Week One

Oh my it's been a long time since I've posted anything. 

Well here we are, back in an even-numbered year. I tend to like the evens better than the odds, and this one should be a doozy. This is a year of transition, and as such it's going to be harder than ever to keep up with family and friends, or for them to keep up with me. I started the year off in Florida, but where I'll end it is still a big question mark. 

So what better way to kick off the year than with a project I've always wanted to do: chronicle my year with a photo of the day. Hopefully this will give me the same thing to do every day, no matter where I am. And hopefully I can break my trend of not finishing projects I started :)

So without further ado...WEEK ONE OF 2014!!

January 1 

Charleston, SC

I had spent New Years in Charleston visiting a good friend and her family, and I always love crossing this bridge. It was unfortunately cloudy this day, but the bridge was still awesome.

January 2

Fernandina Beach, FL

It was a gloomy day, marked by packing boxes at the place that I've called home for the last 4 years. It's super bittersweet, as it's been over a decade since I've lived anywhere that long and what a good home it was. I'll see it again in February for a hot second as I retrieve my things before heading north.

January 3

 Sunset Island, Everglades City, FL

The docks of the NCOBS Everglades basecamp. You can see my friend Cal in this picture, and hopefully you can also understand how Sunset Island got its name.

January 4

 Sunset Island, Everglades City, FL

The gloom continued as we prepped for course. This is a picture from my bedroom looking out to the yard.

January 5

 Sunset Island, Everglades City, FL

This was course start day. We had 8 military veterans arrive for course and the sun came as well. This is a picture of the main lodge of basecamp.

January 6

 Sunset Island, Everglades City, FL

I've taken a lot of pictures in the Everglades but the one I really want to get is of an Osprey carrying a fish. This one is almost perfect, next time I'm shooting for one that's not just the silhouette.

January 7

Fakahatchee Island, Everglades, FL

My co-instructor Jay snapped this one of me watching the whitecaps out in the bay. We had 30-knot winds the night before and the temperature dipped into in the 30's. It made for some cold, cold paddling that day.

NST 87

 I'm back from the field, having just hung out on the Delta with the Illustrious "Mostly A Team" (Amy, Alaine, Amanda, Andrew, Aaron, Dave, Marisa, Steven, and Zach) for the last couple weeks. I've been told that the Outward Bound gods give you the exact weather you need for your course, which was entirely true in this case. Right off the bat we suffered through a lightning drill on the sandbar, followed by a rainy 12 hours of our lives (not unlike my ENTIRE New Staff Training). After we made sure the participants knew how to put on their banana suits and sit on gear bags and ensolite mats, the skies cleared up and the raingear stayed stowed for the rest of the trip. Warm days, cool nights, more fireflies than I've ever seen, behavior sims, lessons, teamy teamness...oh my. Talk about a wonderful way to spend most of May.

Boston and Busack. Representing oh so many things here. My co-trainer, Katie and I both served as team leaders in AmeriCorps and would often joke that we were "getting things done" for Kurt Hahn and Outward Bound.

Trying to figure out how on earth to get the whole team from point A to point B with nothing to protect them from the lava but magic glasses.

Figuring it out

I emerged the morning after the rainy night, from our tiny, tiny trainer tent...and it was one of those mornings that I'm just so grateful for this job and life.

Marisa reaching for main.

Aaron checking out the chart. Just kidding. The map.

My favorite stretch of the river, past all the houseboats. This one, however, is looking a little worse for the wear.

Awesome tree in Hastie Lake.

Heading for the Lizards.

The last 10%, coming in at 7:03 a.m. Once again, my co-instructor and I placed a friendly wager as to the arrival time of the team, and once again my guess was off by mere minutes. Katie hit it right on the mark. 

"Parker, Parker, Parker..."

It was around mid March of this year that I found myself back in Key Largo. There are a couple places within Outward Bound that hold special magic for me, and Key Largo is definitely one of them. It's the place where I got my ass handed to me by the Everglades. Then it became the place where I came storming back. It's the place where I was in awe of a couple of powerful mentors, and it's the place where I formed some phenomenal, can't-live-without-em friendships.

So it's a little different being back without all of those people. Other things that are different...well for starters turning in a canoe and a paddle for a desk and a computer. And...how about the four days in the field rather than 20? It threw me for a loop for a while, but then I realized that there are still a lot of adventures to be had. Kim and I  kicked off my month in the keys by spending St. Patrick's Day paddling into the mangroves, sneaking into a notorious OB instructor spot near the sea house. It was a day of a lot of natural greens.

I was really excited to get down to work when my team got to Key Largo. But pretty soon brief was over, they were in the field and I was faced with course from the other side. The thing that threw me for a loop right off the bat was going to see the Hunger Games on night one of course, a night when I'm usually teaching kids how to clean dishes over the grey water bucket and making sure they set up their healy hammocks the right way. But I soon settled into a routine of field visits, working in the office, and a general carpe diem attitude in regards to play time.

Heading out to River Visit

One night, Kelley and I went out to dinner. As we pulled up to the restaurant, we noticed a group of people near the water, taking pictures of something. The 'something' turned out to be the Logistics Coordinator of the Key Largo Base. Mike had gone out for a sunset paddleboard, which was a postcard-type moment for most of the visiting tourists. He then offered to let Kelley and myself paddleboard. We spent about ten minutes, trying to get on the board. Kelley got completely soaked and I nearly peed my pants laughing. After a quick change of clothes in the parking lot, we were off to Sharkey's. It always ends at Sharkey's.

I headed out to solo to see the team. It was a pretty fun couple of days that resulted in a lot of good pictures. When I returned to base, a storm hit the team and they were going to have to take a different route and really motor to get home in time. I was so nervous about them that I refused to post any pictures from solo until I knew they were home safe and sound. Turns out they rocked it and there was no need to worry anyways.

Colleen being supportive.

Trying to figure out knots.

Kristin and I have been lots of places together, but in the entire time we had been in Outward Bound we had yet to be at Highland together. It was a monumentous occasion, one that we toasted with diet orange soda over breakfast.

This was serious talk time. Two minutes later it was serious run around the beach and take pictures time. See below: the butts.

Team infectious waste. The butts.

Getting back to Key Largo meant getting back to some good friends. Jinky and Marnocha got into town just in time for a spectacular sunset, and Phil and I tagged along.

Everglades Training, part 3

THE TOP QUOTES OF EVERGLADES TRAINING 2012

"I like parasites. They keep you on your toes."

"This is beyond analyst architect. This is insanity."

"Oh boy."

"1,2,3 board up. 1,2,3 take off your pfd. 1,2,3 cook dinner..."

"I've been waiting for this finger all day!"

"And then Harry was like 'Voldemort's back!' and everyone else was like 'Bull shit!'"

Ah. The Everglades. When you add it up, I've probably spent more days in the Everglades than out this year. And I knew I had spent a lot of time there when we were passing through "The Labyrinth" the other day (notoriously difficult to navigate through) and I turned to my co-trainer Alex and said: "Ah. I had lunch at that corner last year." Or when passing through "The Nightmare," (another super intimidating route) and pointing out the site where I pulled a mangrove straight out of the glades last December while trying to pull canoes through a tight space.

Yes, you could say I know the Everglades like the back of my hand, or like the acrid, sulfur smell that greets you when you wake up in Tarpon Hook at low tide. I could recognize that smell anywhere, like the St. Mary's River on a warm summer morning. In 2012 alone, I've paddled all over Everglades National Park, both in the south end and the north end. And as I washed my hair on Highland beach with dish soap (you know how we do) the other day and then fell asleep to the sounds of the wind in the palm trees above me, I realized that I love it just as much as I did the first time I was out here on my own Everglades Training, almost three years ago. I can't believe so much time has passed.

I remember hitting the gulf for the first time and the intimidating feeling I had looking out over this huge mass of water. When I expressed these fears to my trainer Amy, she looked at me and said "It's three feet deep. Calm down." But if you know Amy, you probably also know that she uses more colorful language than that.

I remember being in awe when we left the Harney River Chickee after a long lightning drill and paddled down the Wilderness Waterway, watching the mangrove forests grow bigger and seeing the roseate spoonbills flying above us.

I remember that first night on Highland and falling in love with the sound of the wind and the waves and the palm trees.

I remember how amazing it felt to step foot on land after paddling the 38 miles from Highland Beach to our take-out site at Coot Bay Pond, having traveled 12 hours overnight to do it. That night still ranks in one of my top ten memories with Outward Bound.

Back in December I had the opportunity to do it again as a trainer. And then, unexpectedly this month I went out for the third go around. Everglades training: always exciting, always something new.

Sunset at Long Pine: night #1.

Kathy, Colleen, and Jefferson boarding up at the Chocolate Chip Cookie.

Taste the Rainbow. Photo courtesy of Alex Tiberio.

Lesson time on Highland Beach. Photo courtesy of Alex Tiberio.

Yep, they got the isis on the first try. And attached a hammock/sail to it. There be pirates here.

45 minutes into the Gauntlet and we were mudded out. But the view sure was pretty.

13 hours later, after paddling straight through the night, we watched the sun come up at the South Joe Chickee. Here I am with my co-trainer, Alex.

I don't know if y'all were aware, but Kathy Sprowles solo paddles like it's nobody's business.

Coming out of Glades training has been a whirlwind of wrapping up course, dreaming about time off, and thinking about work again. I'm hoping the next couple weeks will give me time to breathe a bit, or at the very least, read Harry Potter.

A Sharp Breath of Cold Air

This post is a little late, but oh well.

It was a bit of a shock to the system earlier this month to go from the 80 degrees and full on sun blast of the Everglades to 20 degrees in Boston. In the Everglades, it's easy to take the sunshine for granted some days, but emerging from the Subway to the view above reminded me how startling the sun can be.

It was an interesting time to be in Boston as it was the weekend of the Super Bowl. So while the city was busy whipping itself into a Sam Adams fueled frenzy in anticipation of the big game, I went on a little walk along the Freedom Trail. Of course, here at Feneuil Hall there was a full size ice sculpture of Tom Brady.

Trying out the Macro Lens.

Paul Revere.

Ooh I love this picture. He looks like such a badass.

It was a wonderful trip, pretty much exactly what I needed exactly when I needed it. I spent the first couple days with Olga, who I hadn't seen since she left Outward Bound a year ago. It was during this time that we realized a strategy for overcoming the whole "spending the entire phone conversation catching up and that's all you talk about" syndrome. We may have stumbled upon something big.

I then had the chance to catch up with a couple friends from AmeriCorps, and during this time I realized that time and distance separates us as humans, but there are people in this world whose mere presence can transport you back to the person you used to be. With Nique and Shira, it was easy to tap into 2007 edition of Alex. And they served as a reminder of how important it is to not lose those people who are important to you.

Speaking of which, I was then on to see Sue, our last shot at some QT before she headed off to the Peace Corps for two years. We traipsed around Rhode Island and southern Massachusetts, hitting up lots of tourist traps that were closed for the season. I was thrilled though to see so many "firsts." Such as the first street to be lit by oil lamps in Newport, RI. And the first church established by the pilgrims. And Plymouth Rock. Lots of super historical places at which to nerd out. Fortunately, my partner in crime was the perfect person to indulge in my excitement over such things. It was sad to say goodbye. There is something surreal and unnatural in saying goodbye to someone, knowing it will be years before you see them again.

The trip was short and sweet and before I knew it, I was back in Florida for a few days before heading back out into the field. Unfortunately, somewhere between working with 8th graders from Savannah, traveling on planes, trains, and automobiles, and throwing myself into two extremely different environments, I had caught the uncommon cold. And a tendency for run-on sentences. Just kidding, that's always been there.

I call it the uncommon cold, because it so thoroughly knocked me on my ass that calling it "common" seems to be doing myself and the illness a huge injustice. But there I was, in my newly decorated room with ocean access, completely unable to move or enjoy my time off. Six days later, the crocs were back on my feet and a paddle back in my hands and I was out to the Glades with eight military veterans and a co-instructor who has been working in this job longer than I have been living on this planet.

Stopping for lunch and a photo op on Coon Key. It's amazing how much of that Zinc Oxide smeared onto everything: PFD, paddle, clothes.

The paddle is my new toy. She's super light and awesome. I named her District 12. Here we are about to head into a mangrove tunnel on Marco Island.

In the tunnel. This turned out to be the challenge and adventure portion of the trip for the vets. For Alan and myself, it was a bit of a snooze.

Life, in general, continues to be wonderful. I spent an awesome two weeks at home in Fernandina, where we did our best to play as much as possible. Tennis, video games, Settlers of Catan, you name it. My roommate and I created cocktails, we celebrated birthdays, and in general, just breathed in that salty ocean air and enjoyed the simple life.

In more exciting news, my little sister Micaela started her year in AmeriCorps*NCCC! My AmeriCorps alum roommates of mine (4) and I are enjoying our new past-time: living vicariously through her and imagining all the fun and new experiences she's having. I know she's turning southern because she's started dropping the "g" in her "ing" words. (Read: Muckin', Guttin') Turns out she's a darn good writer, too. If you want to live vicariously through her as well, you can read all about her adventures without a bucket here:

http://mbusack.tumblr.com/