The following morning I got up and headed toward Kentucky to see Lauren. The drive felt like it took forever. I kept having the "there yet?" question which is far less satisfying to ask when you have to answer yourself. Once down there we had an amazing week. Lots of new people and places and all of it was beautiful. I also got to climb at the red which is one of my all time favorite places. I of course got the classic, "ranch, chicken, bacon, feta, and spinach pizza" at Miguel's. It really is the best thing ever. Then when that is combined with Ale 8. Then combined with climbing! Well goes without saying but I loved being there. I was also wicked stoked Lauren could come. We met my friends Justin and Bailey down there Thursday morning. The rain was sad but we tried to be positive. Or Lauren was positive and I was a "whiny weiner." I was kind of complainy. We got to climb a couple good routes and were able to stay out of the water. Bail and Justin left around 4, which was when Rosco, Thomas, or Aaron as most of you recognize, his girlfriend (also Lauren) and Jordan Porter had come down to meet us for cabin fun. We stayed in the "what a view" cabin. Which did have a lovely view and a hottub. We had probably too much fun, which included Aaron setting his face on fire, and Rosco piling up dead wasps followed by the exclamation, "why are there so many god damn wasps piled up over here." My first response was clearly, "because you keep kicking them into the pile." Rosco did not find it as funny as the rest of us. We laughed and did impressions of him for quite a while. The next morning we headed back to Richmond.
It was sad when I realized the week was coming to a close. Lauren was able to come back North with me for Saturday and Sunday which was really good too. She met the fam and got to meet more of the donkeys I call my friends. Saying goodbye couldn't have been a whole lot harder. Luckily it isn't too much longer until our next visit. 40 ish days I think.
Monday we had Gram's visitation and funeral. Almost immediately after I hopped on the plain to head back to the West. Getting home was nice. I just wanted to lay down for a few days, unfortunately real life called at 5am the following morning. Its ok because I got to chase the shot of real life with rock climbing after work. I filmed and am pretty stoked about the video. Matt's birthday gift, a wooly mammoth sized crashpad inspired this little climbing sesh. There is a v6 dyno in Ute Valley that I've wanted to try but it is pretty high and the landing is a little uneven. Well since I now can tote more pads than Climbtime in Cincinnati I felt pretty comfortable. So I set out to try it. I also repeated my old project from there that I finished this winter, and started playing on a cool problem called "The Cube." Here it is. Hope everyone is having a great week.
PS thanks to all for the birthday wishes. You all, my friends and family, mean more to me than I can explain. Except Matt.
