hard goodbyes;

Wrapped up the forth and final round yesterday, and climbed into a van with my 13 teammates on our last trip back to denver. It felt very surreal… our amazingly wonderful project sponsors all came over to see us off. It was one of the hardest goodbyes of this year (so far, but the hardest ones are coming up in a week) We had really grown close to all of them. They all contributed so significantly to my two months at the park.
There was Roy. He is more than I can explain in words. He was like our grandpa. He was so incredibly cool . The guy used to be an elephant trainer and now he rides his motorcycle everywhere. He knew everything there was to know about everything, but never acted like it. You know when some people know everything and they know it and make sure you know it? Not him… He knew everything but he still let you try things your own way before he helped you out with a better alternative. He was in charge of us on the trail building and bridge building aspects of the project. He taught me so much about construction while I was there and was so incredibly patient with us. Here's a picture of him testing out the newly finished bridge on his gator.
He had an incredible girlfriend named Amy. They took care of us. Things like taken us out to eat or bringing us donuts for breakfast. We all approved of her for Roy : ]

Our main project sponsors were Paul and Selena. They are such an awesome couple and they both live in the park in a house that is provided by the park. Needless to say… they never really have time off. They were both so happy and content with where they were though. They had us over for an amazing Texas BBQ, and also always let us come over to watch the world cup. I especially got close with Selena. I spent a lot of time talking with her… she is one of the most original people I have ever met. In a lot of ways, she’s a large part of the reason I was able to finish this year strongly.

The other staff members were equally as incredible. I will miss them very much, but I can almost guarantee you that I will be back sometime in the future. The park will look very different, because it’s in the peak of it’s development. I’m excited though. I feel like I’ll always have that home away from home.

So… the bridge was finished! Literally against allllll odds… it’s done. The last day of work we stayed after about 2 hours because we wanted to finish it. Roy and Amy stayed with us, and she took pictures. We were down to our last battery and last bits of energy. It was such a gooooood feeling to finish something we started. A lot of times in this program we get to start a lot, but don’t normally get to finish it ourselves. Now that bridge is our teams… they are putting a sign that says “Earth One” next to the bridge.

Tomorrow is our last day of traveling. We only are about 2 hours from Denver, but we’re gonna sleep in tomorrow and go out to lunch and then to the Garden of the gods for some sight seeing and hiking. I’m really excited.

-abigail in process.