Saturday, August 27, 2011

On the Road Again (Part 3)

We decided to return to driving for our Colorado vacation this year.  Durango is the closest airport but airfare for the two of us was going to be what we thought was exorbitant. We could have flown into Colorado Springs but that would have meant renting a car and driving at least 5 hours each way, which was more expense and meant time in the car anyway. So, a 17 hour drive it was. Our normal long-range drive M.O. is to split up the trip on the way out and do a full-on, non-stop run for home on the way back. This trip was no exception.

The best place to stop for the night on the way out was Albuquerque, which just so happens to be home to a friend of mine from junior high. She and I have reconnected on Facebook in the last couple of years. We weren't close friends back in the day; we were in athletics, choir, and some classes together but didn't pal around together outside of school. It's funny how time changes our interactions, though. Some of the people I interact with the most on Facebook are people that I didn't know all that well back in the day. 

Once she knew we would be coming through town, she offered to put us up for the night. The thing about seeing people after a long absence is that you don't really know whether even a remnant of the connection that you had back then still exists. Added to that uncertainty, I knew we'd be coming in late and would most likely be super cranky grub monsters from our long car ride, so I suggested that we meet for breakfast the next morning before we headed north to Colorado. My friend offered up her husband's fantastic blueberry pancakes. We set a time for our arrival and all parties involved had the guaranteed exit strategy of the Intertia's need to be in Ouray to check in to our rental house, should one of us discover that the other has morphed into some kind of crazed superfreak in the intervening years. 

Suffice it to say, we had an absolutely wonderful visit.  My friend is, in every way that I could see, still that sweet person I knew back in 1984. Her husband and son were absolutely delightful. (Unfortunately, we didn't get to meet her daughter, who wasn't at home.) We talked and laughed and got reacquainted (or in the case of the spouses, got acquainted) and totally blew our exit strategy out of the water.  My friend and her family may have been thinking, "Why won't these people leave?!" but I never got that feeling and we could have stayed all day.  I look forward to seeing them again sometime soon.

Our return trip was a little like Smokey and the Bandit.  We left Ouray at 4:15 am MDT and arrived at our house at 10:15 pm CDT. We saw the sun come up and go down. We stopped for gas and bathroom breaks and little else. It was a very long 17 hours in the Jeep but what a great trip.  Couldn't have asked for more.

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