Yesterday was a pretty tough day in the car. We have front loaded the first two days of the trip with the two longest driving days. Between Sunday and Monday we have logged over 1650 miles, the first time I have ever gone that far in that short of a time. The Missouri portion of the drive was the worst, it seemed like we were stuck in the state the majority of the day.
The day was filled almost exclusively with endless road lines. The highlights were the few times we got to get out of the car. We stopped at a very pretty rest stop in Kentucky that was housed on an old historic site.
Our final destination yesterday was Omaha. We did not get in until about 8PM local time. It was so late we just stopped at a Paneras on the way in and got a to go order which we ate in our room.
Both Cindy and I were beat from two days of marathon driving. Your body does not enjoy being in the seated position for double digit hours at a time. Each time I get out of the car I walk like an 80 year old as my tight IT band refuses to release.
The place we stayed at last night was a renovated and rebranded Hampton Inn. The place was clean, nice and priced very reasonably. The only negative was water pressure that felt like light rain. Since hotel accommodations are going to by far be the biggest expense of the trip, we are looking to score bargains wherever possible without having to dip into the bottom tier of hotel providers (Econolodge, America Best Value, Microtel, etc…)
Today our destination is Rapid City in South Dakota, our staging point for our visit to Mt Rushmore tomorrow. On the way there we will be stopping at Wall Drug, one of the biggest tourist traps in the midwest. Now that we have the two worst driving days out of the way we are looking forward to getting more opportunity to enjoy the new surroundings.
The roughly 875 mile drive yesterday went smoothly aside from the usual madness that starts to creep in after being in a vehicle for so long. We found a Sleep Inn to stay at that was half decent both in accommodations and price point.
After unloading the car we headed back out for downtown Nashville. You may recall last year we got raped in parking fees, paying around 50 bucks. This year I took 30 seconds to do a Google search of affordable Nashville parking and was directed to a nearby garage that only cost 10 bucks. It was about 3-4 blocks away from the main street but after 14 hours in a car we needed to walk.
Since it is Labor Day weekend the downtown area was quite busy. Seeing the never ending river of people instantly soured my mood. I was already tired from the two consecutive days of early alarms. The first few places we looked at to eat were either packed, allowed smoking, or had deafening live music going on. I wasn’t in the mood for any of the three.
We finally found a brewery/restaurant combo deal. We were originally told there was a half hour wait but we instead found two empty chairs at the bar and ate there. Just like the rest of downtown, the restaurant was very, busy. I looked at how hard the bartenders were working and was glad it was not my vocation. You have to be absolutely exhausted after a shift like this.
Cindy and I both enjoyed our dinners. I opted for fish and chips while Cindy got a blackened mahi sandwich. We both bypassed the ketchup for our fries and instead tried some vinegar which actually was pretty good. Once we were done eating I had no desire to walk the strip since we had done it last year. We did revisit the same ice cream shoppe as last year and split a very good almond joy cone on the walk back to the car.
Once we showered back at the room we crashed pretty quickly in bed. We were both really, really beat.
During the day we were checking in on the chickens pretty regularly thanks to the surveillance tech we have in and around the coop. During one of those check ins we saw that a storm had actually blown the door to the chicken run closed, trapping one of the chickens inside and cutting the others off from their food and water. We normally put a small piece of 4×4 wood in front of the door to prevent it from closing in such a situation, something our chicken sitters might not have known about. I got ahold of our next door neighbor and asked her to go open the door and block it. Crisis averted.
This morning we did not set an alarm and woke up around 6AM central time. I felt more rested than I have the past few days. We enjoyed a nice spread at the free continental breakfast and got on the road before 7:30. At the gas station I saw the low tire pressure sensor was on. The air pump at the gas station was out of order. I then remembered I packed my little portable compressor that runs off the cigarette lighter. It took awhile but I put a few pounds of pressure in three of the four tires which cleared the warning light.
Our destination today after another long 750 miles is Omaha Nebraska. The forecast highs there are only in the upper 70’s so I am looking forward to more pleasant temps. We have already cleared Kentucky and are going through the small portion of Illinois before we cut straight through Missouri.
Yesterday Cindy and I arose to the 4AM alarm for the race we were timing. With the new timing set up we need to get on site a little earlier so we have an opportunity to get the start line mats assembled ahead of time. This race had a good amount of participants with over 500 signed up although that was around 100 less than last year.
Timing for the event went smoothly for me overall. Although I dislike the extra mat set up time required with MyLaps, the timing seems rock solid. I haven’t had one dead timing chip that I am aware of so far. The only timing errors have been the human kind. I did have one glitch where my backup timing box at the finish line lost it’s configuration when I powered it on. Luckily since it was the backup it didn’t really matter.
After the race Cindy and I wasted little time before packing up and getting out of there. Obviously we had a ton to get done at home to prepare for the trip. Before trip prep could begin post-race work had to be completed which took a couple hours. Unfortunately this time table meant I was outside mowing and weed whacking grass during the absolutely most brutal portion of the day heat-wise. I was melting.
Cindy and I had a to do list to keep us on track with prep. Slowly we crossed off each item. By late afternoon I actually was at point where I could fck around in WoW for a little bit.
Last night I was getting Tuki’s stuff for the night done. One of the things he likes to do is “guard” his food dish. When I pull out his crock he lunges out at me like he is going to attack. Usually it is just a show and he never touches me. Well this time he latched firmly into my left index finger and bit hard, it hurt.
Well that instantly flipped my anger switch. I am normally pretty passive about things and have a live and let live attitude, until you attack me. It’s a part of my personality that can be a bit scary as for brief periods of time I can literally go into Hulk Smash mode. Last night was one of those moments as I smashed the side of Tuki’s cage several times. My intention was not to really hurt him but to scare the shit out of him so he realized in his bird brain that he crossed the line. Tuki jumped back and started saying Tuki Tuk Tuki Tuk, something he does if he is scared. My green skin started to fade when he did that and I felt bad for getting that mad at him, especially since we were going away.
We tried to get into bed by 9PM since we had our second consecutive 4AM alarm this morning. We were up and on the road by 5AM after quickly checking on the chickens and saying goodbye to them. So far we are 350 miles into the roughly 850 miles we plan on covering today. I drove the first few hours and we will be switching back again shortly.
These first couple days will be more about gobbling down miles than sight seeing. The majority of what we are focusing on this time around happens after we cross the Mississippi River. Adventure awaits.
Cindy emerged from the operating room quickly on Thursday, around 9:30. She did so in an extremely silly and loopy manner thanks to the propethol they used to sedate her for the procedure. The doctor said they removed another large chunk of ingrown nail and then burned the area with acid as opposed to using a suture. Despite the work only being done on her toenail, Cindy’s entire foot was wrapped all the way to the ankle.
While they got her ready to check out I was sent downstairs to get the supplies they prescribed to her including antibiotics, pain meds and bandages, lots and lots of bandages. It was so much stuff that it filled a large shopping bag. Just like the rest of the VA hospital the pharmacy area was big, modern and efficient. They wheeled Cindy out as required and we loaded her into the Prius.
Once we got home I had to be vigilant in trying to make Cindy take it easy. Despite just having surgery she wanted to do work around the house. I had to basically strap her down to let me go out and clean the chicken coop and run. She did rest some during the day but not as much as I think she should have.
During the afternoon I made a run to the local AutoZone store. I was picking up front brake rotors and pads for Cindy’s daughters 2010 Mustang. She said the brakes felt bad with pedal pulsation which means at a minimum the rotors are warped. I have replaced the front brakes on three or four different vehicles at this point. After watching a video briefly on YouTube it looked like doing the same on a Mustang should not be a big deal. I figured I could knock it out Friday morning.
So before Katie showed up Friday morning I got the weeding done in the yard and prepared the garage for active work. I pulled out all the tools I imagined I would need including my video camera. Amateur auto mechanic videos are among the most popular on my YouTube channel. Katie showed up around nine and I got started wrenching before 10 am. The front brake pads were worn but not horribly so. I started with the passenger side. I didn’t see anything that would necessarily have caused the rotors to warp. However that changed when I got to the driver side.
When I pulled the caliper pins on that side I immediately noticed one of them was dry and sticking. They are supposed to slide easily back and forth allowing the brake pads to move against and off the rotors. I was pretty sure I identified why the pedal was pulsating. The sticking bolt could cause the pad pressure to stay on the rotor even when not braking which would heat/warp it. Cleaning the pin and applying caliper grease solved that problem.
After putting everything back together I took the car out for a road test. The brake pedal pulsation was gone but the stopping power still didn’t seem as good as it should be. I decided since I have all the tools out I should just replace the rear brake pads as well. The Stang has rear disc brakes, something I never worked on before but I assumed it would be no different than doing the front brakes. I jumped in the SSR and headed back to AutoZone for the second time in as many days.
I pulled a back wheel and got busy on what I thought would be a 30 minute pad swap. When I popped out the old pads I saw it was a very good thing I decided to replace them. There was a small fraction of an inch of braking material left. No wonder the car wasn’t stopping well. Things went fine until I got to the part of the procedure where you need to compress the caliper piston. You compress the piston to make room to get around the new brake pads which will always be thicker than the worn pads you pull out.
The way I have always done this with front brakes is to use a C clamp and an old brake pad to push the piston in. It is normally quite easy. Well for some reason the rear piston would not retract. At first I thought it was just stiff as I tried multiple times with the C clamp at different positions. It would not budge. I then thought that possibly the rear caliper was defective which lead my mind down annoying scenarios where I would have to replace the entire caliper which was an area I was not comfortable with.
In total I bet I futzed around trying to compress that piston for close to an hour, getting continually more frustrated as each minute passed by. I finally decided to take an additional step in trouble shooting. I put the wheel back on the driver side and jacked up the opposite side of the car and pulled the wheel. I then pulled the pads and caliper and again tried to compress the piston with the C clamp. Again, it would not budge. I then realized this was likely not a caliper problem but a knowledge problem on my part. I was missing something. I went inside to my computer to do a search on rear caliper problems.
In less than 30 seconds I saw that many rear calipers require to be turned in and can not be pressed in. This has something to do with the dual function rear brakes share being used for conventional braking and the emergency brake. When I looked at the rear pistons I noticed they appeared different with two slots in them which I thought nothing of until I got on the computer. Those slots are what are used to rotate the caliper using a special tool. I realized I was going to have to make ANOTHER AutoZone trip to complete the job, something I was not happy about in the least.
I picked up a small ratchet attachment that looked like a dice cube. Each of the 6 sides had a different configuration which worked with different styles of brakes. Once I got back home I slapped the cube on the ratchet and got busy. Turning in the caliper required a considerable amount of strength as you had to apply major inward pressure while rotating the caliper clockwise. The little nubs on the cube easily popped out of the slots on the piston if you did not keep it pressed very hard against it. Finally after a lot of grunting, pressing and twisting I had the caliper fully retracted into the body. After doing so I was able to finally proceed with the pad replacement which went ok.
So after putting everything back together I took the car out for another test drive. It did not feel right, the pedal was too soft. I knew why. When I was originally fcking with the first rear caliper piston one of the things I tried was opening the bleeder screw, thinking it would relieve whatever pressure I was feeling. (it didn’t) I assumed that by doing so I sucked some air into the system. At this point I had spent hours on the brake work and was very frustrated. Obviously I needed to get it right despite my desire to jut call it quits for the day. I hoped I could reach the bleeder screw with the wheel on but a quick glance confirmed I would need to jack the car up and pull the wheel AGAIN.
Once I got the car back up in the air I called Cindy out to help me with the bleeding process. As I opened the bleeder screw with a tube attached I had her slowly apply brake pedal pressure. As she did I instantly saw air bubbles filling the tube at first but it quickly turned to all fluid which is what I hoped. If I wanted to be super thorough or had a hydraulic lift in my garage I would have pulled all four wheels and bled them. I was hoping that bleeding the only caliper that was opened up would be sufficient. A quick road test confirmed it was, the brakes felt firm and strong, finally.
I did not finish cleaning up and going back inside until around 6:30 PM. If I did the same job today, knowing about the pitfalls I fell into I could do the same work in probably a third of the time. Cindy told Katie the car was done so she brought back the Tacoma which we let her borrow for the day. She was very thankful for my efforts and equally happy Cindy and I gave the car a much needed quick cleaning both on the interior and exterior.
Friday night I really felt like I earned my pizza and Mexican Coke. We enjoyed it while watching Chappie, my latest Netflix rental. I really wanted to see this movie in the theater when it was out. I was surprised when I saw it didn’t do great at the box office. I was more surprised after watching it, I thought the movie was very good although it was odd seeing a mullet wearing Hugh Jackman play the bad guy. I’d give the film a strong A- rating.
On Saturday I got up and outside early, starting weed whacking the grass shortly after 8AM. I wanted to get the labor out of the way early if possible. Cindy and I then headed out to grab even more sand for the chicken run as well as some more bags of rubber mulch to fill in various areas the chickens have been kicking out. After spreading both after returning home my only other project for the day involved cutting up some plastic cutting boards to be used as a top shelf on the chickens perch. Cindy had some thinner plastic up there but it was too flexible, allowing it to bend down and deposit poop along the wall. Our hope is using cutting boards in that spot till make it more rigid and easier to clean. I cut them on my portable table saw.
Over the weekend one of the things I did in between projects was upgrading both my computer and Cindy’s to Windows 10. I was surprised just how smoothly the process went, I really had no issues at all. The new OS combines the best features of Windows 7 and 8. So far I am very happy with the upgrade and am still digging into some of the new features like Cortana and the Edge web browser. The system boot up and shut down speed seems even faster as well. Thank goodness someone at Microsoft realized people actually like the Start Menu. Taking it away was like forcing people to steer a car with their feet.
On Saturday night Cindy and I went to see the latest Mission Impossible movie. I have liked every Mission Impossible film. Hell I have enjoyed pretty much any movie Tom Cruise ever does. The latest MI kept the streak alive. It combined smart action, suspense, and story telling. I have no problem giving it an A- rating all day long.
On Sunday morning Cindy was not able to consider biking with her toe surgery but I had hopes of getting out on the road. When I looked out the window the skies looked gray and menacing so I scrapped the idea, despite knowing I would probably regret it. If I don’t get some sort of significant exercise in over a weekend I feel like a bum. Late in the morning I tried to fill that void by going in the bar park and doing four rounds of short circuit involving push ups, hanging knee raises, and pull ups. I was surprised how low energy, uninspired and weak I felt during the mini-workout. It shows on film.
The vast majority of my Sunday was spent geeking out in WoW, another thing that can bring on feelings of guilt. Sure I had done significant amounts of work the prior 3 days but all it takes is one day filled with primarily screwing off to erase that in my mind and make me feel lazy.
Late in the day Cindy and I sat down to map out a day by day tentative schedule for the road trip. It includes two days for both Yellowstone Park and Vegas. Both destinations could easily demand more time but we have to work it in with 6100 miles of travel by road. The way things are mapped now we would have 12 nights and 13 days of travel which allows us exactly one day of slack if something comes up. My goal is to spend no more than we did last year on the road trip. I’m not sure if that is possible or not since there are a couple extra days and more feature destinations this time around.
So my flight was scheduled to leave Philly at 6:15pm. A couple hours prior to that they pushed the departure time back 20 minutes to 6:35, annoying but nothing major. The gate area for my flight was getting quite full so I decided to wait in the gate right across the hall. I figured I would easily hear/see when they started to load. After completing my blog post I dug into reading Crash and Burn, which I only started the night before. Well either the book really held my attention or the speaker system next door wasn’t turned up very high. I glanced over at my gate and all of a sudden there were about 15 people left, they obviously had been loading for quite awhile. I quickly snapped close my book and wound up being the second to last person on the plane.
Despite packing intentionally light to avoid the cost and hassle of checking luggage for the second time in as many flights I wound up having to check my small bag due to all of the overhead bins being full. The only positive of being forced to check your bag is they do it free of charge instead of socking you with the bullshit checked luggage fee US Airways and almost all major carriers charge nowadays.
I found my aisle seat. Next to me was a hispanic woman who was traveling with her cute little daughter. The little girl was already all set to take a nap, complete with a pillow, her blanket and a teddy bear. It was very cute. I almost immediately dug into my book. Despite reading I was unable to block out some of the unavoidable annoying people on the flight. Immediately to my left was a chubby, nerdy looking guy that would make some utterly disgusting noises which sounded like he was rattling mucus around. Sometimes he would combine this with bringing his hand to his mouth, presumably to catch the sputum that was accompanying the disgusting noises. After doing this I would see his hand go to his pant leg for a quick wipe off before it went right back to touching various areas of the seat. Disgusting.
Then there was somebody with a horrible, chronic cough about six or seven rows ahead of me. They were hacking almost non-stop for the first 45 minutes we were in the air, it was awesome. I figured my odds of getting through the next several days without catching some illness from one of the passengers on the flight is pretty slim. The little girl fell asleep quickly. She had her legs across her moms lap. A few times she shifted and hit my legs with her feet. The woman moved her feet immediately but I smiled and told her it was fine. I was jealous the little girl could sleep through the gross sights and sounds of air travel.
I have to tell you US Airways flight attendants are pretty grumpy people. I hardly caught a smile on any of their faces. I also thought it was quite odd that between my two flights we had more men then women flight attendants. That was a first. It’s too bad that US Airways is my primary option for direct flights to Philly, I really don’t like the airline at all. Between the bullshit fees, the cramped seating, the barebones drink service (you get one drink and not a single morsel of food), and the generally lousy disposition of the majority of their employees I really wish I had better options.
So as I mentioned I was plowing through Artie Lange’s second book, Crash and Burn. Artie is a comedian and was co-host on the Stern show for around 10 years. He is very funny, quick witted, has a photographic memory and happens to be one of the biggest drug addicts on the planet. The second book covers the darkness surrounding his exit from the Stern Show which included a suicide attempt where he drank four shots of Chlorox Bleach and stabbed himself a number of times.
The stories of self destruction that are in the book seem impossible in scope and how often they were happening. It gave a very open look at just how deep and dark the world of a serious drug addict can be. I am sure multiple times my mouth dropped open as I shook my head in disbelief as I was turning the pages. It was amazingly terrible just how hard he worked at destroying both his life and as a result the lives of the people that care about him.
The book was odd in the way it was written where at the end Artie tells on himself, basically admitting that something written earlier in the book was a lie. Also earlier in the book he described how his relationship with his girlfriend that he loved came to an end after another Artie self destruction event. Then at the very end he says they reconciled and were now engaged. I did a quick search and found out that engagement ended as well. Of course I’m not surprised.
Also the good fortune he described work-wise after he came back from his suicide appears to also have gone away as well. The DirecTv show he had was cancelled as was the deal he had with Comedy Central. It appears his only action currently is a podcast that you have to pay to subscribe to as well as some stand up gigs. Unfortunately I have next to no doubt that Artie is cursed to spend whatever is left of his life, lying, abusing himself and hurting anyone in his inner circle as his demons come to the surface again and again. The roughly 300 page book was a good read but certainly nothing that will make you feel happy or upbeat. The best you can hope for is it will make you more appreciative that at least you are not him.
I had forgot to mention that I bought a unique present for Cindy that arrived earlier this week, an Amazon Echo. The Echo is a wireless digital assistant. Sort of imagine if Siri was pulled out of your Iphone and placed on your counter.
The small device has 7 microphones inside that are specially designed to hear your questions/commands from a considerable distance away. It also has a high quality speaker system inside that provides high quality audio when you ask the Echo to do things like play music.
When Cindy first opened the box she was sort of like “great, another weird piece of tech” but once she set it up and started playing around with the device she changed her tune. She realized the Echo was sort of awesome. Not only can you give it commands by saying “her” name, Alexa, it can answer questions spoken in plain english, play music, tell you the weather, etc and even control home automation devices like the Nest and Phillip Hue. In addition the device works with IFTTT (if this then that) which allows the Echo to be scripted to interact with other web enabled services in a near infinite amount of ways.
Amazon is continuously expanding the feature set of the Echo so the device should only get better and better over time. Is it a necessary household addition? Of course not. Is it fun and cool? Absolutely.
It was nice to sleep in my own bed with Cindy and the two dogs near by. The trip was quick and fun but it’s always feels good to come back to my familiar four walls.
We are back on the road on the final leg of our 11 day western road trip. Yesterday’s drive from Beaumont, Texas to Tallahassee went smoothly but felt long thanks to us losing an hour after reentering the eastern time zone.
I contacted the wife of a calisthenics buddy of mine, Max. They both live in Tallahassee. Max is originally from Ukraine, in fact, he has only been in the US since April of 2013. Max and I started talking online somewhere around 4 years ago. His workout videos were very unique because he did them in the warehouse of the electronics store he worked at. He made a pull up bar by fastening a pipe in between a big set of shelving.
Max and I used to talk a lot when he still lived in Ukraine through chats and Skype. At the time both Max and I were very focused on being able to complete the Bar-barian requirements. Max is much stronger and younger than I am. He actually was able to do the reps within the time limit, the only thing that prevented him from being an official Bar-barian was his form on some of the reps was not quite up to standards. I never even got close to his level.
Ironically, when Max moved to this country my communication with him dropped off dramatically. Coming to the United States was almost coming to another planet when compared with Ukraine. He was busy trying to acclimate himself to life here. He found a job shortly after he was allowed to and then managed to get himself a job at the local credit union.
So anyway, I figured since we would be staying in Tallahassee I should see if Max and his wife were interested in connecting. When Max and I used to chat we always hoped that one day we would get to meet in person. To be so close and not try not make it happen would have been lame on my part. Heather said they would be thrilled to meet us for dinner so we set it up.
Originally I thought we would have plenty of time to make the 7PM time. However after our normal stops for lunch, gas and bathroom breaks combined with losing an hour, we only got checked into the hotel right before 7. We told Heather it would be more like 7:30 or 7:45. We quickly took showers and headed back out the door.
Cindy and I came out of the parking garage through the wrong door so we were disoriented as to where to go. Max and Heather came out of the restaurant to flag us down. It felt weird to meet both of them in person after being connected for years virtually. Since I talked to Max on Skype before his Ukranian accent was not disorienting. He taught himself English and since moving to America his English has gotten even better.
We headed inside and got seated at the restaurant. Cindy and Heather seemed to hit it off pretty easily and were chatting away. Max and I talked about a lot of stuff as well. He has already started getting promoted at the credit union he works at which didn’t surprise me. I already knew Max was very motivated in whatever he did. To hear his hard work is being rewarded at his job was great news.
We talked a lot about Ukraine and just how shitty of a place it is to live. Growing up there has given him a totally different perspective of living in the United States. Max said in the Ukraine, you can work hard as hell your entire life and never be rewarded for that work. There basically was no opportunity to move up unless you were somehow connected to the small inner circle of people that run the country. In the US, Max feels like he no longer is constrained and that if he works hard he can do well for himself and his family no matter where his starting point is.
That perspective makes it hard for him to understand the mentality that infects a large portion of our entitled society that puts a strong work ethic low on the priority list. People that expect to get something for nothing just don’t compute in Max’s eyes. Maybe that is because in Ukraine so many people get nothing for something.
Max’s focus since coming to the US has shifted from pull ups, push ups, and muscle ups to doing all the things needed to get his new life started on the right foot. At only 24 years old he has his whole life in front of him.
Despite not working out all that much lately, after dinner Max showed he still has some great power, doing slow and controlled muscle ups on a railing outside, stuff I could only dream of doing, even when I was in tip top shape.
It was great connecting with Max and Heather. We encouraged them to consider making the 400 mile drive down to Naples sometime to visit. It felt good to see Max living out the dream we talked about for him early on. He’s a good dude and I thank Heather for helping him make that dream come true.
So as we are tracking down the last few hundred miles of the trip it’s fun to run some numbers as well as recapping things.
It looks like our total mileage for the trip will just be under 5000 miles. I estimate in total we have spent somewhere around 80 hours in the Prius. To travel those miles we will have spent less than $400 in gas which is pretty amazing. Our best mileage on a tank of gas was 50.9 mpg which happened surprisingly while going up and down mountains in Colorado. Our worst mileage was 41.7 mpg which happened maintaining 80+ mph across western Texas.
Our lodging for 10 nights came to a little more than $900 which again, per night, is a significant improvement over what we spent for last years trip. What is unknown is the ancillary expenditures we had along the way. Things like the tickets for the train ride will pump that number up I am sure. After I undergo the lengthy process of reconciling all of the credit card receipts for the trip in Quicken I will have a clearer picture of the numbers.
As a whole, the trip was awesome. If I was forced to pick the most disappointing part of the trip it would easily be the cave dwellings in Manitou Springs. Although they were cool, there just wasn’t enough to see. It was also disappointing that we were not able to the do the Manitou Incline since it was closed for repairs.
I don’t know if I could pick out the best of the best in the trip. Visually, I think there were many beautiful and impressive things. The St Louis Arch gives you a sense of wonder that man could create such a structure. The mountains in Colorado that we both drove across and traveled through on the train offered us so many beautiful views that I couldn’t count them all. White Sands National Park is obviously one of my favorites as well, hence why I have been there 4 or 5 times.
The hike up Barr Trail and the admittedly foolish and undeniably dangerous climb up Smelter Mountain will be life long memories that we will hold onto. Our experience with legal recreational edible marijuana products at first seemed like a dud with gummy fish but changed dramatically after consuming THC granola bars. It was a sensation unlike any I had experienced before. It’s not necessarily a sensation I would be looking to recreate on a regular basis.
When I look back to night one in Nashville to day 11 today as a whole there are just so many memories in that block of time that it seems as if we have been gone much longer. Cindy and I have had so many new, unique, and memorable experiences on the trip we both feel very fortunate. I am grateful that Cindy embraces these trips and is so eager to soak up every ounce of excitement, fun, and joy they contain.
It will be nice to get back home where everyday life will quickly rush back into the forefront. However the great thing about these road trips is the memories they create are an infinite resource that can be drawn upon at any time, even when stuck behind a desk behind a couple screens.
Although this trip is coming to an end I already look forward to the next adventure, whatever it may be.
Yesterday was our last marathon driving day. Since we didn’t leave at 4AM like we did for our first long driving day it made the miles seem very, very long.
We started out the day as we did most days, finding the closest Dunkin Donuts. I drove us there. As I was making a right turn into the lot we felt a jolt. The entrance to the parking lot had the curb extended further than I realized. I was annoyed by my poor judgment as we got out to survey the damage. I managed to crack the outer ring of the passenger front wheel cover as well as scrape the tire a bit. Grrr.
Well there were a couple local cops sitting outside drinking their coffee. They obviously heard/saw me clip the curb. They started asking us questions in a friendly but inquisitive way. Where you from? Where are you going? I definitely got a vibe that they were checking to see if my impact was because of some sort of substance influence. We engaged them normally but it was definitely a bit of a weird interaction.
The drive across western Texas was desolate as ever. The 80 mph speed limit allows you to take down the miles quickly however it also resulted in us getting the worst gas mileage of the trip, in the low 40’s. Cindy and I split the driving time yesterday nearly 50/50 which helped a lot when covering 835 miles.
We wound up staying in Beaumont Texas at a Comfort Suites which was really nice. Unfortunately we don’t get much out of a hotel room during road trips beyond a shower, breakfast and a pillow to lay our head on.
We picked up dinner to go from the near by Cracker Barrel. We had a good but large meal, probably too large considering we didn’t eat until after 8:30. I started listening to the Eagles game on the satellite radio and then flipped it on the tv when we got into the room.
The game did not go well while I was listening to it for the entire first half. It was sort of like last week’s game where the Colts were taking control. The Eagles moved the ball but repeatedly stalled in the red zone, getting two field goals and missing a third. The defense didn’t seem up to the task of stopping the Colts. It was 20-6 midway into the 3rd quarter when I started watching the game.
Well much like last week the team made some adjustments and some big plays in the second half to come roaring back. Surprisingly it was Darren Sproles more than LeSean McCoy that made some of the biggest plays of the game. He is so damn quick, it is amazing. He had a couple fantastic runs. He is a very exciting player to have on the team, he seems like he is always a threat to break a big play.
Nick Foles bounced back once again, calmly leading the team back even after he made some poor throws early on. He just gets the job done. The Eagles were also the recipient of some good luck. The got an interception late that could have been negated by some pretty blatant illegal contact in the secondary. They then had a drive extended when the Colts were called for a horse collar tackle on McCoy that shouldn’t have been called. One of the key ingredients of a successful season is getting lucky once in awhile. Last nights game definitely had it’s fair share of that.
However the bottom line was the Eagles made plays when they had to. Their new kicker, whose name I can’t even remember kicked the winning field goal not once but twice, after the Colts called a last second time out to ice him. Since he missed a short field goal earlier in the game I was nervous however he drilled both of the end of game kicks down the middle. It was a great win. I hope this is the start of a season where the Birds truly return to being among the elite in the NFC, something that hasn’t been the case for nearly 10 years.
Today we are back on the road with a destination of Tallahassee. We are hoping to do dinner with my Ukranian calisthenics buddy Max along with his wife. Max only came to the USA last year after trying to get here for quite awhile. Ironically since he moved to America I have talked to him less then when he lived in Ukraine. He has had quite a shift in his life obviously. His descriptions of Ukraine were pretty depressing.
We only have one more day of travel left after today. It will be nice to get back into my own bed once again. Obviously a ton of work awaits me but with Cindy helping me we can knock things out pretty efficiently. Even though the trip is not over yet I feel safe declaring it as another successful venture.
Yesterday was our last in Durango. Even though we were there almost 3 days the time went by very quickly. We really enjoyed our time in Durango and our time in Colorado in general. We tried to make sure we got on the road early since we had over 500 miles to cover with a stop in White Sands sandwiched in the middle of it.
The drive from Durango to White Sands was through a very, very remote area of New Mexico. It was so remote that we literally were looking for a place to eat lunch for over two and a half hours. There were just no towns at all during that time period.
As we drove towards south there were a lot of rain clouds overhead and we drove through several periods of rain. I was worried that it could be raining at White Sands. Luckily the skies at White Sands were partly cloudy but not dropping any precipitation.
We went in and bought our sled which they buy back after you are done. There were two types of sleds available, one for 16 bucks and one for 18. We opted for the cheaper model but I think we would have been better served spending the extra two dollars. The saucer we got seemed to be made with thinner, shittier plastic.
Last year when we visited the park they had a huge amount of it closed off because of flooding associated with monsoon season. Since we were back at almost the exact same time of year I was worried that again we would be restricted to only the front section of the park. Surprisingly that was not the case, we had full access to everything.
I drove deep into the dunes, the further back you go the bigger and less cluttered by vegetation the dunes become. We parked in an unoccupied area and stepped out into the pure beauty of nature that White Sands provides.
We first tried a nearby hill that had a lot of footprints but that wasn’t all that tall or steep. The sled hardly moved down the hill, we obviously needed to find more incline. We walked over a couple dunes and spotted what looked like a better spot a couple hundred yards away.
We bought the block of wax along with the sled to hopefully decrease the drag coefficient on the bottom of the saucer. I was doing my best to completely cover the bottom as we walked along. Despite an air temperature of just under 80 degrees, when the sun poked out the heat intensified very quickly thanks to the sun and heat bouncing off the bright white gypsum sand.
Cindy was the first to do a test run down the bigger hill. It was a much better result although it looked slower than what we were able to do last year. I attributed it to the lower quality sled. I tried to help matters by reapplying wax after nearly every trip down the dune.
My early rides were not good. As I was going down the dune the front end would dig into the sand due to my trying to keep my feet awkwardly perched in the front of the saucer. It resulted in poor speed and a saucer full of sand at the bottom. Later I started simply holding my legs up in the air as I went down the hill. This resulted in much better results, almost too good, as hitting the bottom of the dune resulted in a serious jolt due to speed. I started using my size 13’s as brakes as I approached the bottom of the dunes later on.
Cindy and I did a number of dune sledding trips. It was a decent workout since each ride required trudging up the steep hills of powdery gypsum sand. Since we were only one day removed from our dangerous hike/climb up Smelter Mountain, climbing the dunes felt even more difficult. In between rides we were taking pictures of the absolutely gorgeous scenery. Even though this was my fourth or fifth time at White Sands I am never less impressed by just how awesome of a place it is.
I then pulled out my Phantom, White Sands was the primary reason I wanted to bring it along. Getting aerial footage of the dunes seemed like it would be really, really cool. Getting the copter in the air wasn’t difficult but the Phantom was working very hard to maintain a steady hover against the consistent wind in that part of the park. I got some awesome footage including Cindy sledding down some other hills. By the end of the second flight we only had an hour to go before the visitor center closed so we packed up our gear and turned in our sled while getting a couple cool souvenirs before pulling out.
We only had slightly less than 100 miles left to get to El Paso. We stayed at a La Quinta that had the exact same older style layout as where we stayed in Colorado Springs. Cindy wasn’t thrilled with staying there because of the outside door layout and the very affordable room rate of $55 a night. The place actually wasn’t bad at all except for one rather glaring issue, a large damp spot on the carpet. Cindy threw a towel over it after stepping in it.
It was pretty late at this point so we didn’t feel like going out anywhere to eat. Instead, we just ordered a small pizza from a place the desk clerk recommended. It was pretty good and quick. We watched a good portion of Hall Pass on TBS before falling asleep. It was actually pretty funny, I’d give it a B+.
This morning we had a 6AM alarm which allowed us to eat and get back on the road by 7. Today is our other monster drive of the trip of roughly 835 miles. The next 3 days will be all about gobbling up miles as fast as possible, home is calling our names.
Wow today was some day. After eating another free breakfast in the crowded hotel lobby Cindy and I pushed out for a nearby local park. We wanted to see if we could hike Smelter Mountain which was behind it. It turned out parking at the park wasn’t the best spot to get on the other side of the Animas River. We had to walk close to 3/4 of a mile to get to the bridge that crosses it.
So we had done no research on what Smelter Mountain held for hiking. Luckily we quickly spotted a defined trail that looked like it was used by both mountain bikers and hikers. We headed upward with a loose goal of reaching the top, even though it looked like there were sheer vertical rock formations at various spots.
Early on the hike was ok with some spots that were catch your breath steep. The higher we got the more difficult it was to distinguish the path. There were also various trenches going up the mountain that must be where the water flows during heavy rain. Eventually we ran out of distinguishable path. If we wanted to continue higher our only option was the more treacherous drainage trench. I wanted to keep going.
So up the trench we went. The higher we got, the steeper and more treacherous the terrain became. We were not hiking at this point, we were doing a combo of crawling and rock climbing. You had to be EXTREMELY aware of what you were placing your foot on and you wanted to supplement each upward movement with a firm hand hold on something else.
We had on no safety gear of course. The higher and higher we got I became increasingly aware of just how dangerous of a spot we were putting ourselves in. The areas that were difficult to ascend were going to be even more difficult if we have to come back down the same way. My initial hope was we could reach the top and then walk over to a face that was not so steep.
The higher we got the more nervous Cindy was getting. Some spots required some very precise and careful movements to get past. Literally in some areas one misstep could have been disastrous. I felt pretty confident in my ability to handle the obstacles but I felt bad to drag Cindy into my tunnel vision goal to get to the top.
So after a very difficult last 100 feet we were at the base of a sheer rock face. As I surveyed it I saw potential ways to navigate my way to the top. I did not see a way to have Cindy do it. She was really scared at this point. I considered and re-considered trying to scale the rocks above me. In the end the old man in me won out, realizing the stupidity of trying that climb with no safety gear, no knowledge of the stability of the rocks, and no guarantee that there was something above what I could see that I could manage. Even if I could get up there, it was far too risky to have Cindy try to do the same.
So that left us with one option, go back down the way we came. It was very, very challenging. For the most part I stayed below Cindy so I could help guide her foot placements and be a human safety net if need be. To maintain yourself on the trail you had to do a basically do a bear crawl in reverse. Trying to judge the stability of foot holds while looking down and back is not very easy.
Finally after what felt like a very long time we got back down to where the trail met up. By the time we got back down to the bottom of the mountain we were pretty exhausted and beat up. As we looked up at the terrain we climbed and the spot where we stopped it was bitter sweet. When we saw the angle of ascent we climbed and how close we got to the top it felt good. There was just a small tinge of regret I didn’t test if I could handle that final rock formation, despite knowing how foolish it would be.
We headed back to the hotel and had one of what has been a small number of annoyances including the 4:15 check in, a hair dryer that only runs for 30 seconds at a time, pubic hair in the tub and more. This time both of our room key cards stopped working. When we went to the front desk they said that their cards are very sensitive and are easily broken if they are kept in a wallet with other credit cards or if it is too close to a phone. That is sort of dumb.
So after taking a shower we decided to try the other edible THC we bought, granola bars. They were little squares, each one supposedly including 10 milligrams of THC, just like the fish. At this point I had tried what should have been a 15mg and 20mg dosing with the fish and felt nothing of consequence. So to me it seemed reasonable to down three of the squares and let Cindy have the other two. They did not taste good at all, requiring water to help wash down the marijuana taste. We figured like the fish, if you felt anything it would be after a couple hours. I was confident I still wouldn’t be affected significantly based on my reaction to the gummy fish. We figured we could go eat some lunch and then maybe just walk around downtown Durango feeling “happy”.
We stopped at a Mexican restaurant. By the time we got there Cindy was really feeling the effects of the bars it was hitting her much harder than the fish did. As we were sitting at the table she would bust out laughing at anything. She had a difficult time speaking and when the food arrived, using a fork and knife to cut her chimichanga was at the absolute limit of her current motor skills ability.
I still felt normal, maybe just a little sillier than normal. I was making fun of Cindy as she tried to function. We decided that we should just go back to the hotel. As time went on my symptoms intensified. My vision at one point became like a 2D video screen. Then after awhile the 2D images got beveled edges. Finally the entire picture was at an angle.
I had a lot of confusion going on, my thoughts were all over the place. There were gaps in my recent memory. My body started to feel like I had a lead blanket on me and my skin felt warm. As we laid down in the bed we were both just feeling whacked out. Before you knew it we were both passed out for 3 hours in the middle of the afternoon. I just had my first confirmed THC high.
After we woke up I still didn’t feel like getting up. It took a lot of prodding from Cindy. I now understand why regular pot smokers are generally lazy. I just didn’t feel like moving at all. Eventually the cobwebs cleared and we headed to town. After a trip to Starbucks for some coffee we had a nice Italian dinner at a place recommended by both of the baristas at Starbucks.
Tomorrow it is alarm clock time again. We have over 500 miles to cover tomorrow with a visit to White Sands mixed in there. Our time in Durango has felt very quick but we both have enjoyed our time here a bunch. After today we return to drive, drive, drive mode.
So Thursday night we decided to just chill at the hotel while we did another run with the THC gummy fish, both Cindy and I ingested two fish instead of the one and a half we tried the night before. We also had less food in our stomachs this time although I don’t know that it matters or not. After eating the fish we worked out in the hotel gym, and sat in the sauna for a few minutes. Cindy appeared to have some noticeable effects as she was slurring her words now and then. She said she was feeling “loopy”.
I really could not feel anything noticeable except getting really tired again. Cindy says my speech slowed down but if it did I did not notice it. I think I will have to try the granola next. Needless to say my exposure to legal recreational marijuana has been a flop so far.
We got up with the alarm since we had to be at the train station by 7:30. We took advantage of the hotels free continental breakfast. We entered the dining area which was flooded with a sea of old people. It looked like Cindy and I were the only ones there that were not currently collecting social security benefits. Old people are very serious about their food so trying to break into the wall of them to grab a single item here and there was difficult. While Cindy and I were sitting at our table eating we were inundated by the background noise of old women complaining about various ailments. We only hung around the bare minimum amount of time required to shove food down. I don’t really enjoy seeing a fast forward of what life could be like in 25 years.
The weather yesterday morning was quite chilly, in the mid 40’s, however I ventured out in just shorts and my new USA Curling t-shirt. I figured I could deal with some cold early as I was counting on the warmer temps forecast for later in the day. Of course Cindy encouraged me to dress warmer which I declined. Of course that meant I couldn’t complain about being cold later, which I was.
We boarded the train and found our seat in coach. They had several different type of cars in the train, coach, an enclosed cab with windows, open air where there are no windows and then first class where you have more room and a full time narrator along the way. With the temps I was quite glad to be in coach and pitied those in the open air cars.
The train was very cool because it’s very old, literally more than 100 years old in fact. The bench seats had enough room for two average sized people although as in most things from 100 years ago, they weren’t all that comfortable. Our cab was pretty full, almost every seat had somebody in it. It didn’t take long to pick out the people that would be the focal point on the ride like the mini-Santa Claus looking guy who talked nearly non-stop and had a child-like sense of wonder about everything. There was also the guy with the older style digital camera who hadn’t learn how to turn off the confirmation beep for everything. As he flipped through a hundred or more pictures he had already taken it got a bit annoying. There was the all American family with two teenage girls and a teenage son who spent most of the ride with his face in a book.
So the train pulled out a few minutes late. The powerful blasts of the steam whistle were quite cool and added to the anticipation for the ride. As we started to make our way through town I thought it was odd that we were going so slow but I attributed it to being cautious in a more populated area. It turned out that I was actually seeing what was pretty much top speed.
As we were heading north a bike path ran parallel to the tracks. A biker on the path had no problem keeping up with and even pulling ahead of the train. Before we left we saw they actually have a road bike versus train race where the goal is to beat the train from Durango to Silverton on a bike. I realized that winning this race on bike would not be very difficult at all, the train was slooooow, at times the train was going at a fast walking pace. To slow things down further we had to make a couple water stops on the route where they refill the boiler on the steam engine.
The ride was also incredibly rough. There was non-stop rocking back and forth. Walking the aisles required a firm grip on something unless you wanted to end up in somebody’s lap. The noises the train made consisted of random banging, slamming, and grinding. It made me wonder how both the train and the track could hold up for all these years.
For most of the ride up I was fine. The scenery was stunning as we carved through canyons. We took advantage of the on board concessions car, I grabbed a hot chocolate to warm my chilled bones while Cindy got a warm cider which she really liked. Towards the end of the ride to Silverton my ass had reached it’s limit of sitting on the thinly padded bench, I was very glad to get off the damn train after the over three and a half hour ride.
Well Silverton made Durango look like a huge city, it was so small. In Durango there is a historic district that has a lot of old original buildings from the late 1800’s however it is nestled inside of a modern city. Silverton is just the old original buildings with no fluff. It’s very charming.
We ate lunch at a cool place called the Pickle Barrel. The owner, who was doing EVERYTHING from hosting, to waiting tables to bussing tables was very busy due to being severely understaffed. Despite being pulled a million directions at once he somehow managed to still deliver a a very friendly and warm interaction with each and every customer. He was great. Cindy and I both enjoyed our meals.
After eating we only had about 45 minutes left to walk around before the train headed out. We saw so many cool buildings. We browsed a few gift shops and snagged a piece of pecan pie that we split as we walked around. Man it was good.
As we headed back to the train I regretted my decision to take the train both to and from Silverton. There is an option where you only take the train for one leg of the trip and hop on a bus for the other. After the long ride up, a much quicker bus ride back would have been welcomed. We piled back on the train and creeped out of town.
On the ride back the train was much emptier since a lot of the smart people opted for the bus ride. As a result Cindy and I moved around and wound up out in one of the open air cars for a good portion of the ride. The temps had warmed enough at that point that I was ok. The open air cars had a big tradefoff. The windowless environment allowed for a spectacular, unobstructed view of the scenery as it slowly passed by. Unfortunately it also allowed all of the soot from the engine to coat your body. I had a thin layer of soot on me in little time.
While we were out there we talked with a lifelong Army guy. He started off in the Rangers but has been serving as a chaplain for quite awhile. He talked about various aspects of his life in the service, including some very scary recollections of the year he served in Iraq when IED destruction was at it’s highest. He had such a calm and peaceful demeanor about him.
The already slow ride was made even slower due to some mechanical issues that were described as “not being able to close a fire grate”. The way I understood it was this meant there was a risk of hot stuff falling out of the engine and possible causing a fire on the tracks. As a precaution they had an auxiliary vehicle behind the train making sure nothing was smoking. In total the problem added more than a half hour onto the return trip.
I was on the edge of losing my mind by the end of the ride. After tiring of being pelted with soot we moved back into coach. By this time I was so damn tired of sitting I couldn’t take it. When we finally, finally, FINALLY emerged from the train I was incredibly relieved. If anyone would ask my opinion of doing the train I would only recommend it if they did the bus/train hybrid trip. Going the entire loop cooped up almost 8 hours in a 100 year old train just is not my good idea of a good time. Considering we spent almost $200 to do it just adds to the annoyance factor. Despite my griping, make no mistake, the views the ride offers are some of the best I have ever seen in my life.
We stayed in town and ate dinner at the Strater Hotel, a very old Victorian style hotel. Evidently it is famous for it’s saloon style dining area complete with a full time piano player. Cindy and I were jammed into a small space by a window but it turned out to be a good seat. At 7PM each night they do a funny skit where the local sheriff takes on some bad guys. The entire staff is dressed in attire appropriate with the time period the bar is from. It was all very entertaining.
Today for our last full day in Durango we plan to hit the outdoors and try to find some hill/mountain to conquer. Should be fun.
The picture collection from the trip is getting quite large. See it here.
The day was filled almost exclusively with endless road lines. The highlights were the few times we got to get out of the car. We stopped at a very pretty rest stop in Kentucky that was housed on an old historic site.
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