I got a lot of catching up to do

The official "trip" part of my trip is over....I have made it to Seattle, but I have done a very poor job of blogging the adventure.

The last time that I chimed in, I had just finished hiking around arches National park and I was trying get rid of the soreness from riding in Moab. Well the soreness continued. The next morning, I found out that 108 Sun Salutations hurts like hell. My hamstrings felt like they did the morning after tear Part 1 and Part 2. I was still in Moab, because I was waiting on my buddy, Andy, to get back from New Mexico, so he, my new buddy Rider, and I could head up to San Fran. Rider and I had planned for a huge adventure, but due to the nights whiskey we didn't fall out of our respective hammocks until about 11:30. Later that afternoon, we decided to hike up Mill Creek to swim/ cliff jump/ get some shade. The cliff jumping sounded exciting and adventurous, but it turned out to be quite different.
When we got to the "cliffs" that over looked an amazing plunge pool, there were a few people jumping of, including a 10 yr old kid, but it wasn't to crowded. At least it didn't seem crowded. When I crawled up the waterfall to the top, I looked to my right, and there sat about 20 Moab Locals. If you have never seen Moab locals or Utah locals in general, it goes a little something like this. Polygamy leaves an area with an interesting social dynamic. The top 50% of the males, take 100% of the females. This leaves the bottom 50% of males with no women and a lot of free time to lash out and tattoo themselves about their situation. These were the 20 people sitting on top. Rider, being the outside hitcher that he is, didn't get as many stares as I did, but they had me label as a fanny pack wearing, huge camera toting, tourist. I eventually got the courage to sit down with them and they were actually great guys. Hell if we would have just gone off of first impressions, I would have run and they probably would have chased.
After sitting on top of this rock for a few hours, we decided it was time to head back to town and get a greasy burger at the famous Milt's. On the way down, I said "well I might as well jump." To make a long story short, that wasn't the best idea. I jumped a little to far, like past the deep water-too far. I landed in not the deepest of all areas and I am very lucky that more soreness is all I got.

So off to San Francisco I headed with two new friends on board across Hwy 50-" the loneliest highway in America"-and legs that hurt worse than 4 years of college football combined. That is not the best state in which to be if you are head to hang out with Elmer Collett. Elmer is my dad's old football buddy. He is a 64 yr old, retired pro bowler, firefighter, who is in better shape that anyone I know. He is also 6'5" and he has a son just an inch shorter. Just a hint, don't try to keep up with them on a hike. Especially not 12 miles through their home turf. The first day, they took it easy on me and we rode bikes, but still then, Elmer pushed me and he never changed gears. However, on the second day, there were times when I was literally jogging behind Elmer and Casey as they walked. The third day in Cali, Casey and I took the bikes down to the ferry and rode it into San Francisco. We spent the day riding up and down the fisherman's wharf. It was a really cool city. I'm sure there was loads more to see, but we had a good time. When we got back to Stinson, that is when the story get really interesting. We had a great barbeque with OYSTERS and that has pretty much written the pages for the last three days.
The morning after the barbeque, I woke up early and started the trek to Washington. The drive was just like any ole drive through beautiful NorCal, Oregon, and Souther Washin....Oh wait, it all changed about Southern Washington. Just south of Olympia, I started to get terrible heartburn and by Olympia, that heartburn turned to stomach pain. By the Seattle city limits, that stomach pain turned into me throwing on the hazards in the middle of a street and puking my life up on some unknown road. All of which turned into a sleepless night in Seattle. How fitting.
I have finally recovered, but it was not pretty. Landing with food poisoning at the steps of a doctor and a nutritionist who both happen to be awesome sisters is quite the luck. Molly and Stephanie got me back into my form and here is sit in my home for the next month. I am pretty excited, just about everything, but in particular because I just scored a new bike. Molly was trying to get ride of her old road bike. It is a late 80's model Specialized Allez steel lugged frame bike. It is awesome. I am going to rig it out with some moustache handle bars and panniers, it is going to be great.
I am not sure if I am going to blog through the rest of the summer, but I assume since everyday is an adventure, I will have something to write about.