Adventures in Roadtripping - Vol 1. : Heading to Wyoming

We've been planning this trip for some time. Melissa didn't get to head home for Christmas, so we made plans to come out after the new year and spend some time with her folks.

Her folks live in NE Wyoming, an area of the country I had never been to, and there was the potential for Carolyn to see some real snow, so this sounded like a great roadtrip.

Melissa packed up the Hummer and got everything ready so that when I got home from work on Friday, we'd get the last minute things and set off on our way.

I managed to get out of work relatively close to my scheduled time, and headed home, changed clothes, and grabbed everything I could think of. This included the GPS, laptop, digital and film cameras, and cellphone charger.

Off we headed, into the night and the desert highways, headed for Cedar City, UT, our first stop.

I had fun answering email on the road (Sprint broadband connection - woohoo!), and following our track on Google Earth with the GPS connected to the laptop.

We arrived fairly quickly without mishap and got off the highway. As we approached the hotel, Melissa realizes that the hotel we chose is not the one she had stayed in before. We had picked the hotel for the ease of access to the outside for the dogs. Oh, did I mention the pups were with us? No? All of the folks mentioned in the title of this blog were in the car, along with all the necessary gear for the five of us for a week on the road.

No big deal, so it's not the place we thought it was. Until I met the lady at the front counter.

I stood there patiently after handing her my credentials, and notice a fairly large "NO PETS" sign on the all. Hmmm. She hands me back my stuff, and puts a paper in front of me explaining that there is a strict "NO PETS" policy and that there will be an additional $100 charge if we violate it. She's not smiling. The windows on the Hummer are tinted, she couldn't have seen the pups. She needs the license info from the car, so I use that as an excuse to head out to the car. It's going to go down to about 18 degrees that night, so the dogs can't stay in the car. Melissa assures me that she can get the dogs in and out without a problem, so I write the info down, take it back in, and hand the signed paper to the stern-faced counter matron.

We head to the room, thankfully placed near the back of the hotel, and we start by getting Carolyn inside. Melissa takes the dogs by car to the next block to let them run around. I help Carolyn get ready for bed, then start to connect my laptop to check email, etc.

The laptop won't fire up. It won't even show a power light. Nothing. I try the reset button on the bottom. I pull the battery. I curse under my breath and start to sweat. Everything is on the laptop - bills, writing projects, email, contacts - everything. And I can't get to any of it.

Melissa gets back, hurries the dogs into the room, and gets ready for bed. We decide that it would be better for me to sleep with Carolyn that night, as Melissa can keep the dogs on the bed with her and keep them with her. Me, I'm starting to go into a full-scale panic.

I try to sleep. I say try because I went to bed about 10:45 and realized at about 10:47 that Carolyn likes to move in her sleep. No, that's not quite it. I think she either dreams of being a Rockette or the next Mia Hamm. I got booted in the head, the ribs, the derriere and a few other choice spots. I tried moving her. She moved back. I tried turning her over. She countered with a roll of her own.

By about 2:15, I was done. Here I was, sitting on the edge of the bed, head in hands, worried about Gestapo Pet Police breaking down the door or bringing in CSI to check for dog hair, shaking in withdrawal from not being able to be instantly connected to the entire world from Cedar City UT, and wondering if I was ever going to get to sleep, and if I did, would I be woken by a swift kick in the nads from a sleeping breakdancer.

This proceeded for nearly three hours, with me doing laps between the edge of the bed, the laptop on the counter (maybe if I push the power button *one* more time...), and getting into bed, only to be booted in the head. Repeat.

I finally fell asleep about 5:00 am. We got up at 6:30 am.

I finally gave in, and decided the laptop was a goner for now, and that I'd deal with it later. We got dressed, and Melissa performed her pet smuggling routine one more time to get the dogs into the car. No SWAT team awaited our escape, and there was an entirely different (much less stern-looking) lady at the counter. No extra charge on the bill - we made a clean getaway before they got any wiser.

On the road, we started talking about what we'd be doing over the next few days. We talked about Mt. Rushmore, and I said that would be great, as I have my annual National Parks Pass....in my car...at home... I joked about turning around to go get it.

My digital SLR camera is in the shop, so I brought my pocket digital and my film SLR. There were some beautiful snow-covered landscapes on the way, so I decided that while Melissa drove, I would take some shots. I grabbed the SLR, hit the shutter button to check the light level, and the lights dimmed out. That's right, the batteries had gone dead. Little button-sized hearing aid batteries. The last set lasted over five years. These? About 9 months.

At this point Melissa told me she would drive. With the luck I was having, it might be a bad idea for me to get behind the wheel.

For a moment, I started to think back - had I roughed up a little old lady recently? Did I run over a little kid's chihuahua? I couldn't recall any heinous acts.

In poker, sometimes you just run bad. You make the right decisions, you play your hands properly, and you still get the crap kicked out of you. I decided this was one of those situations.

We found a K-Mart and I got batteries for the camera. I'll try getting the data off the laptop hard drive. And we'll just have to pay to see the four ex-chief-execs carved from stone. And as soon as I set my mind around this new attitude, the day got better.

I got some great shots in Provo Canyon of the mountains, a waterfall, and a really cool rail snowplow. I got some of antelope, a beautiful sunset, and of Carolyn and Melissa at the Wyoming state line.

Carolyn and the dogs made the trip wonderfully, considering today's drive was over 12 hours. Melissa and I traded off driving, and it was a nice, easy trip, albeit long. And we laughed about the run of luck.

We made it to Melissa's folks house about 7:45pm got the dogs dropped off, and headed to the hotel.

As I brought in bags, I could smell that the guys across the hall from us were partaking rather heavily in the "herb". I thought for a moment that I might call the front desk. Nah.... I need the good karma...

Oh, and Melissa's laptop + high-speed internet in the hotel = an end to my withdrawals. Pics to come.