Good Evening Ladies & Gentlemen,
Guess who. I'm finally back and doing that blogging thing after a week or so of...well, a lot of stuff. When we last spoke (or read of whatever), I was hanging with the family...but they had to get back home. So I hitched a ride back, sharing the backseat of my stepdad's truck with two kids and their carseat. We left before sunrise...and about an hour into our journey, it started to snow. Lame. Then we were driving north on I-25 towards Cheyenne...and there were a LOT of cars off the road...most of them overturned. Now, we were following traffic at about 15-20 MPH tops for about an hour until we got to a truck stop in Cheyenne...and there were more accidents along that road than I had EVER seen before...and sadly, that's kind of a bold statement. So we got some breakfast and found out that they had closed both I-25 and I-80 because of the storm...so we were trapped in Cheyenne,Wyoming. We couldn't even head back to Denver and try tomorrow. Of all the cities to be trapped in too. By the way, I said that recapping my week to some ladies on the airplane last night...and one of them said, "Actually, I live in Cheyenne." "Oh...I'm sorry (I really am) but yeah, it's not all that bad." Then I covered by showing her some of the pictures of cool things on my camera...and here they are...
Guess who. I'm finally back and doing that blogging thing after a week or so of...well, a lot of stuff. When we last spoke (or read of whatever), I was hanging with the family...but they had to get back home. So I hitched a ride back, sharing the backseat of my stepdad's truck with two kids and their carseat. We left before sunrise...and about an hour into our journey, it started to snow. Lame. Then we were driving north on I-25 towards Cheyenne...and there were a LOT of cars off the road...most of them overturned. Now, we were following traffic at about 15-20 MPH tops for about an hour until we got to a truck stop in Cheyenne...and there were more accidents along that road than I had EVER seen before...and sadly, that's kind of a bold statement. So we got some breakfast and found out that they had closed both I-25 and I-80 because of the storm...so we were trapped in Cheyenne,Wyoming. We couldn't even head back to Denver and try tomorrow. Of all the cities to be trapped in too. By the way, I said that recapping my week to some ladies on the airplane last night...and one of them said, "Actually, I live in Cheyenne." "Oh...I'm sorry (I really am) but yeah, it's not all that bad." Then I covered by showing her some of the pictures of cool things on my camera...and here they are...
First, I softened her up with "Here's my niece & nephew"
"Oh look, Vinny has pumpkin on his face"
Here's Kairi with her new horsie stuck in Cheyenne
Old houses at the Air Force Base
Big airplane
The Wyoming State Capitol Building
Complete with its Tin Foil dome
Always Lively Downtown Cheyenne
"Look, a giant boot. Awesome?"
"Why did you take this picture?"
"It's a Drive-thru Liquor Store...and a Kum & Go...in one shot."
Not a statue, just a man and horse frozen in place
Just look at the flags if you don't believe me...
After about 4-5 hours stuck in Cheyenne (driving around so that the kids wouldn't cry) they opened up I-80 so we headed for the city of Salt. Slowly but surely we realized that we were pretty much count in a good old fashioned mountain blizzard...and just followed the semis as the wind whipped by and the snow continued to fall and blow. By the time we got to Laramie, it started to clear up a bit...and just in time for the sun to set. Basically we were about ten hours into our journey...with another 6 or so to go...and the babies (and adults) were getting reckless. The rest of the trip was a dark, horrible, screeching blur to me...but we made it back to Salt Lake City around midnight...so I couldn't see my dad, brother or a lot of others as planned...but I did stop in to see JL Clyde at work and then Filly came to pick me up, I met her mom, and crashed on her guest bed for the night.
"Dude!!! How can I sleep when we're in the middle of a blizzard?"
"Well Vinny, otherwise you have to listen to Kairi
scream like a Valkyrie from HELL!!!"
"Point taken. Good night, Uncle $teve."
"Yeah, some sunshine at the end of the tunnel.
This calls for a celebration..."
at Burger King. Do the happy dance!!!
"It's good to be King."
Princess Kairi
The next morning we started our journey...a few hours later than expected because we couldn't get the cartow to work...because when the cavemen made it from stone and twigs, they didn't leave good instructions...so we took it to U-Haul and they were kind enough to give us a new one. So we started around 9 AM on the road...and we didn't stop until 3 AM in Amarillo (clap clap clap clap) deep in the heaaaaart of Texas. Filly & I entertained eachother along the way. I drove every inch of the way...basically because I have experience driving these things (now) and to be perfectly honest, I wanted Filly to relax and nap when she could...and there was NO WAY that I could sleep when I'm driving across country in a moving van with a cartow in the back across the American Southwest. It just wasn't going to happen...and luckily I was able to focus on the road (like a hawk) while still being mildly entertaining and conversative with Filly...and she was there to feed & beverage me at my beckoning call. Good times. Here are some pictures.
About here is where we almost had our first fatality
There was a female construction worker with a STOP sign
at the bottom of a steep drive...around a corner...and with
absolutely no signage before hand. Luckily I was able to stop
without fishtailing or anything...but we had a few choice words.
By the way, a big thing I was looking forward to on this trip...was driving across New Mexico, the Land of Enchantment for the first time. We basically made it to the Northwestern corner town of Shiprock around sunset...and it was completely dark all the way across...except for the stars in the sky...and when we stopped in the socialist village of Cuba. They didn't ask for my passport thankfully. I even saw a turnoff for Las Vegas...but Filly (and the map) assured me that it was the city that I thought it was. Less gambling and whores and tigers...so we continued East to Amarillo.
The next day we woke up with the sun and continued heading east across Texas...where everything's bigger...especially the open spaces of NOTHING. I was a little disappointed.
"Oh my God, a tree!!! Quick, get a picture of it!!!"
This was in Tyler, Texas around sunset
Enjoy it while you can...you've got at least
eight more hours or driving to go, $teve
Again, as we approached the Louisiana border, the sun set, so we saw nothing of the southern countryside...but we made it to New Orleans around 1 AM...just in time to realize that we really had nowhere by the hotel to park the moving van...and let's just say that it was basically a necessity to make sure that nobody could get into the van...because if it wasn't parked against a wall or something...somebody would...and even then, it's about 50/50. Yeah, crime's pretty high in that city. In fact, Filly was telling me that it was the new number one for murder and robbery in America (finally Detroit & East St. Louis have competition) but luckily there was a wonderful policeman there at the hotel named Orlando who helped us out.
By the way, during this trip, just about everybody in New Orleans was really nice...or really crazy & drunk...but mostly nice. There really must be a Southern Hospitality thing going on down there. Honestly though, I think this'll do it for today on the blogosphere. Tomorrow (or some day soon because I have a LOT of work waiting for me since I decided to take like twelve days off) I will continue the epic journeys through New Orleans...and even post pictures of Filly's new apartment...so you have that to look forward to. In the meantime, have a great day...and I hope that you all had a wonderful time while I was out of town too.
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