Road Trippin'

So since I lost my job but I'm still on payroll for awhile, I took off for warmer climes. Well I thought I did. Haha. I went down to Phoenix first. The epic journey there was full of adventure which I love and I survived it so it's all good now.

The first adventure was realizing 2 hours into the trip that I didn't have my one friends phone number and address with me. Oops. Fortunately this was a happy accident cause I ended up staying with my BFF's brother and that was a lot of fun. Not that the first plan wouldn't have been, but I did get to sleep in to my hearts content at plan B.

The drive through Utah was nice. Scenic, roads were good, and I had a good time. Zion's Park region was fantastic with the snow kissed red rocks. I got off I-15 outside of Cedar City and went over through Hurricane. This sent me past Colorado City where all the houses are Polygamist sized. Seriously, all the houses are really big. Not really rich big, all utility big. I took some pictures while driving by. Creepy. I got a great picture of a car pulling a kid through a snow field. Could be polygamists. Since we don't know for sure, I say they are.

After that things went downhill. Technically they went mostly up hill but along the top of the Grand Canyon region the roads got really bad and I only saw a couple of plows going the other way. Apparently they usually close this road but I must have made it up there before that happened. There was at least 2-4 inches on the roads when I started. Sometimes I could hear the snow on the bottom of the car and I seriously thought for a while there I might be sleeping in my car up there for the night. All of a sudden taking my -5 deg sleeping bag and snowshoes was not so silly. There was a truck a ways ahead of my though and I followed it's tire ruts. At one point a dear walked in front of my car across the road. I didn't have to brake cause I was going so slow it made it across with time to spare.

The truck ahead of me went off the road on the steep down windy part though. Me and the truck behind me stopped to see if they were ok. (You just stop and put on your hazards cause there's no side of the road. There's road with snow or A LOT of snow on the side that you'll never get out of. It turns out the mom tapped her brakes at the top of the downhill and they weren't responding so she went to the side so they didn't like die flying off one of the turns. They had these four poor sheep in the back of the pick up all pushed into each other. Funny in a sad kind of way. The truck was almost completely on it's side. If it had gone any further it probably would have rolled and they'd have lost the sheep for sure.

The best part of this accident was they guy that pulled over had some of the hottest sideburns I've seen since Doctor Stu. They were bi-level. That's right, bi-level. Hot, hot, hot. Anyhow, it's 20 degrees out and this mom and her two sons are stuck on the top of a mountain in a blizzard. My mom will probably kill me when she finds out but I gave one of the sons a ride to Tuba City cause it was only 11 miles off my route down to Phoenix. He thought he knew my foster sister cause she's from Tuba City. Maybe he does, maybe he doesn't. Anyhow I think he was more afraid of me than I was of him. If not at first, definitely after 1 1/2 hours of More ABBA Gold (I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, On & On & On, Summer Night City, Ring Ring, all these are more, more gold). The mom wanted to stay with the sheep and I couldn't leave them to freeze all night so I took the dude to his Uncle's so they could get his truck to pick up the sheep and his mom & brother.

I did finally make it to Phoenix about 2-3 hours later than I thought. Flagstaff was a mess too, and when I finally got out of the snow, it just poured rain the rest of the way.

I made Swedish pancakes for the trip and that was good cause I didn't stop much for food. I wanted to get there. They're good for about 2 days by the way without refrigeration. I recommend them for road trips and hiking.

Swedish Pancakes
1 1/3 cup milk
2/3 cup flour
3 eggs
1 tsp salt
2 Tbl melted butter

Mix all that together then cook them like you would crepes (spray the pan with oil, pour in a thin coating of the batter and flip when the top side is firmed up). They go great with lingonberry sauce/jam, nutella, peanut butter, or just plain. Välsmakande!

In the next edition--Hiking report from Phoenix, Why San Diego is so awesome, and nearly climbed a giant turd......

Halloween and birthdays

I really like Halloween. Definitely one of my favorite holidays. It's not about the candy. If it were about the candy it would be about the KitKats and the Nerds. There's just something fun in being able to wear a mullet wig or a knife in your back or puffy shirts in public with relatively few people staring.

This was one of the sweetest Halloweens since I left San Diego. I got to host a joint party with a couple of friends. For one thing people actually dressed up. Hardcore. While the male pregnant Wonder Woman, the devil with horns and furry cloven hooves, that super cute sassy vampire slayer (oh that was me, haha), the viking lady, and some others where totally awesome, for sure Aslan and the White Witch were the best. I may have helped out with their costumes. What can I say.

The decorating was super fun too. We had black plastic all over. I made balloon ghosts that glowed. That's a keeper for sure. I can't take much credit for the decorations. I was so busy this week that I was not as participative as I could have been. It was an example of what can be done if you get enough people involved. The party was awesomely fun. We must have had 50-60 people throughout the night.

I'm waiting to get my "spooky" camera pictures developed. Will post them when I can .

It was my birthday yesterday!!! Not one of the better to tell you the truth. I got a stomach bug or some bad leftovers or something and spent most of the day laying on the couch with a bucket next to me or running for the loo. You may be thinking how sad that is to be sick on one's birthday. You could even think that could be a bad omen for the year to come. Not me. I see it as a relief. It can only get better from there!

Seriously, as I lay in the fetal position in the shower, aside from the nausea and splinting pain in my head, all I thought about was how much fun I had had the night before and how blessed I was with such great friends and family. I don't have good friends, I have great friends.

Speaking of great friends, I called off the shindig for that evening, but Kelly, sweetest kindest girl in the world, came over and tried to make sure I still had a special birthday. I got a birthday smoothie with a candle in it. She also totally cleaned my kitchen as it had not been attended to as it should have been with the busy week I'd had.

First post of the new blog

I am taking a break from sewing Halloween costumes. I don't have anything substantial to say.