Whew!

I have seven minutes to post, so this probably won't be all that great. Last week's travel was a combination of boring driving, breathtaking scenery, too much talking (my voice is not used to this at all) and fun times with new people. Pull out your Michigan maps, folks, and see how I logged over 1,000 miles with my coworkers driving from Mt. Pleasant to Ironwood to Marquette to Escanaba to Menominee to Iron Mountain to Houghton and back to Mt. P in five days. And I'll have you know that I did drive the entire way (minus about an hour at the beginning of the trip) home from Houghton because my coworkers were too tired and hungover from the party on Wednesday night to do more than sleep and read. Talk about a driving marathon!

Today I'm heading out at noon and driving up to the Soo, this time by myself. :( Actually, it will be OK. I can bring more of my own food and pack better, since I don't have to cram everything into two bags. I will be doing four college fairs this week and visiting 3-4 high schools as well. The nice thing is that after a whole heck of a lot of dricing on Tuesday, I will be in Petoskey for two full days. That means I get to stay in the same hotel for more than 12 hours, and I might even get to see Adrienne if she has time to drive up from Traverse City, where she is doing her final physical therapy clinical. By the way, she's going to be a great physical therapist, according to one of her patients who also sails with my dad on Kokomo.

Backtracking a bit...I had an awesome weekend. I got most of my packing for this week done on Friday night, so besides having to work an open house from 7 am to 1 pm on Saturday, all I had to do was have fun! Mitch came down to Alma and we watched the football game with Pete and his family (Go Scots!) and then we did some awesome climbing, despite what felt like gallons of Slurpee in my stomach. The brain hold is my bitch, Tim. Jeremy set this new boulder route that comes up from the opposite side and finishes on it, and I kicked its butt. You have to wedge yourself up in the corner under the overhang, buto nce you do that you can hold that thing all day long. (Side note: We finally hung our hangboard, so I'm going to resurrect the razorback!) After a rousing game of add-on - too many twisting moves, though - we headed back to Mt. P for dinner, than met up with Pete & Co. at the Braveheart to celebrate his 22nd birthday. That guy is a riot...he was the leader of all dancing efforts! It was an early night (relatively) for us, though, because the college kids wanted to go to the frats and well, that's just not for us.

Yesterday Mitch and I went apple picking in Stanton, which is one of my favorite fall activities. Apples, donuts, cider...it may not be Erwin's Orchard, my hometown orchard, but it wasn't bad, either. Then we cleaned both my cars (Anyone looking to buy a car? I have to sell the Taurus since Alma gave me a car.) and went on a picnic at this county park with the in-laws. There were some nice, easy hiking trails that we will probably use for mountain biking later. It will be a good speed workout, because the trails to not seem to be challenging or technical in the least, but it will get us off the paved trails!

After my week of travel, I have a camping trip with my parents to look forward to. Yay! OK, that was 14 minutes of writing. I have to run some errands and get ready to leave for the UP. Leave me some love, and I'll try to post on the road. Bruce, if you're reading this, I need some new entertainment on your blog. And Tim and Ryan, keep up the good entries! They make me smile. :) Gabe, you better do some hangboard workouts with Mitch while I'm gone. And Jenn, I'll blow some kisses to your hometown while I'm there. Charlotte, I'm praying for you. Love you all!