I leave tomorrow morning for Peace Corps service in The Gambia. I’ll fly to Philly tomorrow, then Wednesday evening we’ll fly to Brussels, then down to Dakar and then Banjul. Should be there in plenty of time to celebrate the 4th. Not sure what the fireworks situation will be.
Since I’ve chosen a URL for my website that apparently nobody can remember, I also set up michael.clervi.org (which just redirects to this site), in case people want to follow along on my trip and just want to remember my name, not some seemingly arbitrary website address.
My mailing address when I’m there will be:
Michael Clervi, PCT*
C/O Peace Corps/The Gambia
P.O. Box 582
Banjul, The Gambia
West Africa
*After September, change PCT to PCV – just do it, don’t ask.
I will get a cell phone, which will be reachable from the outside world. I’ll post my number when I get it.
I have no idea what the internet access will be like over there, except I do know I will have no access for about the first two months. Hopefully I can start posting stuff after that.
After the Mancation, I picked Heather up at the Palm Springs airport, and we hung out in Indio for a few days. We took the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway up into San Jacinto State Park (from seal level to 8500 feet in 20 minutes), and went from 100+ degrees to 70 with drifts of snow remaining behind boulders.
We also went for a hike in Palm Canyon, which is a totally sweet area in the middle of the desert densely populated by enormous palm trees!
Next we drove to Orange, swung by my cousin Kim’s place, hit the beach at Santa Monica, then met Brian at Maya’s house in Hollywood. We walked down the road to the Hollywood Forever cemetery, where they projected Cool Hand Luke on the side of a huge white mosoleum in front of about 2000 people with picnics, etc. Then we drove back to Indio after hanging out at Mayas post-movie. Long day.
Brian swung out to the desert the next day and we chilled by the pool, then Heather and I hung out in Indio for a couple days until Heather had to leave. Overall, it was an awesome visit and we both had a great time.
Heather flew out at the same time my parents flew in (they said hi at the airport). My family hung out in Indio for a couple days before we all headed up to Santa Barbara for Chris’ wedding. Some pics:
I played golf with my dad and uncles a few times (first times playing golf). It was a lot of fun, and I lost a lot of balls
After that, it was time to head back. I loaded up the bike, and high-tailed it across the desert up to Utah, through Cedar City and Salt Lake on my way to Big Sky Montana, where I stayed with Uncle Terry’s buddy Ken. From there, I hung out in Yellowstone park for half a day (awesome), made it to Buffalo Wyoming that night, and all the way home the next day (a personal record 733 miles in one day – yikes!).
I made a google map of my whole trip. The only part that’s not accurate is the desert area that I rode through (Mojove national preserve) north of Palm Springs because google doesn’t know there are roads through it (there barely are!).
