Getting Rolling!

After a late night out Friday, I eventually managed to pry myself out of bed Saturday morning and get out of Boulder! Packed up everything into my panniers, grabbed a bagel, and headed over to the RTD bus stop to catch a ride to the airport. Didn't take much time to get the panniers checked (inside those giant plastic bags the airline gives out to keep the hardware and straps from snagging,) but then I got to stand in the security line for longer than I've ever done at DIA, even counting when I flew right after the airport re-opened after the storms last winter. Don't know why things were going so slow, but they were... Barely had time to grab some fast food on the way to the gate, but it turned out that the plane was taking off a little late anyways, so it wasn't as close as I had thought. Somehow managed to read a few chapters in my book, Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!, despite the best efforts of a few toddlers seated nearby. Eventually, about the time that the pilot usually announces to prepare for landing, there was an announcement that we'd be diverting to Knoxville, TN as there was a thunderstorm in Atlanta and we didn't have enough fuel to circle and wait it out. Oh well, two takeoffs for the price of one! After a very nicely done landing in Knoxville, we got refuelled (those guys have a really cool fuel truck, but I'll leave that part out :) ) and went for a short ride down to Atlanta. After an hour or so on MARTA, I met up with dad and we drove up to his house by 11:30 or so, just a couple hours later than originally planned.

The plan at this point is to hang around here for a few days, then I'll be getting a ride up to Traildays with my Friends Josh and Leigh from the Hiker Hostel in Dahlonega on Thursday. I'm pretty set on going to the Hardcore trail maintenance gig that Bob Peoples orchestrates on the Sunday and Monday after Traildays, will do that unless I can't work out how to get from there to the Yorktown area.

In the meantime, my bike will be heading out to Virginia at the beginning of next week. Boxed it up Friday along with much of the cycling-specific gear, Steve is going to mail it for me in a couple days - Thanks, Steve! I'm having it sent to a UPS distribution center, where I'll reassemble it in the parking lot, then head west!

Also did some messing around with the journal layout - it's not going to work as well in Internet Explorer 6, but I'm not a big fan of IE anyways, so it's going to stay that way. Hopefully some people will be fooled into thinking this thing is interesting and reading along, maybe even leaving comments! (there's a little link at the end of each entry, use it please!) Later.