Reunion

My mother receives all the information for her branch of her family. This means she coordinates and registers each of us siblings, and disseminates info to us. This year, I knew only that the reunion was to be in Winter Park, Colorado. Reunions being what they are, I decided to take my bike as a diversion. I also decided I would take my truck.

Arguments about my spending the gas money when I am otherwise financially strapped aside, I took the truck because a) I wanted to be able to look up at the mountains through the roof while driving, b) I did not want to spend 8+ hours in a van with my mother, c) it has never been to the mountains with me, and I wanted to see what that was like. It was adventure building and bonding time for myself and my vehicle.

Originally, I was going to drive mom out. There was concern about passenger space on the return trip, when I would have to drive my niece and her boyfriend to the airport, but otherwise it was okay. Then, my dad got the time off from work, so they took their van and I drove my truck. I led our vehicle pack and we stopped every two hours or so to stretch, potty, or eat. The drive out was entertaining – as they really are nice and fun people, my folks, if you aren’t trapped with them – if hot.

We left early Thursday morning. I got a late start because my oil change took longer than expected, but I’m not complaining because it gave me longer to talk to my nightingale. My folks and I were to rendezvous at a major truck stop. They were supposed to go ahead and order, then place my order about 30 minutes later. Instead I found them sleeping in the van. We went inside, had a nice but light breakfast, and had a lot of laughs. We were all well rested (depsite my being up at midnight still the night before) and in a great mood.

Except for my bike, all of my cargo was in the cab. The extended cab was full of luggage and camping gear. In the passenger seat, I had lots of unsorted mail. During the most boring part of the drive, in the middle of the afternoon when the sun was high and hot and there was no scenery – I kept myself awake by sorting mail into folders in my lap while driving. I had two plastic grocery bags full, and actually managed to finish one before I reached the traffic in Denver.

My state, in fact, most of the country had been suffering from drought and high temps, and Colorado was no exception. However, as we crossed the plains, the mountains were obscured in a cloudy haze (more than smog). As we rolled into Denver, rain clouds were obscuring the sun all along the frontrange. The air was cool – low 70’s – as I am accustomed to expecting in Denver.

I called my nightingale from my Aunt’s, and she helped me to locate Tyler. About an hour later, I pulled into his driveway. We chatted breifly, then we went and took his sexy car for a drive. We ended up downtown and walked The Mall. He’s doing well, despite certain setbacks, and persists in being his unique self. He’s even learning Dutch just so he can jive with programmers on IRC. Very cool.

At 5 or 6 am I drove back to my Aunt’s and slept in the drive until the others woke up. Then my sister, niece, boyfriend, and “Glenn” left for the morning. “Glenn” is actually a CabbagePatch doll with a “Glenn” nametag, a surrogate for my sister’s boyfriend Glenn, who couldn’t come on the trip. She took him everywhere, and got lots of photos of him with us.

We drove up to Blackhawk and my sister played blackjack, while the youngins went to Central City. Then back in Golden we took the Coors tour and then ate in downtown Golden. Then her boyfriend Tim got in my truck, while the women drove a rental car, and we drove up to Winter Park. My transmission overheated on the way down the mountain, so we stopped by a creek and played for 30 minutes and enjoyed the cool mountain air and overcast skys. A little while later we pulled into “the Vintage at Winter Park” resort.

It was only 5ish in the afternoon, so there was plenty of time to unpack in our rooms, and go check out the outdoor hottub (which was of size to hold some 50 people) and pool before our first gathering of the evening. But I was more interested in checking out the flyers on the front desk. I was already disappointed to learn that there was horseback riding and whitewater rafting available to our group, and I didn’t bring enough cash – but I was excited to learn that not only was this the weekend of the “24 Hours of Adrenelin” race, but that all of the valley Chambers of Commerce and resorts were holding a “Mountain Bike Capitol USA” festival!

There were guided tours Saturday and Sunday of the local trails, including lift rides up and then down the mountain. There were vendors of all kinds giving away all kinds of stuff, and best of all, registration for the event was free, and only involved signing away my rights to sue. There was also a Food & Wine Festival, free concert series all month, and some other festival that I didn’t get to. I spent much of the evening comparing our reunion schedule with the event schedule, trying to fit in all that I could.

The next morning was a beginner tour. I thought that would be a good way to get “up and running”. My sister and them decided to rent bikes and join me, and one of my cousins’ family also brought their bikes, and tried to join us. They never made it, but had a good ride anyway. Fortunately for all of us, we had spent the few days in Denver to aclimate to the altitude.

The tour was to start at the Frazier Chamber of Commerce. I asked around, and found that the Frazier River Trail would take me all the way there. So, with about 15 minutes to spare, I started my ride. It was a beautiful trail, paved and winding through National Forest along side the road until it reached town. In Winter Park, I resisted stopping at the booths, but did pause to lube my chain, after it was in the truck all night in the rain. I had to cruise at 25mph from WP to Fraizer and even then I was almost 10 minutes late.