Coda, Wellesley, and Paco» Coda

Doggone It Rockies

Bob — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 04:29:50 +0000

Before we get to the main action of this post, I wanted to note Jen’s new dinner the other night. She tried Shiska-Me’s (Bob) on the BBQ. We weren’t entirely sure whether or not they were done because its hard to tell with pork, but they sure did look (and taste) pretty darn good. Also later that night, Coda and Lola chilled while I played video games.

On a sadder tone, it seems Coda is going to need the surgery on his ACL. After resting him pretty extensively for several months, we decided to try a dog park today. We didn’t work him too hard, but later that night he still came up limping. So we’re probably going to take him to a specialist down in Colorado Springs in the next week and he’ll pretty much be out of commission for a couple months. Hopefully it fixes him right up though, and he can be back to chasing balls and squirrels in a few months.

Anyway we wanted to figure out something fun to do over the weekend, so we decided to hit up a Rockies game. Aside from being directly in the sun forever, it was a really good time. The game was a little slow until the top of the 6th when the Rockies hit two homeruns on back-to-back pitches. That was really cool. (And they were on pedro martinez… who gave up 6 runs I believe.) Anyway, it was an awesome time with a great mountain skyline in the background. Oh and the Rockies won 7-1. Sweeeeet.

Rocky Mountain Hi

Bob — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 04:19:47 +0000

Yes I meant to put ‘hi’ in the title. Its a play on words. So after our short-lived hiking adventure (Jen is lucky if that was 1/10th of a mile,) we headed on the nice little road trip home, but decided to make a stop at Red Rocks. The pictures aren’t the greatest because of the low light. We’ll get some better ones next time we go.

Red Rocks is a national park, and an amazing amphitheater built in a natural wonder of an environment. It was so cool looking, and now Jen and I can’t WAIT to go to a concert there. Dave Matthews performs there almost every year, and now I have to see him there.

After experiencing an entertainment environment like that, you have to think that artists aren’t entirely thrilled when they have to play in boring locations like Darien Lake. Not that I haven’t liked the shows that I attended there… but a show at Red Rocks has to be a treat all of its own.

I definitely enjoyed the trip to the mountains… and can’t wait to go again. Perhaps next time we won’t start on a hike that’s quite that steep. While Jen did her fair share of huffing and puffing, I certainly was no Lance Armstrong… secretly glad when she asked to take a break every 20 feet. We definitely want to get in shape doing outdoorsy things around here, but we’re going to have to work up to some of these things, especially when we’re not used to the thin air (I’m sure that’s the problem.)

I can’t believe we’re alive

Jen — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 04:43:56 +0000

Today started off swell. We slept in a bit, Bob sang “On The Road Again” to Coda right before we left, and 10 minutes later when we were on the road, the song came on the radio. We stopped for lunch a while later and let the pets out for their walks. Lola the cat has a leash and thinks she is a dog and enjoys being outside most of the time. I found a 4 leaf clover while wandering around with the cat, which should have meant good luck… more about that later. It was about 85 degrees out with more humidity than should legally be allowed to affect my hair, and after 5 minutes of being outside Lola had enough, ran for shade, plopped down into a sprawled out heap and started panting.

She usually fights me when I try to stick her in her cat carrier, but under the hot circumstances, she was thrilled to be back in the air conditioned car.

Several hours later we were coming up to Kansas City, Missouri which is actually a very cool looking city. Shortly after we passed that, we entered Kansas. Almost immediately a warning came on the radio with a severe thunderstorm alert, possible hail the size of quarters, and tornado warnings.

There was lightening all around us, and the sky was constantly lit up. I actually got several pictures of lightning bolts because there were so many. At one point, the lightening got so bad I felt even the tiniest hairs on my face stand up, and I knew it was time to pull over. We found a rest stop and as soon as we pulled over, it started down-pouring. Horizontal rain with 70 mph gusts of wind. Our truck was shaking from the wind and from the loud thunder right above us. We were listening to weather updates on the radio and suddenly the radio went to static.

Bob’s Best Scared Face

I called my mom to say goodbye in case the opening scene from the Wizard of Oz took place and I may have ended up like the wicked witch. After waiting the storm out for half an hour, we started heading to our hotel about 15 miles away. So much for the 4 leaf clover bringing any luck…

We arrived at the hotel, but it took 30 minutes to park the dang truck and trailer. I wasn’t exactly the best navigator trying to tell Bob where to go to back-up to park. Luckily, a dude with a mustache came by to assist. I knew Bob was in good hands because in Kansas, a mustache=trucker, which means he knows how to navigate big vehicles. I had the guy at the front desk of the hotel promise to notify us if a tornado was really coming. He probably thought I was a big baby but assured me that alarms would sound if an emergency took place.

What a day. We’re alive and sleepy and excited to get to Colorado tomorrow!

10=17

Bob — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 05:19:12 +0000

Well we finally got ourselves on the road at 6:15am’ish. That means we didn’t get out of DC entirely before rush hour. Jen was not happy about that… but couldn’t complain too much because I was driving a 17′ truck with a full load, towing a civic. Getting out of DC was actually pretty easy. I was hoping it was cake from there.

It should have been about 10 hours of driving. First we had the wonderful fun of traveling through the “mountains” of maryland and PA. Going up and down the steep grades was one thing, but doing it in a seeminly underpowered truck and a wide trailer (which was limited to 55mph) in a massive downpour with semi’s still flying by us made for quite the white knuckle ride. Jen played wing-woman, and helped me get in and out of lanes, and assured me the civic was still there.

So we stopped to rest my clenched hands. We stopped to let the pets out (Lola walks around on a leash like a dog.) We stopped to eat. We stopped to nap because we were so tired. We stopped for bathroom breaks. We stopped to make sure the burning smell from the truck was only my heavy foot-on-brake syndrome.

Somehow we turned 10 hours of driving into nearly a 17 hour day. We are stopped for the night just past Indianapolis. If we’re lucky, all the tornadoes and hail will be north of us tomorrow. That would be swell.

Exhausted, but excited.