On Saturday we drove to the coast. About an hour and a half drive from Portland.

We made a brief trip over the mountain to Helen, Georgia. Having undergone a comically slow tubing run on a creek with not quite enough water in it two years ago, the Sulock’s returned to give tubing in Helen another look. Next time we will likely require more than two years before our memories are sufficiently faded to consider a return trip.

From the town’s website:

This Northeast Georgia village has a rich history linked to the Cherokee Indians and Indian burial mounds as well as early settlers who arrived to mine for gold and cut virgin timber for a thriving lumber industry in the early 1900’s. Now celebrating its thirty-fifth year as a mountain community with a touch of Bavaria.

Nothing like celebrating your rich Cherokee history by turning your town into a giant gingerbread house. Regardless of my opinion of the current state of Helen, the roaming masses on the occasionally cobble-stoned streets seemed to indicate that their alpine strategy for attracting visitors was a successful one.

In a little house. in a little village, not far away from Thunderbolt City, lived a whistle fixer named Lunchbox Louie. He had a wife named Bigfoot the Chipmunk and a little son named King Waffle. Every day Lunchbox Louie would kiss Bigfoot the Chimpmunk and King Waffle, and walk to his shop in Thunderbolt City…

Allow me to share one of the best things I’ve found on ye olde interweb in a long time. The following Garfield comic strips without Garfield are shamelessly stolen from This website

Described as

Who would have guessed that when you remove Garfield from the Garfield comic strips, the result is an even better comic about schizophrenia, bipolor disorder, and the empty desperation of modern life?

I just learned how to do this tonight. These aren’t perfect by any means but I think they are fun.

Hope it is a good one!

While Wordpress makes putting up a site like this not too bad for average Joe’s like myself, there are some subtleties that escape me every now and then. Like ,why does it open a picture when you go to comment on the post below? I have no idea, but it certainly does (as Davy so kindly pointed out to me yesterday). Whoops.

Therefore, if the urge strikes you to comment on those fabulous photos of Bozeman that appeared in the post before this, consider using this post to do so. Thank you and goodbye.

I found this website, www.summitpost.org that is a networking site for people who go like to play outside.

I made a picture gallery there here.

Its kind of nice because I know people are looking at these pictures and hopefully enjoying them. There are a lot of amazing pictures other people have taken from all over the world as well.

Mom and Dad have been out west for a week now. We spent 3 nights at Coulter Bay in the Tetons with Kezia joining us for the first night. Then it was taking the scenic route through Yellowstone on the way back and since then Bozeman. On Wednesday we are going to drive up to Glacier for a couple of nights.

Mom and Dad are in Anaconda outside of Butte playing a the Old Works golf course which Dad first mentioned to me a number of months ago. The weather seems to be cooperating so I hope they are having a good time. It wasquite chilly at the Tetons and in Yellowstone. Mom and especially Dad would probably use a term along the lines of “Artic”. The 2nd night we were there it started snowing and we woke up with some snow scattered on the grounds and the moutains with a fresh dusting.

I warn you that the last picture is 3.3 megabytes. It is a panoramic of the Tetons I took with about 9 pictures stiched together.

http://michaelsulock.com/wp-content/uploads/Teton.jpg I don’t know why Wordpress is being such a pain with with this picture but if you copy the address above and paste it into your browser you’ll get to the giant panorama.

I was reading this article about the spring-loaded rock climbing protection piece known as a”cam”, and apparently this fellow, Ray Jardine, invented the modern version of something that has totally revolutionized climbing since then. Inventing the cam is something along the same magnitude with inventing the bicycle. It was really that ground-breakingof an accomplishment.

So I was impressed by this, and followed the link at the bottom of the rather limited Wikipedia article on Ray to his “Adventure Homepage”, www.rayjardine.com This guy is completely ridiculous. What he has accomplished in terms of seeking adventure, (which I don’t see as the ultimate goal of life by any means) is almost totally unprecedented. For example, taking 3 years to sail around the world or building your own kayaks which you then use to kayak 960 uninhabited miles in 38 days. He sells different kits for making your own homemade tents, sewing your own backpacks, your own hats, and more. He in a scientist, an engineer, and an inventor as well as a world-class explorer and adventurer. I think that is a really impressive diachotomy of books smarts and brave curiosity.

If you look out his webpage, in a column on the right side, you’ll see accounts of a lot of the things he’s done. I’m just putting this up because I feel like he is an interesting person and wanted to share some things I was looking at and thinking about. Ray reminds me of Uncle Sandy!

Love, Michael

Yes, its hard to believe folks but I am now 27 years young. (well, technically not until tomorrow but when you read this it’ll be true. Its akin to post-dating a check). A good age that is for sure. Its too bad I have schoolwork to do and can’t spend it at Bridger or something, but its not the end of the world.

I have to finish a take-home exam, meet my professor at 11, give out a couple of make-up quizzes at 12:30, and then proctor our first Stat 216 exam at 6. Not that much that has to get done really. So it should be a good day.

I rewarded myself with a new 250 GB external hard-drive (120 bucks from tigerdirect.com) and a new pair of clogs (I had a pair a long time ago that Davy managed to confiscate and wore out). So right now my computer is bleeping as it backs up 18 GB of photos from my harddrive and I’m wearing my wonderful, new-smelling shoes. As soon as I finish typing this I’m going to go to bed because its after 11 o’clock and that is past my bedtime.

Aren’t Friday’s the best? They are especially nice when you had 2 tests that week. One thing about a test is that you don’t necessarily know how you’ll do before you take it, but you do know that at least it will be over.

I had a pretty tough test today in Stat 424. Which is a math stat class. Its pretty interesting but it is a whole new type of material that takes a little bit to get used to. We have a take-home portion of it thats due next week that’ll be the other half of the grade. I felt like if I had a little more time the in-class part would’ve gone better, but that just means that I’ll need to have the material straight that much more for next time.

Also, Modest Mouse is going to play a concert in Bozeman the Saturday at the end of our spring break. NONE of the bands I’m familiar with ever come to this town. Some do stop by Missoula, which is a little larger and a few hours to the west. That’s the town that inspired me to come to school here actually. Modest Mouse is a band I tried to see about 3 years ago in Minneapolis but the show sold out before I was able to get tickets. So this is exciting. One of the things I miss about Asheville is the fairly regular supply of music they have coming through there.

Unlike Davy, there are no ziplines or gorillas in my possible future. I do think I’ll go down to Yellowstone tomorrow. Bridger can be a little hectic on the weekends and finding some peace will be nice. Thanks for reading about my little slice of the universe out here. Hope that whoever you are and and whatever you’re doing things are working out for you.

Michael

I had been waiting to try to write much on here until I got it to look exactly how I want it.

I don’t know if its ever going to look exactly how I want it, but this template looks pretty reasonable so maybe we’ll go with this for the time being. Also Mom has already posted comments, so I must keep the fan(s) pleased.

On that note, today myself and 4 fellow math graduate students ventured into the wilds of Montana at our local ski resort, Bridger Bowl. (whose website is available at www.bridgerbowl.com (highlights are video of the day and the snow report)) This place is pretty amazing. Its quite large (1500 acres…that is 10 times bigger than Sugar Mountain NC), quite uncrowded, quite close, and since I have a season’s pass relatively cheap.

I need to bring a camera out there. Today would have been a good day as it was relatively sunny. From the top of the lifts looking out you can see about 4 different mountain ranges, its pretty neat, I feel quite lucky.

I’ve gone there everyday since I’ve been in Montana. I’m hoping I’ll get tired of this before school starts, although thats unlikely. It is seriously not crowded so far. The weekend was free from lift lines, and the weekdays so far have been downright desolate.

Well this is my first “real” post. I hope everyone that has actually read this far has found that bit of prose not too boring, and possibly even enjoyable. Wish you could all be out here with me.

A continual work in progress. Thoughts will be minimized to avoid waste.