So for those who didn’t know, the Durango is back on the road. Except, the scavenger/ reservationist Kristina is not :(. During our unplanned stay in St. George, Utah waiting for the Durango to return, Kristina received a voice mail…. South Side HS in Rockville Centre, NY (Top 50 High School in the US) called her to come in for an interview. Now that’s when the ole saying comes in “caught between a rock and a hard place,” well that she was. Does she miss out on a great opportunity and finish the last 2 weeks with the Drifters. Or... Does she shuttle over to Vegas and catch a redeye flight? After all morning of contemplation, weighing the pros and cons, and receiving advice from family & friends…her decision was made although, her little heart was looking forward to the Colorado River adventure. Through some tears and frustration, her flight was booked. (We all really think she mustered this up to go reunite with her sugar daddy friend Kirk at the Craps table in Vegas.) As much as it hurts to lose a drifter, the rest of the crew thought she was doing the right thing. With our encouraging words, and last self-timer photo with Kristina outside of Comfort Inn as she awaits for the shuttle to Vegas airport, we said our farewells, gave hugs, and wished her the best of luck. The rest of us repeated our routine and jumped in the (now roomy) Durango and headed towards our next destination…Zion National Park. (Another spot Kristina was looking most forward to) Looking through the rearview mirror, there she was a hot mess wiping the tears from her eyes… (Let me be honest, it was a bit eerie without her with us for the next couple hundred miles) Billy, from time to time shouting, “Hey, Kris here’s the receipt.” Cobra saying, “Now who’s going to make the reservations?” Amy & I still couldn’t wrap our heads around the fact that she was really gone. Durango Drifters down to four… (Kris, we are collecting you rocks everywhere we go, don’t you worry). We all miss you already; you are here in spirit with us. We mostly miss, “Hi, What are your rates for tonight? Do you have continental breakfast? What time is checkout?” Nail the interview girl, but either way, drifters for lifffeee!
Angels Landing
The rest of us climbed that day. Climbed is an understatement. We scaled up a mountain, holding on to a link chain for dear life. Angels landing is about a 5-mile hike, steep switchbacks, and difficulty level: strenuous. We all thought, “Come on, we hiked Half Dome, pssh this is nothing” Well, for me any steepness calls for misery. As for, Amy, the division 1 Field Hockey player, Billy, the I can ingest any food I want & still be in shape, & Cobra, come on he’s a venomous snake…tackled it with somewhat ease. Except, for the last .5 miles of basically rock-climbing without a harness. But we were VICTORIOUS…we made it to the top! The way back down was a bit nerve-wracking at times, one miss footing would have perhaps turned into a bit of a free-fall. But the technique was nice and easy, shuffle, steps. Once we returned to the bottom of the climbing part…of course, Amy the D1 athlete decides to run the entire way back down…”she met her so-called future husband”, but he lived in Seattle…FAIL. We eventually met up with Amy, and frolicked in the river. From there, we took the shuttle back and there was one thing on all our minds… FOOOOD! We found a historic place called “Blondies” and masticated our meals, and topped it off with a milkshake for all but Amy, she decided to go with a vanilla rainbow sprinkled cone. It was time to hit the road again; we drove until we hit a campground about 100 miles in between Zion & Bryce. At last, a KOA—with Hot Showers! We called it an early night, (my legs are still hurting from half-dome). We did a quick pitch, showered and hit the hay.
Ps. We will be romping around Moab, UT tomorrow for 24 hrs on our ATVS and camping out in the hoodoo's tomorrow night...and hitting up the rapids the next day or so... we will not have service so until then much love... tric. xo
pss. pics for this post will be coming soon...
No comments:
Post a Comment