What a Week and a Half It's Been

Today's Chuck Norris Fact:

A picture is worth a thousand words. A Chuck Norris is worth 1 billion words.

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What a week! Really, I mean, my first week as a married man (again) was very busy. There was the whole marriage weekend last weekend. That was great, and I mean GREAT, and I mean EVERY PART OF IT. We got married last Friday night, June 16th. It rained on us a little, but that really was the worst thing that happened. Heidi looked even more beautiful than she usually does, and that was AWESOME!! Pretty much my whole family came, which was even better. There were a few aunts and uncles and cousins who couldn't make it, but my kids, my parents, all my surviving grandparents, my sister and her boyfriend, even my aunt Diana and my oldest cousin Amber (who's only a year younger than I am) made it for the wedding. Also, one of my oldest and best friends Chong came. That was special for me, because Chong has known me continuously longer than any other person who's not family; we've been friends since we were in 9th grade. Then we went to Buca di Beppo for a wonderful dinner, and it was not only wonderful but VERY affordable...I highly recommend Buca di Beppo for your large dinner needs.

Then we had the barbecue on Saturday, and that was a tremendous success. We had more wonderful friends and family over and ate some great food. I say "SOME" because there was a LOT of great food, and most of it is now in the freezer at my new in-laws. I also got an unexpected treat...I got to sing with my dad, in front of a whole bunch of people. I hadn't gotten to do that in years, at least since I was in high school. My only fear with that was that I imposed too much on my guests' patience; my voice isn't quite what it used to be.

Oh, and the best part...I got to marry my soulmate, my best friend. You're so wonderful, baby, and I'm just so blessed that you're my wife. I love you, Heidi.

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And on with the happenings of the last week and a half. After the wonder of the wedding weekend, we eased back into life with a few days off to rest and recuperate...even if it wasn't super-restful. Sunday we went to Lakeside Amusement Park, and I added another item to my list of things to do if I win big at the lottery: buy Lakeside and completely renovate and update it. It's a great old-time park, and just like its name says, it really is a lake-side park. Watching the sun go down with my new wife and my parents and my kids was the best part of that day.

On to Monday. We didn't do anything. That was nice. We finished some errands and took it easy.

Tuesday, we played golf. I butchered the course, as I hadn't played in a few months. Heidi did really great, considering it was only her second time to play. She hit some awesome shots, including two great shots over some very large areas of rough and hazard. And she really enjoyed playing with me! Even as bad as I shot, it was a dream-come-true to get to play with my wife.

Back to work on Wednesday and Thursday, then Friday...ah, Friday. Friday was a crazy day, one of those days that starts OK, then gets crazy in a big, big hurry. First, I'll let you in on the plan. I had planned to get my things together in the afternoon after I was done working, take Donovan up to Loveland to stay with Heidi's parents, then take Heidi up to Mount Elbert, where we would camp, then get up early and climb Mount Elbert. Now, most of you know my love for bagging Colorado's 14ers, and I wanted to share that with Heidi. The Friday afternoon part of the plan was ruined for me by an emergency call from a client, so I was already behind when I started. I had planned to have everything and everyone packed and ready when Heidi got home shortly after 6 pm. Alas, I was NOT ready and we didn't get away from home until nearly 7...

So off we went, and thus began what I have come to call The 24 Hours of Adventure. I will post some pics as soon as I can, and unfortunately, some of the best moments were not recorded for posterity. But here's what really went down. We got Donovan up to Loveland and off we went. Now, I had planned to be to the campsite by 9 pm so that we'd have a little bit of light to see. Little did we realize that it's a three-hour trip from Loveland to the Twin Lakes area where the campsite resides. We didn't leave Loveland until nearly 8 pm, so we didn't actually get to the area of the campsite until close to 11. That put us even more behind, as we had planned to get up at 5 am to get ready and hit the trailhead.

Then, there was actually getting to the campsite, which is at the end of a 1.8-mile-long road that only quality 4-wheel-drive vehicles can handle (no, your stock Ford Explorer Eddie Bauer edition or BMW X5 wasn't going to cut it). We saw only three other vehicles on this road: a slightly lifted older-model Jeep Cherokee, a stock Nissan Xterra (I always did like those), and an ATV. Oh, and my stock Land Rover Discovery, of course. The bad news is, I had never been down this road before, the map I had was pretty limited, and it was the middle of a very dark night. The road, from a off-roading standpoint, was fairly tame, with only one big trouble spot and only one small, shallow creek to ford. But it was my first time, it was night, and it was AWESOME!!! We got to the end of the road, picked our spot, staked out in the back of the Rover, and hit the hay.

Not that it was a simple as I just made it sound. The back of the Disco was not built to camp in; I would have much preferred a nice Hannibal rooftop tent (another thing to get when I win the lottery, or should one of my relatives run into some disposable income and wish to get me a nice gift). Heidi and I actually got to start trying to sleep around midnight, but we were terribly cramped, and neither of us got very good sleep. By the time 4:30 am rolled around, I was pretty much awake and not really able to do much but wait for my alarm to go off at 5:00. Heidi actually seemed to be sleeping, so I opted not to get up early. We did get up as the alarm went off, ate a light breakfast and hit the trailhead right at 6:00.

Off we went, and though it was all on-trail hiking, it was very steep most of the way. Heidi did wonderfully, considering she wasn't feeling well and actually got sick at about 13,000 feet. I told her we needed to head down the mountain then, but she said she would wait there for me, and rest. I told her it was OK, that we could come back but she insisted I go on. I did go on, and I summited at approximately 11:35 am;I was so exhausted from the climb that I didn't check my watch for a while after I got up there. I had a full 4 bars of cell signal, so I called Heidi to check on her, then I called Dad and chatted briefly with him. It was a bit of a bizarre tableau to be chatting on the cell phone with my Dad while I sat on top of a 14,433-foot mountain, and it was even more bizarre to look around and see at least 7 or 8 other people doing the same thing. I stayed on the summit long enough to have a quick lunch of jerky, granola bars, string cheese, and Gatorade, then headed back down to Heidi. (I wasn't all that hot about leaving her, and I wanted to make sure she was OK.) So I practically ran down the mountain, and being steep like it was, I made excellent time. I caught up with Heidi at around 12,000 feet and we finished the trip. She was really disappointed that she didn't make the summit, but I told her how proud I was of her, and how she shouldn't get down on herself for not making it since she was sick. If I had been in her place, sick like that, I would've turned around myself.

So we got back down to the car at about 2:30 pm. We rested briefly, then packed up, changed out of our sweat-soaked clothes, then headed off on our 3-hour trip back to Loveland to pick up Donovan. We got to Loveland at 6:00 pm, and had a marvelous breakfast-dinner with Heidi's parents and grandma. Lots and lots of bacon and sausage, and excellent eggs, and toast and jelly...mmmmmmmm, my mouth is watering again just remembering it. We were both pretty out of it, though, and it showed. I don't remember much of the dinner other than the food and some of the conversation. We got back home around 9:00 pm, thus ending the 24 Hours of Adventure. It was fun, but I think I'm ready for a break, a vacation after the vacation.

Thanks for reading along.