The Next Level

Over a year has passed since I last wrote on here, and quite a lot has happened. Most importantly, I met my girlfriend, Arielle Watkins, while hitchhiking up to Crested Butte for dinner one night. I had been standing on the side of the road for about twenty minutes when a girl walked up and stuck her thumb out thirty yards or so in front of me. At first, I was a little annoyed, especially when a car pulled over for her in the first few minutes. Surprisingly, she called out for me to come take the ride because I had been there first, and I quickly ran up to the road to oblige. As it turned out, the car was only going to CB South, and I turned down the ride, not wanting to get stuck in the middle. Arielle had the same thought, and so we stood and talked until a tow truck came along and picked us both up. Not seeing any reason to fight with fate, we started dating almost immediately, and within 6 months she was living with me. Before I could even make it a full year in my apartment we had bought a Subaru Loyale(named spaceman spiff) and taken off for California, intent on finding the trim work that had eluded me the previous year. This time, we hit gold. Green gold. After following a very loose trail to Whitethorn, CA, we found ourselves parked on the side of the road waiting for our friend Henry to pass by so we could flag him down and seek employment from the people he was working for. About an hour into our second day, Allie, our new friend-to-be came riding by on a bike, and asked us what we were doing. We asked if she knew Henry, and she said that she did. She rode back to the farm to send him out, and we had made contact. The next two months were something of a neon green and purple blur that found us at three different outdoor farms in three different counties trimming California cash crop number one, cannabis. Because some of the things that happened over those few months may or may not have been completely legal, details have been omitted. The moral of the story is: quick cash is never what you thought it was going to be, and money makes monkeys of us all. Also, California is a very silly place, where the rednecks smoke pot, the hippies carry guns, and the only thing holding the whole place together is the wingnut on every corner. We did meet a whole plethora (i love that word) of very interesting people, made a ton of new friends from around the country, and saw all kinds of crazy cool shit, so the trip was by no means a loss. Especially because it was finally able to pay for some plane tickets to take the "world journey" back online. After spending the holidays with friends and family around Colorado, we are flying to Costa Rica on the 31st to go do some backpacking around Latin America. We will be volunteering through the WWOOF program in Costa Rica, and other than that, plans are still pretty loose, which is just the way we like it...

On a semi-related side note, Chase is still up in New England, doing some very cool, very Chase things. He may or may not be posting in the near future, but he is doing quite well, and we are hoping to go spend some time up there in the summer when we get back. Also, Arielle will probably make her debut soon, and we are sure to have tons of exciting adventures and pictures on the way, so please feel free to keep checking in. Sorry it has been so long, but I'm super excited to be back, and ready to start taking things to a whole new level in 2011.
Peace, love, and happiness to anyone that reads this, and anyone that doesn't.
- The Gonzo Nomad