It’s been four years, folks. Four years since I first started out in the land of blogging, typing my first word, exposing my soul for all to read, or at least for three of you to read, and then only when I actually took the time to get off my lazy ass to expose said soul. Which wasn’t all that often. See: Laziness, procrastination, general apathy, etc. I mean, jeez, I thought I did this post every year, but I checked last year and NOPE, no post there. It’s been a good run so far, though. I’m actually impressed that I’ve kept with it this long. After four years I had already thrown in the towel with college, so why would something like this be any different?

A lot has changed recently. Important, cool, amazing things that you would think one would document in their blog, instead of rambling on and on about commercials and signs I saw on the way to work. Ah well. I could say I’m going to eventually write about those things, you know, just after I get done writing about my LAST trip to Seattle. So don’t hold your breath or anything.

A brief update, though, for those who came into this picture late. At the end of March I packed as much as I could into my Mazda 3 and drove from snowy Hoosick Falls, New York to rainy Seattle, Washington. The trip took five days. First stop was South Bend, Indiana, home of Touchdown Jesus and Notre Dame, although we didn’t actually see either, for some reason. Things learned: Pennsylvania needs tolls, because they are a dirty, dirty state. Also, Cleveland may rock, but everything West of it sucks. Seriously, Ohio was easily the most boring state my dad and I drove through. The weather was crazy. Snow banks in New York, but by the time we got to Indiana, it was almost 80 degrees outside.

Day Two: Indiana to South Dakota. Avoid I-5 through Chicago at all costs. It was really cool to see Chicago, but I’ll never take that road again. You go through fifteen different tolls only to see some of the worst roads you’ve ever seen and a twelve lane highway where at least half of those lanes are closed at any given time for construction that doesn’t seem to be happening. Madness.

We land in Mitchell, SD, home to the Corn Palace, which is basically a performing arts center/gym made of corn. A good place to stop and take a breather. Then Day Three took us to the Badlands, some of the coolest landscape on the face of the planet. Right in the middle of nowhere, amongst the rolling hills of South Dakota, is this area where erosion has just carved up the dirt into amazing towers and canyons. From there we went to Wall, SD, home of Wall Drug, a crazy kind of mini mall only South Dakota could cook up, and then from there we went to Rapid City. At Rapid City the clouds opened up and it just poured. We thought our trek to Mt. Rushmore was going to be in vain, but as we climbed up the hills to our destination, the sun came out and everything was amazing.

The nice thing about seeing all of these sights at the tail end of March is that no one else is around. So if the weather just happens to luck out for you like it did us, you can go to a place like Mt. Rushmore and there is literally no one else there. I think there were, like, 10-12 cars in that parking garage. You had the presidents all to yourself. Pretty cool. It was impressive sight, with the air crystal clear you could see the fresh rain rolling off of their faces as they dried off. We finished our trip driving through the Black Hills to Deadwood (yea, it’s a real place), a cool tiny town tucked in a narrow ravine. The Black Hills are one of my favorite places in the world now, and I’d love to make another trip out there sometime.

The not so nice thing about seeing all of these sights at the tail end of March is the weather can be a tad bit unpredictable. We woke up in Deadwood with snow on the ground. I-5 was closed in Wyoming because there was over three feet of snow in the road from blizzard conditions. We considered staying another day in Deadwood, but decided to soldier on, driving straight north through North Dakota to Montana. If you want to know what the middle of nowhere feels like, drive straight north through North Dakota.

Montana is a big ass state. It took basically two days to drive across it. What a landscape, though. Mountains everywhere. Crazy visuals. I’d love to explore more. We stopped Day Four in Butte, Montana, slightly off from our destination point of Missoula, but pretty damn good considering that we avoided a blizzard to do so. Right before you hit Butte you pass through the Continental Divide, a passageway at an elevation of over 6,000 feet above sea level. It’s crazy, amazing fun driving. I had a blast anyway. I’m not sure my dad enjoyed how fast I flew down those mountain roads, but I didn’t care. If you love to drive, these are the roads to drive on.

Day Five took us through the rest of Montana, a tiny bit of Idaho, and then off through Washington. If you thought the mountain passes in Montana were crazy, just wait until you hit the western part of Washington. Wow.

Then we hit Tacoma traffic during rush hour, which was not so much fun.

I moved into my roommate’s condo, (Hey Rob!), started work at the Pacific Place Mall, downtown Seattle, and the rest, as they say, is history. Work has royally sucked, I’m still single, and I have no friends, but hey, things are getting better everyday, so who knows where I’ll be when I write this post next year.