Saturday, May 07, 2005
RIP TOJECC
The Druz World Tour has officially made its next stop - Boise. I got into town a few days ago after a harrowing journey across darkest Middle America and I am currently shacking up with JoeJa of phlogger fame.
During the solo 2,500 mile drive there was little excitement, though I did stop off in the pagan outpost of Lawrence, Kansas, to visit with my friends Sera and Jacob. Kansas gets a bad rap, and probably deservedly so - the Kansas school board is essentially recreating the Scopes Monkey Trial as we speak - but Lawrence is a damn cool town. Besides being home to the University of Kansas Jayhawks basketball team and the former home of William S. Burroughs, Lawrence is also the small blue dot in the solid red rectangle that is Kansas (think Berkley but flatter and much cheaper).
Before Kansas, there was Missouri. I now know two things about Missouri - it's very big and has very few interstates. Consequently, it took for fucking ever to get across that monstrosity of a state (I didn't even get to see the Gateway Arch for my troubles). There was, however, one major highlight of my nine hours in Missouri: I passed a town called, no kidding, Cooter, Mo. Just for good measure, the fields of Cooter were freshly shorn.
Because of my slight detour to Lawrence, I put myself in an unenviable position: I had to drive the length of Kansas to get to my next stop, Boulder, Co. At first, the scenery along I-70 was pretty, with cows dotting rolling green hills. At rolling hill number 3,557 it started getting old. The best way I can describe the painfully gradual climb from Lawrence (elevation 850 feet) to Boulder (elevation 5,400 feet) is that it's like taking the world's longest wheelchair ramp at 80 miles per hour.
After a relaxing day and a half with some family friends in Boulder, I took off for the final leg of my journey, stopping in scenic Rawlins, Wy. for the night. After that it was a day through the high plains of Wyoming where herds of pronghorn antelope (tied with the Moose for my favrite North American ungulate) and cattle broke up the monotony of the landscape. And suddenly I was descending into southwest Idaho's Treasure Valley, getting blasted by an unusual thunderstorm (which made me feel a twinge of homesickness for Louisiana).
So here I am. I started work yesterday, filling out paperwork and starting my indoctrination into the Gannett Cult. I'm still adjusting to the reverse culture shock of lily white Boise (Baton Rouge: 51 percent black. Boise: .8 percent), where nobody locks their doors and people care about, gasp, quality of life, but I have already found my regular coffee shop (which, of course, will never replace Perks) and the people have been very friendly (though they pale in comparison to the BR crew).
So, this is to be the final post on this blog (other than the one directing you to my next blog). There's a glitch on blogger right now making it difficult to start my Boise blog, but it should be up soon and I'll post the new URL as soon as I get started (which should be in a few days). I'm glad I'm either interesting enough for you to read my blog or that you're all nice enough friends to humor me and shake your heads when I'm not looking. Either way I've enjoyed the back and forth on this site and I hope it continues on the next one.
During the solo 2,500 mile drive there was little excitement, though I did stop off in the pagan outpost of Lawrence, Kansas, to visit with my friends Sera and Jacob. Kansas gets a bad rap, and probably deservedly so - the Kansas school board is essentially recreating the Scopes Monkey Trial as we speak - but Lawrence is a damn cool town. Besides being home to the University of Kansas Jayhawks basketball team and the former home of William S. Burroughs, Lawrence is also the small blue dot in the solid red rectangle that is Kansas (think Berkley but flatter and much cheaper).
Before Kansas, there was Missouri. I now know two things about Missouri - it's very big and has very few interstates. Consequently, it took for fucking ever to get across that monstrosity of a state (I didn't even get to see the Gateway Arch for my troubles). There was, however, one major highlight of my nine hours in Missouri: I passed a town called, no kidding, Cooter, Mo. Just for good measure, the fields of Cooter were freshly shorn.
Because of my slight detour to Lawrence, I put myself in an unenviable position: I had to drive the length of Kansas to get to my next stop, Boulder, Co. At first, the scenery along I-70 was pretty, with cows dotting rolling green hills. At rolling hill number 3,557 it started getting old. The best way I can describe the painfully gradual climb from Lawrence (elevation 850 feet) to Boulder (elevation 5,400 feet) is that it's like taking the world's longest wheelchair ramp at 80 miles per hour.
After a relaxing day and a half with some family friends in Boulder, I took off for the final leg of my journey, stopping in scenic Rawlins, Wy. for the night. After that it was a day through the high plains of Wyoming where herds of pronghorn antelope (tied with the Moose for my favrite North American ungulate) and cattle broke up the monotony of the landscape. And suddenly I was descending into southwest Idaho's Treasure Valley, getting blasted by an unusual thunderstorm (which made me feel a twinge of homesickness for Louisiana).
So here I am. I started work yesterday, filling out paperwork and starting my indoctrination into the Gannett Cult. I'm still adjusting to the reverse culture shock of lily white Boise (Baton Rouge: 51 percent black. Boise: .8 percent), where nobody locks their doors and people care about, gasp, quality of life, but I have already found my regular coffee shop (which, of course, will never replace Perks) and the people have been very friendly (though they pale in comparison to the BR crew).
So, this is to be the final post on this blog (other than the one directing you to my next blog). There's a glitch on blogger right now making it difficult to start my Boise blog, but it should be up soon and I'll post the new URL as soon as I get started (which should be in a few days). I'm glad I'm either interesting enough for you to read my blog or that you're all nice enough friends to humor me and shake your heads when I'm not looking. Either way I've enjoyed the back and forth on this site and I hope it continues on the next one.
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Hey look. Just because you moved to Boise and shacked up with Joe "I need my sleep" Ja doesn't mean you are devested of your humanitarian blog duties. Go get out there, do some crazy stuff, and tell us about it. Unless you really are newly Addicted to Jesus, that is.
Yeah, seriously, what's the deal? Where's the link to your new Boise blog? Take pity on those of us who pass the long hours at work by checking up on the more exciting lives of their friends! Your readers miss you, Heath!
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