Pre-budget
August 16th 2007. I am sitting at a Starbucks in Cleveland just outside of University Hospital. I just learned that the internet is, in fact, not free. Interesting. So, I’ll type this up on a word doc and next time I am connected I will put it on the blog. Dad’s in surgery right now. Jay and I just got done with a little italy lunch of fantastic lasagna and a chocolate covered canoli for dessert. Yum. These are the things I miss about Ohio, fabulous Italian food. It’s not able to compare to anything I’ve had in the west. Poor dad didn’t get to eat anything yet today.
We left Visalia area on August 3rd. That’s been close to two weeks already! We headed down to Jay’s parents house and spent the weekend there organizing and re-organizing and getting last minute things together. It was good to see that the things we wanted to take with us actually did fit in the Rialta. Jay changed the oil and did a lot of other little projects, including installing a new stereo and speakers, while I went through literally EVERYTHING and repacked the whole rig. We did make it out for a day of climbing in Santa Barbara and based on my performance there I was a bit concerned that I might need a year to get back to something close to a competent climber. No overhanging 5.11 cracks on my first day off the couch in a month, thanks. We left Santa Clarita (finally) on August 7th and drove up the grand and picturesque east side of the Sierra. As we were driving we decided that Bear Creek Spire might be a good way to get things started. It was a long alpine climb that seemed do-able with Brutus and easy (5.8). We called ahead to check on wilderness permits and there were plenty available for that night, but only one for the next. We decided to go for it. We stopped in Lone Pine and got our permit, then drove to the Rock Creek area and down to the Lodge for a quick meal that we didn’t have to cook. We walked into the lodge where we saw people eating and were surprised to find a private party of two couples celebrating their anniversary and all their kids. The kids were mainly in their teens and pretty excited about drinking beer. They warmly welcomed us to join them and handed us plates. We watched them interact and hoped that we could someday be as cool as this group. We finished off our pie with homemade whipped cream and headed out to start our hike.
Hiked in to just below Gem lake (which took longer than Super topo had described maybe due to the big meal and 10,000 feet of elevation) and crashed for the night. Brutus loved the many lakes we hiked by in the dark and enjoyed them even more the next day when the sun came out. It took us about 2 or 3 hours to hike to the base and we found three other parties on the route. We hadn’t seen anyone until getting to the base of the climb. Jay and I swapped leads and did a lot of simul-climbing. There was great exposure and lots of fun climbing on this route and I was LOVING it. Jay wasn’t as psyched on the last few hundred feet of ridge climbing that was very non technical, but I wanted to get to the summit, so we finished it up. We climbed fast and topped out in about 4 hours with plenty of sunlight left for the hike out.
We made it to the Rialta just as it got dark and made some food to replenish our stores. We were pretty tired and hungry at the end of it, but both of us feeling satisfied that we were on the road and living free.
The morning of the 9th we woke up and drove to the hot springs. We soaked for a bit to try to prevent lactic acid build up, but it was getting hotter and sitting in a hotsprings in the hot sun wasn’t too appealing. Those springs on the BLM land on the east side of the Sierra are something that everyone mst hit in their lifetime though. The views are fantastic and you really feel like "this land is my land". We jumped on the bikes and cruised around checking out the other springs for a bit. Brutus rolled in the mud. We then headed to Convict lake where some friends of mine were staying as campground hosts. They hooked us up with a free site and we were full on RV-ing. With some of the best of them it appeared. Lots of big rigs at this campground. It seemed required to have a large RV to camp at this campground. I saw a few tents, but most were Walmart style super sized tents set up next to the grand RV. My friends Richard and Yukiko are world travelers and they had nothing but support and good wishes for us on our journey. Conversation over a bottle of Justin cabernet went from politics to travel to ex-pats opinions of America now. It was a good evening.
The next day was Jay’s birthday and we decided to hang around Convict Lake and have dinner with Richard and Yukiko before heading out on the long drive. We walked around the lake and lounged together by the creek feeding the lake for a few hours reading our books. Dinner was at the Convict Lake lodge (after we took our fist showers in the Rialta) and it was decadent. We ended with birthday cheesecake complete with a candle! And then, it was time to drive, and drive we did. We made it fairly deep into Nevada that night and slept on a little dirt road off highway 6. We intended to check out some climbing outside of Ely on the way through, and we think we saw it, but it was hot and the overhanging limestone caves looked to be a bit over our heads for that day. We headed on to Ibex and spent a few hours scampering around in the heat bouldering at the corral. It was a clear blue day with gusts of wind, but still hot. Ibex is a place I’d like to go back to with a crew. Bouldering always seems to be more fun with a good group of friends to inspire each other and create bigger and better problems. For those of you who boulder, this is a cool sandstone spot and a must hit on the drive through Utah. We pressed on with the driving and I was hoping to make it to Molly and Toms by late that night, but the Rialta doesn’t zip around the country like by little old Subaru did and we ended up deciding to get to her house in the morning.
August 12th we woke up and headed to Molly’s. We had slept somewhere near Green River, UT. We went for a run with Molly, Bob, (her dad) and Lucy (Brutus’new girlfriend). We then had asparagus omelettes for breakfast, stole a shower, and then again headed out. We stopped by Glenwood Springs and hung out with Jay’s good freind Nate for the evening. Derek was in Summit county for the weekend, so on our way through the next morning we had breakfast with Derek and Ali at the Butterhorn bakery in Frisco. After breakfast the true driving extravaganza began. We had to get to Ohio in two days. The Rialta really doesn’t go over 65 and it’s pushing it to go that fast down hill. She’s happy at 55 or 60 and so (other than over passes) we kept her there. She was getting gas mileage around 17-19mpg and we were very happy with that. We drove through the eastern flats of Colorado and western Kansas and decided to stop near Salina to check out an area called Rock City. The morning of the 13th we woke up and bouldered a bit on what looked like giant sandstone cow patties. It was good fun and then we gave ourselves gut bomb at the local Daylight Donuts. We drove and drove and drove and drove. We had been reading to each other from a book about questions to ask someone before you get married. It’s a major conversation starter and even though we are not even engaged, both of us are interested in traveling down that road together someday, so we figure the more we know now the better. Hopefully not too premature to dig this deep, and what better time than when we have endless hours on the plains of Kansas and Missouri together. We finally gave in and decided that could be too much work and put on the first of the Harry Potter on cd series. That took us almost home. I drove the last long leg at night so that we didn’t have to survive another midwestern, muggier than hell’s sauna, day in the Rialta.
So, here we are, the heart of it all. It’s nice to have Jay with me this time. Although this surgery isn’t nearly as stressful as it could have been, I think I have an anxiety response just driving to this hospital. It’s nice to have him sleeping on the other side of the table here.
We left Visalia area on August 3rd. That’s been close to two weeks already! We headed down to Jay’s parents house and spent the weekend there organizing and re-organizing and getting last minute things together. It was good to see that the things we wanted to take with us actually did fit in the Rialta. Jay changed the oil and did a lot of other little projects, including installing a new stereo and speakers, while I went through literally EVERYTHING and repacked the whole rig. We did make it out for a day of climbing in Santa Barbara and based on my performance there I was a bit concerned that I might need a year to get back to something close to a competent climber. No overhanging 5.11 cracks on my first day off the couch in a month, thanks. We left Santa Clarita (finally) on August 7th and drove up the grand and picturesque east side of the Sierra. As we were driving we decided that Bear Creek Spire might be a good way to get things started. It was a long alpine climb that seemed do-able with Brutus and easy (5.8). We called ahead to check on wilderness permits and there were plenty available for that night, but only one for the next. We decided to go for it. We stopped in Lone Pine and got our permit, then drove to the Rock Creek area and down to the Lodge for a quick meal that we didn’t have to cook. We walked into the lodge where we saw people eating and were surprised to find a private party of two couples celebrating their anniversary and all their kids. The kids were mainly in their teens and pretty excited about drinking beer. They warmly welcomed us to join them and handed us plates. We watched them interact and hoped that we could someday be as cool as this group. We finished off our pie with homemade whipped cream and headed out to start our hike.
Hiked in to just below Gem lake (which took longer than Super topo had described maybe due to the big meal and 10,000 feet of elevation) and crashed for the night. Brutus loved the many lakes we hiked by in the dark and enjoyed them even more the next day when the sun came out. It took us about 2 or 3 hours to hike to the base and we found three other parties on the route. We hadn’t seen anyone until getting to the base of the climb. Jay and I swapped leads and did a lot of simul-climbing. There was great exposure and lots of fun climbing on this route and I was LOVING it. Jay wasn’t as psyched on the last few hundred feet of ridge climbing that was very non technical, but I wanted to get to the summit, so we finished it up. We climbed fast and topped out in about 4 hours with plenty of sunlight left for the hike out.
We made it to the Rialta just as it got dark and made some food to replenish our stores. We were pretty tired and hungry at the end of it, but both of us feeling satisfied that we were on the road and living free.The morning of the 9th we woke up and drove to the hot springs. We soaked for a bit to try to prevent lactic acid build up, but it was getting hotter and sitting in a hotsprings in the hot sun wasn’t too appealing. Those springs on the BLM land on the east side of the Sierra are something that everyone mst hit in their lifetime though. The views are fantastic and you really feel like "this land is my land". We jumped on the bikes and cruised around checking out the other springs for a bit. Brutus rolled in the mud. We then headed to Convict lake where some friends of mine were staying as campground hosts. They hooked us up with a free site and we were full on RV-ing. With some of the best of them it appeared. Lots of big rigs at this campground. It seemed required to have a large RV to camp at this campground. I saw a few tents, but most were Walmart style super sized tents set up next to the grand RV. My friends Richard and Yukiko are world travelers and they had nothing but support and good wishes for us on our journey. Conversation over a bottle of Justin cabernet went from politics to travel to ex-pats opinions of America now. It was a good evening.
The next day was Jay’s birthday and we decided to hang around Convict Lake and have dinner with Richard and Yukiko before heading out on the long drive. We walked around the lake and lounged together by the creek feeding the lake for a few hours reading our books. Dinner was at the Convict Lake lodge (after we took our fist showers in the Rialta) and it was decadent. We ended with birthday cheesecake complete with a candle! And then, it was time to drive, and drive we did. We made it fairly deep into Nevada that night and slept on a little dirt road off highway 6. We intended to check out some climbing outside of Ely on the way through, and we think we saw it, but it was hot and the overhanging limestone caves looked to be a bit over our heads for that day. We headed on to Ibex and spent a few hours scampering around in the heat bouldering at the corral. It was a clear blue day with gusts of wind, but still hot. Ibex is a place I’d like to go back to with a crew. Bouldering always seems to be more fun with a good group of friends to inspire each other and create bigger and better problems. For those of you who boulder, this is a cool sandstone spot and a must hit on the drive through Utah. We pressed on with the driving and I was hoping to make it to Molly and Toms by late that night, but the Rialta doesn’t zip around the country like by little old Subaru did and we ended up deciding to get to her house in the morning.
August 12th we woke up and headed to Molly’s. We had slept somewhere near Green River, UT. We went for a run with Molly, Bob, (her dad) and Lucy (Brutus’new girlfriend). We then had asparagus omelettes for breakfast, stole a shower, and then again headed out. We stopped by Glenwood Springs and hung out with Jay’s good freind Nate for the evening. Derek was in Summit county for the weekend, so on our way through the next morning we had breakfast with Derek and Ali at the Butterhorn bakery in Frisco. After breakfast the true driving extravaganza began. We had to get to Ohio in two days. The Rialta really doesn’t go over 65 and it’s pushing it to go that fast down hill. She’s happy at 55 or 60 and so (other than over passes) we kept her there. She was getting gas mileage around 17-19mpg and we were very happy with that. We drove through the eastern flats of Colorado and western Kansas and decided to stop near Salina to check out an area called Rock City. The morning of the 13th we woke up and bouldered a bit on what looked like giant sandstone cow patties. It was good fun and then we gave ourselves gut bomb at the local Daylight Donuts. We drove and drove and drove and drove. We had been reading to each other from a book about questions to ask someone before you get married. It’s a major conversation starter and even though we are not even engaged, both of us are interested in traveling down that road together someday, so we figure the more we know now the better. Hopefully not too premature to dig this deep, and what better time than when we have endless hours on the plains of Kansas and Missouri together. We finally gave in and decided that could be too much work and put on the first of the Harry Potter on cd series. That took us almost home. I drove the last long leg at night so that we didn’t have to survive another midwestern, muggier than hell’s sauna, day in the Rialta.
So, here we are, the heart of it all. It’s nice to have Jay with me this time. Although this surgery isn’t nearly as stressful as it could have been, I think I have an anxiety response just driving to this hospital. It’s nice to have him sleeping on the other side of the table here.
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