Home, Home on the Range

On the subject of cultural experiences, Doug and I have been savoring a bit of frontier life as of late. Wyoming holds all the wonders any savvy traveler could ask for--buffalo, pronghorns, tumbleweed, winds strong enough to blow semi trucks over. Okay, so maybe not the cultural milieu you'd find on the travel channel. But the moral of the story is that I am very much looking forward to Doug and I starting our life here, mostly because being together in Wyoming is better than being apart pretty much anywhere in the world. Without further gushing, here's some highlights of the trip so far (in numbered bullets for the logically inclined):

1. Free plane tickets!
The airlines were so packed that on our trip from Indy to Denver, we volunteered to be bumped from our seats not once but twice, which translated into United Airlines sending us to Denver in first class seats on a later flight and giving us each two free plane tickets!

2. Climbing in Golden, Colorado
New Years Eve day was spent with Doug's cousins Dylan and Anne and friend Sean rock climbing in Golden. It was a beautiful day--warm and sunny enough to make me forget it's December. Doug and I are starting to look and play the part of Coloradoans and rock climbing has become one of our new obsessions.

I'm quite proud of this one


Doug climbing


3. Gift registry
I hesitate to add doing the wedding registry at Bed Bath and Beyond as a highlight, though I'm sure it will become a highlight when 200 friends and family come July 1 bearing gifts. All in all it was about a 5 hour ordeal and we left feeling the kind of confused exhaustion that comes from spending 5 hours in a store and walking out empty handed. But I'm excited about some of the stuff we registered for. You can check out our registries at www.rei.com and www.bedbathandbeyond.com.

4. Tomorrow we're planning to drive through Colorado and New Mexico to stay in Albuquerque with some friends for the weekend. Then on Sunday it's back to Bloomington for me so that I can begin my last semester of classes on Monday!