And So It Begins…

Somewhere over the Pacific
May 1 – 11:06am Japan Time | April 30 – 8:06pm Pacific Time

They say time flies when you’re having fun. Time has been flying by the past week and a half. I also am literally flying in a plane right now so I also got that going for me.

There’s a lot to catch up on. Both in terms of processing my travels so far as well as writing it down!

Blogging is tiring and the flight had many empty seats

Apr 19 | Spirited Evening

I quickly scarfed down the tasty tuna pesto melt in time for my favorite board game – Spirit Island! Jan, Scott, Kristina and I delightfully struggled against those pesky invaders. Things were totally getting out of hand for our beasty team comp when we called it to save ourselves the pain of a slow defeat and get much needed weekday sleep. We enjoyed quality time together savoring an experience that won’t come again for who knows how long. It also felt right to have a farewell game of Spirit Island just before leaving Boulder. Spirit Island has been there for me nearly since I came to Boulder and during the depths of covid, Jan and I played the game countless times. Thank you Eric Reuss for designing a masterpiece.

Apr 20 | Final Prep Day | 8 miles driven

I spent the day working, then packing until I picked up Dad from Table Mesa where he bussed in from the Denver airport. I had been hoping to surprise Dad with a pickup from the airport but alas it turns out that packing up life takes a fair amount of time. Scott joined for dinner (pesto tuna melts & spinach sardine pasta leftovers), we delighted in a few great Colorado beers (I miss you already Weldwerks), reminiscing on past unicycle adventures together and then they helped me make decisions on packing and storing stuff. We also made the call to drive the southern route to Las Vegas via Albuquerque and I40 instead of west on I70 where snowy weather would greet us – not a great situation in my Honda Fit. Throughout the evening, Jan, Sarah, James and Rachel hung out with us too. At 11pm I finally got around to giving myself a haircut and then it was bedtime just after midnight.

Apr 21 | Biggest driving day of my life | 1050 miles driven

4am wakeup alarm! Feeling a strong sense of purpose and excitement, getting up after only four hours of sleep was no problem. And then with a 4:24am departure, Dad and I took off headed for Vegas.

I took the first shift cruising through the darkness headed south. As the sun rose, Dad made some PB&H sandwiches for breakfast, yum. My favorite scenery was Raton Pass – a beautiful pass right around the border with New Mexico. In the town of Raton we changed drivers and continued on. I slept an hour or two as we drove through the desert and the miles rolled on quickly with cruise control set on 80. Our next stop was in the town of Grants where beyond the gas station, we hit Walmart for more bread, bananas, baby carrots & hummus. Maybe it’s just me but baby carrots & hummus are totally underrated. We made our way through endless desert, nommed on sandwiches/varied snacks and listened to a few episodes of The Dirtbag Dairies (check out The Last Skier Standing!) until Arizona and the Flagstaff area where the trees, high altitude and merely knowing some pro athletes live here made me want to come back. We changed drivers and buckled up for the final stretch! Shortly after passing into Nevada we saw the Hoover Dam and if we hadn’t been looking at a 15 hour drive, stopping to check it out would’ve been a lot more tempting. A bit after 6pm, we finally arrived in Vegas at Xiau-Ling’s house. She’s a high school friend and badass acrobat performer who had some downtime recovering from a foot injury which meant she could hang out with us. After relaxing a bit on her big comfy couch, spirits were high as she showed us a local Japanese restaurant where we feasted on sushi, mussels, seaweed salad, sake and more.

It was cool to see the side of Vegas where the locals go – no, this isn’t The Strip! We went home and I fell asleep immediately, full of gratitude. Highlights of the day: the satisfaction of doing the drive efficiently with just 3 stops and a totally relaxed dinner full of smiles.

Apr 22 | Sin City & Socal Disc Golf | 333 miles driven

Given the *relatively* short driving day, there was morning time for exploring downtown Vegas at Freemont St. Xiau-Ling took us to PublicUs, a delicious brunch spot/bakery beautifully decorated and featuring easily the best cookies. Massive, just the right amount of crunch on the outside and a soft gentle interior. Have you ever paid $4 for a cookie and felt like it was a total bargain?! Yeah I hadn’t either, but now I have. Then we walked around, got blown away by an awesome praying mantis, Heart Attack Grill (AKA Vegas being Vegas) and a bit of casino action.

Next, it was time to hit the road – bound for Veterans Park disc golf course in Sylmar just north of LA. For much of the drive, the speed limit was 70, cruise control was on 80 and we were in the slow lane getting passed a lot. I suspect the timing of leaving Vegas towards LA on a weekend morning played into the overall high speeds. We also passed a very impressive solar array farm before the California border. Just before getting to disc golf, the tire pressure warning indicator came on but the car seemed fine so we didn’t stress out about it. We met Matt at the course – my friend from early childhood, my friend best at cooking, my disc golf form mentor and a dieting/fitness coach. We had a blast enjoying the challenging course full of trees, elevation change, a ton of pin placement variety (one had 8 locations!!), cool breeze and not-crowdedness. Then on the way back to Matt’s in Camarillo, we hit a few holes at Sapwi disc golf course and left as it was getting dark before losing any discs. We had to do our favorite nostalgic activity and opted for burritos after disc golf. (I was reminded that California burritos are indeed better than Colorado burritos.) Some beer and grapefruit Radler hit the spot as well. To cap off the day, we watched a couple rounds of the big disc golf tournament going on – Champion’s Cup. We loved watching Isaac, Silas, Niklas and James carve up the beautiful Georgian wooded course in round 2.