Backyard Adventure Club

I mentioned in my very first entry that my "girlfriend" is an 8 ft x 8 ft piece of plywood. Although this is a slight exaggeration, I wanted to introduce you to several friends of mine that I have had a lot of adventures with since living at 1210 Washington Boulevard.

First on the roster is La Murallita. The climbing club that I got involved with in Uruguay was called La Muralla using the Spanish word for "Really-Big-Wall" (I think it's used when talking about the Great Wall of China for instance). This one is just a much smaller version. La Murallita was a project that a couple of buddies and I cranked out the beginning of Fall semester 2008 when we first moved into this house. It has been an awesome training tool for the actual weekend climbing adventures that I look forward to.

Next is the Little Champ, my '95 Dodge Dakota Sport. Currently it has over 130k miles on it and is still running strong. Complete with a bike rack and a topper, LC has been the ultimate travel companion on road trips whether driving to Texas, back to Montana, or any number of great destinations in between. This past summer, I built a bed platform in the back to facilitate better storage and sleeping space. From the SNOLANE license plate to the window stickers and everything in between, it has become one bad pajama...

Last but not least, the newest member of the club is the Monster. It is thus named because of its immense size, which the friends who I coerced into helping me set it up can attest to. Built by a good friend of mine, Matt, I inherited it last December and it has weathered the change of homes with flying colors. If it looks a little different than La Murallita to you don't be alarmed. It is designed to be used in campus training, where you use only your hands (not your feet) to scale the wall.

Big and small, mobile or not, I've really come to love these back yard residents, and I'm going to miss them when the time to move out comes around.