what I did on my summer vacation

Murdo, Badlands, Circle Park 1, Circle Park 2, grimy resort, Sunlight Basin, Yellowstone 1, Yellowstone 2, Idaho Falls, Additional Redfish 1, Additional Redfish 2, Bench Lakes, Redfish Inlet, Sunny Gulch, Morgan 1, Morgan 2, Boulder 1-2-3-4-5-6, Zion, Grand Canyon 1-2-3, Quaking Aspen, Laura's wedding 1-2-3, Two Guns, Flagstaff, Needles, Amelia.

Casualties: one multi-tool, one iPod, one iPod radio converter, two water bottles, one 1989 Volvo station wagon named Flash.

That's right, I sold my car for $30 and a ride to the airport to pick up a rental car.

Highlights: the farmers' markets in Des Moines, Idaho Falls (blackberries, apricots, cherries, tomatoes, pancake mix that starts with grinding your own flour), Shoshone (best sungold cherry tomatoes I've ever had), Salt Lake City (potato-green bean salad with purple basil, Asian sandwich with grass-fed beef), Boulder Utah (can I please give you some money for the cucumbers? please? and the apples - I really don't mind paying for my food), Albuquerque (chiles!), Bakersfield (fruit of all kinds, and technically a farmstand). Everything about Sunlight Basin. The wildlife in Yellowstone: baby bald eagle, baby bison, baby grizzly bear, grown-up grizzly bear, black bear, more bison, antelope, elk, wolf. Redfish Lake. Everything about Boulder. Escalante. The Navajo and Hopi nations. Meeting a ton of interesting people, including some of the Gardener's friends. The fact that the car made it to California - barely - before it died.

Now I'm moving into an apartment, starting grad school, fixing up a cabinet, seeing friends, eating ice cream, and trying to spend more time up in the hills. I'll write more eventually, I think. But not tonight.