Day 21. Another new experience! and a (hopefully) fun story!

Alrighty, today began fairly well... I dragged myself out of bed and me and hunter foraged about for edible things (we're both bachelors so that's a pretty broad list) ate some breakfast and set to working through the to-do list we had.

The largest and most 'exciting' part of the to-do list was to take the garbage truck to the landfill and dump it. Now... do me a favor, close your eyes and remember back to those surprisingly durable tonka trucks that every kid my age seemed to have at one point. Those little yellow things that seemed to come from the store with half the paint missing and a bit of rust. (or maybe that was just the effect me and my brothers had on em) well... imagine that sort of dump truck. Now imagine that instead of the construction yellow it is painted a dark green, blotched with sun, rain, and who-knows what else... well, thats the truck i'm talking about here. Now fill that truck with the garbage of nearly 3 weeks of camp operations, so much garbage that where the truck dumps there is a little black patch of dead grass because the juices have become toxic. In short this truck might not be toxic enough to make you superhero but it sure might kill ya.

I drove this ancient monstrosity all the way into town, its rumble and creaks just adding a good counterpoint to the constant refrain of "please God let this thing die when zach is driving and not me". (I suspect a similar refrain was uttered in the past and resulted in me driving this thing in the first place). well to make a long story shorter than I might have otherwise, I finally managed to limp this thing into the dump where the scale attendant recognized the truck and helped me get the thing out on the landfill and directed me where to dump it. Now... I like to think i'm not a prideful man (one might even go so far as to say I'm proud of that fact. but if you were that one who would say so you might be a silly man as well) but I do not particularly enjoy learning things by embarrassing myself, granted I don't forget and often can muddle my way through on the kindness of strangers and the grace of God. Today was no exception, turns out I didn't completely remember the directions zach gave me to operate the truck, and even once I figured it out (on my own) the box on the truck wouldn't go all the way back down. The attendant being a very nice small town kinda guy was quite gracious about giving me a hand and we got the truck back into its barely street capable state. From here on out the plan was simple... keep the truck running and keep moving. The truck survived and I learned a few things but it was a (mostly good) stretch there for a bit.

Also yesterday and today we've had a farrier out working on our horses, if you didn't read yesterdays update I encourage you to check it out. Also if you need a farrier in or around cheyenne I recommend the High Plains Farrier Service.

After we finally got our to-do list done me and hunter (the only members of bachelor camp) loaded up and headed into town to crash at a few of our bosses house (we have lots of bosses, it at least helps that they're in married couples though) I'm looking forward to a fun 4th of july! (yeah I didn't forget that I'm a canuck but when in rome...)

Also really looking forward to seeing the rest of the team on thursday evening. it's peculiar how you can go from strangers to family in a few weeks, it'll be stranger still when we have to leave at the end of the summer.

ooh lookie! I got it done with 15 minutes to spare! go me!

-Nick