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Though I’m back in the states, I’ve found myself again in a harsh, confusing, and sublime foreign territory. This time, it’s on a 40-foot diesel-fueled, man-filled, dirty, stinky, and hilarious bus traveling around the great American West. Picture an old greyhound bus, seats replaced with prison beds and massive amounts of sweat, beer cans, and testosterone—exactly what I imagined when I hopped on the Campus Rail Jam Tour.

For those of you that don’t know, I’ve been doing lots of freelance graphic design (p.s. need anything designed? I need monies). One of my clients is said Campus Rail Jam Tour—and in lieu of finding a place to settle down, I accepted the invitation to travel along with the tour for their last 2 months on the road—postponing my immanent stability a little bit longer.

So the living situation looks something like this: we each have a bunk on the bus—mine is a Deluxe Top Bunk, complete with old sleeping pad and just inches away from the stinkiest dude on there, my boss, Dan. From my bunk I can see the dining area, hear Taylor snoring, and smell the sweet scent of 14 dudes that haven’t showered in as much as 10 days as it rises to the top of the bus. One option we have at each tour stop is to befriend a local and shmooze them into a spot on their floor, couch, bathtub, etc. We aren’t using these people, but we do have to ask them immediately upon meeting them if they mind if we use their shower. That’s how to get to know someone pretty quick. Every Thursday we have an event, and for those of you outside the snowsports circuit, a “rail jam” is a ski and snowboard competition where contestants slide down rails (much like a handrail of an outdoor staircase) and do spins and sometimes grab their snowboard or skis and often have hilarious wipe outs. Our job is to promote, build, brand, organize, hype, photograph, video, operate, and clean up the whole thing. Each event happens on a college campus, and usually 1,000-2,000 curious kids show up to see what it’s all about. Pretty fun, but a lot of work. On our off days, we make sure our sponsors are happy by making rad videos, editing and posting photos, writing stories, and publishing everything in various outlets online. I have also taken on the duty of Daily Bus Cleaning, because, well, it’s just nasty.

We’ve been in Fort Collins, CO for the past week, and finished our event up yesterday. We were supposed to head up to Spokane, Washington but a huge storm hit just hours after our event and we’re stuck here for another night. Hopefully getting out tomorrow. Luckily, the people here in FoCo have been extra hospitable and I’ve both showered and eaten more in 3 days than I have the entire rest of the month. Hooray!
here are soe shots of the event:










The stop before this was in Boulder, which was a great time to hang with my old crew. I’m slowly convincing everyone to move to Oregon, because I miss them and love them.











Also, my mom was here! I got to spend a few days with her out in Colorado, and it was magical!