The Great White North
One question kept going through my mind this weekend, "What was I thinking?!?!"
The short story (as if I were capable of telling a short story) is that The Rocket Scientist and I drove to and from Utah this weekend to attend the Wasatch Mountain Parrot Head Holiday Party. Can you say freezing? Can you also say insane?
OK, that was actually short. Now, here's the long story:
Here's how it started. Shannon started working on me to come up a bit ago. I told her that I was on record with my strict "No snow" policy. She countered with Bob Karwin. He was booked to play at the party and I think everyone knows how I feel about Bob.
I didn't say anything to Shannon but I did start checking airfares. Wow. Pretty pricey. I couldn't find anything remotely doable for less than $350. That's more change than I have laying around for a weekend trip.
So, I was thinking it was a no-go but then Lewie started guilting me. "It's my birthday!" Not to mention the whole back from Iraq after a year thing. His final lure was that I could stay at their place on Saturday night. I started checking airfares again but they were still expensive.
The little man in the back of my head came up with a plan, though. I had one vacation day left and I was going to take Christmas Eve. I knew The Rocket Scientist was going to have to take a day off in there, too. He is an experienced Tempe to Ogden driver as that's where he does the kid hand off with his Ex. He actually made the trip twice in November so I figured, what's one more to him?
I ran the idea by him and didn't even have to pull out the Princess wheedle because he agreed right away. Now I had transportation ready and a place to stay but it's not a trip to Utah without a stop at my favorite local bar, The Horse. I emailed Gary to see if he would like two house guests on Friday and he said sure.
The plan was in place and I told Gary and Lewie not to tell anyone we were coming. I delighted myself by imagining how surprised they were going to be. I was even tricky and post-dated some blog posts for Friday so it would look like I was still in town.
TRS started checking the weather and declared we had to leave at 4 AM on Friday. I thought I could persuade him to make it a little later but there was no give on that. He wanted to get through SLC before rush hour. I started complaining on Thursday night how I wasn't ready to go yet and he said something about 3:30 coming up fast. I was like, "WTF? What happened to 4?" His plan was to be on the road by 4 so we compromised on 3:45 as when he would pick me up.
I didn't get to bed until almost 11 and of course George decided to knock something over at 1:45 to wake me up. I had pretty much just gotten back to sleep when my alarm went off. Sigh. However, it didn't take me long to get ready and I sent TRS a text around 3:15 saying I would be ready by 3:30. I'm not sure why he originally thought it was going to take 30 minutes to get me packed and be on the road because it was more like 3.
We hit the road at 3:40. I stayed awake during the drive through town but then it was nap time. My seat went back, my pillow was out and the blanket was properly positioned. I didn't wake up until we got off the road in Flagstaff for a gas and breakfast at Mickey D's stop.
There was snow on the ground! It was also freezing. That started the first round of "Why do people choose to live like this?" We ate in the car to save time and only stopped to gas up and pee except for a quick Subway lunch inside the rest of the way.
We were on a good pace and TRS was thinking we might even get there earlier than the 4 PM time he had predicted. Unfortunately, we ran into a storm around Provo. Traffic slowed down, there were loads of snow flurries, big gusts of wind and visibility was severely impacted. The slowdown used up all of our gained time so we ended up pulling into Gary's pretty much right at 4. That Rocket Scientist, he's always right...
To be continued...
The short story (as if I were capable of telling a short story) is that The Rocket Scientist and I drove to and from Utah this weekend to attend the Wasatch Mountain Parrot Head Holiday Party. Can you say freezing? Can you also say insane?
OK, that was actually short. Now, here's the long story:
Here's how it started. Shannon started working on me to come up a bit ago. I told her that I was on record with my strict "No snow" policy. She countered with Bob Karwin. He was booked to play at the party and I think everyone knows how I feel about Bob.
I didn't say anything to Shannon but I did start checking airfares. Wow. Pretty pricey. I couldn't find anything remotely doable for less than $350. That's more change than I have laying around for a weekend trip.
So, I was thinking it was a no-go but then Lewie started guilting me. "It's my birthday!" Not to mention the whole back from Iraq after a year thing. His final lure was that I could stay at their place on Saturday night. I started checking airfares again but they were still expensive.
The little man in the back of my head came up with a plan, though. I had one vacation day left and I was going to take Christmas Eve. I knew The Rocket Scientist was going to have to take a day off in there, too. He is an experienced Tempe to Ogden driver as that's where he does the kid hand off with his Ex. He actually made the trip twice in November so I figured, what's one more to him?
I ran the idea by him and didn't even have to pull out the Princess wheedle because he agreed right away. Now I had transportation ready and a place to stay but it's not a trip to Utah without a stop at my favorite local bar, The Horse. I emailed Gary to see if he would like two house guests on Friday and he said sure.
The plan was in place and I told Gary and Lewie not to tell anyone we were coming. I delighted myself by imagining how surprised they were going to be. I was even tricky and post-dated some blog posts for Friday so it would look like I was still in town.
TRS started checking the weather and declared we had to leave at 4 AM on Friday. I thought I could persuade him to make it a little later but there was no give on that. He wanted to get through SLC before rush hour. I started complaining on Thursday night how I wasn't ready to go yet and he said something about 3:30 coming up fast. I was like, "WTF? What happened to 4?" His plan was to be on the road by 4 so we compromised on 3:45 as when he would pick me up.
I didn't get to bed until almost 11 and of course George decided to knock something over at 1:45 to wake me up. I had pretty much just gotten back to sleep when my alarm went off. Sigh. However, it didn't take me long to get ready and I sent TRS a text around 3:15 saying I would be ready by 3:30. I'm not sure why he originally thought it was going to take 30 minutes to get me packed and be on the road because it was more like 3.
We hit the road at 3:40. I stayed awake during the drive through town but then it was nap time. My seat went back, my pillow was out and the blanket was properly positioned. I didn't wake up until we got off the road in Flagstaff for a gas and breakfast at Mickey D's stop.
There was snow on the ground! It was also freezing. That started the first round of "Why do people choose to live like this?" We ate in the car to save time and only stopped to gas up and pee except for a quick Subway lunch inside the rest of the way.
We were on a good pace and TRS was thinking we might even get there earlier than the 4 PM time he had predicted. Unfortunately, we ran into a storm around Provo. Traffic slowed down, there were loads of snow flurries, big gusts of wind and visibility was severely impacted. The slowdown used up all of our gained time so we ended up pulling into Gary's pretty much right at 4. That Rocket Scientist, he's always right...
To be continued...
