two trips in one

when i got to fruita on friday night i still hadn't heard from my 15 year old. he was going to be at home alone, because my wife was going to be out of town this weekend as well. it wasn't a big deal really... he's a very honest responsible kid, so we were not too worried about it. however we had been trying to call him all afternoon and into the evening.

we left messages on his cell phone and at the house. we started leaving message about 3 in the afternoon [while he was at school]. my wife and i were feeding on each other's fears and we started getting really worried. i was already in my hotel room and was threatening to go back to loveland and see what was going on. i was way too tired and the thought of driving 6 hours really sucked. i ended up going to bed and make a decision in the morning. as it turned out my morning started at 2am. i was in full stress mode and ready to drive back. i called my wife and told her i was heading back to loveland. "ok, good luck" she said. i was expecting something like maybe we should wait a little longer... so out the door i went.

the weather had gotten a lot worse since the night before, and it was snowing a lot in the passes. there were white-out conditions at one point. this is really sucking. mile after mile, car after car.... this was taking forever. i called my wife a couple of times along the way just to make the drive a little less lonesome. finally i was in denver, still 40 miles from home i get a phone call from my kid. boy i was angry..... i don't think he could have said anything to keep me from yelling at him, because i was so pissed. the reason that he didn't answer the phone was because he was asleep! i bought the story, but that didn't prevent me from swearing. i was mostly mad at myself for not being patient. but the more i thought about it, the more i think i would have done it again. i'm not trying to justify my stupidity or anything, but it really was a scary thing. my kid is usually the best one at answering his phone. and he is not a wild kid, so we don't really have to worry about him doing that kind of stuff. i guess had he been a wild kid i probably would have not worried so much.

so what should i do now?i had my friends waiting for me... a unicycling event going on... and a car full of camping and bike gear..... i decided that i really wanted to go back, but i was to tired, and it was snowing way too much. i had heard that the snow should be gone by tomorrow, so i decided to wait till morning. i went all the way back home and took a pretty good nap. about 3-4 hours worth. i vegged in front of the tv for a few more hours and a was pretty well rested by evening. i had some diner with my kid and dropped him off at his friend's house.... and i headed back to moab.

by now it was about 8pm and i was drinking a venti latte. the mile were ticking off pretty quickly. the snow was still pretty bad over the passes, but there were not too many cars on the road.
i got to fruita by 1am.... and took a little nap till about 4:30. from there i drove straight through to moab and had some denny's and started blogging again.

later

everything is an adventure

well, friday morning and i was supposed to be out of here by 9am. i had a ton of errands to run and a meeting or two with some peeps. after my meetings were over... and fielding a couple of support calls [that's what happened when you use the company phone as your own], and picking up some stuff from work.... i finally started to moab. it was well into the 3 o'clock hour by the time i left.

off topic:
i am sitting at denny's in moab right now about 6:30am or so. i haven't been paying much attention to anyone around me, except for these three older guys complaining about software licences..... blah blah blah... anyway i just looked around and found this guy from the food channel. i don't know if you have ever seen the show where this guy travels around the world just to eat weird food. not the anthony guy... the other guy who looks a little like uncle fester. i swear that's him. i guess eating at denny's would qualify for gross and disgusting food.

back to topic;
let me give you some background info. i was supposed to hook up with my former work buddy on friday night. he left with some friends very early friday morning. since i left so late friday, i was planning to only go as far as fruita and get a hotel or something then head out to moab on sat morning. i was planning to mostly unicycle on the weekend, but mountain biking was also planned.

so friday morning when i was running my errands i get a call from my friend out in moab. he tells me that the cabins we had picked out were just closed down by the city!! wtf!!! so he was going to find some other cabins.. oh yeah...it's starting to rain. ok, a little rain never hurt anyone. my friend has a habit of bringing rain with him every where he goes, so this was probably expected.

a couple of hours later when i started heading out on the interstate, i call my friend one more time just to let him now my situation. i called him up as he answered "hello". i habitually ask how it was going. he replied "bad"..." really bad". it turned out that as they were driving around looking for a camp site they got hit by someone and now their truck is undrivable. this trip is getting off to a really good start. they weren't sure what they were going to do at that point.. and they didn't need anything from me.

so on with my drive.... i got to fruita about 9pm or so. not too bad. i could have made it to moab...but since it was raining and i wasn't sure where my friend was i thought that i should just get a motel and call it a day.

new adventure

i have a new unicycle adventure coming up. it's not quite as adventurous as my previous journey, but it should be pretty entertaining.
I will be going to moab for the annual moab muni fest. i am bringing my unicycle, extra bearings, and my mountain bike. i am only going to do a couple of rides with the uni guys, but i am going with my mountain bike buddies. the whole trip is going to be about 4 days, but i will be splitting the time between the two groups. it's going to be a little like that classic partridge family episode, were keith had two dates in the same restaurant, and he would run back in forth between them. i guess that has pretty much become a sitcom cliche and if you don't remember the partridge family, then i am sure you have seen this else where.

i'll try to keep this updated as much as possible.

later.