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