++ THE ACTUAL FOURTH of july was hot, as it is all the time in central oregon .. better known as the high desert. although i'm not sure why. it's not that its really all that high. mt. hood which is not quite central oregon sits at 11,000 feet, but thats the top of it. the base is only something around 8,000 and smith rocks state park is only around 3,500 at its highest point. i think most of central oregon sits around 2500-3000 feet above sea-level. but like all deserts it's hot in the day and cold and windy at night. its almost like ohio .. except not really at all .. well kind of minus the humidity and mugginess and muggings (if you are in cincinnati) and minus the sucky pro sports teams and minus the big air force base (better known as wright patterson air force base) and (for all the western people who have never been to ohio .. or anywhere remotely east of the mississippi corn and wheat .. because thats all there is in ohio. its one big field of corn interrupted only by one big field of wheat .. interspersed with cows .. everywhere). but except for those minor almost non-descript even non-noticable differences, its almost the same. except for the tumbleweed and sand and lack of mountains. the same i tell you. all the same. and overcast sky. you'd never even know you left ohio.

we picked up tony on the way out to smith rocks. he's a climber. and he's better than me. (which isn't hard i know.) actually he's way better than me. and its not just abour the whole skill level thing. its more so about 'da balls and the lack of fear of falling. (which if you know me i've experienced once or twice, so i am a little afraid of falling.) (and if you don't know me, i've fallen from real high up once and so i am afraid of falling.) together (together meaning tony climbed hard stuff and heather and i watched .. and then top-roped the hard route he did) we climbed quite a few hard things. we did some sport stuff, some bouldering (well he did, heather tried and watched, i tried and fell mostly), and a trad route. (well i did a trad route .. my very first trad route mind you! which may not mean squat to anyone else, but i did it and i was proud and ecstatic and scard all at the same time!) (granted it was an easy 5.5, but it was trad and it was me. yay. go me.) we camped three nights (thurs, fri, sat) and climbed two and a half days and it was a blast. i can't wait to go back. smith is a great place. go there. even if you don't climb. its spectacular.

the drive back home (home being seattle still) was long (only 7 hours? how's that long. ohio to seattle=44 hours. ohio to sf=36 hours. ohio to denver=18 hours.) the traffic was horrible. (luckily i only drove part of it) and everyone (ok not everyone, but close i swear) left seattle for the 4th to go somewhere else and all decided to head back the same way at the same time on the only north-south highway which winds through the state of oregon and washington.

oh yeah, since we were climbing and camping we didn't get to see any parades and we didn't get any free candy, but we did get to see fireworks .. from 30 miles away and they were about an inch big from our vantage point. poo. although some guy next to our campsite was watching the same one inch fireworks we were and after the finale he said aloud and i can only assume he was talking to us and said, "hey guys. i'm a war vetern and i'd do it again. cheers." all we could say in return was, "cheers". we heard him walk to his truck and turn up his cd player. it blared, "born in the u.s.a." by bruce springsteen. the song ended. he turned off his radio. his light. went to his tent. and went to bed.

i can't even say i was born in the usa. ..

.. and isn't that an anti-american song? ++