**lip synchs to boyscout songs**

Hey friends!
      I guess I just posted 3 or 4 days ago but I'm about to go incognito for a while out in the wild so I wanted to share the rest of my adventure getting here because it was pretty swell. No pictures this time because google is out to get me so we need to work out our differences before I can post more photog. Even though this is supposed to be like... a picture blog. Thanks google.
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       After I left Santa Fe I just kind of drove north to see what would happen and ended up passing through Taos instead of camping there because I couldn't figure out how to get where I originally wanted to go without a high risk of wasting a lot of time and gas. I had been driving in the dark for a while trying to find a camp ground and decided to pull over on the side of the road to look at my map. This ancient old man walked up to my car and tapped on my window and I was expecting the worst because I was feeling a little frustrated about not being able to find a place but we got to talking and he told me his wife worked at Philmont 65 years ago and let me crash at his tiny beautiful little privately owned campsite for free for the night. People can be swell. I slept by a creek and it was incredibly relaxing. The moon seems so friggin big and ghostly when it's full and there isn't much light pollution. it was awesome!
     The next morning I got an early start and pulled over in Eagle's Nest for breakfast at a little biker diner. This couple from the panhandle who were on a motorcycle tour saw me waiting around for a table and invited me and this other solo fellow to sit with them. They were also incredibly nice and full of neat bike stories. Something about the mountains makes people so friendly ^_^
      I didn't have any bureaucracy issues with work when I got here which is amazing given the amount of paperwork I've had to mail in over the last few months. A lot could be said about what goes in to one day here and the layout of the ranch and all of the weird little idiosyncrasies I've been trying to hurriedly catch on to. It's difficult to attach the right stories and conversations to the right faces at the end of the day because there are so many! Almost everyone here has been here before as a scout or venture crew or employee but there are a few of us that haven't, and there are a few people that are happy to get me up to speed quickly. I feel like a little kid running around and asking a million questions. Things at Philmont: Cottonwoods, aspen, douglas fir, ponderosa pine,  ultimate frisbee, (I just watch.) pool, ice cream trips to cimarron, lots of walking around and lounging on lawns after training, lots of training, not a lot of hygiene, lots of gossip, vegetarian options at dinner!, breakfast at 6:30am, work pants that make me look like MC Hammer diesel edition, and lots of scout songs that I don't know the words to. Tomorrow morning is our first overnight with the entire Conservation dept. we're going to take a staff picture on top of a peak in the park. how hardcore! There is only me and one other girl on the work crew. I'm really hoping we end up on the same team (they are as of yet undecided) so as to offset what will otherwise be a very sausage filled summer. I'm feeling a little homesick but I better get over it because it's only day 3 :p