Archives 2010

So this morning we awoke to the ground with a fresh coat of snow on it.  I saw people out scraping their windshields, it made me laugh.  The road also had a thin coating of ice in certain spots.  I almost lost my footing a couple times. 

I didn’t want to waste time so after eating a quick breakfast from the deli we packed up the van and headed out.  Our plan was to go around the loop in the opposite direction we went to get to Old Faithful.

We saw so many awesome sights along the way.  We saw a ton of bison, some of them no more than 20 feet away from us.  We also went through another geyser hot spring area that had quite an interesting history.

The area is full of downed, dead trees.  After reading the info board we found out why.  In 1978 there were a series of strong earthquakes that shook the hell out of the trees but they remained standing.  However shortly after the earthquakes the ground the trees stood on got incredibly hot, around 200 degrees.  The high temps killed the trees from the bottom up.  Could you imagine 200 degree dirt?

We spent into the early afternoon exploring the park.  It was fantastic.  We wound up our Yellowstone experience eating lunch in a picnic area where we were observed by some sort of gopher/squirrel/prairie dog looking animal.

The only gripe we had about the park was they are very restrictive on their rules with dogs.  They aren’t allowed on the trails, not allowed more than 100 ft off the road, not allowed to do very much at all.  It’s a bit of a bummer.  I would have loved to hike some trails with the dogs.

In reality we only brushed the surface of what Yellowstone has to offer.  Hell we could have easily spent a week there hiking and exploring.  Unfortunately for us to do that we will need to do a trip sans-pooches.

Luckily we had a relatively short drive to Idaho Falls which is a good thing.  I just was sick and tired of driving.  Idaho is very pretty and very rural.  The populated areas are few and far between.

I was a bit rammy when we got here.  Not being able to do any semblance of a regular workout routine bothers me.  I did a quick search for “Idaho Falls playground” hoping to find a spot with some bars where I could do some body weight work on.

I got a hit that was less than a mile away.  I told Ali I was going to check it out.  Well what I actually found was a beautiful park along the river that was dog friendly.  I called Ali up and told her I would be right back to get her, the dogs will love it.

So we headed back here with the dogs in tow.  They have been getting rammy themselves.  They didn’t understand why we left them behind in the van time and again as we checked out various things around Yellowstone.  We put them on their extended leashes so they could roam around awhile.

The park was very scenic.  We walked a good distance up and back.  We saw an otter on our journey as well as somebody water skiing in a wet suit on the river. Everyone had a good time.  Nope I never did find any bars to work out on.

This trip has mentally been tough.  In the past on our journeys west we had periods of 5 or 6 days when were at my dad’s place waking up in the same bed.  This time around the only time we will be at a place for more than one night will be the two nights at Aspen.  Other than that it is round robin accommodations.

We travel with a lot of stuff.  Each time we crash at a hotel I have to lug no less than a dozen bags up into the room and then reverse the process the following morning.  It’s a drag, believe me, not to mention EXPENSIVE.

Tomorrow Ali is running in a local 10K, something she planned months ago.  After that we have a very busy day with many things to see and not enough time to see it all.  Originally I had hoped to make  a mid-trip addition of the Bonneville Salt Flats to our agenda.  However logistically it just won’t work out.

Since the Aspen reservations are set in stone we just don’t have flexibility to add a day to our travels leading up to it.  Oh well, I’ll see the flats next time.

Tomorrow we should be seeing the Craters of the Moon national park and a couple other places recommended to us from one of our running club buddies that just happened to live in Idaho for a long time.  Our stopping point will be Salt Lake City.

Oh yea here is the Yellowstone, in the snow, on a boulder, with mountains in the background L sit picture.

For dinner last night I grabbed take out from a very Carraba-esque restaurant right across the parking lot from the hotel.  If we didn’t have the dogs it would have been a nice place to sit down and eat.  While I was waiting for the food to come out I slammed a beer at the bar while watching the Phillies finally win a game against the Yankees.

Driving west does all sorts of strange things to you because of the time change.  I woke up at 5 am Mountain Time.  After walking the dogs I went down and used the hotel fitness room for a half hour or so. While I was on the treadmill I tried to actually watch some of the World Cup.  I made it through about 10 minutes of the Argentina / Korea game before I couldn’t tolerate it.  It’s so damn boring plus the f’ing natives blowing those horns incessantly during the match is annoying beyond description.

Billings seems to be an expensive area.  Out hotel room was over $100 with the AAA rate. Yea it was a nice place but not $107 before taxes nice. I mean wtf, it was a Wednesday night.  Gas was expensive as well, in the $2.90’s.  We expected gas to be dirt cheap since we saw no less than three refineries in the Billings area.

We loaded up the van and headed out.  I still hadn’t had a chance to revisit the power lock/seat issue.  I wanted to pick up a spare relay to help in my testing but after stopping at 3 different places and striking out I decided I will continue my troubleshooting without one.  For now I am the full time driver and we do a lot of door locking and unlocking by hand.

The drive to Yellowstone was EXTREMELY windy.  I couldn’t believe just hard it was blowing.  Several times a cross wind blew me across the center line.  Early on in the drive Ali and I were impressed by the huge, snow covered mountains in the distance.  It just seemed surreal to see snow in mid-June.  Little did we know just how surreal things were yet to come.

As we got closer and closer to the park it got colder and colder.  As we got near Ali said she thought she saw snow.  At first I didn’t notice.  Soon you couldn’t miss it.  We had freaking snow flurries coming down.  As we got to the shack to pay our $25 entry fee the POSSIBLE ICY ROADS sign left no doubt that we indeed were experiencing winter in June.

The deeper into the park we got the more it felt like Christmas.  Cripes they had some roads covered in cinders.  We drove through many steady periods of snow, luckily the road was warm enough that it didn’t stick.  There was plenty of snow on the ground however.  Neither of our dogs have ever seen/felt snow.  We saw one pull off area that had a nice mound of it so we stopped and let the dogs check it out.

Ali was sure Nicki would hate snow.  Back in Florida Nicki generally dislikes going outside on cold days.  To our surprise she seemed to have no problem with the snow and was happy to walk around on it.  In fact the dogs were thrilled to be out in the cold temps with snow coming down.  Ali and I on the other hand were not.  With a strong wind blowing and neither of us having anything close to suitable clothing, the air felt like icy daggers as it hit your body.  It wasn’t pleasant. 

On the way in we found an open grassy area that looked good for the dogs.  When we got out we saw signs maybe 50 feet off the road indicating it was a bear area.  Well let me tell you, bears create tremendous piles of shit.  I am talking volleyball diameter piles of shit and they were everywhere.  You could also see bear prints in the mud very easily.  Of course the dogs found all of this excrement fascinating and Nicki was happy to add to it.

We then headed to our lodging for the day.  Ali booked this way ahead of time and it’s a good thing she did, supposedly there are no rooms available ANYWHERE in Yellowstone right now.  We actually aren’t in a hotel, we are in a duplex cabin.  It’s small but quaint.  Thank goodness the heat works.

After unpacking it was still only mid-afternoon so we decided to venture out to Old Faithful which was almost 40 miles away.  Yellowstone is HUGE.  The main loop that goes around the park is something like 100 miles long.

On our way there we made a ton of stops to look at stuff.  We saw numerous steam vents in the ground that pumped out steam like a locomotive.  We saw various wildlife including some sort of deer/anteloupe, elk/caribou and buffalo.  There were so many awe inspiring vistas, it just made you appreciate just how beautiful parts of our planet can be.

We saw some people whose sanity we questioned like the ones on motorcycles and even bicycles.  They had to be frozen solid.

Eventually we got to Old Faithful.  We timed it pretty well, by the time we grabbed gas, coffee and a hot chocolate we only had about 15 minutes until the geyser was due to erupt again. (happens approximately every 90 minutes) 

Ali and I left the dogs in the van and headed over.  We were freezing our asses off.  My sweatshirt and jeans were no match for a windchill that had to be in the 20’s.  As we impatiently waited for the scheduled 5:16 eruption we talked with some people around us whom were all freezing their asses off as well.  Several times while we waited it snowed steadily.  I had to keep pinching myself, remembering it is June 17th.

5:16 came and went, nothing.  A few little gurgles came out but not the big plume. Finally around 5:22 it let loose.  Unfortunately the gray skies and frigid temps made the eruption blend in with the sky.  It was very hard to see much definition in the flow.  It was cool regardless to finally see something you have heard about your entire life. 

The geyser spouted  for probably close to a minute before going back into hibernation.  Ali and I wasted no time getting out of there.  We were both frozen solid and decided to jog back to the van to both lessen our time in the cold air and warm up our bodies a bit.

I went inside to get us a nutritious gift shop dinner of pizza, hot dog and salad before we headed back to our cabin.  We stopped again on the way back to let the dogs relieve themselves again in some bear shit covered grass.  It was so damn cold.  After 5 minutes we were craving the warmth of the van.

So we are chilling tonight.  I am writing this entry in notepad to later be copy and pasted over to my blog.  We have no internet, no cell phone service and no tv.  It’s back to basics.  We have a SHITLOAD of pics from today that I will upload once I am back on the matrix.  Yes I did an L sit in Yellowstone.

Tomorrow we will be seeing some more of Yellowstone in the AM before heading out to Idaho tomorrow.  Ali is supposed to run a 10K in Idaho on Saturday. She said if the weather is anything like it is here she ain’t doing it.

What a day.

Did I mention that I have managed to watch 7 or 8 Lost episodes while on the road?

So our big score of getting into a $249 a night hotel for nothing was a let down.  Of course we requested a smoke free room as always.  We got our smoke free room on the 4th floor.  As we were entering our hallway we smelled the overpowering stench of a cigar.  Ali called down to the front desk to let them know, assuming the entire floor was smoke free. WRONG.  They split the floor into half smoking, half non-smoking.  What a bunch of f’ing idiots.

As the night went on the smell got worse.  The hallway smelled like I just stepped foot in a casino, it was that bad.  Ali actually had to stuff a towel along the bottom of our door to keep the smoke smell out, it was ridiculous.

If I had actually laid out the $249 I would have raised holy hell.  I mean WTF do they think, that smoke magically stops halfway down the hall?  I was severely annoyed.

The continental breakfast the next morning was annoying as well.  Since the hotel had an attached water park there were kids galore.  It seemed all of the families descended upon the area at 7am when I was there.  It was a freaking zoo.  It was made worse by crazed hotel employees that insisted on cleaning the area every 15 seconds.  Several times I had this old lady swooping in under my armpit to wipe up a spot of a milk or a spare Frosted Flake.

It was a real letdown.  We both thought we really scored it big staying there for free.  It’s amazing what a bit of smoke can do to change your impression of a place.

So our final destination today was Billings, Montana.  On the way we stopped at Devils Tower.  Never heard of it?  Well I bet you have seen it if you are 40 years old or older.  It’s the place that Close Encounters of the Third Kind ended up at.

It is an amazing natural structure that just doesn’t seem possible.  To get to it we drove on mostly empty roads in mostly uninhabited areas.  Because of this I was amazed to see a full parking lot when we pulled up.

Once again there were dog restrictions.  I found a spot under some trees to park the van to make sure it stayed nice and cool.  Ali and I then headed off for the hiking trail that circles the structure.  It was impressive as hell as you looked up at the sheer vertical sides of the tower.  I was also very surprised to read that climbers actually navigate to the top of it.  It looks far too treacherous from a ground level vantage point.

Of course it didn’t take long until we found a good spot for an L sit picture.  Hell, Ali actually suggested the spot.  🙂

It was great trail with awesome views everywhere you looked.  One odd thing we noticed was for some reason they installed speed bumps in the trail.  Yes, speed bumps in a walking trail. 

You have to question the logic of installing bumps in a path where visitors spend most of their time looking up.  Real genius at work there, let me tell you.  I even tripped on one of them, look!

We didn’t spend a lot of time at the park since the girls were in the van.  Ali and I both agreed it was worth the time it took to get there.

My fix of the electrical glitch that was killing the power locks was premature, it’s still f’d up.  Once again the locks (and the power seat) were dead.  I even disconnected a second power lock switch and still couldn’t get it working again.  Since the seat couldn’t adjust that meant I was stuck driving all the way to Billings, yay.

The drive was very scenic but got pretty hairy towards the end.  We hit some hellacious storms that included hail, driving rain and very strong crosswinds.  I had my hands locked on the steering wheel to keep us on the road.  Lightning was everywhere.  The sky was extremely dark.

We managed to pull through it and arrive safely.  Ali is down swimming in the nice pool they have here right now.  Tomorrow it is on to Yellowstone where more cold temps await.

Oh yea, it’s 53 degrees here right now.

More pics are piling into my Picasaweb account.

Last night we stayed in a Super 8 motel.  We were less than impressed.  The entire place is supposed to be non-smoking.  However our room was located right near the entrance where the people congregate to smoke.  Well evidently a pack of smokers all sucked and blew at the same time creating a large cloud of smoke that managed to waft into our room through the AC unit. Ali was not happy.

I asked at the front desk if we could possibly move.  They said we could go upstairs but there is no wireless Internet on the second floor.  The no Internet plus having to repack and relocate our junk made us just grin and bear it. I threw a spare towel over the AC vents.

Other things bothered us about the place.  The drain in the tub was miserably slow.  By the time you finished a shower you had water up over your ankles.  The bed sucked too.  I woke up with all sorts of aches in my back from sleeping on the bowled out mattress.  We won’t be looking to stay in a Super 8 anytime again soon.

This morning I noticed something weird.  Actually I noticed it the evening before in the light rain while I unloaded the van.  The power locks stopped working.  Hmm that’s weird.  Well this morning I noticed the power seat was dead as well.  After some troubleshooting I determined one of the relays in the fuse box was screwed up, or so I thought. 

When I swapped the relay out the stuff started working again.  However when I pushed the power lock button on the passenger side door all was dead again and the relay would get VERY hot.  After some more trial and error throughout the day I have determined that somehow that switch must have developed a short when it was exposed the the light rain.  I had that door open for awhile as I unloaded the van in the wetness.  So as of now I have that switch disconnected and everything else is working. 

Nicki and Sadie had been rammy from being in nothing but the van and hotel rooms for the past few days.  Ali actually found an off leash dog park only a few miles away.  We pulled up and there was noone there.  The grass was wet but walkable.  Soon after letting both dogs off the leash they were off an running, savoring being unleashed and free.  They ran and played for 15 minutes or so and loved every minute of it.

We had a relatively short amount of miles today to put in to go from Sioux Falls to Rapid City.  It was a good thing because we made some stops along the way.  South Dakota has some beautiful countryside filled with rolling hills as far as you can see.  We stopped at a place marked as a “scenic overlook”.  It lived up to it’s description.  The pictures we took don’t quite capture just how awesome the view was looking out at endless green hills in every direction.

Route 90 seems to be non-stop tourist attractions.  I commented to Ali several times throughout the day how if the dogs weren’t with there was much more I would want to do/see. 

We did manage to stop at Wall Drug.  I remember Wall Drug from when my dad drove us out west when I was in my early teens.  Much like South of the Border on I-95, this place has countless billboards starting several hundred miles away.  Wall Drug which started out as a simple drug store has morphed into a full blown tourist trap over the years. 

Again because of the dogs, we had to check it out in shifts.  I went in first and did a quick look around.  The area seemed much bigger and developed than I remembered from the early 80’s.  I probably only spent 10 minutes taking a quick look.  The only thing I got a was a free Wall Drug bumper sticker.

Ali went next.  She got a bunch of Xmas ornaments, some ice cream for us and gift for me, a huge over-sized Wall Drug pencil.  I had told her on the way out that I bought a similar pencil when I was there as a kid to use in pencil fights, one of my various odd youthful hobbies.

From Wall Drug it was less than 50 miles to our hotel in Rapid City.  Last night Ali saved us from huge sticker shock when she checked ahead for the rates on the LaQuinta here.  I almost shit my pants when she said $249 a night. WTF?????

Well luckily we had enough LaQuinta rewards points for a free night.  So we managed to score the room for NOTHING, a huge win.  In South Dakota, indoor water parks are evidently a big deal.  We saw a bunch of them advertised.  Well this LaQuinta has one as well, a massive, extremely cool one.  Too bad we don’t really have the time or energy to enjoy it.

When I checked in I asked about the sky high room rates.  The clerk said it is only like that 4 months of the year.  In the winter the rooms are like $40 a night.

After checking in and unloading our gear we wasted no time shooting back out to go see Mt Rushmore.  Again, as I kid I saw Mt Rushmore but I remember very little about it.  In fact I told Ali that when we saw it I kind of remember being pissed off at my dad so I sort of thought I walked up, said, “There I saw it” and did little else. Well I appreciated it much more this time around.

We brought the dogs with but they weren’t allowed in the park.  They had to just hang out in the van in the parking garage.  Luckily the cool temps and the cover from the garage made leaving them alone less worrisome.

Mt Rushmore is just impressive.  When you stare up at this creation that was carved out of the face of the mountain you can’t help being amazed by what went into creating it.  Ali and I took a ton of pictures and walked the Presidential Trail that takes you right to the base of the monument.  I wouldn’t  be surprised if Ali and woke up with stiff necks tomorrow from walking around while looking up so much. 

What impresses me more is this was started in 1927.  Much like the Hoover Dam, it’s incredible to me what could be accomplished back then with technology that is far inferior to what we have available today.  We spent a lot of time just taking it all in. 

In the gift shop there was actually an old guy that worked on making the monument, he was 17 years old when he did it.  He told us a lot of interesting info.  He was there selling some book for $10 that had more info about the monument.  I didn’t buy the book but I did ask if I could take my picture with him.  He seemed less than thrilled for some reason but he obliged me anyway as long as we agreed to not use a flash which hurt his very old eyes.

Before we left we hit the book store for Ali to pick up some stamps for her National Park book which she left back at the room.  There was some old dude there working the register that was incredibly slow.  He was totally oblivious to the long line as he went into long diatribes with people instead of ringing them up and going to the next person.  We probably spent 15 minutes waiting to pay for these dumb stamps.

Before we left I had to have Ali shoot my first road trip L sit and  a very scenic one at that, right in front of the monument.  Surely people thought I was nuts but I tried to not look at other faces around me.

Tomorrow it’s on the great state of Montana.  We peeked ahead to the forecast for Yellowstone.  The night we arrive the low is supposed to be 27 degrees with a chance of snow.  Snow, in June… wow that would be something.

A few blurbs.

So far we have put in something like 2300 miles.

We saw a billboard along 90 that went something like this:

WEAR MORE FUR. HELP CONTROL THE ANIMAL POPULATION. 

It wasn’t a joke.

Sadie is capable of producing incredible amounts of feces.

This trip is going to cost us a ton of dough.  Yea gas prices are close to a dollar a gallon less this time around.  But this time around we don’t have 6 or 7 nights of free lodging at relatives plus we are on the road longer than ever before.  Everywhere I look I just see $$ signs.

The PV 2.0 has averaged 15-16.5 mpg so far about 20-30% improvement then the old party van squaked out.

A bunch more pics were taken today and added here.  Keep checking back as I add more.

Today was a pretty uneventful day.  I started it off by doing a quick 2 mile run around the hotel.  There were plenty of hills around so it added a facet that you just don’t find often in Florida. 

We decided to stretch our drive today to try to gain extra time later in the trip to do stuff like see the Bonneville Salt Flats.  Instead of stopping at Omaha, Nebraska we instead pushed up to Sioux Falls, South Dakota.  Today we traveled through Missouri, Iowa, South Dakota and a quick jaunt into Nebraska just to take a picture of the state sign.

The drive today was pretty boring.  It was overcast almost the entire day.  We noticed a lot of flooded farm land along the way.  Evidently they got drenched around here late last week.

I found Iowa to be very annoying.  Interstate 29, which we were traveling on had no less than a dozen separate construction zones.  Instead of doing one section at a time, Iowa DOT seems to think that doing double digit smaller areas makes more sense.  I didn’t find much sensible about it.

By the time we got to Sioux Falls it was downright raw outside with temps in the low 60’s and  a steady misting rain.  We are spending the night in a Super 8 Motel just relaxing.

Tomorrow we are going to be getting into the meat of the trip with a visit to Mount Rushmore.  We might take a few minutes to see Wall Drug as well, a place I remember well from my trip west with my dad when I was younger.

If you want to see some of the pictures so far you can check them out here.

Day three was pretty mild compared to day two.  My dad and Barry, his buddy he is traveling with came over to go out to breakfast with me.  Ali stayed back at the room with the dogs.  I had not seen Barry in at least 20 years.  He seemed like the same Barry albeit a 77 year old version.

It seems like my dad and him are having quite an interesting trip so far, they are a bit like the odd couple.  We had a good breakfast at Cracker Barrel as we chatted about stuff.  I told dad I would call him when we are at the western side of our trip, just in case they are in the vicinity so we could maybe meet up again.  He is doing an inverse route compared to us, heading south first and then swinging north. Schedule-wise it may not work but you never know.  As always, dad paid for the meal.

After driving us back in the van I bid the gentleman adieu and started packing up the van for departure.

Despite losing over half of the day yesterday due to van repairs, we wound up today back on schedule with our original plan thanks to adding a couple hours to the drive.  We left at 9:15ish and arrived here at about 6:30 central around a 10 hour driving day.  It felt pretty long but the idea of erasing the mileage deficit kept me glued to the captains chair.

Today we drove through Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois and Missouri.  As always there were interesting sights along the way. 

In Kentucky when we stopped for gas there was a family in a pick up truck.  The two obese parents were in the cab and the three children were in the back.  One of the children was quite young and was crying.  I speculated the child didn’t enjoy sitting in the back of the truck in the blazing hot sun possibly.

The caring mother turned around and without asking what was wrong yelled “You better shut up back there” in a deliciously ignorant sounding southern twang.

Ali slept right through St. Louis and the arch.  I did the best I could to snap a few shots of the arch with my Iphone as we sped by.  It still looked as cool as ever.

We were bummed that we never saw an official Welcome to Illinois sign to take a picture in front of, it was one of the states we are missing.

The van and it’s $700 of new rubber performed just fine today.  The AC blows so cold that while I was laying down on the bed in the back I covered up legs with a towel.  It definitely is a step up from Party Van 1.0 accommodations.

I felt a bit rammy and lazy when we got to the hotel.  I was bummed this one didn’t have an exercise room.  I had to make do with three sets of 20 burpees.  Those things are tough as hell. I hoping to get out and run a couple miles tomorrow morning since our drive tomorrow to Omaha, Nebraska is rather short so we can relax a bit.

We haven’t taken a whole ton of pictures yet and most of what we have taken are the Iphone variety.  I guess it is because most of this area we have been through before so we haven’t felt the need.  I am sure the picture quota will pick up greatly during the next few days as we push more northward and westward than ever before.

I slept horribly all night for a variety of reasons.  Worrying about the van, restless dogs and a much too quiet room all contributed.

I was up at 6am even though the service department didn’t open until 8.  The anxiety of not knowing what was wrong was weighing heavy on me.  I did some research on the web that pointed to many possible causes.

I waited outside the dealership patiently until the CSR let me in around 10 till 8.  They pulled the van in shortly after that.  The mechanic on duty was the same guy I saw the day before, the same one that seemed about as disinterested as humanly possible in my problem.

I had to sign a form ok’ing an $80 diagnostic charge.  Well the diagnostic took all of 5 minutes.  The mechanic said the tire was splitting along the inside tread, causing the weird wobble.  He said all I needed was a new tire.  The only problem was the dealership was unable to have tires delivered to them on a Saturday.  They directed me to a tire place about a mile down the road that was open on Saturdays.

I was surprised when they said that was it, no charge, I was free to go.  I thanked both the mechanic and the service advisor guy for their help and kindness.  Hutchinson Chevrolet in Macon, Georgia is A-OK in my book.

So I wobbled slowly down the road to this tire place.  Originally I had intentions of just replacing the two front tires.  After some more thought and conversations with Ali and my dad, I decided to just do all four tires.  The back tires weren’t in great shape either.  They both had slow leaks and some signs of dry rot.

The tires I was buying weren’t on the premise, they had to be delivered from their supplier.  I was told the whole deal should be done by 10:30. (It was around 9:00 am)  Instead of walking back to the room and then having to walk right back shortly thereafter I decided to just hang out and wait.

At first I passed the time by walking across the street and grabbing a DD coffee.  After getting back I read magazines, farted around on my Iphone and watched the same 10 news stories on the tv over and over and over again.

After 10 the guy at the counter tells me there is a problem.  The tires we ordered 4 of they only had three on hand.  There was another model tire we could go with but it would delay the delivery until about 11:30.  Well what choice did I have, I told him I would wait.

Well 11:30 turned into 12:15 until the tire delivery actually showed up.  I was crawling out of my skin by this point, having exhausted every last shred of patience.  To his credit, the guy behind the counter was very good at addressing my stress.  He made several calls to check on the tires eta and had his mechanics take the old tires off the van ahead of time so it was all ready to go.

I wasn’t the only one dying of boredom.  Ali was borderline insane back at the room just waiting for me.  She was going through ice tea withdrawl symptoms as well.  Originally I had told her I would bring her back a DD iced tea when the ETA was 10:30.  At 12:30 it is typically too late for her to ingest caffeine.

Finally the van was done around 12:40 or so.  I hurried back to the room, loaded up the van and off we went.  Originally we had plans to see the guidestones of Georgia.  That got scuttled due to the late departure.  Hopefully we can readjust our timetable/route on the way home to possibly see them then.

Instead we headed right to Chattanooga to meet up with my dad who is traveling with a friend of his to Montana.  Originally we planned to meet up for dinner.  However they were staying with friends of his friend that had no interest in eating outside to accomodate dogs.  So they did their own dinner thing and we did ours.

Boy did dad miss out.  Ali found a fantastic place for us to eat using an app on her Iphone that identifies nearby dog friendly establishments.  The place it found was called the Terminal Brewhouse.   

The restaurant is a refurbished old building in downtown Chatanooga.  It’s a micro-brewery that also happens to be very friendly to vegetarians, dogs and the environment.  It was like Ali was in nirvana.  We ate outside on the rooftop covered patio that had a grass covered floor and was bordered by planters filled with tomato, strawberry, and basil plants and more.  It was just great. 

I called my dad to offer him one more chance to meet up with us.  He would have LOVED this place.  He felt obligated to hang with his buddy.  Oh well, his loss.

Ali and I loved the surroundings, the staff and the food.  All of it was just about perfect.

The day which started out pretty damn bleak wound up pretty damn nice.  Who doesn’t like a happy ending?

I had hoped to be on the road by 7am, we were in the van maybe 15 minutes after that, no big deal.  Well just as we were ready to back out of the driveway Ali noticed her phone was getting an error retrieving email from my server.  I looked at my phone and had the same error, shit.

So I told Ali I would run inside and look at the server quick.  Well by the time I got done fixing it “quick” turned out to be an hour and a half.  We didn’t leave the house till close to 9, damn it.

The 500 mile drive, once we got going, went well.  The van drove nicely (averaged 16.5 mpg on first tank), the AC was blowing good and cold and the late start of the trip was nearly forgotten by the time we approached our hotel exit.

Ali drove the last couple hours of the day.  As we turned off the highway on to the exit ramp where we are staying the van felt weird.  All of  a sudden it started wobbling.  I hopped out in the parking lot of the hotel and had Ali drive it around so I could see if there was anything obviously wrong.  The front wheels looked more or less ok but there was definitely something loose/broken in the front end that was causing the wobble.

We did have one stroke of good luck, the La Quinta is literally right across the street from a GM dealer. I limped across the street with the van to see if they could save me.  Although my heart sank when I saw their hours posted as CLOSED on Saturday I found out they actually were open on Saturdays.

I explained to the guy at the service counter our situation. I said I really need some help in getting the problem identified/fixed.  He said they open Saturday at 8AM, I should come back first thing and they will see what they can do.

So now we are stuck with a big pile of unknown.  I have no idea what they will find is wrong, maybe wheel bearings, tie rods, who knows…..  Depending on what it is we could be further delayed by parts availability.  All I can do is hope for the best.

We were supposed to meet up with my dad tomorrow in Tennessee.  The chance for that is all but vaporized at this point.  Best case scenario is we manage to get back on the road later in the day Saturday.  Worst case scenario is we are held up here in Macon, Georgia until Monday or Tuesday. 

Man I hope we get lucky…..

Well the Flyers lost last night dramatically in overtime to the Blackhawks to end their improbable Stanley Cup run.  I am not going to pretend I saw the game, I didn’t.  In fact I haven’t seen a single game all season long.  It just felt disingenuous to start watching them now.  Anyway, even though they lost, they sort of won anyway much like the 2008 Eagles.  That year the Eagles limped into the playoffs as the low playoff seed and had an improbable run of wins that got them to the NFC championship. 

The Flyers did much the same thing, squeaking into the playoffs on the last day of the regular season and then going on an incredible run in the playoffs, including coming back from a 3-0 deficit, only the third team to EVER accomplish such a feat.  Hats off the to the Flyers, I wish I could name one player on the team. I can’t.

Last night Ali and I mowed the grounds in prep for our trip.  The grass was extra high since we let it go several days longer than normal.  Ali had to crawl over certain areas and didn’t finish up until darkness was setting in.  Weed whacking went slow for me as well since I hadn’t done it in 3 weeks.

Today we have a crushing amount of things to get ready before we leave. 

Ali has been having bad neck and upper back pain the past couple days.  She thinks it is leftover from the triathlon on Sunday but I’m not so sure.  Anyway it has made simple things like sleeping very difficult to do.  Hopefully it clears up soon.  She will have plenty of time to rest in the van.

As before I hope to provide periodic updates to the blog while I am on the road.  It promises to be quite the adventure.

Peace, out.

Last night it was relatively cool because of overcast skies and some rain that went through.  I thought it might be a good opportunity to try one last 50-50-50 attempt since the rest of the week will be filled with trip prep. It didn’t go well.

After I did my first set of 5 pull ups I realized that I forgot to start the stop watch so those 5 reps wouldn’t count.  After resetting the watch I started another attempt.  After I did the very first rep of my initial box jump set I felt a nasty pull in my abs.  It didn’t get any better by the 5th rep so I stopped.  I think I have strained something in my ab’s from all of these static core holds I’ve been doing.   

I tried to come up with something else I COULD do.  I came up with some explosive reversing pull ups, the type where you switch grips mid air at the top of the movement.  Well those hurt my abs as well so I just bagged it, oh well.

I actually contacted the gym yesterday to see if they had the footage from my L Sit near death accident on Monday.  They said that the camera in that area doesn’t catch the squat rack unfortunately.

On Monday night Ali made an apple crisp with apples from our apple tree.  We picked a bunch of large, blemish free fruit from the tree.  Even though the apples were all still totally green they taste great once Ali is done with them.

We also wrapped the apple tree, the lemon tree and the blueberry plants in netting to hopefully protect our fruit from hungry birds while we are away.

The next couple evenings will be jam packed with trip prep.