Willy Tree

You see that lone (live) pine tree at the top of the hill in the foreground?

That tree is the Willy Tree.

From there, Willy keeps an loving eye on us.

The Shoe Tree

I got to see the famous Shoe Tree on highway 50.

So many types of shoes from many generations of style. Even snowboard boots!

Keyser Soze

We went to see Justin's old roommate JT's band play up in Crystal Bay on Friday night. I'd heard so much about JT and it was so sweet to finally meet him...plus see an awesome show.

We got our dance on for while!

Desolate

Talk about some desolate working conditions!

Dixie strikes again

Just when I was talking nice about Dixie she goes and gets nasty on me! All last week I was in Dixie and she was MUDDY! And I'm talking muddy--like you've never seen muddy before. Let me show you a glimpse of what I'm talking about.


First thing on Monday morning we got the truck stuck just trying to park. So my thought was to unhook the trailer to more easily get the truck out; and worry about the trailer later. Well, I had to find a solid surface to crank the hitch down on. The only thing I could find was the remains of a poor dead cow. And the cow's collar bone worked real slick!






After shoveling out the tires of the truck twice and shoving boards under, we got the truck out and then prompting got it stuck again. The trailer was too heavy to move much by hand (without completely throwing your back out) we hooked up the trailer chains to the back axles of the ATVs and made the ATVs pull their own trailer! This is what Dad would call "earning your keep"!




Our sites were horribly wet and we couldn't even get to one of the normal sites by foot (or playa shoe).


And on the very last day, when I was the most tired the hardest site visit of my career occurred. The dreaded P-west site looks very wet--under water actually. So we attempted to take the minimal amount of gear on 1 ATV as far as possible and then hike the rest of the way. Well. The ATV never made it off the salt grass because I almost sunk it in less than 4 seconds. So we started to hoof it. Bad move.

I had knee-high rubber boots on that were 4 sizes too big for me (so I had on 3 pair of socks). Each step I took my boot sunk about 6-10 inches and it took an unbelievable amount of energy and strength to pull it back out. We found out quickly that you could not stop for a rest because that's when you got REALLY stuck. I had to dig my own foot out on 2 occasions, which made me start to have a panic attack. Getting an ATV stuck in the mud is one thing--but getting yourself stuck is a whole different ball game.

My asthma kicked in and my moral went down. I made it about 2/3 of the way and decided it was kicking my butt and I had to retreat. I had pushed myself to the physical limit and the thought of having to hike back out of there just about did me in. I handed off the laptop and started my trek back in my over sized boots. Just about then my socks came off and became balled up in the toe of my right boot, therefore not allowing my foot to fit correctly. Because I couldn't stop for fear of getting stuck (and my pace had slowed to where each step was a mini "getting stuck scenario") I started stepping on the side-walls of my boot. This story is getting too long, so to speed it up, I decided it would be easier without the boot so I stepped out of it leaving the boot behind and my bare foot into the COLD, squishy playa mud. So much easier! Once on firm ground and my heart rate slowing I was able to take a picture of my feet. Lucky for you!

Clean sheets

There's nothing quite like climbing into bed with a fresh set of sheets.

I know it's one my favorite things, but this is what it looks like when I change the sheets and Justin jumps in before I get the rest of the bed made. No amount of prompting would get him out, so I just made the bed on top of him..