Hike, Drive, Hang

Yesterday was the triathlon of events for me. For a warm-up Lisa and I went to a garage sale or two. (However we must have passed at LEAST 50 others, yesterday was garage sale DAY here in COS) That kicked off promptly at 7am.

The first event in the Saturday Triathlon was the Hike for Habitat charity... walk? This is the first time I have ever done something like this, and honestly probably the last. The walk/ hike/ jog/ run event was only 4ish miles (4.17 sticks in my head for some reason) long, but man did it take a lot out of me. I think the whole "walking in a pack" thing is what was different. Someone set the pace and then we all did our best to keep up. Plus there was some crazy psychological thing going on where you didn't want to get passed, but at the same time you wanted to pass people. It was strange and I think I burned through what energy I had more quickly than I would have otherwise. Post-"hike" Lisa and I decided that we would be fine with donating money to a place, but we'll skip their "hike" events, and just go somewhere on our own.

Event number two was setup by an event I did on Friday, which is actually a pretty good story as well, so I will precursor this one with that one. We've been having missionaries come into town all week being as this weekend started the 6 week missionary training period that all the new "interns" have to go through. So there was someone coming into Denver on Friday (I had gone through OCO (OC Orientation) with her and her husband back in November) with her twins (husband to follow) and a co-worker of mine was going to go get her. After they had talked however it became apparent that my co-worker did no possess a big enough vehicle. It was decided that we would rent a "small" SUV and pick them up. (As they supposedly had a lot of luggage.) My co-worker (a small elderly lady) didn't feel comfortable driving an suv so I volunteered. Enterprise picked me up and took me to the rental place on Friday afternoon, where I was informed I got a "free" upgrade to a full sized SUV. (A Dodge Durango) "Ok," I thought, "Whatever." Little did I know that THIS was God's way of looking out for me.

I've never driven anything this big before (other than a moving van here and there) so it took some getting used to, but a drive to Denver is a good place to get used to it. I was running a little late and thought the incoming people I was to pick up might be waiting. Their flight was delayed a bit so we got there about the same time. Then the bit of a surprise came. She had 7 suitcases and a collapsible double stroller, AND 2 car seats, AND 2 little kids suitcases. With any smaller of a vehicle there is no way we would have been able to fit all that in. As it was I wasn't able to see out the back of the tank I was driving. Then we made the long trek back to Colorado Springs in traffic.

Saturday's Second event built off of that because she and the twins needed to get up to Bear Trap (where the 6 weeks of training happens) and there wasn't anything big enough to carry all their stuff. The rental was extended over the weekend and I began the drive up there with everything following the first event.

View Larger Map
You will note on the map the road to get there. Now hit the terrain button... ok good. Most of the drive is dirt, and it hasn't been graded in a while. Have you been on the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland? Think that, only in real life. It's a crazy 6 miles. I can't even imagine the drive in our Honda Fit. We got there safely, I dropped them off, and then made the trek back down the mountain. (In first gear the whole way)

I made it home again and thinking that was my last event for the day settled down to do "not a whole lot". Then my friend and co-worker Marshall called and asked if I wanted to go hang out at a friend's house and watch some MMA. (Mixed Martial Arts) Never seen it before, but ok, why not. I could always stand to meet some new people. It was interesting and I got to meet some cool new people.

Annnd that completes Saturday's triathlon of events. Sunday's plans: "not a whole lot"... we'll see how that goes.

~B.