Friday, 5 February, 1999. Boulder, Colorado.

Its been a helluva trip. I've had a blast exploring, climbing, making new friends and catching up with old friends across the country. But the time has come for me to return to the "real" world.

I've relocated to Boulder, Colorado. I couldn't pass up being so close to the mountains and the opportunity to live somewhere new for a while. I moved in Wednesday night, giddy with excitement of having my own place once again. Light, heat, refrigerator, drinkable water, garage with opener, washer and dryer -- wow, I'm getting soft! My apartment is currently a little sparse, but that will change once I get my stuff shipped from my parent's house.

If you thought finding a place that would let you have a dog, try finding a place that will let you have a dog AND get high speed internet access. But after only two days of looking, I thought I'd found the perfect place. It was a nice two bedroom with hardwood floors close to the center of town. Reminded me a lot of my place in Cambridge. The Access Fund was just two blocks away. I put a deposit on the place and the realestate agent took my application. Things looked in order, so I called USWest just to make sure I could get a DSL circuit. Good news, bad news. My line was DSL certified. The bad news was that the Boulder Central Office was out of capacity for DSL circuits, a problem that wouldn't be resolved until tax day, April 15th. So I bailed out of the apartment and started looking for another.

Apartments in south and central Boulder were out of the running because of USWest's problems. So I focused my attentions on the area north of town. I found a few apartments but they were pretty mediocre. Finally I found the apartment I'm currently in. First it would let me have a dog and USWest said I could get a DSL circuit. Second, it has great views of the front range. The views would be alot better if I could cut down the pine tree infront of my window, but still its pretty good. I'm going to end up pretty spoiled. I have a garage with opener and my own full size washer and dryer. No more excuses for nothing to wear! The biggest negative is that the apartment is about 10-15 minutes from downtown Boulder.

While apartment hunting in Boulder, I got an email message from my college roomate, Chris. Chris was in Denver for a few days at an Internet conference, NANOG. So I headed into Denver to meet Chris for dinner. While having free NANOG beers, I asked Chris if he knew my friend Dawn who went to Virgina Tech with us and now works for ARIN, the IP address people. Chris wasn't sure, but we went looking for the ARIN president, Kim Hubbard, who Chris knows. Guess who's jaw dropped when she saw me? The odds of meeting two Hokies while in Denver? We had a great time hanging out that evening and Chris came up to spend a few hours in Boulder before his flight left.

Monday I'll be back at work. I'm working for NetCentric, my previous employer, but this time as an independent software contractor. I'll be onsite in Boston (actually Bedford) for two weeks, then working remotely from my apartment in Boulder. Hence the need for high speed networking. Too bad MediaOne doesn't cover Boulder.

I've really enjoyed sharing my trip with all of you on my mailing list. I especially loved getting email from y'all while travelling. Kept me in touch with friends I'd left behind.

If folks are interested I'll show my slides again in Boston. Any volunteers for a place? (Perhaps, closer to Boston?) Eventually I'll get a subset of my slides scanned and added to my web site. I'll let y'all know when that's accomplished.

I still haven't been reunited with my buddy, Tuckerman. But that will change soon, I hope. My apartment permits dogs, so that's taken care of. I just hope he's interested in moving to Colorado!