By the end of three months of living in the back country, you´re typically ready for a change of pace. I dont know if its the lack of amenities, or the lack of social outlets that gives you this feeling, or perhaps a little of both, but this high country season was no exception. Coupled with the anticipation of the plans that Sarah and I had started to make for South America, I started to get the itch to get out of the woods and into the world.
What better way to start your 9 month off-season then a nice long walk. Merced Lake to Mammoth. Contrary to what those of you who are not familiar with Yosemite are thinking, Merced Lake is NOT near the city of Merced. In fact, it´s in the heart of the back country of Yosemite and 14 miles up the Merced river from the Yosemite Valley. It was my home this past summer and its always bitter-sweet to leave home for 9 months. I couldn't have asked for a better departure though, with 7 friends, walking through the woods, stopping by the tallest mountain in the park, on our way out back to the real world via Mammoth.
After arriving in the foreign country we call civilization again, Sarah and I took a small amount of time to decompress from our backcountry jobs and visited friends and family on the west coast. These were short visits, and in no time we were back in motion. Point Reyes National Sea Shore for Sarah´s birthday on October 1st, Hardly Stricktly Bluegrass in San Francisco the 2nd, 3rd & 4th, back to my folks house for a night and on to the big Southwest Road Trip. We hit National Park after National Park in a tornado of a sight-seeing fury. California, Arizonia, a little of Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and we even made it all the way down to Big Bend, Texas. All this and back in a little under two weeks, with about eleven major stops along the way. As if that wasn´t enough, we had all of two days to get ready for a 6 am flight to Mexico.
The fun didn´t really stop there. Oh MEXICO! But, as not to repeat everything all of you loyal followers ( all 10 of you, thanks to our families) have been reading in the previous blogs, i'll spare you the repeat of events that Sarah´s blogs contain. But if you havent checked those ones out and are interested, it pretty much starts with our arrival in Mexico.
Since Sarah´s last blog, we´ve been taking in the scene around Mendoza, Argentina and also the empañadas....mmmmm. We´ve also been studying the language at an intercultural center in town. I never thought my brain could hurt so much. Not a word of English. If we have a question, we have to ask it in Spanish and you get Spanish in return. Our entire lesson is one big question asking session. By the end of hour 4 we cant even formulate full sentences in english, let a lone Argentinian (Italian influenced) Spanish.
Well, friday its further South for us. Onto the mountains and out of the pollution. Mendoza's a pretty cool city, but im ready to get back home... at least a different version of home. I guess the grass is always greener... wait it´s always green, when you head south for the winter. Those birds got it right. verano sin fin ...
(summer without end, in case you were confused)
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