And then there was work! Got off to a late start, nothing was working out like we intended it to, was trying to make decisions on the fly and on an empty stomach, the weather was brutal, etc. Just... not my day. Didn't get back to the hotel until 7, and by the time I'd gotten rehydrated, mentally recovered, showered, talked to Stefano, caught up on my work email and put out other fires at work, it was 9:30 and I just didn't have the energy/motivation/time to go out to dinner. Didn't help that we didn't have lunch until 2:30, and I'd been chugging water and gatorade so I wasn't very hungry. So I made microwave popcorn for dinner. And maybe later, I'll have some trail mix.
I guess no one in their right mind goes into civil engineering for the glamour... Well, maybe the structural engineers and construction managers who build skyscrapers. But that's like the fighter pilots of the military world. Most soldiers are just guards and soldiers. Most civil engineers are just grunts doing a dirty, unpleasant, and mostly-thankless job. I'm especially bitter right now because I have four more week-long trips coming up this summer. Really? Really? Even if Stefano ever comes home, we're barely going to have any time to hike or camp. Argh.
But to end on a positive note and a bit of americana, we are staying across the street from the Flintstones theme park and campground. I love our country.
Oh, and I passed a British family in our hotel, all five or six of them wearing stereotypical Wyoming/South Dakota cowboy hats, just like this one:
Edit/addition: I realized I wanted to show the type of hat they were wearing, since the reason it stuck in my mind is that they weren't the typical touristy cowboy hats that people get, like this one is:
The fact that they all had really nice (probably $60-80) hats just really amused me for some reason.
Oh, and I'm really really missing camping right now because the Black Hills look (and smell) like the sparse pine forests that I love to camp in in Colorado. I couldn't stop just standing around and sniffing the dry piney air this morning.
it seems like you and stefano are both away a lot - who watches molly when that happens?
ReplyDeleteSometimes we have a friend who takes her, and sometimes we take her to a boarding place. But I don't feel too bad-- she LOVES the boarding place we take her. Not like when we had to board Kanga and she hated it.
ReplyDeleteI'll say THANK YOU to all the civil engineers who try to keep our crumbling and inadequate infrastructure going! And to all the construction workers out there in the heat and dirt and rain.
ReplyDeleteThey don't even get the cool hats.
Miss you, munchkin! If I had five bucks for every time I told someone about what you do and how cool/important concrete is, we could both retire. Too bad I can't come out and be your assistant for one of your trips while I'm off work here. Really looking forward to coming out to see you next month tho! *hugs* (I must have mistyped something because I looked back and the iPad autocorrect had turned it into hogs. Haha!)
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