but I told her that my speech would be better than hers so I didn't want her to have to follow up my brilliance. She laughed, but realized I was probably right. I didn't tell her that I had nothing prepared and I was going to wing it. Her speech was good but then it came time for me to summon the demons and give a speech. I remember referencing the Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts, working the balls and a bike ride to Indiana in a blizzard for a beer. I finished up by explaining the origins of the term "honeymoon" (back in the day newlyweds would get a months (moons) worth of mead (honey wine) and nine months later they would have a son. So a moons worth of honey wine came to be called a "honeymoon".) and then toasting the newlyweds with some homemade mead I made in May and smuggled down to Mexico. For winging it, I felt I did a decent job but it could've been better.
Things got goofy as the evening progressed. Someone re-enacted Ron Burgundy's cannonball from Anchorman, there was a leopard print jock strap, and shirts off by the end of the night. Needless to say, it was a blast! The whole weekend was an unmitigated success except for my flight home during which I felt worse than I have ever felt before. I had a layover in Cleveland and sat at the bar trying to get my life back together. A couple started talking to me and it turned out they had stayed at the same resort I had. We both agreed the bartenders and beach were terrible. They thought the resort had too much of a party atmosphere, I thought that it was too elegant and really hampered the party atmosphere. They complained of people being wasted at 1 in the afternoon and I said that it was vacation and if they didn't like it they could find someplace else and leave the fun to me. This was my second destination wedding of the year and I think that's enough for awhile. Going to these all-inclusive resorts by yourself and sharing a room with a dude is not what they are made for. Having a lady there would be a lot more enjoyable I would imagine. Maybe my room wouldn't smell like poop and farts then.
I got back to Chicago where my friends Joe and Monica picked me up and let me crash at their place for the night. The next day I got up to head back to Madison for work beckoned me. My car wouldn't start. Awesome. No one would help me jump it and when Monica came to help me, it turned out that was not the problem. I got my car towed to a shop that Monica's landlord goes to. I was pretty excited to get my car fixed in Chicago where they are known for low prices. $600 and a day later my car was fixed. I headed to Madison. Finally back in Wisconsin after a week away. It really felt good to breath in that fresh Badger State air. I woke up the next morning to go to work only to find my battery dead. The first person I asked helped me get my car started and I drove to work. A coworker brought me to my car after work so he could jump me in case my car didn't start. The battery was completely dead. Sweet. We got her running and I made the jaunt to EC for Thanksgiving. My dad brought my car to the shop after Thanksgiving and it turns out the good people of Milito's on Fullerton in Chicago replaced parts that don't even exist on my car and left some jumper coils on my fuses which drained the battery. I was taken to the cleaners. Oh, how I love big cities and the generosity of strangers... It's been a great couple weeks with my car!
This last week at work was a bruiser as I drove 1000 miles and walked in the woods all day trying to mark a boundary with compasses that each had their own interpretation of North. Working long days and then coming back to the hotel to try and plan my great escape to the Rose Bowl to watch the Badgers was a bit tiring, but that's what men do. Who knows what the rest of the year has in store for me but I'm working on expanding my blog into a booklet or something and thinking about doing a solo boundary waters snowshoe trip. Should be a great end to what has been the best year of my life!
