We define slow moving vehicle... and so we live in the right lane

We made it successfully down the hill to Denver today.  After a great morning getting a tour of Vail and Beaver Creek from Mark and Erin we headed out of Vail with it snowing and the roads relatively clear.  Heading onto the freeway on unplowed roads with a few inches of snow I learned a little bit about how my Subaru handles and what anti-lock brakes feel like... just to test it. Everything worked flawlessly except the speed. Note to those looking at Subarus... yes, the extra oomph in the engine is worth it.  My little legacy complained a bit up over Vail pass at over 10,000 ft and then over Loveland pass and a few other times too. We hung out maxed out at 45mph and it felt like the OLP Texas St challenge of trying to make it up to the speed limit. The roads cleared of snow entirely after Loveland Pass and since it was getting towards 3pm we joined the ski traffic of all the resorts headed back to the city.  It really was just a bit over 2 hours so not bad at all. 

Got to the rental duplex and tried to work the lock box that I think origionally came with the place back in 1910- no luck with the code but luckily my neighbor helped me obtain the key from the landlord via a cellphone and spare key adventure. The bikes are mostly put together again and living in thier new home known as the garage. The plant is alive and happily awaiting his new kitchen home in the window and all the boxes and bags are in from the car. 

Mom got in touch with my Dad's cousin Bette Ann and met her for dinner at a local diner. There was some string of exchanging phone numbers and calls by the parental age group to make that happen so thanks to all.  Mom and Bette Ann compared notes and mapped out thier kids as well as described thier respecive towns.  It was fun to meet/catch up with family that I haven't seen in about 14 years and tomorrow we're meeting even more of the extended family that lives out around Denver (the Cavenaugh side of the house I believe) for coffee. 

Tonight we hung out with the Goodmans and are crashing here for the night since we came down a little earlier than planned. Tomorrow I'm going to give Mom a tour of Denver and we'll settle down in the hotel for a couple of nights. 

I'm tired, a bit sore, happy, and very excited.  Monday I'm going to try and narrow down the window of when my stuff is coming so that I can come up with a game plan so that it can be changed by things beyond my control. Tonight it's snowing and Lakewood/Denver looks pretty.

It's snowing

Did we really think that we could have escaped a January drive across country without driving in the snow at least part of the time?  We've awoken to a nice blowing snow starting to cover the car. Putting the bikes on the car should be a little more challenging than in San Diego- ok not really challenging necessarily but definitely cold. 

I'm hoping to check out Vail a little before we head down. It's going to possibly snow in Denver today in which case I'm guessing one of my first Denver purchases will be a snow shovel. We'll be heading down today instead of Sunday.  

Adventures abound...

Made it to Vail!

Hundreds of miles later and we made it safely to the Vail area... staying at my cousin's in Edwards Colorado (thanks Mark and Erin!).

Will post more later but the drive was stunning through Utah and we detoured down to Moab for a short trip.  I got mom out to Arches NP and we even went for a short walk to stand under an arch. Will try and post pictures tomorrow.

We are thinking of heading down Sat night b/c snow is expected and the end of the weekend is coming with all that holiday traffic.  A short tour of Vail is scheduled tomorrow and it's less than 120 miles left to make it to Denver- my legs will be happy to be walking not driving. 

564 miles and one lost wheel...

We are safe and sound in a cute little b&b in Cedar City, Utah.  We've traveled about 650 miles (we added about 50 miles going through Mojave National Preserve) and have had a gorgeous day in sunshine and approx 60 degrees.  We are officially on mountain standard time (MST) and I still need to adjust all those clocks.

Traffic was light most of the way and the new year has started off well. We stopped for lunch at a stunningly restored train station at Kelso in the Mojave NP  and had lunch and then saw one of the densest known Joshua Tree forests.  Joshua trees always remind me of  trees from Dr. Suess' illustrations.  The short drive though the corner of Arizona was wonderful with rocks jutting up and roads thrust down into the canyon bottom.

Oh are y0u wondering about that lost wheel in the title?  Well let's just say that while the bike racks on my roof rack are very sturdy (as evidenced by the previous night's adventure witth the garage door) well... the front wheel holders didn't work out so well.  The crazy thing is that we NEVER heard the runaway wheel (luckily the one without the disc brakes) or anyone honk or any feedback.  Yup we discovered the wheel holder was still there but the city wheel ran away. The mtn bike wheel wouldn't stay upright so it joined us in the car.  I'm going to have to review the wheel set-up when settled in Denver.

Other than that little adventure it's been a nice drive. Tomorrrow is onto the Vail area hopefully with a little detour into Arches National Park.  Nighty night time... must sleep lots of driving to do!

Did you dare even think the words.... according to plan?

I was packed. It was 8:57 PST and 3 minutes till the new year on the east coast and the car was packed except for my stained glass window. My bag for the next 4 days was in the room with the computer bag. My new cell battery was in, the camera was charging... I was sitting with mom on the couch trying to find a channel playing NYE stuff. Seriously- me? The eternal packing at 2am person to catch a 6am flight? I dared to think the words wow- this is going according to plan.

Then I went to get something from the garage and when I went to close it... well it wasn't closing. Turns out the disengage thing for the garage door had hooked on my bike handlebars on top of my car. Turned off the garage door opener, went to move the car, and as I'm backing out of the garage I hear a crunch... my car cleared on the way in- I mean no problem cleared it.  Moved the car forward and felt that spinning feeling... that spinning of oh how bad is it? Are my bikes damaged? the bike rack? and even more important... the garage door?

The bike rack on my city bike dented the garage door. Then starts the game... OK let's get the bike rack off... why is it sticking out so much (oh cause it was nearly ripped off the bike)... why won't it come off? Did you know when I was packing I found the directions to this particular bike rack (and I remember thinking... wow that's easy to remove... funny those directions are somewhere packed with all my bike things and figuring out that easy trick seemed harder now). So take the bike off, realize the secret to removing the rack is leverage, repack a little, move the car, on second try garage door works and still seems weatherproof though a bit dented. Deep breaths as I'm doing this lovely show for my poor mom (whose garage door I dented) while trying to maintain my composure and appologize. 

Now see... this is more like moving :-P

Stained glass is mostly packed. It's nearly midnight and that new year is looking mighty promising as long as I remember not to plan.