The main grocery store is a mile from my apartment (see map). Like most things in Norway, it’s not open Sundays; therefore meal planning is critical. This particular Saturday, I created a large grocery list and had an interesting adventure.

I can still remember my line manager asking me to consider joining the DNV Trainee program. What a dream! To live in a country filled with fjords, mountains, and adventures waiting to be had. I just have to wait out the snow. In the meantime, I keep repeating “8 month is a long time!” And I’m glad!

Over the last four months, I was co-coaching an 8-10 year-old tackle football team through the Forge for Families. It was a season mixed with struggle and success, but at the end of the season it all came down to one game, “The Super Bowl”.

It was only a matter of time before I raced back out the mountains. This time, Jeremy North joined me for a week in the Gila Wilderness in Southwest New Mexico. We met in College Station immediately after Nathan & Laura’s wedding, departing early Sunday and returning Friday afternoon.

Summer came and went, but not before one trip for the ages. Nathan and I traveled up to the Boundary Waters to canoe for a week before our last semester in college. Our trip by the numbers: 6 days, 56 miles, 27 different lakes, 38 portages, 4 miles of portaging, 3 fish on the line, 2 lost lures, 0 fish…

In July 2007, five other interns joined me on a great adventure to Minnesota’s North Shore to embark on a 16 mile backpacking trip. For having little to no experience, our group did extremely well. In fact, the trip went so well that I no longer consider us as interns but friends.

Today Travis, Kevin, Jordan, and I drove 575 miles to to Big Bend National Park. We made excellent time despite the unanticipated 30 minute gas stop in Marathon. What can you do when the pump maxs out at 2 gallons per minute? It was only a minor setback during a quick 8 hour drive to the park.

It takes on average 28 hours of fishing to catch a King Salmon on the Kenai and Kasilof rivers in Alaska. I feel sorry for the 4 people who will have to fish 60 hours to even out the success of our trip in June 2006.

Mistake #1. Hiking Alone. Mistakes 2-10: Going alone, forgetting a sleeping bag, forgetting food, forgetting something for blisters, not looking at the map until lost, not wearing any bug repellent, hiking in thorns, swimming with spiders, sleeping with raccoons, and oh yes going alone.