Home...is where I want to be.

After a long road trip to The Red River Gorge and The Great Lakes I am home.  I left last Friday and drove straight to Miguel's.  SHyeAh!  The weather was great Saturday and Sunday, lending us perfect conditions for red river pocket pulling.  It was funny to return just 4 days after breaking down and becoming dependent on the community at Miguel's for transportation to and from my broken down van.  I am very grateful of those who helped Alex and I out when we were truly stuck with no way out.  Thank you.

So, there I was again in this amazing river gorge for the weekend.  Climbing was good.  I did another .13a, Beer Belly, which is a nice sustained little route.  It climbs longer than the others on the wall and it maybe one of the better ones.  While Drive By holds some nice routes, the real excitement was over at the Bob Marley crag.  A slew of capable climbers were taking numbers for their burn on Ultra Perm.  I had planned on jumping in for a few goes but when I found out the line was like 6 deep I reconsidered.  Sheesh.  Next time I will try it for sure.  It's always a struggle for me to decide what I want to climb on.  Should I try classic routes I can do in 2 or three tries or maybe put in the work for a future hard send?  The dilemma lies within the amount of climbing I'll be doing.  If I can climb a route from the bottom to the top and fall, then there is a gain in strength at least.  On the other hand, if I'm going to spend two days dogging up a route pulling up my rope and going in direct I might as well be at home where I can visit the crag more frequently.  Does that make sense at all?

Anyway, Kurt and I left Miguel's Monday morning to start our tour of the Great Lakes.  Kurt summed it up like this;  5 days, 5 states, and 2020 miles.  Yep.  We drove a lot.  Each day we'd visit retailers and do demos at the end of the day until the crowds thinned at whatever gym we were visiting.  We saw a lot of rural america and drove right through the industrial land of Michigan.  And just when I thought I had made it home, not 10 miles away from my own fluffy sheets and pillows, my van overheated again.  WTF!?  It was 1am and I had no choice but to get towed home so I could sleep.  The next day would be filled with F words.

 Here are some pictures from the trip.

 And here are some pretty flowers I picked yesterday.

 I'm not feeling very blog-y right now.

Later.