midwestern adventures.

i'm currently in st. louis! the past few days have been very busy. here's a brief breakdown of the adventures so far...

SATURDAY

i left grand rapids around 11am and had uneventful drive to my brother's condo in the chicago suburbia. i spent the afternoon with my brother, sister-in-law, niece and my brother's friend matt at a street festival in palatine.

ivonne and olivia.

olivia, my niece, is such a great baby! she's about 6 months old, can roll over, army crawl across the floor, not quite sit up on her own and is just getting her first tooth. she likes to have staring contests. she usually wins. she gets the hiccups a lot which is rather adorable. 

we got dinner at a mexican grocery store and then eventually headed out to see a band that only does talking heads covers at a pub in naperville (without olivia, of course). it was a lot of fun to go out with my brother. i don't know that we've ever done that before.

SUNDAY

olivia and her staring contests.

olivia woke up early, so i hung out with her and kyle in the morning.

i eventually headed over to meet my friend caitlin and her boyfriend. we went to their church (willow creek...the largest church i've ever been to. it felt like a mall). afterward, we had a lazy afternoon before heading out to pick up my friend jenn from the train station near the chicago botanic gardens. caitlin works there as a horticulturist, so we got in for free and spent the rest of the day walking around the gardens.

chicago botanic gardens.

the gardens are beautiful, but it was also the heat of the day, so we were all quite tired by the end of our wanderings. i fell in love with the amazing bonsai collection they have and want to learn more. 

eventually, our stomachs started calling, so we headed to arlington heights to get dinner at this cool little pub. i ate a delicious veggie sandwich (portabello mushroom, tomato, alfalfa sprouts, onion, zucchini, greens, mozzarella, and a pesto mayo) served with a side of mac 'n cheese. yum!

eventually it was time to drop jenn off at the train station, so we said our goodbyes and went our separate ways.

carillon bells at chicago botanic garden.

MONDAY

after hanging out with olivia one last time, i hopped in my car and headed into the city to meet julia, one of the other corps members from MA, for breakfast. she lives in this cute neighborhood in the north part of the city. we ate at a swedish restaurant...which made me very happy. i had swedish pancakes with lingon berries for the first time in perhaps 3-4 years. it was really nice to see julia and talk about our lives after the program.

cornfields in illinois.

after a while, i hopped back into my car and started the trek to st. louis. my parents lent me their gps unit for the trip. i was apprehensive about taking it because i'm notoriously horrible with electronics. however, it's really easy to use, so i'm having a good time with it. i changed the voice to french, which is awesome. i made a few stops along the way, but made it to st. louis a little after 6pm.

st. louis.

dan, evelyn, kelly and i went to dewey's pizza for a delicious dinner. dan, evelyn and i split a pizza that was half wild mushroom (so many different kids of mushrooms!) and the edgar allen poe (red pepper, mushroom, tomato, garlic, goat cheese and probably more things i don't remember), and i ordered a delicious candied walnut and grape salad. the dressing was a citrus basil vinaigrette. mmmmm...

TODAY

dan, evelyn and kelly (the friends i'm visiting here) have class or work all day, so i'm spending the day relaxing, catching up on letters, and making some phone calls. kelly has the day off tomorrow. i'm very excited to see her and catch up on all the directions life has taken us this year.

next stop...lawrence, ks to visit my grandma!

ROAD TRIP STATS (including trip from MA)
cities visited: 7 - rochester, buffalo, niagara falls, ypsilanti, grand rapids, chicago (+suburbs), st. louis
miles traveled: 1,793
tanks of gas: 4

all my bags are packed.

but i'm not really ready to go. and i'm not leaving on a jet plane; i'm driving across the country.

i've spent the past week and a half unpacking and repacking, all the while relishing in memories from the past 10 months. my time at home was rather uneventful. i think the most exciting thing that happened around the house was when my cat caught a chipmunk (he let it go). i did a lot of cooking, but i've realized that my sense of proportions is entirely skewed to make WAY too much food.

here's a list of things i miss about massachsuetts:
- the kitchen in hawley (food, dance parties, general great times)
- the stars (the only better ones i've seen were on a beach at the galapagos islands)
- contra dancing (i actually went with my parents in grand rapids; fun, but not the same)
- cabin 5 (you know who you are)

here are some highlights from my past few days:
- only having 1 day of wanting to pack up and drive back to MA (made worse by waking up to find one of the cats peed on my expensive sleeping bag AND burning pop tarts in the toaster which caused 2 smoke alarms to go off on opposite sides of the house)
- taking 4 boxes of clothes, books, random stuff to goodwill (minimizing...attempting to at least)
- seeing lots of great friends in ypsilanti

things i'm excited for in the near future:
- driving across the country
- visiting friends and family i haven't seen in years
- starting my awesome job in california

epic road trip itinerary (subject to modification):
chicago (suburbs)
(drive through rockton?)
st. louis
lawrence, ks
tulsa, ok
houston, tx
austin, tx
(some random campsite in new mexico)
colorado springs
denver
flagstaff, az
CALIFORNIA!

here i come!

cruise night in depot town (ypsilanti).

bomber. best place to go after a night of debauchery.

there's no place like home.

since i've been back home in michigan, i've been thinking about what i call home, where i call home, and what home actually is. i view massachusetts as home now, but i also feel like michigan is home (both with my parents and in ypsilanti where i went to college). i'm sure i'll call california home after my time there, too.

however you define home, i feel like it's that place you miss when you're not there, the place you get warm fuzzies coming back to, the place where you feel you can be yourself. 

outback pizza in ludlow, vt.

let's see...the past 2 weeks have certainly been busy. the last week of my program in massachusetts was filled with many, many adventures. we all went up to a campground in vermont for a couple days to recreate. i spent most of the daylight hours hanging out on a beach by the lake. i also played some sand volleyball and a few board games. thanks to my friend heidi, i painted my toenails for the first time in 10 months. on the last night, we went out for pizza at a local place. the pizza was pretty great.

when we returned to hawley, we got to work sprucing up the place. pretty much our regular batch of chores set to overdrive. the place looked spectacular in the end...perhaps a little too clean. it was all leading up to the recognition ceremony on friday. what a strange day. we spent the morning getting everything ready. arranging food, arranging chairs, arranging flowers. friends and family started arriving, filling the chairs and benches, anxiously awaiting the ceremony. i managed not to cry during it which was quite an achievement. 

cabin 5! caleb, elysa and i. 

it was pretty powerful to see how much the 37 corps members achieved during our time. our director put together a fun slideshow, and we even had an impromptu performance of a song that a few folks wrote during one of the hitches. 

here's a link to the video: http://www.thesca.org/follow-me/leah.

the lone wolves perform "it only takes 4 people".

the afternoon was a bit disjointed...some folks left to be with family, some folks left to go out to town. i just hung around until i eventually went to town. we all ended up meeting up later and stormed a karaoke bar. it was quite fun.

saturday was the "official day of recognition" for our program director and program coordinator who are both leaving for other amazing life adventures. there were oodles of lawn games, dedications, gifts and hugs. it was pretty great! later on, we migrated to the charlemont inn for music and good company. something about the night and the music got to me and i started crying...and didn't stop for a while. oh man.

somewhere in new york.

sunday found me packing up my car and leaving. easier said than done. the packing part wasn't too bad. it was the leaving part that was. luckily a few other folks were leaving at the same time, so it wasn't too bad. i still cried a lot and held onto hugs longer than i have lately, but, eventually i had to leave. i took the scenic route to rochester, ny where i stayed with a friend from college. the drive was actually great. it was cloudy and rainy most of the time which matched my mood. i'm glad i took the scenic route. it was good to have a gradual transition from beautiful country roads to the highway.

i arrived sunday evening at my friend's place. we got some ice cream, played with her dog and caught up on life. the next day, i saw a friend i hadn't seen in over 3 years. we got some great greek food and wandered around town.

final week on the trails

yup. i just finished my final week on the trails this summer. i've been doing a lot of reflecting on my experience here over the past few weeks, and the only conclusion i've come to is that i have so much more reflecting to do. i don'.t think i could have asked for a better way to end trail season. after spending the summer traveling all over the state, i ended my time with a week of work on mt. greylock, the highest point in massachusetts.

i put on my crew leader hat again for this one, hoping that there wouldn't be as many logistical challenges as there were on my previous crew leading experience (remember the envirothon??). in the end, there were quite possibly more logistical challenges, but it was a great time!

we headed out on monday morning, the van packed up and the trailer loaded. our course brought us on a dirt road that was completely rutted out. not exactly ideal when you're towing a heavy trailer full of tools, food and camping equipment. at one point i saw a sign that said "road closed" and was really hoping that sign was referring to another road. i still don't know what the sign meant, but we eventually made it to the mountain.

we ended up scoring the best campsite i've had all summer. it was certainly an eventful drive up the mountain though. we drove up a windy, but paved, road until the turn-off for the campsites. the campground was recently turned into a hike-in only facility, so folks can park in a side parking lot and hike everything in. we were able to drive in since we had so much stuff, but this meant that the road we traveled on was not entirely in the best shape. we had to drive about 2 miles on yet another rutted out, windy dirt road to get to stony ledge, our group site for the week. about a mile in, and after lots of times having the trailer hitch hit rocks and bumps, we hear a BOOM! POP! hiss.....which signaled a flat tire. not the best thing to have happen on the first day of a project that requires commuting to a site. after looking all around the van and the trailer looking for the flat, we realize that we must have popped the spare tire living below the trunk of the van. i was relieved at not having to change a tire, but then i stressed out all week about getting a flat tire. oh well!

i don't know it i can quite capture in words the feeling i had when we drove up to that campsite every day. after what seemed like endless driving on the dirt road, we camp to a pull around with the most beautiful view i've had in massachusetts.

the place we stayed was called stony ledge, and it literally was a stony ledge. the group camp site was about 50 yards into the woods and came complete with a very nice lean-to, a few picnic tables, fire pit, composting toilet and a bear box big enough to fit all of our food. oh, did i talk about the view? so, i guess you could argue that the best view at the state reservation should be on top of mt. greylock because you can see everything around you, but the view from our site was even better because you could see mt. greylock and the rest of the range tumbling off in the distance.

every moment at that campsite felt epic. our conversations, molly's guitar plucking, eating meals. everything felt monumental. at the same time, being there and seeing these majestic, tree topped mountains made me feel so small and insignificant. i really like that about nature. i noticed for the first time that different types of trees grow on different slopes of the mountains. i think i've learned that in a class or had it explained to me, but it doesn't really compare to sitting on a ledge and actually seeing the patches of pine trees clinging steep slopes while other deciduous trees grace the rest of the peaks.

the project was great. we built 10 dimensional lumber bog bridges along about 2 miles of trail and also constructed a 12 ft boardwalk along a really muddy area. here are some photos!

we definitely had our fair share of challenges with injuries, thunderstorms, and being separated along a 2 mile stretch of trail, but all in all, i had a great time! on our last morning, we decided to wake up early for the sunrise, go back to sleep for a few hours and then take a trip up to the summit at mt. greylock. quite a  majestic way to end trail season...

back to school.

70 steps in 7 days.

i felt like i went back in time a few months to education season with this hitch. the first part of the project involved building steps at rowe school (a school that a few people taught at this winter). long story short, we built A LOT of steps. 70 to be exact. it was wild. i did a lot of saw work with the circular saw. i actually got tired of it at some points...which i didn't think was possible.

food time on the playground.

we were able to cook our meals in the school kitchen, which was awesome! we ate dinner out on the playground. our contact brought us delicious snacks every day (blueberry muffins, cookies, chocolate zucchini cake). i really felt like a kid again.

all corps!

in the middle of the hitch, we packed up and drove to bear brook state forest in new hampshire for the all corps - a gathering of all the conservation corps in the northeast. i won't lie. i was overwhelmed with all of the new people when we arrived...to go from seeing the same 6 people all of the time to being surrounded by over 100 people...a bit of a change. on friday night, there was a talent show and boy, did sca massachusetts represent! i sang bridge over troubled water with a bunch of folks, but i was astounded with the great talent (justin, danny and kya's circus performance, sean's songs, caleb's playing, dave's singing...and so much more!).

the next morning, we all loaded up into our respective vans to head to a 4-h community garden for the day. there were lots of tasks, but i spent the day weeding and restaking some plants. i had fun meeting new people and learning about the different programs in the northeast. eventually we ran out of weeding to do, so i learned some african work songs (that i have since forgotten...but will remember again).

hanging out on saturday afternoon.

in the afternoon, we played some ridiculous games like LITM (leaves in the mouth...) and sticking blades up grass up our noses in order to see who could stand it longer (i won. lasted over a minute. another guy actually sneezed. it was hilarious!). then we all had a cookout dinner and contra danced! yay! after the long day, i played a rousing game of apples to apples back at camp and enjoyed a campfire by the beach.

on sunday morning, we had the all corps competition for the coveted horns and a year of bragging rights. it was one of those moments where you just had to be there, but i don't know if i've ever had that much of a flood of spirit for anything ever. there were some typical relay games (log tossing, hammering nails, piggyback races), a few rounds of tug-o-war (we won!), but the competition came down to a game of rock paper scissors. we won, but it was rock paper scissors...still quite exciting.

my boots.

being at all corps made me really appreciate the focus on community that we have here. it's not that the other programs don't focus on it, but it was there that i realized how great a community we have. i'm going to miss this so much!

after all corps, we returned to rowe to finish the steps. it was a grumpy few days on my part...i was really tired. but, hey. that's our work! when we finished, we packed up for hawley and enjoyed a delicious dinner made by jessica. cari and i took a dip in the pond which felt great : )

the trailhead at mlk.

the next two days we spent building a trail at the mlk charter school for excellence in springfield, ma. it was great, and my only experience doing new trail work, but i think i was too tired to really feel involved there. we still did a great job! but, i was pooped!

i'm feeling a bit refreshed after a 3 day weekend...but it's strange that this program is quickly coming to a close. i'm not going to be ready to leave....