Step 5: Get My Bearings

I have arrived.
Apparently our pilot took some shortcuts and made great time to Phoenix allowing me to make my connection to Flagstaff. After a short 40 minute flight north in a small De Havilland 8 (see picture) I arrived in Flagstaff a few minutes after 5. The airport is extremely small and the terminal almost has a log cabin resort type feel to it. I met someone named Adam who looked like he could be one of the other interns. So I asked him and he informed me that he wasn't, but knew all the ACE staff as he was a full time Grand Canyon trail worker for the park service and often worked with ACE. We chatted a bit about Flagstaff and the weather and he informed me there was a bar in town called The Green Room that has 25 cent drinks on Wednesdays. I thanked him for the info and we went our separate ways but I'm sure I'll see him again.

Roommates:
My new roommate Casey picked me up in his big chevy truck which had been his home for the past year as he traveled around doing odd jobs in the south west and most recently in New Mexico. He is extremely friendly and it sounds like he has a ton of trail work experience. Once back at the apartment I met David. His brother was a runner for Stanford named Chris Emme. I instantly recalled his name and new he was also a 5k/10k runner. We chatted about running for a while before I ordered a pizza from papa johns. Shortly thereafter another roommate came back from shopping. Her name is Alison. She is from Boston so the cold weather is nothing new to her. She just finished a year long americorp position in the Portland area, but is a relative newbie to backpacking and trail work as she purchased all of her equipment Saturday.

Going Out:
We all chatted for a while and thought about going to see Avatar in 3-d but decided to wait as we didn't want to watch a 2hr 40min movie which started at 10:45. Instead Alison and I made the 1+ mile walk to downtown to checkout the bar scene (where Casey had already ventured). We stopped at the first bar we came to. A cool place called Mia's. It had a number of pool tables, a ping pong table and large selection of beers. The final selling point for Mia's was the fact that they allowed dogs in the bar. There were probably 10 dogs roaming freely through the bar and would stop at each table for attention. Another intern arrived right as we left for the bar and he met us there. His name is Jeff and drove down from Chicago (24hr drive, ouch). He plays the guitar and also bought all his equipment a few days prior. The three of us sat at the bar and had a few beers each ($3 Pin Stripe red ale specials). Besides the really annoying man who was making loud noises and reminded me of Ray Liotta's character in Hannibal who ate his own brain, all the customers were very friendly and eager to talk and meet others. We then made friends with the bartender Sarah. She came over to our table and gave us her number and said she would let us know if anything was going on in the future. Apparently she is also a bartender at The Green Room(the place Adam told me about) and informed us the 25 cent beers are actually Sierra Nevada. That sealed the deal. We will be seeing her there on Wednesday night. After making the walk home I proceeded to lock my self in the bathroom. It took me about 10min to get out but we will have to fix that.

It is Sunday afternoon now and I am sitting in a diner downtown eating "The Hungry Man Special": see picture. I need to do some shopping today, maybe go for a run, but most of all explore Flagstaff. In less than 24 hours though I can say Flagstaff is awesome. The people are friendly and laid back. Beautiful scenery. Snow on the ground. Tasty food. That's all for now.