Into The Winds! [Un-edited]

Approaching the camping site Day II

I don;t know where should I begin from... at first I didn;t want to go to the Winds for two reasons. First, my summer project was just over couple of weeks ago and I needed a break! Second, I was enjoying my work and co-workers so much that I didn;t want to leave... and the feeling was mutual, no one from my work wanted me to leave for 8 days! They were like "Is it mandatory?", "Can't you just stay?"... bla bla bla ... That feels good. I mean everyone feels good being loved, right?

The MBA office sent us a long list of items/gears that we would need for our expediton couple of months ago. I had just skimmed through the list... got few items that I needed to buy... there were few more, but I thought I had time. So, here I was. the lazy me, just a day before our scheduled departure looking for items that I should have bought! Maybe I can get a Nobel Prize for being lazy... but somehow I pulled everything out, like most of the time!

There are few things I would like to tell about this time... first my iPhone which had problem with the display was as it was 3 months after... my digital camera had problem with it's lens, it won't come out! ... and all these days I was humming just one song, I wish someone else was humming that for me... Anna Kendrick's "You're Gonna Miss Me"... ah! I luff that song real bad!
 

August 16

Woke up early in the morning... went to work to see my friends... on the way back who do I see? Ginger! Now don't ask Ginger who? I;ll come to that in my later posts! At 8 we head to Lander! Not as far away as Cody but still a 4 hour ride! I had no idea what to expect from the NOLS course. Checked on the internet, it talks about hiking, fishing, rock climbing and other stuffs... but not sure what we were going to do in next 6 days!

 

NOLS - Rocky Mountain, Lander

The dozen cowboy MBAs arrive in Lander, tired from travelling... some of us not wanting to come, if that was an option! Have a briefing session with NOLS staffs... introducing each other. So our instructor for the course would be Kate, Katheleen and P Matt. After the introduction and during the briefing Kate gives me a look every ow and then, smiling... I don't know why. So, after we are briefed about our schedule and as we are about to leave for lunch, Kate comes to me and talks in Nepali!!! Hah! That was the last thing I could have imagined, finding someone in Lander with just around 7500 people who speaks so fluent Nepali!

 

Then and there I knew this is going to be a special 6 days! Without exception I knew. So, we talked over lunch. Kate tells her story, working in NOLS-India, going to Nepal some 19 years back as an student, living in Kalapani-Mustang, then eastern hills of Nepal, Naxal-Kathmandu... and all. And she goes to Nepal every year or two! And and and... one of her dog's name is Tashi!

After we are done eating, the NOLS instructor check our gears, so that we can buy anything that we are missing. Then we have a demo bear attack test. We weigh our backpack with all the stuffs that we would need in the wild, food, fuel, cloths, inner layers, hiking shoes, lights, knives, bear sprays, suns cream, and... keeping all our phones and other stuffs in another bag that we would see only when we are out of the woods! So, the rule is you can carry as much as 40% of your weight.

Moose feeding on weeds, Day I

12 of us were divided into a group of 3 as tent groups. I was with Sean and Austin. So we divided the tent equipment, food and everything more or less equally. So, our backpack weighed in between 40-45 pounds. Matt was carrying 55 pounds! even that is less for his built, and that included a nutrition book that would probably wieght about 3-4 pounds! He is a health freak!

 

With all our stuffs packed we were ready to head to the winds! We load our backpacks in the NOLS bus, which will drop us just outside our first day camp site. We hike for half an hour to our campground near a beautiful lake. And what we see in the lake, a moose eating weeds... that was a perfect moment... the sound of water flowing, silence of the woods, pine covered hills, and almost close to the end of the day... you could spend eternity out there... everything looked so peaceful and perfect!

 

We select our camping site, kitchen site 200 meters away from the source of water, set up bear fence to protect our food. And since it was our first day, we didn;t have to cook anything! And the biggest thing of all, most of us learned how to poop in the woods without leaving any traces behind!

August 17

The first day of actual hiking begins... I am with Greg, Josh and Steffan in Kate's team. Josh is our leader of the day. So Steffan picks a name for each and everyone of us... Greg is now 'Jungle George', Josh is 'Cowboy Joe', Kate is 'Captain K', he is 'Saddleback Steve'... and I am 'Sherpa Rob'... How he came up with that name for me? He is a big fan of hunting and hiking, been through every documentary that there is on Mt. Everest in YouTube or Netflix, so he came to know about the mighty Sherpas from there... so since I am from the land of Sherpas, I was Sherpa Rob!

Wind River Peak from distance

The three teams would leave at the interval of 15 minutes from the camp. P Matt's group would leave first, followed by Katheleen's and then ours. As we are the last one to leave, we were responsible to clear out the area... make sure we leave no traces behind, no food, plastics, papers... anything! So, after half an hour we leave the camp, filling up our water-bottle and making sure everything is cleared out. We take a different route than the earlier group, crossing the stream just across the camp, and say what? We meet the first group just across! Hah! They were lost for a while and finally found that trail. Should I say we saved 30 minutes or did they lost that?

Greg never wanted to be there in the winds, but that was not an option! So he had to be there, he had no choice... like all of us. So after a while the group decides me to take charge for maintaining the pace. And here I go! I had it always on my head the difficulty that I had while climbing Snow King in Jackson last year... and I didn't wanted me to be the reason our group would lag behind. Every now and then I look behind making sure the group is not behind, asking at regular interval if anyone needed break, water, rest or anything. Steve is at ease, Joe is the leader for the day so chekcs the map regularly to make sure we are on right track, for Kate it's just another day at work... but George was starting to get cramps!

I don;t remember when was the last time I had seen someone with so much self-determination and motivation. Only after few hours of hiking Greg had sever cramps in his legs, and that feels terrible... he takes rest for a while and pushes himself further just to make sure that the group makes it to the next camp and doesn;t have to stay behind because of him. Kate gave some tips whice were useful, and Joe and Steve helped lighten his rucksack.

We check the map regularly, checking landmarks just to make sure we are on right trail, and we had less flexibility or getting lost was not an option given the condition of Greg. For a while we almost took a wrong trail, but Kate asked us if we should check the map. That was helpful. On the way uphill, we came across few Llamas that some hikers rode. That was my first close encounter with them. And I still wish to ride one of those sometimes, someday!

Finally, at around 3:30 we make it to our camp site for the day, right next to a lake. The second group was already there. But P Matt's group was yet to arrive. We select the site for camp and kitchen. There is one elderly couple camping near by, Kate approaches them and clarifies what we were there for. Steve goes fishing, cathces a couple of fish... and I along with Sean and Joe take a dip in the freezing cold water of the lake... that felt good.

So, in the evening we sit around our respective kitchen, briefing the day and we've got visitor! A couple of deers come to our site, unafraid... that is as close as you can expect. It was a long day... even longer for Greg,... but now he can rest for a while, finally... still with more mountains to climb in days to come.

August 18
Another day and we have another group/team. So for the day I am in Kathleen's team with Valentin and Greg, and Sean is our leader of the day. So Valentin aka Dirty V for his unshaven looks is our map reader and I am back to the front again, responsible for maintaining the pace just because I did a good job with that the day before! And again, we are the last one to leave the camp site and P Matt's group is the first one.

We hike the same route that we took the day before for almost half an hour and then head downhills. looks like it would be an easy day... but not. Greg didn't have much trouble, he had but he now knew how to overcome it. I maintained a decent distance leading just to make sure we are on the right and easy trail and make sure Greg doesn;t have much trouble walking. We didn;t got distracted and checked the map regularly. Kathleen made sure we learn it by ourself and gave us hints rather than being specific when it came to reading maps.

I remember when we tried to cross a strem coming out of Poison Lake which had small rocks which I thought would be an easy way to get across without getting our shoes wet... my bad, I lost the balance and had to get my shoes thoroughly wet whcih wasn;t a good thing when you had still a long day of hiking ahead. But there were lots of tiny fishes in that stream, almost felt like you could catch them with your bare hands... but they were too tiny!

Another junction, another stream... we head in a decent pace... and at the end of the day we had an uphill to climb heading to the Tayo Lake. The dark clouds were hovering around and when we were almost at the top of the hill, it started raining heavy... we take shelter under pine trees for 15 minutes or so and head to the top. We reach the top of the hill next to the lake and there we see Kate's group, and again P matt's team was not there. The place was too windy and there wasn;t enough place for camping, so we decide to camp somewhere downhill in one of the meadows.

Tayo Lake

But before that I take a dip in the lake... looks like it was my routine at the end of everyday... no one else dared to take a dip that day. A team goes all the way down to the other side of the hill next to the stream but that land was too marshy... so we settle to camp on the meadow where we were hit by the rain on the way up. P Matt's group actually got lost as they headed to Coon Lake following the streams and had to find their way back to Tayo Lake after they realized some of the features didn;t match with the map when they rechecked.

We set up our tent and have our briefings. Fetched water all the way down from the stream, sanitized it by pouring 7-8 drops of sanitizing liquids(?) per 20 oz of water, waited 20 minutes before it was drinkable... actually everyone was so scared of drinking water directly from the river... I was like, do I really care? Cooked food... and yes, it was a full moon day that night when we were having a meeting... it was a clear night sky with so many stars scattered all over! I felt it would be awesome to sleep outside, but we were in the winds and he wind started getting strong!

Oh how did I forgot to say, our tent group decided to rotate our sleeping place every night. The person who slept on right side the first night have to sleep in the middle the second day and on the left the third day..  why so? Just because there was a pole in between the space inside and two people had to sleep on one side and the one on right had big space, so we just wanted to rotate that privilege.

Wind River Peak, 13,192 feet

That night some of us stayed up long, camp firing near our kitchen... it was fun hearing some of the stories... and Dirty V was literally going by his name, farting all the time, all the day... he need not carry a bear-spray, he had his own that was powerful enough! Even he had cramps in his legs, but he enjoyed all the hiking so much, he didn;t let anyone else realize what he was going through... that's the spirit.

August 19
We were going to hike or actually ascend the Wind River peak that day. 13,192 feet (4021 m)... tall huh! and you could see a lump of snow on one of its side. So the day before like usual we were asked to volunteer for the leader of the day, I did, along with Allegra and Steve! Talking about leader of the day, it was voluntary but no one could volunteer twice just to make sure that at the end of the week, everyone atleast gets a chance to lead. But this time it was different, since everone of us were climbing the same peak, we three were responsible to lead the entire group rather than a team of four.

Nick and Greg decided to stay behind and take rest... they needed that to recover for the next day hike. They planned to spend time by the lake, sunbasking and reading book and maybe fishing. So we, the team leaders decided that Allegra will lead from the front, I will work from the middle and Steve will sweep from the back.

So like always we begin the day at 8:00. Clear blue sky not much wind... a nice day to ascend and to add to that we didn;t have to carry our 40+ pound rucksack today! Even though I was supposed to be in the middle, Steve and I ended up sweeping from the back from very early on. Cricket was getting altitude sickness, kind of... but she pushed herself... and it was surprising to see everyone going beyond their comfort zone and making that extra effort.

For the first time I realized why Rockies was called 'Rockies'... its all big rocks amd boulders... no soil, no algae/moss... no nothing else. But there were some plants... just few... including 'sky-pilot' or so, that Dirty V recognized, that's his speciality! And there was small creek heading all the way down from the lump of snow at the very top... it was cold, gives you an idea how would that snow at the top would feel. And it was getting windy as we were heading up. Cricket finally gave up way up from the place where she started having problem. So Kate decides to stay with her.

The team co-ordinated well how to or which way to head to conquer the peak. Steve and I lead the last frontier to ascend the peak. Finally we make it to the top, to my surprise there was a big space up there at the very top... a big flat space... and from there you can see all the lakes around, the Tetons, continental divide was just below us... we stay up there for half an hour. I picked up some stones as memorabilia. And now I am given the responsibility to lead everyone back home, safely.

Group photo at the top

Going down was easy and hard at the same time. With the big boulders infront it was hard to judge what lies ahead and I didn't wanted to end up leading everyone to one way and endup turning to find another way around. Matt and Dirty V were with me step to step. We literally cruised through the peak going down hill. When we reached down to the lake it was windy and cloudy, and I didn;t have courage to take a dip in the lake. So, that was it... had a briefing with Kathleen about how the day was and the trip so far... and that's it. Nothing much for the day.

Oh, and I just realized the day marked my first year in the States... climbing a peak! Sounds symbolic! given the peaks I had to climb a year back to come here... life is funny.

August 20
Back to the trail now, everyone is feeling better. Next we head to the Little Sandy Lake. Yes, I am back in Kate's group, Matt is our leader of the day, with Dirty V and Cowboy Joe. But no points for guessing this time again! We are the last group out and P Matt's group is first to go again... and and and... I am setting up the pace again! Damn! Too many obvious right?

Tell you what, I had a hard first 15 minutes, kind of exhausting... it was a steep climb up and without a break... and when it comes to Matt, he wants to go straight almost like the direction that bird flies. We leave Coon Lake on the left and march ahead... and by now even though we were in different groups most of the time, there is better co-ordination. After hike of over an hour we reach a top of a hill with a gorge in between... we can see the Little Sandy Lake far away and the stream that flows out of it but... it was a big big gorge and debris on the side... we had no idea how to move ahead... whether to turn back and find a safe way down which would be a long long walk... Matt and Joe scout the place... and when they are out Dirty V and I think it would be fun going down through the debris, looks like we have similar risk taking instinct!

Looking towards Little Sandy Lake

The scouting team comes back... they didn;t find any trail near by, so we decide to head through the debris/land slide route slowly rather than go all the way around. There while we were at the top, we meet the other two groups... we made it first there even though we left the camp 30 minutes behind the first group... what a pace! LOL

So I lead from the front going downhill making sure we are not walking exactly behind on another to avoid any loose rock rolling over... it was so damn steep and harder than I had actually thought... and while we were on the way down, just abouve the middle half, it started to rain... now the rock was kind of slippery as well... slowly but steadily we made it to the bottom... and when we looked behind we could see the other group still at the top... and they looked tiny!

We hike all the way following the creek, but it won;t lead us to the Little Sandy Lake... we follow a trail and finally make it to our camp site... last to leave and first to arrive! The bank of the lake was flat and marshy so we decide to camp on the hill next to the lake, north side of it. Finally all the groups arrive, don;t ask who was the last one to arrive, no points guessing! But they had fun not then but when you remember the moment now!

Once everyone was there, Dirty V, Matt, Sean, Austin, Joe and I went to take a dip... at first in the stream then in the lake... looks like it was a routine dip! The marsh was so soft that Matt sunk upto his knees! The bank on the west was full of sharp boulders... and some uprooted trees. After a while Steve lead the fishermen's team to the eastern side, Matt had a very good time. After everyone was back, Austin and I went to scout for the route for the next day through that bank full of boulder on the west side.

Group snap!

If it was upto me, I would have taken that route. But Cricket was our leader for the next day, she wanted to take it safe. Dirty V was leader of other group, he decided to follow the eastern route, the one with no trails... I wished I was in that group for the last adventure. And Greg was leading the another group. So we decided to follow the tried and tested trail for the next day.

Since it was our last day in the woods, Dirty V decided to sleep under the sky rather than inside the tent. I was like, I don;t know if I would do something crazy in near future, so why not try it... so we were there out in the open sleeping under the clear night sky... for first hour, every now and then I would look around if any wild animal is approaching us... but after a while I stopped worrying... I wished to see the moon, but it was partly cloudy for a while... finally got to see it around 3:00 am. And when we woke up in the morning, our sleeping bag and backpack was throughly wet due to dew! But it was worth it!

August 21
Before we leave, everyone takes a group picture next to an uprooted tree, that came awesome. Last day of the hike and Joe and Steve are in my group again and Cricket is our leader of the day as I told earlier, and Kathleen our instructor. So we took the tried and tested route... we left the camp site at the same time as Dirty V since we were taking different routes. After almost an hour of hiking we reach to the south side of the lake... I wonder if we had taken the bank full of boulder, it would have taken just half the time... no complaints, the leader decides. That's it. So on the way we see a black bear poop. Oh did I say I was pacing again... all throughout the NOLS days now besides the day we were ascending the Wind River Peak. So now I had to be more cautious, more alert. It was too much of uphill... some steeper ones and after we were done with that, it was basically downhills and flatlands.

Little Sandy Lake from adjacent hill

Nothing much interesting, but we could see the Rockies the way you would see in those pictures in Google... and there was one section of remains of burnt tree trunks which was caused by lightening... it was like a maze. Finally we were heading to the civilization... I hated that. Close to our camp site, we met P Matt's group the one led by Dirty V! We look around for a camp site and finally select one next to a stream which was infested by cow dung.

We played a game that night... about personalities, intorvert-extrovert and all that... that was fun, a different way to see that... some people were happy we finally made it and some not much because all of that was over now... I belonged to the later one... but then everything has to come to an end, be it good or bad.

August 22
A bus from NOLS came to pick us up from the camp site... before borded the bus, we had our breakfast, doughnuts, juice, fruits... back to civilization. Everyone looked happy, you can tell it from thier face. After a two hour ride we reached the Three Peaks Ranch owned by NOLS in Boulder, Wyoming... returned all the gears that we hired, took a shower... miss the smell of the woods... dressed in formal attire... got our final evaluation.

Had our lunch, it was good... I mean for the first time in a week we need not worry what to cook and what to save for the next day.. and we had a charity spree the day before, handing over the food that we didn;t wanted to the other group that was short of food, making home-made pizza... that was fun though. We still had sometime before we would be picked up by the bus of first year MBA's heading to Jackson, so we decide to bide our time playing table-tennis.

Joe was beating everyone on the table, I went in...and after Greg was done, I decided to give it a try... they ask me if I had played ping-pong early on, I say some 4-5 years back... Joe serves and I reply that with a shot. Everone in the room is stunned! What was that! I beat Joe, Greg, Dirty V, Allegra... P Matt comes me and beats me... that was close... after a while I get a chance for rematch and make it even, I win him in a close encounter. But everyone in the room is full of awe about my table-tennis skills. That felt good.

And the moment, when Joe and I were playing, our score was 2-1, I was lagging behind, I hot another shot and make it even, 2 'each', everyone else hears 2 bitch! They erupt in laughter and make fun of Joe! He takes that in good spirit... after a while he asks me if I would love to play a doubles with him sometime during Fall... anything for you Joey!

Ping-pong time

So, the MBA bus finally arrives, and before that we have a small photo session and graduation ceremony, Sean plays a music in his phone and we all congratualte each other, giving hugs, calling each other by last name and shaking our left hands... the NOLS way. The graduation ceremony was fun as we were given the certificate of one of our fellow friends and we had to act in their distinct manner and they had to find who it was... I had to act for Sean, so I said "Did you wash your hands?", that was what he said on the very last day when I said I was going to use the restroom and I was still around for a while and helping with kitchen stuffs, he looked shocked and asked me that! Everyone erupted in laughter again.

Now we head to Jackson, once again.. but this time it is different, I wished to take a picture of the Tetons, but this time they take a different route... I hope I will get to take that picture sometimes... but for now I am happy for my days in the winds... the winds of change... I am a different man now!

Ps: individual feedbacks, they will never forget it! I missed hiking with!

Cody Decoded!

Heading north to Cody

Travelling new places should be a lot of fun! That's what I used to think... then for a while I had a change of mind...

 

I had big plans for summer... my parents were visiting my sister, my niece was due to arrive, and I wished to spend some time with them down in Denver... but then my MBA school had some other plans. Summer Projects!

 

I don't have any problem doing summer projects as it meant that I would have 3 less credits for my Fall and final semester... but the timing was wrong or it ended up going too long. I was assigned with my two other friends Austin and Christina to do a benchmarking study for five oil companies based in the Big Horn Basin in north-west Wyoming. At first going by the study the previous year, I thought we could be done with the project as early as June... I wish, I wish, I wish... but it was never to happen that way... it lasted till the very end of July!

The First Trip

I had never been to Cody before. Whenever I referred to Google Maps, I would see the green patches of Yellowstone next to it. I was hoping it to be a small town along the hills. But this was no Nepal. 6 hour long drive from Laramie and I got to discover Wyoming. Dry lands as if this place was bombed sometimes in close past... barren, rocky with little wild bushes, and grasses just because it was summer!

Statue of Chief Washakie, Cody

Cody turned out to be surrounded by hills, but that was it. With population of just around 10,000 it was a small beautiful town. And as it was May, tourists have just started arriving to this gateway to the Yellowstone, the first national park in the world. Our summer project was called 'Marathon Oil Benchmarking Project', and 'marathon'  in the name sounds kind of sarcastic, the project went on and on for three months, and then there was our marathon drive from Laramie to Cody!

It was a three-day affair. We had dinner with Bob, one of the representetive of a participating company, I won;t tell which one... his hospitality is awesome! The best so far throughtout the project and add to that the wonderful human being he was and a commanding voice and height. He was staying at Irma and we were at Super 8. And Dr. Cook, our professor for the project did some research why it is called Super 8! You tell him anything and he will do research on his smartphone. I bet if any other group had such a cool advisor.

At Riverton we stopped to have our lunch at The Depot, a mexican place. There salsa is incredably good. And one of thier hostess/waitress hilarious. When Christina asked her opinion whether she should get a big one or smaller one, her reply was 'whether it is for your ex-boyfriend or current boyfriend!' Everyone of use just cracked up. She expained that was how they explained her to describe at work!

Day two, we visited the Little Buffalo Basin. I always thought oil to be pumped out from the well like the normal water wells around the world, turns out it's different. The fields are not nasty as I had imagined. It looks like normal place, no smell, no greasy land, nothing... Then we had an office visit... and that evening we decided to go fly-fishing in East Newton Lake. Our advisor is a big fly-fish enthusiast, and turns out so was Bob. When we reached the lake, it was raining and hailing at the same time... and the wind was strong. After half an hour or so, the rain and hail stopped, but the wind was still blowing. Our advisor, who brought 4 fishing rods along, taught us how to fly-fish. Meanwhile Bob was busy catching fish before we actually came, he was busy even when it hailed or rained. So far he had caught like 6 fishes. Luck wasn't on our side... and our advisor broke his rod due to the wind. That cost him $50 to repair, he told later on.

William Frederick "Buffalo Bill" Cody

On the last day of the trip, we visited Oregon Basin. Was surprised to see Lindasy, a Texan, working in an oil company in the wild west! And add more to that, she knew everything... every single details. Then we headed back to Cody, had lunch at Ivy's Inn with Thomas and Co. and around noon headed back to Laradise.

Post Site Visit
Done with the site visit... now was the time to wait for the companies to turn on thier spreadsheet before a pre-set deadline. We had nothing else to do, not much... so just worked on the outlines, graphs, charts, etc. Since my parents were to arrive during the second week of June, with nothing much to do, I was hoping I could join them when they arrive. Went to Denver for a week... my sister was moving in to her new home... helped her with that. I was hoping to do my part of project via net, but there was no internet connection in the new place. My bad. Received my parents and after spending a couple of days with them had to return back to Laramie.

As time passed by, we had random meetings... and as the deadline for final presentation approached the schedule became hectic. I couldn;t be next to my sister when Siya arrived. I only got to make a day trip to see her after a week she arrived. 

The Second Trip
During my first trip, I took some pictures on the way to Cody, but when we reached there, my camera failed... even the charger won;t work. So this time I made sure I won't take any pictures on the way. Did I tell you how much I liked the name Shoshoni and the church out there? It was beautiful.

Rocking chair in Room 16, Hotel Irma

Same long trip again... this time it hailed and rained so heavy on the canyon near Cody that we could hardly see anything in front. Austin drove us safe. I wasn;t scared but it all happened all of a sudden... unexpected. We stayed at Hotel Irma this time, named after Buffalo Bill Cody's daughter, Irma. We then heard quiet a bit story about the hotel being haunted. Every room had kind of story associated with it. Dr. Cook was in room 20, Christina in room 16 which has a story of the rocking chair rolling by itself. Austin and I were in room 17.

They had a street gun fight show everyday, you can hear the sound of gunshot from your room. Tired on the first day we decided to see it the next day. That night we just rehersed for the presentation for the next day. No one was haunted that day. Presentations went well. Steve, our MBA Director was there as well. He was in Denver the day before for other teams presentation, flew to Cody last night and was heading back to Denver that evening for another presentation.

As his plane was delayed and he arrived late night, he called a car rental. They told him that they have last one left. He was expecting it to be kind of ok, maybe truck or something. Guess what? To everyone's surprise he was riding a sexy red sports car! What on earth! Given his personality, I bet no one can carry that better than him!

That evening it hailed and rained hard for a while when we were watching the gun show outside Irma. I was kind of worried if I won;t be able to take pictures again. I didn;t wanted to miss it this time. Luckily, the rain stopped after a while. 3 of us just strolled around. Given the size of the town, I am really impressed with the number of statues that they have in Cody... I was like click, click, click... this time we didn;t go fishing though... LOL, no more spare rods to break.

Finally, the summer was over... with only 15 free days before the NOLS begins. I don;t know what to expect from that but for a while I want to enjoy my freedom, go to Denver... spend some time with my family and niece. Nothing much.