welcome to sunshine.

i have been in california now for about 2 weeks. i finished up the whirlwind training last friday with a staff overnight out at a place called horse meadows. i was really happy to see a big field of grass. the hike out was pretty intense, but once we got there, we all hunkered down, climbed into our sleeping bags, shared brief versions of our life stories and fell asleep under the stars.

the weekend was spent getting all of my teaching materials ready. we teach courses in outdoor survival and native cultures and both involve using a bow drill for demonstration and experiential learning (aka the kids try it out). so...i spent a little bit of time on the small things we need for class and A LOT of time trying to become awesome at the bow drill. aside from my set making an awful screeching noise, it's not too bad.

my roommate dominates the bow drill. she made a fire yesterday even. it was very impressive.

there is so much more to say about this place, but i will save that for another entry. off to get myself ready for our first day with kids!

pictures from the rest of the drive.

here are some snapshot from my drive through texas to colorado springs...(mainly the capulin volcano national monument).

national monument i stopped at!

oh hey! it's me.

view from the top of the volcano.

i feel like i'm doing the sorority girl pose.

clouds of impending doom.

mountains! crossing the colorado border.

more mountains.

life in southern california is still great. i haven't quite gotten over the weather. it's pretty much sunny and in the 80s every day. since i'm up in the mountains it cools off quite a bit.

yesterday i moved into my cute little cabin in the woods. i'm sharing a room with a girl named kate from ohio. she's really great! we have 2 cabin-mates who live on the other side of the cabin. i'll be sharing a bathroom with 7 other girls and a kitchen with 20 people. joy!

last night we had an enjoyable evening of pizza and beer around the campfire. folks brought out their guitars and drums and voices. pretty much amazing!

i'm in town with kate picking up some things that we'll need for teaching. we stopped at a thrift store where i bought a picnic basket, umbrella, stuffed elephant and many other things...all for $7 because it was half off day! : )

i miss everyone so much, but i'm having a wonderful time out here. i just found out my mailing address, so send me an email if you want it: miller.is.robin@gmail.com.

new home at high trails.

i arrived at my new home at high trails outdoors science school up in the san bernardino mountains on sunday afternoon. i spent a few fun days romping around with some of my new co-workers before we started training on tuesday morning. some highlights include a campfire with 3 guitars, lots of beatles music and a clarinet; hiking over to the local lake (hallockville pond is much bigger); and camping for the first time in over a month.

monday evening found me sitting in a dining hall with 30+ new staff members at a family dinner. it was fun to enjoy the company of new friends and get to know the folks who will become my home away from home for the next 9 months. after dinner we moved into cabins for temporary housing before we decide where we are going to live for the year.

the past two days (tuesday and wednesday) have been full of learning, discovery and fun (and lots of talking, paperwork, and hiking). i'm pretty tired and worn out, but i'm getting excited to soon be inspiring young minds from the local area in all aspects related to nature. so far i've learned classes in geology, plants, outdoor survival, mammals (furry friends), decomposers (little world), and environmental awareness. pretty sweet.

we've also been training on how to be excellent cabin instructors (think camp counselor), and i'm getting excited and a bit nervous about that responsibility.

i'm very excited to move into our housing this weekend! we get to spend tomorrow night hashing out who will live where (it's a bit complicated, but i'll save the trouble of explaining), but it'll be great to move in!

until next time...

the mountains.

moments:
- driving around rural texas
- hiking up on the capulin volcano national monument
- crossing the border into colorado and being surrounded by hills and mountains
- seeing the rockies
- camera dying
- aunt leslie and rick in colorado springs
- first home cooked meal in 2 weeks
- denver: grandma sara and steve, kristin
- great conversation
- being the fill-in daughter
- my meticulously folded laundry...
- aunt leslie making coffee for me the morning i left for flagstaff
- beautiful landscapes in new mexico and arizona
- total eclipse of the heart in orchestra+elevator mode
- npr
- finally making it to flagstaff (after 11 hours of driving)
- grand canyon hostel : )
- lumberyard brewery
- the piano room
- crazy austrailians watching youtube videos in the hostel lounge
- sleep...
- macy's for breakfast: meatless biscuits and gravy
- seeing joshua for lunch at an indian restaurant
- walking around downtown flagstaff during an old car cruise day
- driving along route 66 to kingman, az
- meeting gloria, my newly found grandmother, and enjoying a wonderful night of rest
- driving through miles and miles of deserts and mountains to finally arrive in CALIFORNIA

now off to explore my new home....

everything is bigger in texas.

crazy highways in dallas.

eventually, i made it to texas. everything really is bigger in texas. the land, the sky, the traffic, the weather. on friday, i made it through dallas and drove into houston around midnight. marc and i headed out to sherlock's to get a few beers and play some darts. i won at darts.

SATURDAY

saint arnold brewery.

we got lunch at this great trinidadian restaurant with a few of marc's friends from grad school. holy moly it was tasty! afterward, we toured the saint arnold brewery and enjoyed a few beer samples. the heat in houston, my lack of sleep, and those few sips of beer necessitated a nap. once i woke up we went to see the other guys (the new will farrel film) which was HILARIOUS. it was also the first film i'd seen in a theater since december.

later on we went to cedar creek, a great bar with lots of outdoor seating. fun times!

SUNDAY

where we went tubing!

marc and the giant ladle.

sunday was the day of tubing on the guadalupe river! we left late morning and ended up stopping at buc-ees, this crazy rest/truck stop that has lots of ridiculous things. like a giant ladle.

armed with a cooler full of beer and tubes, we set out for 4 hours of floating down a lazy river. it was fabulous. i didn't even get sunburnt. wahoo!

needless to say, i was pooped by the end of that adventure and fell asleep before 10pm. whoops...

MONDAY

mural in austin.

i ended my houston adventure with carry out breakfast of kolaches and lunch at sweet tomatoes. yum yum yum. i hit the road just as the remnants of a tropical storm hit houston. yay? this meant driving through torrential rain on an 8 lane highway. not ideal driving conditions, but i guess it could have been worse. i made it into austin in the evening to hang out with danielle for the rest of the day. miraculously, it wasn't raining at all when i got there.

me at ut-austin.

austin is SUCH a cool city. very walkable, bikeable, public transportation-able. we walked arount UT-austin and then took the bus into downtown to check out the 6th street district. we ate at the iron cactus, an upscale mexican place in town. i ordered spinach, artichoke and portabello enchiladas. DELICIOUS.

after stuffing ourselves more than we should've, we walked around town checking out a few of the local bars. literally every bar on 6th street had a live band...it was amazing! we stopped into friends and the chuggin' monkey to see some great local blues bands before catching a cab back to danielle's place. oh man, our cab driver was hilarious, too...best cab experience i've had.

TUESDAY

rain. rain. rain.

some cool terrain in texas.

i woke up early to a downpour outside. overnight the tropical storm i drove through leaving houston made its way out to austin...and was there for quite a while. my drive up to amarillo (where i had a room reserved at a cheap motel), was peppered with random outbursts of crazy thunderstorms. i made a few stops for gas and food, but made it to amarillo in the early evening. after checking into my hotel, i picked up a few groceries at this great local market and spent the evening relaxing and writing postcards in my room. not too shabby.

WEDNESDAY
i'm about ready to head off to colorado springs! just need to make a pb&j for lunch, pack up my things and set the GPS to the mountains.

ROAD TRIP STATS (including trip from MA)
cities visited: 12 - rochester, buffalo, niagara falls, ypsilanti, grand rapids, chicago (+suburbs), st. louis, lawrence (KS), tulsa, houston, austin, amarillo
miles traveled: 3,474
tanks of gas: 9

into the heartland.

my final days in st. louis were really great. i've lucked out in getting some pretty amazing food out and about (mostly thanks to my wonderful friends and their great food recommendations). for tuesday's dinner, i ended up at the atomic cowboy for what my friend dan attested was the most delicious veggie burger in town. it was quite tasty indeed! we also ordered some fried plantains served with a honey dipping sauce. yum.

fresh, local produce.

WEDNESDAY
i spent my wednesday exploring a few neighborhoods with my good friend kelly. we went to the soulard farmer's market so i could pick up some fresh produce. i ended up with a few plums and a box of raspberries.

i got a hawaiian sundae.

afterward, we stopped into park avenue coffee to enjoy gooey butter cake, one of st. louis' finest dessert options. kelly settled for peach and i got the red velvet. once we stuffed ourselves silly, we declared it nap time before going out to dinner at local harvest cafe. i ordered the vegan chili with a house salad and a glass of crisp riesling. talk about delicious and fresh! we topped the evening off with mr. wizard frozen custard. great way to end a summer night.

THURSDAY

i love rest areas.

i was up early to head off to lawrence, ks to visit my grandmother. the drive wasn't too bad. i got there just in time for lunch, so after a little bit of chit chat, we headed over to the salty iguana for some delicious spinach and cheese enchiladas. then we headed back to my grandma's house to catch up on everything that's been going on in our lives lately.

look closely at the bull on the right.

my grandma recently had some surgery and is doing really well with the recovery. we looked at some of my photos from massachsuetts, watched jeopardy and the news and then decided it was time for dinner at mariscos. i enjoyed a delicious salad, tomato basil soup and corn on the cob. i even snuck a few rings of calamari (oops!). it was just great.

FRIDAY

erica and i at cosmo.

an early morning yet again...this time driving down to tulsa, ok. i actually made it into town relatively early and met my cousin erica at cosmo cafe. i hadn't seen her in about 5 years, so we had a lot to catch up on!

traffic in oklahoma. life is good...?

eventually, though, i needed to get on the road again and she needed to head off to work, so i hopped in my car, set the gps to houston and headed on my way. the traffic gods had been good to me for the entire trip until i got just outside of tulsa where i hit some really nasty construction traffic near a toll booth. it took me 45 minutes to go less than 2 miles. and then i had to pay 2 dollars at the end because it was a toll road. not entirely ideal. however i continued on my journey and eventually made it into TEXAS!


(more to come on texas in my next entry)