"It's not even like he's really cryogenically frozen. He's in a f***ing shed on dry ice."

I'm at Mile High Coffee one last time before I leave. Tomorrow, Earth 5 will finally be off to Beaumont, TX. Today will consist of a team meeting, packing and repacking.

We took our Wildfire exams on Thursday. I think I did well. I know I passed, I would have found out by now if I hadn't. So I'm officially a Type 2 Firefighter now. At least, I'm pretty sure there's nothing else we need to do after the baseline, the interview, the pack test, the classes, and the exams.

A part of the exam was successfully deploying a fire shelter. Fire shelters look like gigantic baked potatoes in tin foil. They're fiberglass and aluminum foil. They're not fireproof, but they're supposed to protect you from the extreme heat of being too close to a fire. Even though it was a drill, it was kind of nerve wracking. You only have about twenty-five seconds to ditch your gear, fully deploy the fire shelter and be inside it on the ground, with a water bottle, gloves and hard hat. The instructors were yelling the whole time to make the experience more intense. I was the first of my group in my shelter and, even though it's this bright green fake shelter, it was still a little claustrophobic and heart-pounding. The instructors would shake everyone's shelters while they were in them, to simulate the high winds that take place in a forest fire. Hopefully, we'll never have to deploy the real thing.

Because the area has had a lot of snow over the past week, our field day on Friday ended up being cancelled. So we sort of a had a free day. The TLs still had some leadership class to take that day, so they left us to our own devices with a few things to do. We have to have some unit time, some team PT and we had to get the vans washed. All of that ended up happening in a bit of a roundabout way. On Friday night a bunch of us went dancing in Denver. The first place we ended up was called The Tavern. I think it's my favorite night spot. They had an outdoor deck upstairs with space heaters surrounding the bar and the tables. So, even though it was thirty-something degrees and I was in just a halter top and jeans, I was doing great. I danced my butt off that night. Afterwards, our group split up because some wanted to go to a cowboy bar, and others wanted nothing to do with the country scene. Well, we found out later that they didn't really play much country music so we could have kept the group together. But it was no big deal. That night was so much fun. I can't wait to go out dancing again.

On Saturday, everyone was up and about around 10 am. We decided to try and make our way to the Frozen Dead Guy Festival in Nederland. Yes, the Frozen Dead Guy Festival (the title is a comment that TL Christie made while we were in Nederland). That was a lot of fun. We caught the bus to Englewood, took the light rail to Denver, caught a bus to Boulder and then finally caught a bus to Nederland. My team and another wildfire team will actually be staying/working in Nederland when we start our wildfire rounds, so it was nice to explore the town. The Festival was a lot of fun as well, quite interesting. Lots of hippie types in Nederland ... I guess lots of hippie types in Colorado in general, that's the general observation I've made over the past month. We wandered around for a little while. We watched the Coffin Races, which are akin to soapbox derby except a team carries someone in a coffin around an obstacle course. Shannon, Brittany and I broke off for a little bit. We went into a consignment shop where Brittany found some great cowboy boots and I got a pair of pants. They also had an art gallery there with some really cool works on display. They had Blaine Fontana's book there on sale as well, which was a treat to see. I didn't buy it but it's always cool to see his stuff.

Then Shannon and I broke off, listened to a local band for a little while. We bought the obligatory event t-shirt and postcards. Then we made our way to a bar, where we ended up getting two free drinks because they were out of the cider that I wanted. I never got to see Grandpa Bredo, but it ended up being a fun day just wandering around Nederland. It's a very cute little town. And dogs! So many people with dogs. It made me miss Jack.

We caught a bus back to Boulder, where we met for dinner with others from our group and some AmeriCorps people who were just in the Boulder area for the day. I had a great jalapeno and bacon cheeseburger in an attempt to clear up my sinuses (I've been nursing a head cold for the past few days). It worked for a little while. After dinner, we eventually made our way back to Denver and then back to Englewood, where we walked the 2.3 miles from the light rail to campus.

Once we got back to campus, my condition seriously deteriorated. I couldn't breathe anymore. Everyone wanted to go out one last time before we all leave on Monday. They managed to get me back into jeans and a shirt to go out. But I got halfway across campus before I turned around. I couldn't do it, I felt like crap. It's just a cold but the congestion always seems to really wipe me out. So I took a really hot shower and went to bed. This morning, I woke up and took another hot shower. I'm hoping that the worst is over and I just have to deal with sniffles for a few more days. We'll see. I have some Sudafed just in case. At least the next few days won't be too strenuous -- we leave tomorrow for Beaumont. Maybe the warmth and humidity in Texas will help as well.

I think that's about it for now. I'm going to head back to campus soon so I can pack a little bit before the team meeting and room inspections. I bought another duffle bag at Ross earlier today (there's a Ross here!) so I could have something smaller than my suitcase to bring to Texas.

Well, the next time I write, I'll be on the Gulf Coast!