You are lost

Eighteen hours doesn’t sound like a long time but when it’s spent driving non stop from Arizona to Montana it becomes a test of endurance.  There are a few scenic stretches here and there but there’s a lot of boring straight flat stretches (i.e. Utah) in between where you’d just as soon fall asleep at the wheel.

Sara was unable to get her time off in August so it was Matt, Linh, myself and 1,200 miles of pavement for company.  After some last minute tinkering (to no avail) with the car lighter we departed.

We had opted to leave Saturday night after everyone was off work.  Aside from getting us up to Montana sooner it would also mean a quiet and cool drive through Arizona and hitting Salt Lake City on a Sunday morning.  Matt was the last off work and opted for the first shift driving, which got us to Flagstaff uneventfully.  From there I took over.

I chose to take the 89 north to Utah rather than swing west to Las Vegas.  It meant driving slower but it was a more direct and scenic route that took about the same amount of time.  At Bitter Springs I took the 89Alt through Marble Canyon.  It was about 3 a.m. and the moon was bright which sillouted the stairlike mountainside in front of me.  The pirates were asleep as I ascended and without another driver for miles it was just me and the deer and the twisty road up the cliffside to Utah.

Matt took over in Panguitch.  Shortly after Panguitch is the only part of Utah I’ve come to like, the Utah 20.  However they only tell you about the turn off 20 feet before the turn making it easy to miss in the dark of night.  We saw the sign but before we could touch the brakes we were past it and had to make a u turn.  Soon we were on the 15.  We stopped off in Payson to refresh ourselves before SLC.

After some breakfast Linh took over driving to Idaho.  A couple hundred more uneventful miles and we were in Montana.  It had been a cool wet spring so everything was green and vibrant.  It was refreshing to see that the entire state wasn’t on fire as it had been when we moved 2 years ago.  We hit a couple patches of rain on our way up to Junction 90 where we stopped to gas up and I got my life threatened by a 60 year old man.  Forgot there was a bunch of crazy up north.

I was on my phone with my mother letting her know we were only a couple hours away when this silver haired geezer started walking towards me.  I stepped out of his way to let him pass but he continued towards me, dropping a sholder and bumping into me gently.  I gave him a confused look and he muttered something to the effect of “I could’ve killed you you fuck.”  Before I could even think to destroy this entity he was in his car and gone.  Welcome home.

We continued over to Townsend where I was staying with my mother.  The pirates (Matt and Linh) went to visit some friends in Helena.

I generally eat 1 meal a day, with maybe a light snack in between sometimes.  Mothers don’t allow that.  I had a big dinner that night, and breakfast the next morning and when the pirates came back over we all had a big lunch too.  It’s no wonder I gained 7 lbs on vacation.

Before heading off to Missoula my mother showed me some of the new projects they’re working on.  She and 2 other ladies are sharecropping a small 100′x100′ garden (I say small in comparison to the massive barley fields and everything else they do where you measure in acres, to me it’s still a huge garden).  I got to see the bio-deisel press (which they’re expanding) and we all went for a drive through the countryside.

It was evening by the time we got to Missoula.  I was staying over at The Boy’s place while I was there.  We went to the Bayern brewery for a couple of drinks then Kody and I went for coffee at Finnegans where I was bombarded by old friends.  After a couple hours we went cruising the bars looking for more people but bars are pretty quiet on monday nights.  We ended up playing some Keno instead.

Tuesday morning I met Al for coffee.  Al got in a motorcycle accident in June so I was exceptionally glad to see him well.  After that Matt and I went walking along the riverfront trail and ended up in Flippers playing more Keno.  Then it was off to Bayern again to meet up with Linh and her brother for some drinks and chess where I won handily.  Then it was off to Jayann’s for a wonderful BBQ and more drinking with many many people… and babies.  So many babies!  Mara and Tyler had a baby, Briggs and Leia had a baby, Robyn had another baby (although it was a while ago, I hadn’t seen her until now).  Josh, who had come all the way from Butte to see me, had another baby… growing up is strange, isn’t it?  I was elated and pretty drunk by the time I passed out on The Boy’s couch.

Wednesday I was to head back over to my mother’s place for a family reunion type thing.  My uncle Kevin and aunt Michelle had coincidentally taken the same period of time off for their vacation.  After a late start and some headache medicine I met up with my uncle Scott who would be carpooling with me.

My grandparents were already there when we arrived, and my mother was feeding them liquor!  Kevin and Michelle rolled in shortly thereafter.  There was much drinking and merriment and burgers and cookies and datetort and my brother and sister showed up and everything was wonderful.

The next morning we all sat around drinking instant coffee (my mother, strangely enough, doesn’t drink coffee (I know!) so this was all she had around) and joking about.  Scott and I left back for Missoula around 2ish, but not before my mother loaded me up with homemade goodies.  Cookies and food and a bottle of her homemade Huckleberry liquor.  Shortly into Helena we rain into a massive storm.  Black clouds and lightning covered the horizon and a torrential downpour ensued that blinded our vision.  The highway became a small river from all the rain, which made driving interesting.  It let up before the junction (thankfully) and we made it back to Missoula where I proceeded back over to The Boy’s for a quiet dinner of his finest grilled meats and some more drinking.  Al showed up and the pirates came over for a bit as well and we all sat outside in the cool evening watching the distant lightning.

Friday was to be my last actual day in Missoula and by this point I hadn’t eaten at any of the restaurants I wanted to hit, what with everyone feeding me barbeque.  It was a cool cloudy day, so while I waited for everyone else to wake up I went off to the Good Food Store to pick up some coffee and decided to see Skol and Jen while I was in the area.  Skol was at work but Jen was home so I got to see her new baby and talk for a bit.  By this point it was raining and everyone was awake.  The Boy, Kody and the pirates met me at Dino Cafe for some Cajun cooking.  Then we went to Uptown Diner for some milkshakes.  Then we checked out a new toy shop by The Wilma called Tsunami.  Nifty collectibles and art work.  By that point it was really coming down so the pirates went their way and the boys and I went back to the house to dry off and have some coffee.  We sat around, sharing new musical finds, smoking cigarettes, playing witht the pets and just relaxing.  Then it was off for another restaurant.  We weren’t too hungry but I really wanted to have some Kang Karee from Thai Spicy before I left.  Then we went back to the house to digest for a bit before I went over to Fins to meet with the pirates for some coffee and to figure out our plans for the next day.  After coffee Kody and I went to Club Q to see the new scene and to see who was there.  I ran into a couple of people, including Aki who had some new artwork to show me.  I love his work and he now has a deal worked out with someone who does silk screening so I got a shirt for myself and one for The Boy.  When Aki heard one of them was for The Boy he searched for one with sleeves (the boy has an allergic reaction to sunlight) and not seeing any, took the shirt off his own back to give to him.

I slept alot that night.  All the drinking and not sleeping and constant running around had started catching up to me a little.  After some coffee we all went out for Gyros before I was to meet up with the pirates for departure.  I’m not very good with goodbyes.  All I could really say is I would come back soon.

I arrived at Linh’s folk’s house, where here family LOADED the car with stuff.  Purses and lunchboxes and vegetables and all sorts of stuff.  After some quick goodbyes we left and were on our way back home.

The trip home was pretty uneventful until Utah.  Our trip up we had unintentionally staggered our sleep schedule due to work.  Now we were all getting tired around the same time since we all got up fairly early.  So now tired and a little hungry we stopped in Provo to eat and refresh, when we got pulled over by the police.  They had run my plates (without reason) and felt my registration was in error (which it wasn’t).  Whatever.  We ate and got back on the road.  Then just south of Kanab at the 89 alt turnoff we got pulled over AGAIN.  It was about 3 a.m. and we were but a mile or two from the Arizona border and this cop was following us when he decided to pull us over.  He said we were speeding (we were 10 feet away from a sign that said 45 mph, but to him it was 41 in a 35, though he was following us so it couldn’t have been an accurate reading) but it seemed like an excuse to search us for drugs we didn’t have.  For about half an hour he searched the car over for these non existant drugs before letting us go, tired and severely annoyed.  The rest of the trip back was boring, tiring and uneventful and we were pretty glad.  It was 7 a.m. on Sunday when we arrived home, and crawled directly into our beds.  Sara had cleaned the entire house top over and had found a new kitchen table and such while we were gone which was surprising to come home to.

I’ve been back to work a couple of days now, but mentally I’m still on vacation.  It’s taking a while to get back in to the swing of things, and I don’t really want to either.  Not just yet.