It's Better in Wyoming.

If I ever decide to change the name of my blog, I think I’ll change it to “Nothing Wrong with North Dakota.” Cuz even if it’s better in Wyoming, my long weekend trip with Dad up to ND was pretty damn alright. Somehow I expected it to get colder when we crossed the ND state line. But even up there it was hot, damn hot. I think we set heat records every where we went. Minot was supposed to break its 90-year-old record by hitting 103. Teddy Roosevelt National Park, just off of interstate 94 in Western North Dakota, encompasses an area that has been affectionately referred to as “Hell with the Fires Put Out.” It’s got that feeling to it, too—that feeling, like the badlands in South Dakota and the desert canyons of Arizona, that you’re not in a welcoming place. The kind of place that makes you feel uneasy and maybe even a bit god-forsaken: that you’ve stepped out of favor with the compassionate forces of the world. The kind of place that you might get sent to after you’d committed some terr...

Here's me, at the top of the world. Well, relatively close to it: as close as I can get in quick driving distance from Laramie. I had high hopes of being the only one on Medicine Bow Peak, but someone was there when I got there, a guy from Seattle. Then his wife and their two boys. It's hardly lonely at the top. Still, though, I only saw them and one group of three older ladies (out takin' pictures of wildflowers): a total of 7 people in six miles of trail. It's better in Wyoming. Yeah, I'm not sure what's up with the chipmunk look I've got going on, either. Here's a picture where I'm not effing-up the view: Spectacular, huh? I'm pretty sure that I take the same three pictures every time I go on the hike. But it's just as spectacular each trip, so I feel like I gotta take pictures, even though I've already got six at home just like this one.

My favorite part about seeing films on the big screen at the local theater is the cartoon parrot, just before the main feature. So totally hokey and 1987ish: I love it.

This weekend I rode with my sister, her husband, and their dog up to the Bighorns to go camping with my uncle. We all rode up front in their regular cab pickup, cuz Dawg doesn't like riding in the back. Even though the truck has a topper on it and Joel (brother-in-law) fixed it up so Dawg could ride on the doggy bed and stick his head through the pass-through to the cab. But no, Rudy (Dawg's real name) had to be up front with us. Man's best friend. Anyway, at camp Friday night we were eating some taters and steak when Dawg started gazing intently into the trees off to the side of camp. Out of the forest wanders a moose calf, not even 10 yards from our tents. Moose grazes along while we snap pictures, then heads off down the mountain. Of course it's just dark enough that our pictures show the outline of a moose, the gleam of moose-eye, and some clouds in the distance. But there really is a moose there! It was cool. Saturday we caught the brook trout and got sunb...

2010 update: Fire in the Sky CANCELLED?! Say it ain't so. See my slightly more extensive note here , or jump directly to Jubilee Days's facebook page discussion about the cancellation . Or see the other 2010 Jubilee Days events at the schedule here . ***************** 2009 update: The Jubiliee Days website has finally been mostly reconstructed, so it's less a mess now than it was before. According to the information I could find, this year's co-headliners are Eric Church and the Lost Trailers. Click here for Eric Church's official website or click here for an NPR clip of four of their songs or click here for The Lost Trailers' official website . ****************** 2008: Click here for the 2008 Fire in the Sky show info . And click here for some info about the show's main act, Earl Ware and Coltrain . ***************** Original 2007 post: I like fireworks. Like grape soda and cheesey -weenies, fireworks make me feel like a kid again. Last night I went...

Cheez It hired some dude to sculpt a 300-lb block of cheeder into a scaled down version of Mt. Rushmore. Why Rushmore? That's what I don't get. I mean, I like Rushmore and all, and it's a great national icon and all, but of all the great things that could be recreated in cheese, why not pick something from Wisconsin? Or some natural wonder, like Yellowstone Falls? Or something more cheese-related, like a cow? In unrelated news of much greater significance, yesterday I played pick-up kickball at Undine Park for about an hour (Our team destroyed the competition 24-11, for the record. But who's keeping score?), then played pick-up soccer at the practice fields for another hour-and-a-half. Today, I ache. Sadly, events like these remind me of my un-athleticism. It's not only that I'm out of shape, but also that I'm just slow to react and to think strategically. Lucky for me, the people who show up to these games are pretty cool people, and they don't make fun...