In The Clearing: Red Rocks and White Snow

Normally, I'm not a fan of road trips. Sitting in a car for hours on end, sucking down large amounts of water just to have an excuse to stop and stretch your legs every so often, praying that a music shop will be advertising a sale on xylophones just so you can get to the end of the damn alphabet game and really hoping that the dog in the back of the pick up truck in front of you going 45 miles an hour on the two lane highway will not jump to his demise right in front is not my idea of a good time.

But the trip we took in late February from Albuquerque back to our home in Portland turned out to be allot of fun. I think it was the balance of fried chicken and skiing, ice cream and running that made the trip worth while. I tend to get very antsy if I have to sit for a very long time and I am absolutely miserable to be around if I have to go more than a day or two without running or some other form of exercise. With four days of skiing alternated with runs through mountain towns (and the Vegas strip), our trip from Albuquerque to Sedona, the Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, Park City, Boise, Bend to Portland turned out to be more fun than I could have predicted.

Some pictures, below, in no particular order.

The Red Rocks in Sedona.

The Pinball Hall of Fame...my favorite thing about Vegas. Screw the glitz and opulence of big gaming rooms and high roller restaurants, give me a roll of quarters and a can of Sunkist orange soda and I'm good to go.