Retrospect Piece #1. Drive: Colorado - Vermont.

Whew.

That was rather excruciating.

Last I wrote, I was just about to leave Colorado.  Well...

It took me something like 2 weeks more to finally leave.  I eventually just bailed, leaving the final cleaning and trash hauling to professional types.  There was a storm coming and I wanted to be out of CO before it arrived.

I left Friday the 14th of January from Denver and motored out of CO with a Cruck ('03 Subaru Baja - for sale) full of the last remains we would be keeping, including a sculpture my brother made several years back at the Marble Marble Symposium.  Darn thing weighed something on the order of 400lbs.  My neighbor Dave graciously helped me get it into the back of the otherwise I'm not sure what I'd have done with it - I have a rock hammer...

Stuff is weirder in Nebraska.

Anyway, I totally plushed out the back seat for Jackson.  Camping mat folded in half, comforter, 3 pillows.  Dude was riding in style.  He actually gets car sick so anything I can do to encourage him to sleep while we drive is good stuff.

Friday I wanted to log some miles on the road so we motored the entire day just stopping to pee, grab hideous fast food and that was it.  We eventually made it to a Motel 6 I've stayed in before in Avoca, IA.  It's clean and fairly hospitable, but despite Motel 6's promise of pets welcome, this specific Motel 6 makes you stop as you're leaving for a "room check" if you're traveling with a pet.  I think that's idiotic, but...

I usually make the drive from CO to VT in 3 days, with stops around Council Bluffs, and Cleveland, but this time I wanted to stop in Buffalo and have a visit with my Stepfather and my Uncle who lives very near by.

So, Saturday I stopped in Davenport, IA for a run with Homey.  As I was churning down the highway, I noticed a dude walking his dog on a trail and decided I needed to find it.  That turned out to be easy as the next sign I saw said, "Somethingorother State Park next exit". We only did 30 minutes, me in VFF, he bare.  It was cold and there was some fluffy white stuff on the ground.  We only stopped a couple times to clean out our paws. It was a pleasant place for a run, but overall not too spectacular.

We eventually made it the better part of the way to Cleveland that night and would be able to meet my Uncle for lunch on Sunday.  I hadn't seen him since I'd re-done my wedding in the States something like 8 years ago.  It was good.  I met his horse barn full of horse tennants, whom Jackson wasn't sure what to think of  up close.  We've met some on the trail before, but I've never put him into such close proximity to horses before.  He was nervous.  My Uncle had made a Lasagna which we ate with much gusto and around 3 he had to take off to go skate with a girl.  Nice.  An added bonus, his daughter stopped in and I got to see my youngest cousin for like the 3rd time.  Faith is now a Sophomore at University of Buffalo.  Man...

I had some slack time in the day, having told my Stepfather I'd be over in time to catch the kickoff of the Patriots game, so I popped open my phone and tried to locate a park to get in a run.  Google Maps found a pretty good sized one close by and we went over there.  This was a heavily used park which permitted snowmobiles and skiers and snowshoers, but it was big with dedicated trails for the noisemakers so Homey and I could get out without being run over.

There was snow, but no need for snowshoes, though by the throngs of people clumping around with the ungainly things on you'd think them a part of the uniform.  Jackson and I just looked at them and smiled as we passed in our minimal garb.  I expect we got some weird looks. I was wearing a t-shirt, gloves, Eagles Cap, jeans and 5 Fingers.  All in all the park was really quite nice.  After logging 30+ minutes running through the forest, Jackson and I headed over to my Stepfathers to watch some football.

There we had a very nice visit.  Walter (my stepfather) had made a vegetarian version of Spaghetti with clam sauce.  I'm not particularly a fan of Clams, or seafood of any kind found more than 25 miles inland, so the new take was intresting to me.  He used my favorite bean, the Garbanzo, in place of the clams.  It worked really well.  I'll probably make it with a bit more butter, but mmmmm Tasty!

We watched a good chunk of the Patriots game, but Walter wasn't enjoying it too much as the Jets really seemed in control throughout the game.  We ended up shutting it off, even though I was quietly rooting for the Jets, there was other stuff to talk about, you know like the impending move.  Eventually we called it a night and said good bye - Walter leaves for work really early in the mornings and I expected I wouldn't wake up.

Ithaca is Gorges!

The next morning I spent a few more minutes visiting with Walter's wife Michelle and then hit the road to go visit my Dad in Ithaca.  We were planning on a luncheon.  Dad and I spent a couple of hours together talking about the move as well as my brother's new girlfriend.  It was good.

I finished the drive to VT eventually arriving at my Mom's house around 7PM on Monday.  Jackson and I didn't get a run in that day, but I expected I'd be able to make the missed workouts up during the days I was in VT.  Oh well.

Winter Wonderland

I'll have more tomorrow during Deneb's nap time.
Thanks for reading.
J