10/18/09
Today I was able to hike Canyon de Chelly. I know what you are thinking, "but hiking is like walking and you hate to walk", while true about walking I do enjoy hiking, its good to get away and kind of clear your head. I realize that I have spent the past 2 weeks by myeself and should have a clear head by now becuase there is nothing going on in my life and few contacts from the outside world, but I really needed to get out of the house and out of the car and just spend some time accomplishing something tangible. I went on the only trail which doesnt require a Navajo guide, the White House Trail. The trail is about 1.5 miles each way and descends 600 feet into the canyon through various switchbacks. The walk down was very uneventful and pretty easy. I was able to get a few looks out over the amazing view of the canyon and the bluffs and buttes and mesas which make up this area. On the bottom it is about a half mile walk over really sandy ground (seriously like a beach) to the ruins, which were built around 1000AD. Canyon de Chelly is the oldest continually inhabited areas in the US where people have lived for 4000 years (for reference Jesus died around 2000 years ago, Columbus discovered America just over 500 years ago, and I was born just over 24 years ago). The ruins were fenced off but I was able to get a few good pictures from just outside, im sure that they arent as good as the famous Ansel Adams photo shot in the same place, but they were pretty good none the less. There were also a lot of Navajo craftsmen at the bottom selling jewelry and trinkets. I did buy some things here, as well as around the rim road. Groups of tourists can take Navajo guided horse/jeep/truck tours through here to avoid the climb. After spending about half an hour at the bottom I decided to tackle the tough part, the climb up. When climbing mountains the sumit is the midpoint, you climb all fresh and then come down when you are tired, if you get too tired on the walk up then you just turn around and head back down. With canyons it is the complete opposite, the easy part happens first and then you have to do the hard part. The climb up wasnt all that bad, there were a few benches at the trailside and plenty of places to stop and catch your breath. It did take me a while because im out of shape and not fully acclimated yet, but I made it up all right. About 3 switchbacks from the top (about 70 vertical feet) it started to rain so that kind of gave me a boost to make it up there. It is funny how the weather can shift around here so fast, it went from clear blue skies to rainy in just a short time. All in all I made it through the hike in 2 hours 15 minutes including a 30 minute break at the bottom. The guy at the visitor center said it would take and hour and a half to 2 hours so I made pretty good time. After reaching the top I went around the rim road to check out the other overlooks. Spider rock was pretty amazing, its an 800 foot spire rising from the canyon floor. At spider rock I picked up these really cool stones from the canyon floor that he had carved the pictographs from the walls into. He said that each design took him about 3 hours of work with a nail, and showed the pictographs of kokopelli and several other Native American symbols. I was also talking to a photographer about the views and eventually found out that he was originally from East Greenbush, just across the river from Albany. It is pretty cool to see what a small world it is. The rest of the overlooks were cool, but after spending all day there I was just about exhausted of red rocks. I did stop at a Hogan (Ho-Gon, Navajo living place) that was selling frybread and crafts, turns out that fresh frybread is even better than what I got at the hospital. Im really glad I went on this hike, it gave me some time to think and get out there, except for being exhausted and having a few blisters from the new boots I am none the worse for the wear.
Tonight I spent some time in the parking lot of Churchs Chicken uploading photos onto facebook, I am probably going to set up a webshots account so everyone can see my pics. Now im going to go crash and get geared up for the week ahead of me, hopefully this one will be better than last week.
-O
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Sunday, October 18, 2009
10/17/09
Today has been a bad one. It started with the motel in Gallup being one of the worst ones I have stayed inn ever. The curtains didnt shut out light, the walls were paper thin, and the whole room shook whenever someone walked past in the hall. Once I got up I decided to get my oil changed before heading to the petrified forest. After the visiting jiffy lube my cruise control wouldn't work. It worked fine the night before, but apparently getting the oil changed and having a tail light bulb replaced shorted the cruise control out. After driving back to Gallup to have it checked at the Jiffy lube they told me to go to Pep boys to get it checked out further. After a $100 diagnostic check a pep boys apparently the cruise control needs to be replaced, to the tune of 600 or 700 bucks, and it can only be fixed at a dealership. Since the dealership in Gallup was closed, and there is no dealership in Chinle I have to shop around and find a place to get it replaced in Flagstaff next weekend or in SLC when I fly home for interview day. Hopefully this will be a short and painless process. I was pretty messed up by this because I am so far from civilization. The closest real town is Flagstaff which is 3 hours away and I am never going back to Gallup. Both times I have left there feeling like shit. This whole experience was just the straw that broke the camel's back. I have had a very bad week getting used to the altitude, the dryness, the time, and this new hospital. The prospect of having to drive 3000 miles to home by myself without cruise control really put me over the edge. On the ride back to Chinle I was able go get control of myself. I stopped in window rock at the code talkers memorial and the actual window rock. It was a pretty surreal sight that kind of put things back in perspective. On the way home I also stopped at Hubbells trading post, which was not as impressive as I thought it would be. I didnt realize that this place was a functional trading post with most of the space taken up by groceries and camping supplies. Some of the rugs and jewlery that they had were nice, but were way out of my price range.
While I regret missing the petrified forest I am looking forward to hiking Canyon de Chelly tomorrow. I also found that Church's Chicken in town has WiFi and hopefully I will be able to mooch it for the bears game tomorrow and other times throughout the week.
-O
Today has been a bad one. It started with the motel in Gallup being one of the worst ones I have stayed inn ever. The curtains didnt shut out light, the walls were paper thin, and the whole room shook whenever someone walked past in the hall. Once I got up I decided to get my oil changed before heading to the petrified forest. After the visiting jiffy lube my cruise control wouldn't work. It worked fine the night before, but apparently getting the oil changed and having a tail light bulb replaced shorted the cruise control out. After driving back to Gallup to have it checked at the Jiffy lube they told me to go to Pep boys to get it checked out further. After a $100 diagnostic check a pep boys apparently the cruise control needs to be replaced, to the tune of 600 or 700 bucks, and it can only be fixed at a dealership. Since the dealership in Gallup was closed, and there is no dealership in Chinle I have to shop around and find a place to get it replaced in Flagstaff next weekend or in SLC when I fly home for interview day. Hopefully this will be a short and painless process. I was pretty messed up by this because I am so far from civilization. The closest real town is Flagstaff which is 3 hours away and I am never going back to Gallup. Both times I have left there feeling like shit. This whole experience was just the straw that broke the camel's back. I have had a very bad week getting used to the altitude, the dryness, the time, and this new hospital. The prospect of having to drive 3000 miles to home by myself without cruise control really put me over the edge. On the ride back to Chinle I was able go get control of myself. I stopped in window rock at the code talkers memorial and the actual window rock. It was a pretty surreal sight that kind of put things back in perspective. On the way home I also stopped at Hubbells trading post, which was not as impressive as I thought it would be. I didnt realize that this place was a functional trading post with most of the space taken up by groceries and camping supplies. Some of the rugs and jewlery that they had were nice, but were way out of my price range.
While I regret missing the petrified forest I am looking forward to hiking Canyon de Chelly tomorrow. I also found that Church's Chicken in town has WiFi and hopefully I will be able to mooch it for the bears game tomorrow and other times throughout the week.
-O
Friday, October 16, 2009
I heard that there was some internet out west
So I broke down and left Chinle today. I was originally planning on staying in town and hiking Canyon de Chelly tomorrow and then relaxing on sunday, but then I realized that I wanted to get away. I am currently at the Red Roof Inn in Gallup, NM (about 90 miles from Chinle). To get here the GPS directed me to take the BIA tribal roads. Unfortunately those roads are not only unpaved and rocky as hell, but Garmin lists them at 55mph, rather than the 30mph that you really have to travel. While I got to see a lot of nice scenery, I am still pissed that Garmin wasted my time (again). Once I got to civilization I went to Walmart in order to pick up some supplies. I decided to get new hiking boots because I forgot to bring any with me and would probably be better off wearing boots than my sneakers. I also had to pick up food because of how much more expensive things are in the grocery store in Chinle. I kind of got carried away and spent a lot more money than I intended to, but I guess I was just happy to be back in civilization. Tomorrow I am going to head over to the petrified forest and check things out, then head up to the Hubbell trading post on my way back to Chinle. I am going to hike Canyon de Chelly on Sunday and then do my best to find some internet/tv so I can catch the Bears/Falcons game. I will be going to Flagstaff/Grand Canyon/Lake Powell next weekend so I will hopefully be able to update again. Until then I will continue writing updates and posting them when I get internet access (2 updates from this week posted below). Once again I am bored after I get out of work at 7EST, please feel free to text or call so I have something to do over the next few weeks.
-O
-O
...and on the 3rd day he rose again
Written
10/15/09
After 3 days I am starting to settle in to this rotation. All pharmacy rotations are basically the same, but there is still an adjustment period. For me the biggest problem is always getting to know the staff. At this site there are like 15 people in the pharmacy, so its going to take a while for me to even get their names down. Yesterday I was stuck on the front counter doing straight retail stuff. Since this site contains both an inpatient and a retail pharmacy they not only fill orders, but do refills and a lot of counseling. There is mandatory counseling on every refil which is totally unnecessary and a waste of manpower. What is even more unnecessary is that the federal regulations dont permit me to be in the room with a patient alone. That means that in order for me to counsel a pharmacist has to be in there with me. In order to avoid this the guys who I was working with yesterday kept me out of the counseling room and just put me on the bench checking scripts. I dont understand how they cant leave me alone to counsel (perfectly legal as long as there is a pharmacist present in the pharmacy), but I can check prescriptions without any doublecheck by a pharmacist (not fully legal). This was kind of discouraging because I do retail pharmacy stuff every day and just doing checking aspirin scripts all day doesnt teach me anything. I brought that up today and instead I was able to work on a project. I did a quick economic analysis of using Lovenox vs Arixtra. I didnt really comprehend how much money would be saved on the BID treatment doses. Today they had a navajo food sale in the hospital to raise money to buy tshirts. I was able to get some delicious beef stew and Navajo frybread instead of my typical peanut butter sandwich. Frybread is just what it sounds like, fried bread dough that is light and tasty. Apparently it is better when it is fresh, which I can apparently get at the Chinle flea market that happens every week. Im going to swing in there on friday to get some of the fresh stuff. Ill try to look at some nice Navajo goods too.
Im starting to settle into the apartment too. It is strange waking up before the dawn in order to go to work, this is not a representation of how early I wake up, but rather a representation of how late the sun rises (around 7:30AM). I really enjoy the pre dawn hour when it is light enough to see, but still not sunny. I typically dont wake up for this time, but am generally already awake before until the sun rises. I was surprised by how much free time I have in the morning without having to check my email or facebook or fighting for the bathroom or anything like that. I still cant get used to coming home and having absolutely nothing to do. I come back and watch a few episodes of Metalocalypse and read until I go to bed. This will pass in time, worst case scenario I get to spend a month reading and relaxing. Its hard to believe that I only have 19 more days of actually going to rotation left, but ill try to make the best of it.
-O
10/15/09
After 3 days I am starting to settle in to this rotation. All pharmacy rotations are basically the same, but there is still an adjustment period. For me the biggest problem is always getting to know the staff. At this site there are like 15 people in the pharmacy, so its going to take a while for me to even get their names down. Yesterday I was stuck on the front counter doing straight retail stuff. Since this site contains both an inpatient and a retail pharmacy they not only fill orders, but do refills and a lot of counseling. There is mandatory counseling on every refil which is totally unnecessary and a waste of manpower. What is even more unnecessary is that the federal regulations dont permit me to be in the room with a patient alone. That means that in order for me to counsel a pharmacist has to be in there with me. In order to avoid this the guys who I was working with yesterday kept me out of the counseling room and just put me on the bench checking scripts. I dont understand how they cant leave me alone to counsel (perfectly legal as long as there is a pharmacist present in the pharmacy), but I can check prescriptions without any doublecheck by a pharmacist (not fully legal). This was kind of discouraging because I do retail pharmacy stuff every day and just doing checking aspirin scripts all day doesnt teach me anything. I brought that up today and instead I was able to work on a project. I did a quick economic analysis of using Lovenox vs Arixtra. I didnt really comprehend how much money would be saved on the BID treatment doses. Today they had a navajo food sale in the hospital to raise money to buy tshirts. I was able to get some delicious beef stew and Navajo frybread instead of my typical peanut butter sandwich. Frybread is just what it sounds like, fried bread dough that is light and tasty. Apparently it is better when it is fresh, which I can apparently get at the Chinle flea market that happens every week. Im going to swing in there on friday to get some of the fresh stuff. Ill try to look at some nice Navajo goods too.
Im starting to settle into the apartment too. It is strange waking up before the dawn in order to go to work, this is not a representation of how early I wake up, but rather a representation of how late the sun rises (around 7:30AM). I really enjoy the pre dawn hour when it is light enough to see, but still not sunny. I typically dont wake up for this time, but am generally already awake before until the sun rises. I was surprised by how much free time I have in the morning without having to check my email or facebook or fighting for the bathroom or anything like that. I still cant get used to coming home and having absolutely nothing to do. I come back and watch a few episodes of Metalocalypse and read until I go to bed. This will pass in time, worst case scenario I get to spend a month reading and relaxing. Its hard to believe that I only have 19 more days of actually going to rotation left, but ill try to make the best of it.
-O
Upon Arival
Written 10/13/09
So after many days of travel and over 2800 miles I finally made it to Chinle yesterday around 2pm. After checking in at the hospital I got the keys to my trailer and spent the day getting things moved in and set up. Its called a trailer, but it is an actual building split in half width wise with a 2 bedroom apartment on each side. I have my side all to myself, but apparently there is a family living just across the living room. While not exactly the Ritz it will suit my purpose, there are the 2 bedrooms, a bathroom, kitchen, and a dining/living room. While there is a TV with a DVD play there is neither cable or anyplace in town to rent DVDs cheaply and easily (I miss you RedBox). There is an extensive collection of medical books, so after I breeze through the 5 books I brought with me I will dive into learning new medical info, or simply reviewing things which I had learned before. I wish that the APhA review book came sooner so I could start focusing on the NAPLEX. Its hard to believe that this is the first time I have ever had a place to myself. During college I always had between 2 and 5 roommates which was eventful, good, fun, aggravating, and horrible all at the same time. Even while staying at camp for that rotation last summer there were always people coming in for the weekend so I never really had the place to myself. It is a good feeling to see nothing in the fridge but my stuff, but at the same time it is kind of depressing to come home knowing that you wont speak to anyone until the next day at work. Hopefully the isolation wont get to me too much.
The scenery out my window is just empty desert. Its so foreign to me to look out and see that. During my 10 weeks in Middlebury I was secluded, but it wasnt empty. I also had a lot of support from Yonna and Ken, where here I am all alone. Beyond that the town is nice, but small with only a market, 2 gas stations, a pizza place, chinese place (yeah I was surprised about that one too) a couple hotels and a burger king. Apparently the burger king has wi-fi so I will hopefully upload this document from there sometime in the next few days. The town feels a lot like Willsboro does, where everybody knows everything about everybody else. While the landscapes are night and day there is still something comforting about having that particular feeling, even though nobody here knows anything about me. The people at the hospital all seem nice and friendly. My preceptor (Julie) is on vacation so I am subbing in working with another pharmacist (John). John is a pretty cool guy from Oklahoma who has only been here for a few months. He did a residency and is all about learning so he will hopefully be a good influence on me. The rest of the staff were either contractor pharmacists or mostly Navajo workers. The hospital itself is pretty big compared to Porter Hospital in Middlebury, its a whopping 60 beds. The biggest draw is that they have everything health related under one roof. People come in from hours away to see their docotor, dentist, optometrist, dietitian, obgyn, everything. It is pretty cool to see this one stop shopping healthmart. It may be something that can lay the groundwork for interdisciplinary communication and health care for the future. With so few doctors choosing family practice there has been a crisis in the medical field which has resulted in less time being spent with more patients which has really ruined the doctor patient connection. Having a setup like this relieves the doctor of some of the financial and time burden while increasing access to specialists when needed. Just think of all the productivity which would be gained by patients not having to take 3 days off from work to go to 3 different appointments, but instead knocking everything out in one day. With the current problems posed by our health care system and the piece of garbage health care bill being shoved down our throats having this health care setup could potentially help our nation both economically and get us back to where we belong health care wise. Its only been one day and I have 21 more to go at this rotation. Since my preceptor is gone until next week I am not 100% sure what I am going to be spending most of my time on, but im sure that I will keep busy for this week. I have to go to rounds every morning at 8 to hear about any interesting admits so I will hopefully see some interesting cases. I will also be spending a few days in the outside clinic in Pinon, about 30 miles away, so I should be able to see a little bit of Navajoland.
This weekend I am going to stay pretty close to Chinle because frankly I am sick and tired of driving. If you ever go cross country bring someone with you so you can have something to do besides think. Now I have nothing left to think about. I will probably go check out Canyon de Chelly (pronounced Canyon de Shay) just down the road. I dont know if I am going to hike it, but I at least want to check it out. On Sunday I may go down and check out the Hubbel Trading Post which is a national landmark and apparently a pretty cool place. I may swing down to Window Rock and actually check out the Window Rock that it is named after, I tried to find it when I was there on Monday, but after visiting the historical center I wound up just heading on to Chinle. Over the course of the next 2 weekends I plan on going to Monument Valley/Shiprock/the Four Corners, The Grand Canyon, Lake Powell, and probably Flagstaff. If you have any ideas of places I should go or things I should do (Besides drive route 666 to Fort Defiance) please let me know. I am out of work by 5pm Mountain (7pm Eastern) and am basically just sitting around reading so feel free to call me. I can get on the internet at work for email, but email/internet doesnt work on my phone. I still get pretty good service and can send/recieve texts so feel free to contact me at any time.
-O
So after many days of travel and over 2800 miles I finally made it to Chinle yesterday around 2pm. After checking in at the hospital I got the keys to my trailer and spent the day getting things moved in and set up. Its called a trailer, but it is an actual building split in half width wise with a 2 bedroom apartment on each side. I have my side all to myself, but apparently there is a family living just across the living room. While not exactly the Ritz it will suit my purpose, there are the 2 bedrooms, a bathroom, kitchen, and a dining/living room. While there is a TV with a DVD play there is neither cable or anyplace in town to rent DVDs cheaply and easily (I miss you RedBox). There is an extensive collection of medical books, so after I breeze through the 5 books I brought with me I will dive into learning new medical info, or simply reviewing things which I had learned before. I wish that the APhA review book came sooner so I could start focusing on the NAPLEX. Its hard to believe that this is the first time I have ever had a place to myself. During college I always had between 2 and 5 roommates which was eventful, good, fun, aggravating, and horrible all at the same time. Even while staying at camp for that rotation last summer there were always people coming in for the weekend so I never really had the place to myself. It is a good feeling to see nothing in the fridge but my stuff, but at the same time it is kind of depressing to come home knowing that you wont speak to anyone until the next day at work. Hopefully the isolation wont get to me too much.
The scenery out my window is just empty desert. Its so foreign to me to look out and see that. During my 10 weeks in Middlebury I was secluded, but it wasnt empty. I also had a lot of support from Yonna and Ken, where here I am all alone. Beyond that the town is nice, but small with only a market, 2 gas stations, a pizza place, chinese place (yeah I was surprised about that one too) a couple hotels and a burger king. Apparently the burger king has wi-fi so I will hopefully upload this document from there sometime in the next few days. The town feels a lot like Willsboro does, where everybody knows everything about everybody else. While the landscapes are night and day there is still something comforting about having that particular feeling, even though nobody here knows anything about me. The people at the hospital all seem nice and friendly. My preceptor (Julie) is on vacation so I am subbing in working with another pharmacist (John). John is a pretty cool guy from Oklahoma who has only been here for a few months. He did a residency and is all about learning so he will hopefully be a good influence on me. The rest of the staff were either contractor pharmacists or mostly Navajo workers. The hospital itself is pretty big compared to Porter Hospital in Middlebury, its a whopping 60 beds. The biggest draw is that they have everything health related under one roof. People come in from hours away to see their docotor, dentist, optometrist, dietitian, obgyn, everything. It is pretty cool to see this one stop shopping healthmart. It may be something that can lay the groundwork for interdisciplinary communication and health care for the future. With so few doctors choosing family practice there has been a crisis in the medical field which has resulted in less time being spent with more patients which has really ruined the doctor patient connection. Having a setup like this relieves the doctor of some of the financial and time burden while increasing access to specialists when needed. Just think of all the productivity which would be gained by patients not having to take 3 days off from work to go to 3 different appointments, but instead knocking everything out in one day. With the current problems posed by our health care system and the piece of garbage health care bill being shoved down our throats having this health care setup could potentially help our nation both economically and get us back to where we belong health care wise. Its only been one day and I have 21 more to go at this rotation. Since my preceptor is gone until next week I am not 100% sure what I am going to be spending most of my time on, but im sure that I will keep busy for this week. I have to go to rounds every morning at 8 to hear about any interesting admits so I will hopefully see some interesting cases. I will also be spending a few days in the outside clinic in Pinon, about 30 miles away, so I should be able to see a little bit of Navajoland.
This weekend I am going to stay pretty close to Chinle because frankly I am sick and tired of driving. If you ever go cross country bring someone with you so you can have something to do besides think. Now I have nothing left to think about. I will probably go check out Canyon de Chelly (pronounced Canyon de Shay) just down the road. I dont know if I am going to hike it, but I at least want to check it out. On Sunday I may go down and check out the Hubbel Trading Post which is a national landmark and apparently a pretty cool place. I may swing down to Window Rock and actually check out the Window Rock that it is named after, I tried to find it when I was there on Monday, but after visiting the historical center I wound up just heading on to Chinle. Over the course of the next 2 weekends I plan on going to Monument Valley/Shiprock/the Four Corners, The Grand Canyon, Lake Powell, and probably Flagstaff. If you have any ideas of places I should go or things I should do (Besides drive route 666 to Fort Defiance) please let me know. I am out of work by 5pm Mountain (7pm Eastern) and am basically just sitting around reading so feel free to call me. I can get on the internet at work for email, but email/internet doesnt work on my phone. I still get pretty good service and can send/recieve texts so feel free to contact me at any time.
-O
Sunday, October 11, 2009
To the end, to the end, the journey to the end
So today may be the last chance I get to update for a while. I know that the place I am staying will not have internet at the place im staying, but I will probably be able to get online either at the hospital or mooching wire.ess someplace
Today started off pretty rough. I wanted to attend the world famous Albuquerque Hot Air Balloon Festa, so I dragged myself out of bed at 5 after just a few hours of sleep. After finally making it to the field, finding parking, paying, and then standing around in the cold for almost 2 hours they decided to call off the launch becuase of wind. I understand that they are only looking out for the safety off the pilots, but the way they did it seemed sketchy. Nobody was getting their money back and they were unwilling to even appologize for the inconvienience. Hotel rates and expenses went up through the entire city, and they were unwilling to give us anything back. At least I was able to get a breakfast burrito at the balloon park.
After the balloon failure I went out towards Gallup, NM and wound up taking a detour to hit some tourist attractions. I went to El Morro national forest where the conquistadores and settlers carved their names in the stone. I went beyond the normal walking path and actually did the 2 mile hike up to the top. I have been having problems getting acclimated to the altitude so the hike was rough, but im glad I did it.
After El Morro I headed out to the Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary where I was able to walk around and check out wolves that had been rescued. It was pretty cool to get up close with the animals,plus I got a few good pictures.
I am totally exhausted and will be crashing shortly. Tomorrow I make it to the Reservation and will try to make the best out of everything there. Im not sure what im going to do next weekend, but ill try to go out and explore a bit this week while I get accustomed to the altitude, the time shift, and general reservation life.
Today started off pretty rough. I wanted to attend the world famous Albuquerque Hot Air Balloon Festa, so I dragged myself out of bed at 5 after just a few hours of sleep. After finally making it to the field, finding parking, paying, and then standing around in the cold for almost 2 hours they decided to call off the launch becuase of wind. I understand that they are only looking out for the safety off the pilots, but the way they did it seemed sketchy. Nobody was getting their money back and they were unwilling to even appologize for the inconvienience. Hotel rates and expenses went up through the entire city, and they were unwilling to give us anything back. At least I was able to get a breakfast burrito at the balloon park.
After the balloon failure I went out towards Gallup, NM and wound up taking a detour to hit some tourist attractions. I went to El Morro national forest where the conquistadores and settlers carved their names in the stone. I went beyond the normal walking path and actually did the 2 mile hike up to the top. I have been having problems getting acclimated to the altitude so the hike was rough, but im glad I did it.
After El Morro I headed out to the Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary where I was able to walk around and check out wolves that had been rescued. It was pretty cool to get up close with the animals,plus I got a few good pictures.
I am totally exhausted and will be crashing shortly. Tomorrow I make it to the Reservation and will try to make the best out of everything there. Im not sure what im going to do next weekend, but ill try to go out and explore a bit this week while I get accustomed to the altitude, the time shift, and general reservation life.
To the end, to the end, the journey to the end
So today may be the last chance I get to update for a while. I know that the place I am staying will not have internet at the place im staying, but I will probably be able to get online either at the hospital or mooching wire.ess someplace
Today started off pretty rough. I wanted to attend the world famous Albuquerque Hot Air Balloon Festa, so I dragged myself out of bed at 5 after just a few hours of sleep. After finally making it to the field, finding parking, paying, and then standing around in the cold for almost 2 hours they decided to call off the launch becuase of wind. I understand that they are only looking out for the safety off the pilots, but the way they did it seemed sketchy. Nobody was getting their money back and they were unwilling to even appologize for the inconvienience. Hotel rates and expenses went up through the entire city, and they were unwilling to give us anything back. At least I was able to get a breakfast burrito at the balloon park.
After the balloon failure I went out towards Gallup, NM and wound up taking a detour to hit some tourist attractions. I went to El Morro national forest where the conquistadores and settlers carved their names in the stone. I went beyond the normal walking path and actually did the 2 mile hike up to the top. I have been having problems getting acclimated to the altitude so the hike was rough, but im glad I did it.
After El Morro I headed out to the Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary where I was able to walk around and check out wolves that had been rescued. It was pretty cool to get up close with the animals,plus I got a few good pictures.
I am totally exhausted and will be crashing shortly. Tomorrow I make it to the Reservation and will try to make the best out of everything there. Im not sure what im going to do next weekend, but ill try to go out and explore a bit this week while I get accustomed to the altitude, the time shift, and general reservation life.
Today started off pretty rough. I wanted to attend the world famous Albuquerque Hot Air Balloon Festa, so I dragged myself out of bed at 5 after just a few hours of sleep. After finally making it to the field, finding parking, paying, and then standing around in the cold for almost 2 hours they decided to call off the launch becuase of wind. I understand that they are only looking out for the safety off the pilots, but the way they did it seemed sketchy. Nobody was getting their money back and they were unwilling to even appologize for the inconvienience. Hotel rates and expenses went up through the entire city, and they were unwilling to give us anything back. At least I was able to get a breakfast burrito at the balloon park.
After the balloon failure I went out towards Gallup, NM and wound up taking a detour to hit some tourist attractions. I went to El Morro national forest where the conquistadores and settlers carved their names in the stone. I went beyond the normal walking path and actually did the 2 mile hike up to the top. I have been having problems getting acclimated to the altitude so the hike was rough, but im glad I did it.
After El Morro I headed out to the Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary where I was able to walk around and check out wolves that had been rescued. It was pretty cool to get up close with the animals,plus I got a few good pictures.
I am totally exhausted and will be crashing shortly. Tomorrow I make it to the Reservation and will try to make the best out of everything there. Im not sure what im going to do next weekend, but ill try to go out and explore a bit this week while I get accustomed to the altitude, the time shift, and general reservation life.
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