I held out as long as I could, but it was bound to happen sooner or later...

I’ve lived with Katie for the past three years in a great house on the west side, near an endless amount of trails and fine drinking establishments.  She has always signed off on my goofy adventures, often crewing and pacing during races or driving and hiking a different route to set water and food out for some of my longer slogs.  My crew chief, as we would say in the ultra world.

We finally decided to make it legal.  Game over, right?  But in one last desperate attempt for a good time, I scammed Katie into having the wedding in Vegas.  With lots of driving/hiking/camping before and after.  Instead of going through the hassle of a typical wedding, I told her a road trip theme would be a lot more fun.  We’ve always had a draw to the Colorado Plateau, and we came up with a plan to incorporate that into a ten day trip.  The schedule:

Sept 20th (Thurs) – Leave after work, hit Moonlight Pizza in Salida, car camp at the UFO Watchtower in Hooper, CO.

Sept 21st (Fri) – Drive to Flagstaff, AZ.  Lunch at the Durango Diner and El Rancho Saloon.

Sept 22nd (Sat) – Hike Humphries Peak, the state high point of Arizona.  Then drive to the Grand Canyon.

Sept 23, 24, 25 – Chill out at Havasaupai Falls, including the 14 mile hike out and back to the Colorado River.

Sept 26^th (Wed) – Drive to Vegas.  Report immediately to the happiest place on earth, the Double Down Saloon.

Sept 27^th (Thurs) – Wedding day, tying the knot beneath the Fabulous Las Vegas sign.  She even agreed to a late ceremony so I could check out Red Rock Canyon that morning.

Sept 28^th (Fri) – Hike the Narrows in Zion Canyon.

Sept 29^th (Sat) – Morning hike of the Below the Rim trail in Bryce Canyon.  Afternoon hike in Canyonlands.

Sept 30^th (Sun) – Hang out in Moab.

Oct 1^st – Head back to a place cooler than anything listed above, Colorado.  Hopefully the dog remembers who we are.

To my surprise, she not only agreed to this, but seems pretty excited about the whole thing.  Which is amazing, since most of the trip will have us either sleeping on the ground or in the car.  Not exactly the wedding most women dream about.

We will have friends and family joining us for parts of the trip.  Some hanging with us for the whole thing, some just taking advantage of an excuse to visit Vegas.  All of them thanking us for not making them dress up or blow a wad of cash at some bed, bath, & beyond register type place [side note – I tried to register at Cheer’s Liquor, but the clerk gave me a weird look and said they didn’t do that].

Not your typical post for this site, but I'm sure the places mentioned above will make most of you jealous.  The post-Pikes depression is over and NYC training has started, though most training plans don't include a ten day break with a little over a month before race day.  Of course, if I stink up the Big Apple anything like I did on our mountain, I'm going to blame it on marriage.