Road trip to Alabama

Squeezed out of work early Wednesday and made a bullet run up to Mentone, Alabama stopping in TPA to meet up with Jared and his friend Mat and then in G'ville to pickup my old roommate Jonathan. Jonathan and Jared are two brothers that I have been going to school with since way back in my Beach Park Montessori days. Made it to their cabin around 5:30 am and slept for a few hours. After pancakes a-la Chuck we headed out to this amazing waterfall/lake area called DeSoto Falls where we bouldered and swam around for a bit. It had a great wall that leaned slightly out over the water so we could just swim up, climb as far as we could and then fall back into the water. I am embarrassingly out of shape for climbing. Absolutely no stamina; between the combination of swimming, treading water, and the climbing, i could barely make it half way up to the first ledge. Great fun though, I would love to chill up here for a week or so and go climbing every day. If you look closely at the last photo, you can see Mat making his way up in the middle of the wall...

Testing 1...2...3

Here I am back in sunny, brutally hot Florida. My work in New Zealand (atw79.blogspot.com) and then travel beyond was an amazing eye opener to what is out there in the world and how easy it is to get there. Currently, I am working again at the Wine Warehouse in Sarasota and will saving up some cash for my next adventure: Harvest work in Napa, California at Neyers Estate (http://www.neyersvineyards.com/). Thomas and Emily are moving their crew up to Nova Scotia for a bigger and better life. I will miss them terribly but look forward to visiting. Jonathan is taking over as store manager and is quickly assimilating to the role.

And my plan for the next 12 months?
09.1.08-11.30.08 Work at Neyers in California
12.1.08-01.03.09 Return to Wine Warehouse in SRQ to help Jono w/ the Hollidays
01.15.09-05.15.09 Work and Travel NZ, again at Villa Maria
05.15.09-07.01.09 Travel Thailand then India? Europe? TBA Finishing with Nova Scotia
07.01.09-09.01.09 Relax in SLC, UT
Fall Harvest of 09: Spain? TBA