Holy Shit, We Are Home

It has been a long (painfully so at times) road, but John and I are finally back in Illinois. I'm laying on my bed as I write this, and looking forward to sleeping on a mattress for only the third time in over a month. Upon hearing the news many of you were surprised that we were going to be home so soon. Being road-weary we had intended to get home a few days earlier than originally planned. The constant movement, setting up and tearing down camp, hours upon hours in the van between destinations, diet of ramen and canned goods, all of this had worn us down. It was time to start winding things down.

So we climbed the Tower and then drove to the Needles were we planned to spend between 2-3 days playing around on the spires there. My good friend who lives and works at Devils Tower came out with us and I was glad to spend some quality time with her since I never know when our paths will cross next. However, shortly after arriving and scouting out some climbs in the needles the weather turned bad. Clouds rolled in, and we watched the lighting off in the distance for a while before retreating from the rain. Back at our camp we ate cookies and took a nap in Becka's spacious van. Once the storm broke we talked with the over climber residents of Poverty Gulch where we were camped. Drank beers, ate ramen, shot a potato gun and so on. In the morning we made the call early, the weather looked like crap again and that was that. We broke camp, I said my goodbye to Becka, we got in the car and drove to Minneapolis.

And now, we'll, now I'm home even earlier than anticipated and I don't know how to feel. Part of me is happy, showers, beds, fridges full of food, all of these things are pretty nice comforts. Seeing my friends back home is also something I've been looking forward too.

On the other hand, I'm missing the simplicity and peacefulness of how we lived already. I know I'll miss waking up with the sun and to the sounds of birds. I'll miss smelling like campfire smoke, I'll miss the dry air and cold winds, the sight of rocky peaks and the smell of pine.

We experienced so much and it so impossible to digest it all right now. How exactly I reconcile those experiences with everyday living is going to be difficult. That's how it goes though I guess, and I have grad school looming in the near future, so I suppose I'll be busy enough. Thanks for following the blog, I may post some reflections at a later date. Hope you enjoyed living vicariously through us.

-Tonto

p.s. John and I were both not scheduled for quite a while past our requested off dates, so we may end up going to the red next week. What the hell right? I still got some money left...I think.