What A Long, Strange Trip It’s Been

Oh, hello there. It seems like an eternity since I’ve written one of these. A lot has transpired, so let’s wait no longer…

For my East Coast early-morning readers: I return to East Coast Time tonight, so I’ll be attempting to get my early-morning post schedule back tomorrow.

Colorado, You’ve Been Pwned
Here is the travel log of Colorado cities I’ve visited over the past thirteen days of vacation

• Fort Collins (four nights)
• Vail (one night)
• Cortez (one night)
• Durango (lunch only)
• Alamosa (one night)
• Salida (one night)
• Walsenburg (four nights)
• Denver (one night)

The state is large and I covered about two-thirds of it. While known mostly for its skiing (the Rocky Mountains might have something to do with that), it has a fairly significant cultural shift from north to south. It was also somewhat jarring for me to drive back into a big city after spending so much time in the middle of nowhere.

Hash, Hash, Goose (Egg)
I managed to run the two day’s worth of trails offered up at the 13th Colorado Invihash. On both days I chose the “Eagle” option over the “Ballbuster” because I knew that what scant training I’ve had, none of which was performed at any significant altitude, would hurt me if I chose the harder option.

Saturday’s trail was enjoyable as we ran across semi-flat ranch land (at 8000+ feet mind you) over cacti, yucca, and ants. The worst part of the trail was that I wound up with about one hundred hitchhikers on the pants I purchased to hash in, so I had to toss them after only one use.

Sunday’s trail started and ended at a ski resort that “closed for Summer” — on July 4th 2000 — and has remain closed since. It would have been the perfect place for a photo shoot, but I was there to hash so I didn’t bring the DSLR with me. The trail I ran basically went up a ski slope, and then back down again. At the top of our trail we had a breathtaking view of southern Colorado.

Yesterday morning I decided to skip the hangover hash and push on my way, but not before submitting my registration and check for Colorado Invihash #14 in 2010.

ITP Flickr Pic
While I took a lot of photos on this vacation, not many were taken since Friday. Therefore, I’ll use this one taken on Thursday night.

This photo is a pretty decent metaphor for my trip as well. While I have had much fun in my journeys, not everything turned out the way I desired.

Rock On, In The Worst Possible Way
During my travels I’ve been careful not to take my rental car on roads which required four-wheel drive vehicles. Unfortunately, no matter how fucking careful you are, bad luck can find you no matter where you are.

While driving up I-25 on my way to Denver a rock hit the rental car’s windshield putting a nickel-sized star into it. Fug…. So today I need to get to the airport that much earlier so that I can take care of any business which needs to occur when shit like this happens. I think I used my American Express card to secure the car, which may help me. I have rental car coverage on my State Farm insurance, which may help me. And, the hotel from which I type this is a block away from AAA, of which I am a member, which may help me.

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal…
Current Mood – sniffling, not looking forward to becoming a responsible adult again
Current Music – watching CNN in a hotel room
Website Of The Day – If you want to look like a hasher without having to go through all of the pain of actually being one they you should check out Hash Shirts.
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Monthly Foot Mileage – 0 miles
Monthly Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Mode Of Transportation To Work – n/a 🙂
Monthly Marta Rides – 0
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 27 (110) on hold because it’s not my job.
Books To Read To Earn Kindle – 4

September Goals
Don’t know yet

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]