Since Then

Dear Internet,

How've you been? I hope you're good. I've been great!

Since my last post, I spent a few more weeks at Cuivre River and one really awesome week at Poplar Bluff bike trail and southeastern Missouri.

It was a weird week, to say the least. I'll show you a picture of it, to prove my point:

Saul, Warren, me, Ali, and Stephanie... completely losing it.

So, how did we get to this crazy point? Well, we were a kind of a fill-in-the-gaps team this week, helping to finish up a contract at one place and filling the rest of the week up by then working elsewhere.

We spent Monday afternoon through Wednesday working with a great group at Poplar Bluff on a bike trail. You might remember this post in which I did trail work during a frigid Missouri December. Not so anymore! We in fact had shirtless Monday, it was so hot.

But it was awesome!!

With my team and the other team that spent the whole week at Poplar Bluff, there were eleven of us camping - with a river and some very nice campsite hosts (who brought us sticky buns one night) nearby. We swung tools all day (it's pretty repetitive and it can get boring, but unlike many other ERT jobs, it allows you to work in close proximity to your teammates with a lack of power tools, so you can chat all day!) and swam and hung out around the campfire at night. What more could you want?

Swimming was the name of the game at Poplar Bluff.

Anyway, here's hoping I get to go back there sometime soon!

Wednesday evening we headed over to the team working with the Missouri Department of Conservation in the southeastern part of the state. They had been doing odd jobs all week, but we ended up spending Thursday and Friday stacking cut cedars into burn piles (for a private landowner, which was weird, but we won't get into that...).

Which brings me to the day that we all absolutely lost. our. minds.

On the way to the glade where we were working Thursday morning, Stephanie bought an energy drink. We all had a sip of it... and then we went bananas. Hanging out of the car windows, singing along to every song on the radio, bouncing up and down, punching the ceiling, and at some points just purely screaming at nothing - we lost it for no good reason at all. And it was awesome.

Every once in a while, we'd calm down and wonder what was happening to us... and then another song would come on the radio and we'd get crazy again. It was actually the most fun I've had in a long time and we all agreed that every day should be like that.

Ali, me, and Warren on Insane Thursday.

Then we got to the glade and started stacking cedars, which was way less fun than going ape s*** in the truck. Ali painted a handlebar mustache on her face with ashes, though, and painted Warren's entire face black, so that kept us entertained.

That night, we went to Lambert's - home of the throwed rolls - for dinner. We don't usually go out to eat, but this place was pretty awesome. I've never been anywhere like it. Just like it sounds, they do literally throw rolls at you - you just hold your hand up when they come out with fresh ones, and their wait staff - who must have all been pitchers in a past life - hurl dinner rolls at you. Butter explodes in your hand and runs down your arm as you inevitably squish it on impact.

Caught one!

They also come around with a series of side dishes called pass-arounds (good ole soul food like red beans and rice, though some of the trickier waiters advertise it as "fried Twinkies"). And, if you order the right dinner (as did yours truly), your dinner comes with a cigar. Yep. A cigar for dessert.

Anyway, we had a terrific time just hanging out AND celebrating the job offer I had accepted earlier that day! I guess it's not technically a job offer since I'm technically a volunteer, but whatever. Tomato tomato.

After my ERT term is up, I'll be moving to Helena, Montana to work with the AmeriCorps VISTA program. VISTA is a division of AmeriCorps, as is the State and National branch I currently serve with on ERT. VISTA positions focus on poverty, and my position entails basically helping legal aid groups around the country connect with people via technology. So I'll be troubleshooting websites and social media and so on. A fuller job description (if you're interested) can be found here.

I've been wanting to move to the west coast for a while (the stop in St Louis was a sort of unanticipated but very rewarding halfway mark), so I'm really looking forward to 1+ year(s) in Big Sky Country. It was hard to decide to say goodbye once and for all to hanging around St Louis or even doing another year of ERT next year, but I've been getting more and more sure that this is the right choice for me. I'm going to miss a lot of people very much, though. This might be my first time moving somewhere new that I really felt that I was leaving a little part of my heart behind and that things would never be quite like they were (are).

On a related note, if you want to send me warm socks or other winter gear, it's probably on sale now!

And now I'm back at home this week, watching my baby brother Ben graduate high school. Congratulations Benno!

He's in there somewhere....

Also, Will was able to change his flight home - to see his brother graduate this weekend - to come to Virginia with me! It was great for him to meet my family (albeit all of them at the same time, extended family included... sorry, Will) and for them to meet him.

On the 14-hour trek home, we were able to do one touristy thing - a detour to New River Gorge to see the famous bridge. For many years, it was the world's longest steel single-span arch bridge, and it is now the third longest. It was a beautiful day and a great excuse to get out of the car for a little bit, drive on some windy mountain roads, and visit some little towns.

Will & I at the bridge.

Anyway, I guess that's all, folks. Catch you on the flip side...!

xoxo Liz