Bet you thought I went away again.. Well, I guess I did but not for a long time like last time.. I'm sitting in Chicago this week monitoring another instructor to qualify him for a class.
So, last I wrote I was headed over to Park City in Utah. If you ever find yourself in Draper Utah and want to go to Park City there are two ways to get there, the highway and the "scenic route". I refer you to C.W. McCall's Black Bear Road "you don't have to be crazy to drive that road, but it helps".. Well, who's crazy? This guy... Crazy is driving Big Cottonwood Canyon Road, real crazy is driving it in a piece of shit Chevy economy car..
This road has an average grade of 7.8% with a 15% grade at some points. To say the car had issues climbing it would be an understatement, but hey, you only live once right? The total climb is 4584 feet from the bottom to the top. These numbers I am listing were not known by me *before* the drive, I looked them up afterwards. I was just told it was a beautiful ride, yeah, I was warned I might want to trade my rental in for a 4 wheel drive, but..
I was enjoying the scenery until the rock slide that passed just behind my car, I had the windows open (cause it was early on in the trip and hadn't hit the high altitude temperature drop yet) and heard the "whooshing/grumbling" sound of the rocks and got to see them up close as they past right behind the car. Now I was on high alert and not so much enjoying the views, but on a mission to "conquer" the road. Past the "if light if blinking do not attempt this road without 4 wheel drive" sign, it was not blinking so I continued. Then hit the snow and ice part of the journey, the temperature drop was over 40 degrees, then past the snow? Am I so high I am past the ability to snow? Oh my... Finally as I crest the mountain the road ends!?! Well, the "road" continues as a dirt path down the mountain, no up in the north east a "dirt road" is a much different thing than it is in the mountains. In the east a dirt road is mostly hard pounded dirt/mud/gravel. Up here it was loose sand and rock, the car was fish tailing all over the place and I had to ride the brakes to stay under 15 miles per hour. Two hands on the wheel, foot on the break and thinking I was going to fly off the cliff.. Oh, right, I didn't mention the fact that the entire drive there was a cliff face on the right of the car and NO railings anywhere! Finally made it down and hit the pub for a much needed drink.
After stopping at the pub I went over to Main St for dinner, walked around a bit and I have to admit it is a very pretty area. It's one of those areas that forces the chains to tone down their big signs/big colors/recognizable logos. On one hand I like when places do that because it makes the landscape look more "natural" but in the same respect it's sorta like a freedom of speech issue isn't it?
Well, I went to the place the guys at work recommended. The Elk was good, but the sides were over spiced and it was WAY over priced. Oh well.. Worth the trip anyway.. Off to the fire bar, it was not open yet and I was getting tired so I figured I'd head back to the hotel and check that out next time I'm in Utah.
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Spent the last two weeks at home, I suppose I have lots to say about that, but this is not the time to go into it. I realize that every time I start to think about blogging about "home life" I go into hiding, so in order to keep this blog active I have decided to keep "home life" out of it. For now I will continue to entertain you with my travel and culinary treats and ask that you forgive me for not talking about home life.
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So, I started off by talking about being here in Chicago, the flights here were ok. The flight from Hartford to Detroit was good, got upgraded again.. :) We were supposed to board at 3:40, but the arriving flight didn't land till 3:58, even though we boarded late we still managed to take off on time and even landed early. In Detroit however we didn't have such luck, didn't get upgraded, pilot didn't show up on time, missed our take off window and had to sit on the runway in the closed off plane for over an hour. Finally got to Chicago, got my car and headed to hotel. So hungry.. Crap, only thing open is McDonalds.. Ahh, when is eating at McDonalds the right answer? That's a question I was just talking to Lynz about while in the airport in Hartford. The other option is going to a gas station and getting something, drove around for a bit but gave up and got fries..
Speaking of fries, my fat ass is having an issue fitting into my pants, I think it was just a few months ago when I was feeling real proud that I could fit into my old work pants, then something happened.. Not only can I NOT fit into those pants anymore, I can barely fit into my jeans either. I have two pairs of work pants that "fit" if I suck in my gut before buttoning.. Time for fat ass to get back to the gym and to start counting calories again.. At the time of this blog I'm at 151 lbs, I want to get back down to 130-135 but I am not really a big "number" person for weight, the goal is to get my gut to go away. I signed up for myfitnesspal, if you're on there send me your ID so we can be friends on there. I also am going to start doing push ups again, yeah, I know, I've said that before.. But this time I downloaded the app for the phone so it will pester me if I don't do it.
Plan for tonight? Go get some workout clothes, hit the gym at the hotel. Go find something healthy for dinner.. Depending on time line I might go to the Chicago Diner, if not I'll have to find something more local..
-- Diversion of the Day
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