Adventure Time!

On the road again!

Actually, my road-trip playlist was a bit more eclectic as the hubs listened to Dan Cummins and the memoir of some special forces colonel, and I let the offspring choose the playlist while I drove, so my brain dies feel a bit psychedelic at the moment.

That state could also be due to the fact that I drove a little over 800 miles yesterday and am currently typing this in a hotel in Springville, Utah.

Ah, Utah. My dad always can be counted on quipping, “I’m in a nice little town called Utah,” every time we entered the state, and now I do the same dang thing. Genetics…

But I’m getting ahead of myself, and shall now chronicle day one of our adventure.

But first, coffee…

And now I’m somewhat more sentient.

Yesterday started with a trip to CDA to pick up the tank. When one competes in a skeet and trap championship several items must accompany one, namely more than one shotgun and several rounds of ammunition. Las Vegas is 16 hours of driving from my house, but my little car was too small to haul the necessary gear for the competition, and there’s no way I was taking Rufus, so I reserved a SUV from Enterprise Rental Car.

Well, when the hubs and I arrived to pick it up, the reserved beast was far too small to convey not only the boy and his gear, but our daughter too, as they are both competing in regionals. Luckily, the agent saved the day by turning to his right and saying, ”Would you like the tank?”

The tank was a brand new, gun metal gray, Ford Explorer, and let me tell you, it worked nicely. Such a comfy vehicle! And everything fit!

The hubs drove from our house to Missoula, and the the boy and I took over. Anyone who has driven through the Big Sky State knows that it’s a bit of a slog. A beautiful diversion though. The boy and I rocked out, enjoyed the little to no traffic, and oohed at the hundreds of newborn baby cattle dotting the fields of the Montana high country. Okay, that was me, I love calves!

And just like that, after almost 8 hours of hauling, we arrived in Pocatello to pick up the girl. We haven’t seen our daughter since January, so there might have been hugs.

The hugs were quick though, as we had a goal for yesterday, to get south of Salt Lake City. The Salt Lake City corridor is over 70 miles of car chaos. Even at 9 at night there were drag racing high end mustangs in the HOV lane. I’m never bored driving through the corridor, especially at night, as the LDS temples light the way through the realm of rampant consumerism like beacons reminiscent of Minas Tirith.

We finally caught up to our friends at a Best Western in Springville, Utah at about 10:30pm. This is where our one major bit of excitement occurred. I gave the kids a keycard to let themselves into our room while the hubs and I locked up the Tank. As the hubs and I moseyed up to the kids, I noted their eyes were huge.

The clerk had given us a key to an occupied room.

Thankfully the occupants weren’t in the room, just their accoutrement was. But boy, was my daughter agitated by the incident. So was the poor night clerk. He was really upset, even though I assured him it was all okay.

A short while later we all were snug in a room only occupied by us, and now I sit here in a wingback chair wondering what this day will bring…

And as most of the time, all of the images in this post were taken on the author’s well traveled and not inhabited by others iPhone.