Archives June 2010

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.

I followed the new Iphone announcement quite closely yesterday.  I have been holding off on replacing my 3g until I saw what the new model was going to have.  Well I can now say I am glad I waited.

The new Iphone 4 looks great.  There are a bunch of new things but I’ll just cover a few that I liked.

They redesigned it.  Unlike the 3GS that looks exactly like a 3G, the Iphone 4 looks significantly different. It’s lighter, thinner and has a new, ultra scratch resistant surface.  They also put a new display in it that offers much higher resolution and contrast than the older models.

  They have implemented a fantastic new camera that has a lens on both the front and the back.  The camera is now 5 mp.  The front camera can be used for a new video calling application that looks pretty awesome.  The rear camera also has a flash and oh, did I mention it can shoot 720P HD video??  Awesome.

All of these technical upgrades didn’t come at the expense of battery life which supposedly is better in the Iphone 4 than prior models, a nice plus.

There will be the added features that will come with the roll out of OS 4 which will also run on the Iphone 3G and 3GS later this month.

The pricing that was announced is consistent with the 3G and 3GS roll outs. $199 for the lesser memory model and $299 for the top end model, assuming you sign up for  a two year contract with AT&T.

Needless to say I am chomping at the bit to get one, my contract is up so it would be easy for me to slip into an Iphone 4.  Hopefully sometime in July I can snag one.

If you want to read the recap of the announcement I was following you can go here.

Jeremy had asked that I comment on Helen Thomas.  He said since I have a bias against old ugly people it would be right up my alley.  Well I told him I never expressed any bias towards old, ugly people.  I mean hell it’s hard to grow old and not get uglier, it’s an unfortunate by product of the process.

Jeremy pointed out my railing on how evil the current pope is as an example of my old person prejudice.  I corrected him and said that the pope looks evil.  If there was such a thing as the devil on earth I would say he would be the gold trophy winner.  Not to mention his stellar performance in protecting known child molesters in the Catholic church. 

So Helen Thomas is pretty evil looking herself.  In fact a quick glance might almost make you think she was the pope’s sister.  She has been a White House reporter forever.  Somehow over the years she grabbed hold of the honor to be the first reporter to ask a question at every press conference.  It is a tradition that has carried on through at least 7 or 8 presidential administrations.

Well last week she somehow wound up splashed all across the internet doing some interview where she said some pretty tasteless comments about the Jews and Israel.  As a result she shamefully and hastily retired from her lifetime job as a reporter.

It’s sort of a shame that she has tarnished her image as the silly old lady that asks questions to presidents.  Instead she will now be remembered as the nasty old codger that strongly dislikes Jews. 

I can understand that in this time where political correctness is paramount, she would have to step down.  In reality I don’t find her comments all that shocking.  Old people speak their mind and sometimes come out with crazy shit.  She is 89 or 90 years old anyway.  Maybe the evil pope can grant her a pardon.

I finished up Season 2 of Lost last night and started Season 3.  I can see some of the plot weirdness setting in at this point.

Wow I just missed out on a surefire 1,000,000 view YouTube video and an embarrassing obituary at the same time.

During my gym session today I was doing L sits in various ways.  Towards the end of the workout I was looking for someplace different to do one.  I walked over to the squat rack and saw the empty olympic sized bar racked there.  Hmmm why not try to L sit ON TOP of the bar.  Now of course this is a ridiculous idea since the bar is just sitting on the hooks and not secured in anyway.  Well for some reason this obvious danger did not register in my brain for one second.

So I hop up on the bar and try to bring my legs up into position.  As soon as my body weight shifts backward the bar rotates and I am instantly smashed into the ground head first, backwards.  My fall made quite the racket as my body rattled around the bars on the rack as I flipped.  Luckily only one set of eyes actually saw the incident.  Lots of other eyes looked back after the noise and saw me on all fours holding my head inside the squat rack.

It had to look incredibly silly and stupid.  In the big picture I could have been seriously hurt.  I nailed my head pretty hard.  My lower back isn’t feeling too great either. Dumb ass.