9 States & 9 Tanks of Gas Later...

So this last week I was able to go to the National FFA Land and Soil Evaluation CDE in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma! So early Saturday morning(4:00a.m.), May 3rd we took off in a little Dodge van for our destination! Of course, we made the trip fun, so taking the longer route we stopped to see a few sites. The first day, we drove to Farmington, New Mexio. That day we made two major stops.

Site #1: Arches National Park in Moab, Utah.

That's me climbing up a rock!!! :) It was pretty cool. This other picture is of the four Land Evaluators (hee hee!!) from left to right: Joseph Hale, Sammi Perez, ME!, and Stephen Hale. We hiked around and checked things for an hour or two then we all climbed back into the van and headed off again to our next destination!

After driving for a while we got out to stretch our legs in Monticello, Utah. What better place to stop for a while than the temple!!!

Site #2 Monticello, Utah LDS Temple

Then we once again loaded into the van and continue onward until...

Site #3 Monument Pass somewhere between Utah and Arizona... :)

We stopped randomly at some school parking lot because they had an AMAZING view of all the little rock formations behind Sammi and me in this picture. We also took the time to practice a little bit of sloping for our event. For those of who just got confused by that, for part of our judging we have to estimate the slope of the land. So we got to do a lot of that at that school.

So after that we drove for sometime longer until we crossed into New Mexico... and Arizona... and Utah.... and Colorado!!!

Site #4 Four Corners!

This was cool just because we got to stand next to each other, yet we were still in different states!

From left to right we have Stephen, Joseph, ME!, and Sammi. Fun fun, huh!

I also got to lay down and rest for a bit... IN FOUR STATES AT ONCE!!! ha ha!

That was our last adventure for the first day. We drove to Farmington, New Mexico where we stayed the night, then started off bright and early the next morning as well. We drove across the rest of New Mexico. We made our stop for gas, and at the lovely station Sammi and I made a new friend...

We just call him Chief! Ha ha!!!

Then we were into Texas. We stopped in Amarillo for lunch... Yes, we thoroughly checked out the Amarillo Skies... they were definitely different than Idaho!!! There was no mountains so the sky went on forever!!! Weird! ha ha! That night we got to Oklahoma where we checked into the hotel. The next two days were filled with lots of practicing, learning, and fun. One day we even went out to lunch at Toby Keith's I Love this Bar & Grill in Bricktown, Oklahoma.

We all look a little rough in this picture, but I still think that its a fun one!!! That seat is supposed to be like a tail gate... once again i have to say- It was cool!!!

So on Wednesday morning we woke up and got ready for the reason we were there- to do well in our CDE (Career Development Event). It was raining- no it was pouring! The event was postponed for an hour or two, and we just waited in the van with our raincoats on. But eventually we got out to the site and did what we do best- judge that dirt and land!!! (Unfortunately I have no pictures of a lot of this because it's all on Mr. Hales camera...) Then that night after we had endured the rain and wind and mud and all that jazz, we went to the awards banquet. We were able to find out that we did amazing!!!

This Event is split into two separate parts. The first is Land site, where we evaluate the land for it's class of farming. The second is Home site, which we determine how good the site of land would be to build a home. There were a total of 96 teams competing- that's about 400 people. In the Land site we took 2nd in the Western Region and 8th in the Nation. :) We were pretty amazed with ourselves, and very satisfied. But in the Home site- we did even better!!! We placed 1st in the Western Region (Ha! Take that New Mexico!!) and 5th in the Nation! I placed 20th high individual. We felt pretty good about ourselves!

Then the next morning we got up early and left for home!!! Sammi and I, however, hit snooze on our alarm clock, and woke up at about 4:53 and we were to be in the van by 5:00. It was fun throwing clothes into suitcases and not wearing make-up or doing our hair!!! Ha ha! So we drove for a long time and went through Kansas. We stopped in Denver, Colorado for lunch at Casa Bonita. Now this place was really cool!!! It was like a little Mexican Village with a waterfall in the middle. Occasionally people would jump off the waterfall. It was pretty nifty!

That night we stayed in Laramie, Wyoming. The next day we made it home around 3:00 p.m. It was a really fun trip and I'm very happy I was able to go! It was a pretty awesome way to top of my senior year in high school!!! It only took 9 tanks of gas, one fill up in each of the 9 states we went through... :) :)