Travel to Tejas

I spent the last 3 days in Ohio visiting Kelsey's parents.  We had a great time entertaining her family and close friends on Saturday night.  Luckily the night eventually led to rhythmic melodies with tambourines, egg shakers, and an afuche cabasa.  A video of the event may have been captured, but it will not be posted here.

Today we had the pleasure of flying and airport waiting for about 7 hours to get to Austin.  My cousin and his girlfriend picked us up from the airport and we sailed through rush hour traffic with lively conversation.  It was great to spend time with him since they live in China now.  After a delicious dinner at my aunt and uncle's, we are settling at my sister's house.  She was kind enough to let us borrow her car for the evening and during the day on Tuesday while she is out of town.  Hopefully we will get to see a few of my friends tomorrow before returning the car to my sister and then heading to a lake house with my family.

Apparently we arrived just in time for the weather to get nice and hot (100+ degrees).  That's the Texas I remember!

Almost Airport Amusement

I dropped my car off in storage today and Kelsey had asked me to grab some extra undergarments for her from her car. I stashed them in my cargo pocket and went along prepping our cars in storage. Making sure the batteries were disconnected and the cars covered in plastic. I went through 3 sets of socket wrenches before finding a set that had a 10mm to disconnect the batteries. Good thing I have lots of tools!

My good friend Robin was kind enough to spend the afternoon with me and drop me off at the airport so I didn't have to deal with a taxi. THANK YOU ROBIN!!!!

I got to the airport and proceeded to the security line. After pulling out my laptop and liquids and emptying my pockets I was ready to get scanned. I gave my pockets one final pat down and realized something was in my cargo pocket.... close call! I quickly slid the contents into my bag and proceeded to the scanner, giggling to myself.

I imagined the TSA rep asking what was in my pocket, and my gleeful response would have been "Women's panties!" I thought about putting them back in my pocket just for fun, but my bag was already in the scanner. A missed opportunity.

Sent from my iPhone

Nuthin' But Rain

Rain and rain and rain and hail.  Doesn't look good for any outdoor activities today.  Since I woke up, it has been raining pretty much the whole day.  Good thing I needed to spend time dialing my pack in and cleaning up.

Maybe I'll spend this evening playing with my camera to learn all the cool functions available.  I certainly won't be able to go climbing in this wetness.  :(

Motorcycle Ride

I have the luck of being friends with Gregg Orlinsky.  My friend Gregg has multiple motorcycles and likes to ride them with his friends.  Today we rode them to Steamboat Springs.  It was a gorgeous day!

We had lunch in Steamboat and then rode back.  On the way back we went towards Kremmling on 40 then cut back on 134 to 131.  Riding through high alpine meadows on twisting roads is a great way to spend an afternoon on a motorcycle.  Wish I could do it more often!

The day started to get even better when we headed to Homestake for some climbing.  Unfortunately, it started pouring rain, hailing, and lightning... sooooooo we packed up and left.  At least we got one route in.

Good Beer

In case you didn't know, this beer is delicious!

Gilman Climbing

I have a few days to play before I leave the Vail Valley.  I was hoping to climb The Diamond on Longs Peak, but my partner had to cancel.  Which is just as well because I have heard that there have been a lot of issues with lightning and weather this year.  Instead, I have been climbing at some of my favorite haunts around Vail.  Saturday was a day of climbing in the shade at Homestake, and today I went to Gilman Canyon.  It was hot today, so the partial shade we found was incredible.  Here's a shot of my friend leading our first route just as the sun was coming over the ridge.

It was a great day of some challenging new climbs.

I've been spending my other free time researching places to visit during our trip to Europe.  There are so many beautiful places.  So many things to do, places to see, experiences to enjoy.  It would be easy to spend years touring Europe and still not go all the places we would like to.  Our challenge will be to narrow down our priorities so we can spend our time enjoying the places we visit instead of just visiting lots of places.

Back In Action!

It has been a long time, but I'm back!  Main reason: moving out of Vail and traveling for 3 months.  Where you ask?  Let's start with the U.S. to visit family, then spend two months in Europe.  Yey!

How can this happen?  Kelsey sold her condo so we have no rent payments.  I'm sad to depart from the beautiful fantasy that is the Vail Valley, but I have to grow up some time.  The last few weeks have been packed with... packing!

Today was the last day of packing and moving out of our condo.  It was weird to see it so empty.  It felt so much bigger!

I'm certainly going to miss the sound of the creek from our bedroom window lulling me to sleep.

The empty garage left me feeling unsettled.  It housed so many tools of happiness, and now they are mainly in my car.  So I guess it's not so sad.  Just the reminder that they won't be stored in a location where they could be deployed at any moment.

Well, I have another week to play before departing from my ex-home.  My goal is to update on a daily (lofty goal) basis.  So I can't really say goodbye to Vail yet, but I will certainly miss a condo that we could call ours.