eastward home

Our trip back east from Omaha was fantastic. We first stopped in KC, MO to see our friend Brandon from Peace Corps Bolivia. It's great to reminisce with buds who saw and tasted everything we did down there, and it's fun to see those friends in their homes, driving cars, bathed, in untattered clothing -it's a different lifestyle we have up in the USA, but we've all made that transition back and forth without too much pain.

Brandon made an amazing banner to welcome us, held a deafening band practice while we sat on the couch four feet away, showed us the beauty of KC, brought his friends over to play Apples to Apples, and, of course, fed us lots of Boulevard. All that in about twelve hours. It was awesome.

From KC we headed into Kansas proper, center of the USA to see Tom's folks Mary Claire and Kirby. They are fabulous, and I love relaxing at their place with them. Makes me think that one day maybe Tom and I will have a normal life with a house, a dog, jobs, kids, cars -the stuff of American dreams. But not just yet.

From Kansas we went to see our friends Matt and Maggie in Fayetteville, Arkansas. In Fayetteville most folks talk just like Bill Clinton, and I like that. Our friends Cat and Talley ventured out from VA to meet us there and harass Matt and Maggie for about a full week. It was absolutely great. The highlight, no doubt, was paddling down the Mulberry River on a cold and stormy day. Cat and Talley flipped their canoe in a gnarly set of waves, and the rest of us set about to rescuing them before hypothermia set in. It was hands down the most entertaining part of our trip.

Other highlights from Arkansas: attending a college course on medical anthropology taught by Dr. Justin Nolan, good friend of Matt and Maggie's, which made me want to go back to school (just might have to get that PhD one of these days); distracting Maggie while she was nobly trying to attend to her grad school homework; talking gear with Matt who works in an outdoor store and is wise in the way of the woods; hot tubbing and fish tacos at Justin's; doing anything within the presence of Spring; and being jumped on every morning by Ruby, and most evenings, too.

We left Arkansas and had a good long day of driving to get ourselves to Cincinnati, OH -home of most of my relatives and our good bud Ben Ranz, also from our Bolivian days. We only had a few waking hours there with Ben, but he took us to the places we'd fantacized about while sitting in the searing Bolivian sun: Skyline Chili (spaghetti with chili on top, and about three inches of grated cheese -so delicious), White Castle for breakfast (greasy, and the coffee was good too), and a drive through beer place that I can't remember the name of, but I do remember thinking that Virginia is a little behind the times for not having drive through beer places. It's was a short stint with Ben, but great to catch up and make plans for him to come join us on the trail in Maine.

From Cinci, we had a nice short trip to West Virginia, one of my favorite states, where we'd rented a cabin and met up with a great bunch of friends from c'ville. We've been to this place two times before, I think six and four years ago -lord how times flies- and both times before there had been ridiculous blizzards, and the mountains were white as far as we could see (which was not very far). This year though, it had been in the 70's the week before, there was not a flake on the ground, and our plans to cross country ski turned into plans to do a six mile run through the woods, followed by three days of pure inactivity submerged in a hottub that seated eight. Well, it seated four, but eight fit. I love those buds. We talked about land and farming and food and relationships and work and all those things we love and are grappling with at this funny stage in life. And we cooked delicious food and played games and drank a lot of boxed wine and wished we had more beer.

And finally, it was Monday, and at least half way into February, and time to get back to Virginia. And so Sven, our trusty Saab (who deserves his own blog), took us those last three hours home. Hmm, not home, someone else lives in our home -for longer than we've ever lived in it come to think- but to Charlottesville, where we have enough friends to make it work. We've been staying at the farm house on Millington, which is heaven, and has provided the perfect setting to see all our friends and gather up our gear in preparation for our next venture.

trippin pics

First stop on our long and winding road home was to see Brandon in Missouri


we got to hear some of his new tunes

Brandon, cooking up what became the tastiest bacon egg and cheese biscuit I've ever eaten.

At Brandon's place with our welcome sign. What a cool dude.

we liked our sign so much we took it downtown so we could welcome ourselves all over the city


hands down the erectest building in KC

As far west as we went, here we are in Salina, Kansas. the boys on the porch

and the girls working in the kitchen. what's new.

Kirby and Mary Claire with their Harley. What a bunch of hotties.

me and mama claire

As soon as we got to Arkansas Maggie and Matt threw us in some boats and sent us down the river. i love me a canoe.

our teams: tom and spring in the HMS Hammered

matt and ruby

me and maggie and ruby

and talley and cat -prehypothermic

spring, she makes darn near anything fun.

me and maggie and ruby, who did most of the work

Dr. Nolan at work while we were having fun on the river

tom and talley playing some one handed mozart

Fish taco night at Justin's place.

Cat and Justin

And east we go. This is j. ben ranz. Silly us, we didn't take any pics in Cincinnati, so I borrowed this one of tom and ben from argentina. That was the day we went on a bicycling wine tour. Boy howdy. Not recommendable, but real real fun.

And then east some more we went. by the fire at the cabin in west virginia.

joe and leah

nicole and graeme

getting ready for our six mile mountain run

and the feast that followed

May west virginia weekends forever be a part of our lives.

And finally back home in VA. hanging out at the farm house in Free Union. I hope we can live here again one day. What a great place.

jed in boots

about to get into a lickin-slammin-suckin round.

Brian and April came to visit to check out UVA. Here they are in a pavillion at Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's home (it's on the back of the nickel, and also on the back of our mountain in the ville)

on Mr. Jefferson's academic lawn with Brian and April. We did our best to woo them into moving to C'ville. Verdict is still out on that one.

As for me, I'm so excited to move back here. But first, have a few mountains to climb.

2009 car of the year

This year's uncontested recipient of the 2009 Car of the Year award goes to. . .

Sven. Saab. 1991. 178,000 miles. And kicking.

Over the last three months, we have driven Sven over 8,000 miles across the country (please forgive our carbon footprint -we'll make up for it by walking 2,200 miles this spring). He's been to the beach and the mountains, the south, the midwest, and the land of 10,000 lakes. He is AMAZING! Having sat in our friend's driveway for a year and a half, we thought he might be running a little rough. But to the contrary, this incredible Swedish machine has been running in top form all the way to the far side and back.

In Minnesota in negative 20 degree weather, our friend's 2004 Volvo would not start; Our eighteen year old Saab cranked right up, and then jump started their car. Running at nearly 30 miles a gallon, he saved us hundreds, maybe thousands compared to what we could have spent on airfare to get where we were going. And with a fold down back seat providing twenty-four square feet of hatch back space, he's carried all our possessions -clothes, packs, cooler, and fishing poles, comfortably behind us. What a machine.

the good life

Part of our great scheme in coming home from South America for a few months around Christmas depended on the good will and mercy of our friends and family who would, whilst we have no home, have to take us in and play with us. We are enormously blessed to have our loved ones, and the big thanks this year goes out to all of those who have put us up and made us feel at home in what is surely not our home. Namely, to my sis and bro, Leah and Joe, and to Tom's bro and (nearly) sis, Patrick and Hannah: you are wonderfully generous, and we would be homeless and far less entertained without you.

We had a great five weeks in Omaha, and Tom and I were both really fortunate to have super jobs for such a short time (thanks, Tony and Annemarie!) and a pretty perfect living situation with Pat and Hannah, who remind me of me and Tom when we first met (i.e. so in love they are rarely seen apart; in fact, just rarely seen).

While in Nebraska, we played with all our friends, visited the smallest town in the state (Monowi, population: 1), went to Brian's river cabin for a weekend, hung out at the Homy Inn, got some good time with the fam, ate delicious french food I can't pronounce, delicious spanish food I can pronounce, and a little bit of everything else. It was a refreshing few weeks, lucrative and relaxing all at once, freezing, but only outside; all in all, owning up to it's motto, Nebraska really is the good life.

Thanks to all our friends out there who make it that way!

Pat and Hannah on their seriously comfortable couch

the sullivan boys

the sullivan's girls

welcome to Monowi. Used to be double the population it is now.

we found this sweet bike out in a field outside Monowi

The bar and it's owner -the One who resides in Monowi

and then we found a bathtub in a field

The Missouri river on the border of Nebraska and South Dakota. It runs clear blue and beautiful up there.

Up at Hansen's cabin, April and I made a pie and assembled a 1,000 piece puzzle while the guys did manyly stuff like changing the oil

and knife fights

this is gus, Brian and April's 8,400 pound st. bernard

and that's the good life.