Off the Grid, Off the Bike

It's been a week since we flew up to Iowa City to help The Daughter move to Olympia, Washington. We cleaned and packed, dropped off a truckload of stuff at the local Goodwill center, locked up the Pods container in the driveway, loaded up the Jeep, drove a bit over 2,000 miles, spent an afternoon hiking in Mt. Rainier National Park, and will be heading home on Monday.  It was a trip.

The driving started late in the evening when we decided that rather than sleeping on the floor of the empty apartment we may as well hit the road.  The only problem with that plan was that we didn't really know where we'd be spending the night.  Ordinarily, that wouldn't be much of a problem, but since we were travelling with two dogs, our options would probably be limited.  We ended up driving around 300 miles that night and staying in a very questionable motel in Lincoln, NE.

The next day was our longest, taking us from there all the way across Nebraska and Wyoming and then northwest into Idaho where we spent the night at Shannon's mother's house in Mountain Home. Much of the drive was spent battling crosswinds and headwinds along I-80.  As we got into the mountains along I-80 the rather overloaded Jeep Liberty started struggling a bit on the climbs.  The combination of weight, headwinds, climbs, and 75 mph speed limits kept the automatic transmission quite busy shifting out of overdrive in order to maintain speed.  We arrived in Mountain Home around mid-afternoon and decided to check out Shoshone Falls along the Snake River while we had a chance.  With the car still fully loaded, and following some sketchy directions, we turned off the highway onto a road that went straight down into the gorge.  I was seriously wondering if we'd be able to coax the Jeep back up the steep slope as we descended.  Unfortunately, our directions had taken us down the wrong side of the river and we had to turn right back around and climb back out (in 1st gear).  We made our way around to the other side and spent an hour or so walking the trail and checking out the falls and Evil Knievel's famous launch ramp. 

The next day's drive was a bit shorter and was going well until we got into Oregon.  First, The Daughter misplaced her cellphone and we ended up backtracking fifteen miles and searching through a Chevron station, only to finally discover the phone wedged between the car's seat cushions.  Then I got pulled over by a state trooper with bad aim who claimed I had been going 81 mph (the speed limit in Oregon is 65 and you aren't allowed to pump your own gas there).  I'd been on cruise control at 65 mph since we'd crossed the state line, and if we'd gotten that Jeep up to 81 mph I think I would have noticed.  He refused to acknowledge his mistake with the laser gun but let me off with a warning anyway.  The warning I took away from that was, "stay the hell out of Oregon." 

Anyway, for the few days prior to this we'd been negotiating a pre-listing sale of my mother's condominium, which had been a little difficult for me since I was trying to do conference calls in-between trips to the dump and at random rest areas along the interstate.  However, when you get an all-cash offer that might work before the house officially goes on the market, you can't really put it off. It worked out pretty well and we got the house under contract a couple of days ago, so unless there are any big surprises that may be one more thing I can check off of the list.

So by Sunday, with The Daughter all settled in, we drove out to the Mount Rainier National Park for a really nice 4 hour hike up to Lake George in picture-perfect weather.  The last mile of the trail was largely covered with snow, and I was glad I'd packed a long-sleeve shirt.  For the most part, this was the most exercise I'd gotten in a week.  About half of the hike was along a rocky fire road, but eventually we turned off of that onto a more traditional trail marked by an abandoned bike rack and an old "no bikes" sign.  It got a little slippery once we got into the snow, especially since I was wearing regular cross-training shoes, but somehow I managed to keep my socks reasonably dry.  As usual, the photos really don't do justice to the scenery.

So I've been pretty much off the grid for the last week, which means that I'll have some catching-up to do when I return, but I think it's good to take a break from the routine now and then.  The only real downside, I think, will be the time off the bike and the work it will take to get back into some semblance of shape.  I kind of knew this would be a tough year from the start, though, so no surprise there.  By Tuesday it will be back to normal, I'm afraid.  Thank goodness I'll at least have the Tour de France to keep me interested.  Assuming, of course, that they stop all of the crashing and can start concentrating on racing.