Day 40 24 July Sunday Lamoille, NV to Grand Junction, CO
Once again it’s time to pack up the van and hit the open road. I’m a little bit sad as I have no idea when I’ll be able to make it back to my hometown, but we’ve got to get back to Ann Arbor and get moved into the new house. We start early in the morning as we’re meeting a good friend from Okinawa and his kids at a park in Salt Lake City for lunch. We haven’t seen him for two years and I’m honestly curious to see if it’ll be awkward at all. It isn’t, it’s fun to see him and the kids have a great time running around the park. It’s a nice, sunny day which also means it’s hot but we’re able to find sufficient shade and let the kids get some needed exercise given that they’ll be sitting in the car for the rest of the day. We then drive down to Grand Junction and check into the hotel. I take Logan to the pool and we have a nice time, despite the presence of a large group of teenagers. However this particular group of teenagers are so quiet and well-behaved I assume they’re part of a church group. This is until a couple of them start loudly pontificating about why the troubles at OSU are all Pryor’s fault and that Tressel was a scapegoat, it’s not just the fact that they’re Buckeye fans that makes me think they’re satan-worshippers it’s the language they’re using to “discuss” the situation. I speak up, if only to remind them a little kids around, and ask them where they’re from. The group says they’re from all over and are a group of cop’s kids on a summer camp. Which explains the lack of things on fire and chairs in the pool.
Day 41 25 July Grand Junction to Colorado Springs, CO
We get rolling and do the gorgeous drive through Colorado on I-70, I suspect that I bore the hell out of Megan on the drive as I tell her all kinds of stories from last summer’s MTrek and my Academy years, but I have a good time on memory lane. The drive goes quickly and I enjoy driving through the great state of Colorado until…….we hit late afternoon C-Springs traffic on I-25 and it takes about an hour to get from Castle Rock to the Springs. Why I-25 hasn’t been expanded to 3 lanes the entire way between Denver and the Springs is a mystery as the traffic on that stretch has gotten even worse since I was a cadet and it was a parking lot back then. We finally pull into my sponsor’s house and I get to enjoy the company of two of the greatest people to grace planet Earth. For those unfamiliar with the concept, Sponsor families are people who are willing to open up their homes and their lives to cadets at the Air Force Academy and be a sort of second family to cadets at the academy. For a lot of people the relationship never takes off for one reason or another, for me I basically really did pick up a second family and I am forever grateful for that, they made my life as a cadet and a real, live person so much better. One somewhat funny thing about the decor is the fact that the picture my sponsors have of me is one in which my sponsor brother(cadet who shares the same sponsors) and I are completely trashed. I take some small comfort in the fact that the photo makes me look sober while my sponsor brother looks five sheets to the wind, so at least Logan won’t say “Daddy, what’s wrong with you?” when he sees it.
My Sponsors live up on a hill in Western C-Springs and they have an amazing view of Pike’s Peak and the Front Range of the Rockies. I take a walk with my sponsor Dad and Logan around the neighborhood and soak in the mountain air. One the way back to the house we see a Doe and I get to enjoy a moment of pointing out the deer to Logan.
Day 42 26 July Colorado Springs, CO
Finalizing a mortgage when you’re on the road is not fun. If anyone tells you it is, they are out of their minds. I spend far more of the day than I would like printing stuff out and Megan has to run over to a Kinko’s to fax it in to the mortgage company office. Luckily my sponsors know of a house in the neighborhood that has a pool and they’ve made friends with the family so they are able to call and ask if we can bring the kids over to go swimming. The answer(Thank God!) is yes and so I head over with the kids and my sponsor parents while Megan makes a fax machine run. There’s already another family at the house and the pool is filled with kids which is really nice. Logan has a ball and then discovers how much fun the slide is and goes down it at least twenty times, luckily Elizabeth is napping in my arms and my sponsor dad gets the duty of getting Logan when he comes down the slide and dragging him through the water to the stairs. Logan can swim, but he does it kind of slowly. It’s a fun afternoon and I’m a little sad when it comes to an end. We have a nice night, with a fun dinner with some more friends from Okinawa(who I really hope decide to sponsor Cadets, their house is amazing and they’re the kind of busy, bustling family a homesick kid would love to be around) and then some wonderful conversation when we get back to my sponsors. Five a.m. comes too quickly.
Day 43 27 July Colorado Springs, Co to Kansas City, MO
As I said five a.m. comes too quickly, but Megan and I haul ourselves out of bed and start getting the van ready for a long day on the road. It’s about eleven hours of driving to get from C-Springs to Kansas City and we want to get in in time to enjoy seeing my Aunt and Uncle and my cousins. So we head off across Eastern Colorado and Kansas and Hoo Boy is it boring, I thought North Dakota was bad. Kansas is worse, North Dakota at least had the giant Cow. We have two notable “incidents” the first is when Logan informs us he has to go to the potty and we pull off to a remotely run gas station that has “bathrooms”. The station is closed and yet someone decided that locking the bathroom doors would be too easy and so I’m treated to a sight that I won’t soon forget. I take Logan behind the building and instruct him to water the weeds growing through the pavement. The next incident is a massive traffic slowdown that we run into just outside of Kansas City. The best part is that this is caused because the highway patrol had to shut down a section of highway because the pulled over an RV and the guy holed himself up in it and threatened to commit suicide. Don’t get me wrong as I was depressed at the thought of driving through Kansas as well, but I did think this guys response was a little extreme. We finally get to my cousin’s house and see the whole clan. My Aunt and Uncle have flown out from Santa Fe and it’s a true pleasure to see them as well as seeing the cousins. It’s great to be around family as my cousin’s fiancée comes and immediately insists she take the dogs for a walk and I have ton of help unloading the van. My Cousin has cooked up a great Mexican meal and we enjoy a great evening with some of the people I love best. At the end of the night Logan entertains everyone by pretending to have a phone conversation with my cousin’s son over the baby monitor. It’s hilarious and he clearly enjoys the attention.
Day 44 28 July Kansas City, MO to Ann Arbor, MI
We spend most of the day with my family in Kansas City and again spend more of it than I would like on paperwork. It’s part of the reason we’ve decided to drive throughout the night to get into Ann Arbor by Friday in case anything else comes up with the paperwork. This way we can at least stop by the office and after driving through the night our zombified appearance ought to scare the guys at the mortgage company into being more helpful.
The day in Kansas City is pleasant, we have a fun time walking through the Hallmark company tourist center and the ribbon making machine is really cool, it makes a ribbon for you while you wait and I can’t help but think that this is the type of thing I would spend FAR too much time at if I was drunk. For lunch/dinner we order barbecue from a classic Kansas City barbecue joint and it is fabulous, I only wish I remembered the name. We enjoy some time to hang out and conversation before hitting the road at eight o’clock at night. My Aunt and Uncle and my Cousins are awesome and it's a real pity that we have to leave, but the road is calling. Driving through the night actually has some advantages, the kids and the dogs sleep the entire time and therefore we don’t have to stop every couple hours to take care of bathroom, bottles, food, etc. We can just go. The problem is that driving through the night for long hours is a tough experience because the dark presses in around you and you can’t see anything outside of your little world, it’s hard to contextualize distance when your whole world doesn’t extend beyond your headlights and what they reveal about the road. In this respect flying at night and driving at night aren’t very different and if you want to know what an airline pilot is going through on a night flight stay awake and pay attention to everything that’s going on when in the car late at night, the catch is you don’t drive(the autopilot does that) and you have to imagine the lights being both above and below you and after a while let your eyes close enough that everything blurs and you're not entirely sure where the horizon is, then turn off the radio and find something with static only with bursts of semi-intelligible chatter. The catch is if you drift a little bit while flying, no big deal until it's landing time and that's only a few minutes of concentrated effort, drifitng while driving has .......... bigger consequences. We get into Ann Arbor on Friday morning and thankfully Megan talked the people at the hotel into letting us check in early. We spend the rest of the day in a kind of strange, tired haze and wonder why the mortgage company doesn’t need us for anything, but at least we’re in Ann Arbor and the trip is over! 44 days on the road, 16 states, and thousands of miles later we have pulled it off. Kids and Dogs are still alive and Megan and I are still married. Yeah, we’re awesome.
The rest of the story………
So we get to Ann Arbor and spend the weekend cooling our heels until we can close on the house on Monday 1 August. We have to check the dogs into a pet hotel as the dogs have had enough time with each other and get really aggressive on a drive into Ann Arbor, it scares Elizabeth badly and we even look up animal shelters. Luckily, the pet hotel has a vacancy and we’re able to keep the dogs. This is a good thing as Megan and I both were arguing to keep different dogs.
We’re not able to close on the house on 1 August, something we at least find out about on 31 July. As a result we decide to check into the Splash Universe hotel located in Dundee, MI http://www.splashuniverse.com/Dundee/index.htm just off highway 23 by the giant Cabela’s. This is both because we’re tired of the Motel 6 and because we figure Logan could really use a larger area to run around in and have a good time in a waterpark. The place is a lot of fun and perfectly sized for a kid Logan’s age, Logan has a ball and I have fun too, although the constant 80’s hair band music playing in the background makes me think of the Napoleon hanging out at Waterloo scene in Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure. For my young business school friends Bill & Ted’s Excellent adventure was an 80’s movie that is really good, you see it stars Keanu Reeves and he….aw fuck it http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_and_Ted%27s_Excellent_Adventure . Tuesday, 2 August comes and we’re finally able to close on the house and start getting moved in. It’s a fun new adventure, but I’m starting to feel like the title character in Brewster’s Millions, I’m going to be so sick of spending money at the end of this I’m never going to want to buy anything again, now I know why Dad’s everywhere are such tightwads. Still, I really like the house, the neighborhood is awesome and we’re getting settled in to a great new life in a great new house. Looking forward to sharing this with anyone who manages to make it back my way.
So for now this is it, I hope you all have enjoyed reading this as much as I’ve enjoyed writing it. If there’s enough funny stuff from the Seattle trip I’ll write that up as well, but that’s still to be seen. Take care all.
Monday, August 15, 2011
The week in my hometown
Day 33 Sunday 17 July Reno to Lamoille, NV
We get a late start as we let the kids sleep in. Note to those without kids, when the time comes invest in blackout curtains, if your kid is light sensitive like mine they are a life saver. We listen to the Women’s World Cup final on ESPN radio through my iPhone on the drive to Elko, all hail modern technology. It would make a better story if the game had had a better result. Honestly, I’d feel happy for Japan if I didn’t feel like the U.S. lost the game more than Japan won it, as it is I’m just bitter. We get into Elko and meet up with my mom and drive out to the cabin in Lamoille. It’s nice to get out there and the dogs love it as we’re able to just let them roam all over the property without being leashed. One of the best things about my parent’s cabin being out in the middle of nowhere is that the stars at night are unbelievable. You can see the milky way and every star is bright and distinct. Sitting out and staring at them while talking is a great way to end an evening.
At any rate Megan and I hit the trail at just a little bit after five in the morning and once we get far enough up it that we think the dogs won’t head back down to the parking lot let the dogs off the leash to go run to their hearts content. We get up to where we can get a good view and it’s just fantastic. The light is just starting to hit the canyon and the mix of shadows and early morning sun on canyon walls makes for an impressive sight and I am glad we got up this early, not only to spare my mom the burden of dealing with all three kids for too long, but also because we have the trail and sights like these to ourselves. As we head up the trail I realize just how much the late spring has impacted everything. I have never seen snow this far down the trail in Late July, we get to a pretty significant snowfield and have to traverse the snow. Thankfully, we’re on the path well-chosen and people have basically stomped out a path in the snow to follow. The dogs love this and go tearing off straight down the mountain in the snow. I keep calling them back as I get steadily more nervous that they’ll go down an area steep enough to climb back up. Eventually we top out on the mini-plateau that the Dollar Lakes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollar_Lakes rest on and start looking for the trail, my extremely hazy memory is somewhat helpful as is the fact that the area where Lamoille Lake rests is clearly visible. The Dogs run into the water with ecstasy approaching that of their mealtimes(they’re dogs and as such their pleasures are simple it’s like they’re furry bachelors). 
We spot some cougar tracks in the snow which makes Megan nervous(understandably so the prints are huge), but I figure we’re a large enough party and making enough noise that a Mountain Lion is going to make sure to leave us the hell alone. We finally make it to Lamoille Lake at around 6:45 in the morning. My plans to go swimming I figured were ruined the moment I saw how far down the snow was and a look at the snow-choked and very glacial lake tells me my suspicion was correct. Leaving the polar-bearing to Kurt Anderson we turn back down the mountain and enjoy a fun hike back to the car. On the way back down, we scare up a family of deer and one of the bucks makes it a point to stop on the rocks with a perfect shooting silhouette and flip me off(Again were you there?). 
Sorry for the long delay but moving into a new house is exhausting. I'll have the drive home hopefully published by tomorrow and then stay tuned for the flight West to Seattle for a friend's wedding and minor high school reunion.
Day 34 Monday 18 July in Lamoille, NV
We head into Elko to meet with a high school buddy and his family for a playdate at the park and then meet with a business school friend and her fiancée for Lunch. Meeting with my high school buddy is great as he has a wonderful family and I really enjoy catching up again, the only awkward part is realizing that the last time I talked to him I was probably drunk and roaming the house in my underwear. My buddy from B school and fellow member of the 507 crew Emmy and her fiancee’ Wendy are driving from San Francisco to Louisville, KY and thus are able to stop through Elko on their own version of the epic drive. It’s really fun to see them and get a quick brief on what they’ve been doing since B-school ended. For those wondering it looks like they have arrived in Louisville safely and I look forward to, hopefully I’m invited after this, attending the wedding. I try to get them to drink the Ruby Mountain brands, a local beer that I enjoy. Emmy accuses me of being a secret hippy for drinking a local product, I reply I think the beer tastes good and would prefer to help keep the company in business. Still, the hippy thing stung, you’re on notice Gladney!
Day 35 Tuesday 19 July Lamoille, NV to Diamond Valley, NV to Lamoille, NV
Today we make a day trip to my sister’s house at the farm in Diamond Valley. The drive takes about two hours and most of them are spent on a tiny two-lane highway that winds through some stark, yet pretty country. On the way down I see a giant deer running towards the highway, further proof that the Hunter’s curse is in full effect, as I only see big deer like this when I’m not hunting. I start to slow down and keep an eye on the deer, which turns out to be a good thing as the damn thing runs across the highway about twenty feet in front of us. At the speed I was at that’s an uncomfortably close distance, but I stop the van in time and get treated to the sight of the deer turning, smiling at me and performing the kiss my ass motion. For those who would say deer can’t do that, I say you weren’t there. Diamond Valley is a pretty area and the house that Kati and my brother-in-law have built is really nice and well done. I really should have pictures in order to brag about it, but I’m not a real big camera guy. It’s a fun day, Logan and my nephew are very close in age and tend to play really well together, but they’re also going to give each other their first bloody noses, mark my words. After dinner we drive back to Lamoille and take Kati and Dean back with us. Megan, my sister, and I head over to a late night showing of the new Harry Potter movie and have a great time. The movie is very well done and was a satisfying capstone to the end of the Harry Potter franchise.
Day 36 Wednesday 20 July Lamoille, NV
The big thing we do today is drive up Lamoille canyon and try to take the family on a hike. Megan, Kati, and I and the three kids along with the two dogs go to a place called Thomas Canyon and do a quick hike up the trail there to see a really pretty waterfall. The hike is short because Logan melts down the second he starts on the trail. I’m wearing the baby backpack and have two dogs around my waist so picking him up isn’t an option for me and he’s so big now it isn’t really one for Megan either, so we have to turn around and basically cattle prod him down the trail. We hang out at the creek in the campground area for a bit and then drive back down to the cabin. My sister has to head back to her home on the ranch and so we say goodbye and wish her well. My mom heads down to the ranch for the night as well so it’s just Megan, me, and the kids at the house in Lamoille for the night.
Day 37 Thursday 21 July Lamoille, NV
Today’s a pool day and we take Logan down to the Elko pool, which hasn’t changed much since I was a kid. There are some notable changes though, the high and low dives have been replaced(thanks legions of underemployed lawyers) by a group of small tunnels like you’d find at a waterpark which I guess is cool, but the knowledge that my kids will grow up without the experience of trying to perform a flip off the high dive and then spend half an hour trying not to cry from the pain when they land awkwardly in the water makes me a little sad. The old basket and key system has been replaced by lockers, which takes away a whole row of benches and makes finding a clean place to sit a bit of an adventure. I take Logan out to the pool and he is all excited about swimming until a young lifeguard comes over and explains that he can’t wear his lifejacket. For those of you without small children, think of the lifejacket as like Linus’ blanket. He doesn’t function well in the water without it and today he loses his mind as I think he thought I took his lifejacket off just to be mean. I’m still trying to figure out how the pool has a no lifejacket policy, but I’ve decided that trying to make sense of government regulations/policies is a fruitless exercise. I know perfectly well that promotions and other methods of advancement are often predicated on designing new policies or procedures with little regard for what was in place before or even for the greater impact on the whole when the impact on one small and easily measurable thing is what’s important. Dealing with a pissed off 3 year old is not exactly my idea of a great afternoon, but we stay for a little while to try to let the kids burn off some energy. That night Megan and I go to dinner at a place called the Pine Lodge, it’s a steak and seafood place that’s a Lamoille institution with good food and prices to match. The décor of the place is also interesting, it’s full of taxidermy displays and just plain mounted heads. The most impressive one is the gigantic Elk head that is facing Megan and me throughout dinner, silently reproaching me as I eat my steak. 
Day 38 Friday 22 July Lamoille, NV
Day 38 Friday 22 July Lamoille, NV
We decide today’s a great day to take Logan and my nephew to the creek on my mom’s property and let them play in it. It’s fun to let the boys run around and play in the water and the dogs enjoy it, too. Logan is fascinated by the tunnel that runs underneath the road and wants to go into it. I help him into the tunnel and then haul him out immediately when I see all the spiders on the top of the tunnel and remember from previous experience that many are likely to be Black Widows. Megan and I hit the hay early tonight as the adventure begins tomorrow.
Day 39 Saturday 23 July Lamoille, NV
Megan and I get up at 4 o’clock in the morning(For my business school buddies this is the time I believe you call crawl home drunk o’clock) and load ourselves and the dogs into the van. We head to Lamoille Canyon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamoille_Canyon A local treasure that is the main thing I love and miss about my hometown, I’m rarely back in Elko in the summertime and so the chance to hike up the Ruby Crest Trail to Lamoille Lake http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamoille_Lake_(Nevada) is one I am not about to miss out on. For those not from Elko, I am entrusting you with the great secret that something this beautiful exists in the middle of nowhere. If anyone lets the Californians find out about this and they invade the way they’ve invaded Colorado, New Mexico, and Oregon I will hunt you down and destroy you. At any rate Megan and I hit the trail at just a little bit after five in the morning and once we get far enough up it that we think the dogs won’t head back down to the parking lot let the dogs off the leash to go run to their hearts content. We get up to where we can get a good view and it’s just fantastic. The light is just starting to hit the canyon and the mix of shadows and early morning sun on canyon walls makes for an impressive sight and I am glad we got up this early, not only to spare my mom the burden of dealing with all three kids for too long, but also because we have the trail and sights like these to ourselves. As we head up the trail I realize just how much the late spring has impacted everything. I have never seen snow this far down the trail in Late July, we get to a pretty significant snowfield and have to traverse the snow. Thankfully, we’re on the path well-chosen and people have basically stomped out a path in the snow to follow. The dogs love this and go tearing off straight down the mountain in the snow. I keep calling them back as I get steadily more nervous that they’ll go down an area steep enough to climb back up. Eventually we top out on the mini-plateau that the Dollar Lakes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollar_Lakes rest on and start looking for the trail, my extremely hazy memory is somewhat helpful as is the fact that the area where Lamoille Lake rests is clearly visible. The Dogs run into the water with ecstasy approaching that of their mealtimes(they’re dogs and as such their pleasures are simple it’s like they’re furry bachelors). We spot some cougar tracks in the snow which makes Megan nervous(understandably so the prints are huge), but I figure we’re a large enough party and making enough noise that a Mountain Lion is going to make sure to leave us the hell alone. We finally make it to Lamoille Lake at around 6:45 in the morning. My plans to go swimming I figured were ruined the moment I saw how far down the snow was and a look at the snow-choked and very glacial lake tells me my suspicion was correct. Leaving the polar-bearing to Kurt Anderson we turn back down the mountain and enjoy a fun hike back to the car. On the way back down, we scare up a family of deer and one of the bucks makes it a point to stop on the rocks with a perfect shooting silhouette and flip me off(Again were you there?).
We decide to stop for breakfast and enjoy a very nice meal at a bar in Lamoille called O’Carrol’s that has pulled off the interesting trick of being both a yuppie and redneck hangout which makes it perfect for me as I often feel like I ride that line more often than not. The breakfast is also notable as it’s the first time Megan and I have had breakfast alone together since Logan was born. On the whole it was a wonderful morning and a great way to spend the first part of our last full day in Nevada.
Monday, August 1, 2011
Part IV Portland to Sun River to Reno
Day 26 Sunday 10 July Portland, OR
Another beautiful, sunny day in Portland and I start wondering when the rapture is coming because this is clearly a sign that this is the end of days. Today’s my mother-in-law’s 70th birthday and most of the day is caught up with getting ready for the party that is being held at my brother-in-laws house. My brother in law has a very nice house with a HUGE backyard, which is good as there are a LOT of friends and family at the party and the backyard is full. The party is really nice and culminates with people telling their favorite stories about my Mother-in-Law, as a relatively recent arrival to the family most of the in-jokes fly WAY over my head, but the affection with which the stories are told is palpable. My Father-in-Law tells the story of how they met and then says something along the lines of it’s been a great life. There’s this really great evening light streaming into the backyard and everyone has a contented and reflective moment, it’s the perfect ending……..until someone decides it’s time to tell another story, and then another, and then another…………
Day 27 Monday July 11 Portland, OR to Sun River, OR
It’s my birthday and I am spending it doing two of the things I love most in the world; packing and driving long distances. Packing isn’t too bad because we have to have the backseat of the van up so we can transport our nieces, who are staying with their grandparents this week, out to Sun River with us and thus I have to pack most of the bags in my Father-in-Law’s truck which has a camper shell on a large bed and therefore room. Once again, I luck out by getting to drive with my father-in-law while Megan has the car full of kids, for those of you wondering how I pulled off this Jedi mind-trick I’ll just say right now I have no idea and I hope it stays that way, knowledge may ruin the magic.
Day 28 Tuesday July 12 Sun River, OR
Today is a high Holy day in the nerd church. It’s the day that the fifth book in George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series comes out!!!!!!! I finagle an early morning trip into Bend so I can get into town the moment the bookstore opens in order to buy a book I’ve been waiting eleven years for. To offer a quick critique, the book is good(much more satisfying than the fourth book in the series) and there are some interesting plot twists that come up, but too many character’s chapters end on a cliffhanger(something he was really good at in earlier books was transitioning characters to a new phase without cliffhangers and it seems he’s lost the gift with the fourth and fifth books, it’s a bit like watching how the TV show LOST kept writing itself into corners). I spend the rest of the day in a kind of contented nerdvana and enjoy my book. Because we couldn’t go out the day before, Megan and I go out to celebrate my birthday. We eat dinner at McMenamin’s pub in the downtown Bend area(We wanted to go to Deschutes brewery but they had a LONG wait and frankly us two party animals had a movie to catch). While working through my grilled tuna sandwich with the WORLD’S THICKEST BUN(if that’s not the official title it should be as it’s more informative than whatever bullshit was on the printed menu), I see something very cool. Some company in Bend has basically made these giant bicycles and converted them into traveling bars/tour bikes, basically think of a giant bar on wheels that people are pedaling around and you’ve got the concept. We go to see Horrible Bosses, which was a lot of fun and made me laugh even if I’m trying to avoid giving Jason Bateman money because he was in Arrested Development, the show that gave birth to Douchey McDouchenstein(Michael Cera)’s career.
Day 29 Wednesday July 13 in Sun River, OR
River Rafting Day! One of the beauties of Bend/Sun River is that one of the area rafting companies has recognized the money machine that parents seeking to distract their kids and have “Meaningful Family Experiences” can be and has a two hour raft trip featuring a mild stretch of rapids called “Big Eddie”. Logan’s a little too young, so Megan, my father-in-law and I take the three nieces(a 14 year old and 9 year old twins) out on the water. It’s a fun little trip, we get through the rapids just fine and Megan and my 14 year old niece ride on the very front of the raft through a section of mild rapids, which I’m sure was fun for them, seeing as how that left my father-in-law and I as the only paddlers except for the guide I didn’t enjoy it as much. I made sure I got my revenge by teaching my niece the “Hey what’s on the bottom of your shoe trick” used to get people out of the raft and into the river, I do this by performing a practical demonstration with her as the subject. The raft trip is over almost too quickly, but given we had two nine year olds it went about as long as it could.
Day 30(HOLY SHIT!) Thursday July 14 in Sun River, OR.
Nice, easy day with a short hike in order to get the kids out of the house. Not much to say about the hike except for this one little thing. When you have kids of your own, once they get a little older one very powerful revelation will hit you and that is that you are very happy your parents didn’t kill you and the joy you will take from watching your own kids going through this crap will be astronomical.
Day 31 Friday July 15 Travel Day from Sun River, OR to Reno, NV
The day starts out early and I get the car packed somehow. I still marvel at the fact that whenever we go on a trip back home our bags seem to mate and have lots of little baby bags that also need to get packed. That or I’m just getting tired of packing. Anyway, we get the dogs and kids in the van, say good bye to my in-laws and hit the road, we drive through the central part of Southern Oregon and the area is pretty, but sparsely populated. On the way we drive through Klamath Falls, a place I only knew about through hearing some friends who flew F-15’s bitch about it. Klamath Falls is one of two F-15 training bases with the other being in Florida(noticing a problem yet?)The area is beautiful with as HUGE lake and I start to question my buddies sanity, UNTIL we come up on the city of Klamath Falls itself, it’s tiny and I doubt there’s much going on. It’s also a good distance from any larger cities and isolation is really the word of the day. I decide it’s all part of the Air Force’s continuing marketing joke on its young male officers, join the Air Force in the prime of your youth, fly babe magnets, do exciting things that make you interesting and in return we will send you places where there are NO WOMEN WHATSOEVER. This is usually where Navy buddies crow about their base locations, to which I reply yes, but at least I didn’t have to be stuck on a boat, in the middle of nowhere, with five thousand other men. The rest of the drive is fine and we get into Reno without any drama and check into our rooms at the Grand Sierra Resort, which thankfully is right by the highway and well away from downtown Reno.
We end the day at a Mexican restaurant with a group of Megan’s sorority sisters. They’re all really nice but they’re not here for me and so I sit and enjoy my beer and distract Elizabeth by walking her to the different wall hangings when she gets fussy at the end of the night. Logan gets shown the game Angry Birds, which is great for distracting him, but he now wants to play it about once a day meaning I lose my phone for an hour when the time comes. Probably a good thing all things considered.
Day 32 Saturday 16 July Reno, NV
Enjoyable day with lots of hanging out at the hotel and taking Logan to the pool, the dogs do okay as well, even though they’re pretty well confined to the hotel room. I meet up with Phil Tousignant for dinner and an Aces game. Phil cooks up some steaks at his house and we enjoy sitting out in the backyard, talking, drinking beer, and eating steak. It’s always fun to sit around and talk with a great friend who you haven’t seen for awhile. While there’s a lot of ground to cover everything feels natural and easy and the conversation can go forever. I had an absolute ball and am almost disappointed to leave and go to the ballpark. That disappointment quickly fades when I see the Aces ballpark. It’s awesome, it’s right on the banks of the Truckee River, close to downtown, nice sightlines all over and a clearly enthusiastic fanbase. In my opinion this is the kind of thing Reno has been begging for, some sort of thing to do that doesn’t require long travel or going to the casinos. The game is fun and what’s even more fun is to look at the batting averages of the players. Everyone on the team has a plus .300 average, which shows the advantage of playing a majority of your games at high altitudes. Between Reno, Colorado Springs, Salt Lake, Albuquerque, and other places I really have no idea how GM’s evaluate Pacific Coast League Players. Another great thing about the park is there is a large bar complex attached with a stage for a band and a row of boards with people playing bags. We go up there for beers twice during the game and then after the game as well. After the game is over the area actually turns into quite a gathering place for people looking for a night out. It’s easy to see why, live band, open air on a beautiful night, and decent bars. Fun place, fun night.
The fun isn't over yet, the last installment will cover time in Elko, NV(my hometown) and the drive back to Michigan and our misadventure's with the mortgage company.
Another beautiful, sunny day in Portland and I start wondering when the rapture is coming because this is clearly a sign that this is the end of days. Today’s my mother-in-law’s 70th birthday and most of the day is caught up with getting ready for the party that is being held at my brother-in-laws house. My brother in law has a very nice house with a HUGE backyard, which is good as there are a LOT of friends and family at the party and the backyard is full. The party is really nice and culminates with people telling their favorite stories about my Mother-in-Law, as a relatively recent arrival to the family most of the in-jokes fly WAY over my head, but the affection with which the stories are told is palpable. My Father-in-Law tells the story of how they met and then says something along the lines of it’s been a great life. There’s this really great evening light streaming into the backyard and everyone has a contented and reflective moment, it’s the perfect ending……..until someone decides it’s time to tell another story, and then another, and then another…………
Day 27 Monday July 11 Portland, OR to Sun River, OR
It’s my birthday and I am spending it doing two of the things I love most in the world; packing and driving long distances. Packing isn’t too bad because we have to have the backseat of the van up so we can transport our nieces, who are staying with their grandparents this week, out to Sun River with us and thus I have to pack most of the bags in my Father-in-Law’s truck which has a camper shell on a large bed and therefore room. Once again, I luck out by getting to drive with my father-in-law while Megan has the car full of kids, for those of you wondering how I pulled off this Jedi mind-trick I’ll just say right now I have no idea and I hope it stays that way, knowledge may ruin the magic.
Day 28 Tuesday July 12 Sun River, OR
Today is a high Holy day in the nerd church. It’s the day that the fifth book in George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series comes out!!!!!!! I finagle an early morning trip into Bend so I can get into town the moment the bookstore opens in order to buy a book I’ve been waiting eleven years for. To offer a quick critique, the book is good(much more satisfying than the fourth book in the series) and there are some interesting plot twists that come up, but too many character’s chapters end on a cliffhanger(something he was really good at in earlier books was transitioning characters to a new phase without cliffhangers and it seems he’s lost the gift with the fourth and fifth books, it’s a bit like watching how the TV show LOST kept writing itself into corners). I spend the rest of the day in a kind of contented nerdvana and enjoy my book. Because we couldn’t go out the day before, Megan and I go out to celebrate my birthday. We eat dinner at McMenamin’s pub in the downtown Bend area(We wanted to go to Deschutes brewery but they had a LONG wait and frankly us two party animals had a movie to catch). While working through my grilled tuna sandwich with the WORLD’S THICKEST BUN(if that’s not the official title it should be as it’s more informative than whatever bullshit was on the printed menu), I see something very cool. Some company in Bend has basically made these giant bicycles and converted them into traveling bars/tour bikes, basically think of a giant bar on wheels that people are pedaling around and you’ve got the concept. We go to see Horrible Bosses, which was a lot of fun and made me laugh even if I’m trying to avoid giving Jason Bateman money because he was in Arrested Development, the show that gave birth to Douchey McDouchenstein(Michael Cera)’s career.
Day 29 Wednesday July 13 in Sun River, OR
River Rafting Day! One of the beauties of Bend/Sun River is that one of the area rafting companies has recognized the money machine that parents seeking to distract their kids and have “Meaningful Family Experiences” can be and has a two hour raft trip featuring a mild stretch of rapids called “Big Eddie”. Logan’s a little too young, so Megan, my father-in-law and I take the three nieces(a 14 year old and 9 year old twins) out on the water. It’s a fun little trip, we get through the rapids just fine and Megan and my 14 year old niece ride on the very front of the raft through a section of mild rapids, which I’m sure was fun for them, seeing as how that left my father-in-law and I as the only paddlers except for the guide I didn’t enjoy it as much. I made sure I got my revenge by teaching my niece the “Hey what’s on the bottom of your shoe trick” used to get people out of the raft and into the river, I do this by performing a practical demonstration with her as the subject. The raft trip is over almost too quickly, but given we had two nine year olds it went about as long as it could.
Day 30(HOLY SHIT!) Thursday July 14 in Sun River, OR.
Nice, easy day with a short hike in order to get the kids out of the house. Not much to say about the hike except for this one little thing. When you have kids of your own, once they get a little older one very powerful revelation will hit you and that is that you are very happy your parents didn’t kill you and the joy you will take from watching your own kids going through this crap will be astronomical.
Day 31 Friday July 15 Travel Day from Sun River, OR to Reno, NV
The day starts out early and I get the car packed somehow. I still marvel at the fact that whenever we go on a trip back home our bags seem to mate and have lots of little baby bags that also need to get packed. That or I’m just getting tired of packing. Anyway, we get the dogs and kids in the van, say good bye to my in-laws and hit the road, we drive through the central part of Southern Oregon and the area is pretty, but sparsely populated. On the way we drive through Klamath Falls, a place I only knew about through hearing some friends who flew F-15’s bitch about it. Klamath Falls is one of two F-15 training bases with the other being in Florida(noticing a problem yet?)The area is beautiful with as HUGE lake and I start to question my buddies sanity, UNTIL we come up on the city of Klamath Falls itself, it’s tiny and I doubt there’s much going on. It’s also a good distance from any larger cities and isolation is really the word of the day. I decide it’s all part of the Air Force’s continuing marketing joke on its young male officers, join the Air Force in the prime of your youth, fly babe magnets, do exciting things that make you interesting and in return we will send you places where there are NO WOMEN WHATSOEVER. This is usually where Navy buddies crow about their base locations, to which I reply yes, but at least I didn’t have to be stuck on a boat, in the middle of nowhere, with five thousand other men. The rest of the drive is fine and we get into Reno without any drama and check into our rooms at the Grand Sierra Resort, which thankfully is right by the highway and well away from downtown Reno.
We end the day at a Mexican restaurant with a group of Megan’s sorority sisters. They’re all really nice but they’re not here for me and so I sit and enjoy my beer and distract Elizabeth by walking her to the different wall hangings when she gets fussy at the end of the night. Logan gets shown the game Angry Birds, which is great for distracting him, but he now wants to play it about once a day meaning I lose my phone for an hour when the time comes. Probably a good thing all things considered.
Day 32 Saturday 16 July Reno, NV
Enjoyable day with lots of hanging out at the hotel and taking Logan to the pool, the dogs do okay as well, even though they’re pretty well confined to the hotel room. I meet up with Phil Tousignant for dinner and an Aces game. Phil cooks up some steaks at his house and we enjoy sitting out in the backyard, talking, drinking beer, and eating steak. It’s always fun to sit around and talk with a great friend who you haven’t seen for awhile. While there’s a lot of ground to cover everything feels natural and easy and the conversation can go forever. I had an absolute ball and am almost disappointed to leave and go to the ballpark. That disappointment quickly fades when I see the Aces ballpark. It’s awesome, it’s right on the banks of the Truckee River, close to downtown, nice sightlines all over and a clearly enthusiastic fanbase. In my opinion this is the kind of thing Reno has been begging for, some sort of thing to do that doesn’t require long travel or going to the casinos. The game is fun and what’s even more fun is to look at the batting averages of the players. Everyone on the team has a plus .300 average, which shows the advantage of playing a majority of your games at high altitudes. Between Reno, Colorado Springs, Salt Lake, Albuquerque, and other places I really have no idea how GM’s evaluate Pacific Coast League Players. Another great thing about the park is there is a large bar complex attached with a stage for a band and a row of boards with people playing bags. We go up there for beers twice during the game and then after the game as well. After the game is over the area actually turns into quite a gathering place for people looking for a night out. It’s easy to see why, live band, open air on a beautiful night, and decent bars. Fun place, fun night.
The fun isn't over yet, the last installment will cover time in Elko, NV(my hometown) and the drive back to Michigan and our misadventure's with the mortgage company.
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