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Tuesday, October 4, 2005	Wednesday, October 5, 2005	Thursday, October 6, 2005
Friday, October 7, 2005	Saturday, October 8, 2005	Sunday, October 9, 2005

The Road Back - Sunday, October 9, 2005

I had set my alarm for 5am Pacific Time but the fortunate thing about only sleeping six hours a night was that my internal clock woke me at four. I gathered my stuff together, said a final farewell to Peter and Roe, and hit the road about twenty minutes later. Four in the morning is one of the few times there isn't any traffic to speak of in Los Angeles. I made it out of the urban sprawl without incident, and made it to the Nevada border in three hours. A quiet serenity had settled over me, a warm feeling of subtle happiness pervaded my existance as dawn spread her rosy fingers over the horizon. I was on the road again, a nomad travelling the western deserts. I had just spent several days with close friends, seen the Trojans win again (that's 27 in a row, by the way), and had a wonderful vacation. I hoped the trip back to Denver would be as uneventful as the trip out had been. I had debated stopping in Las Vegas to play a round of golf and introduce the business to more potential clients, but decided against it as I drove past. It would add at least another five hours to the day, and I preferred to get over the mountains as early as possible. This time of year, the weather tended to worsen as the daylight faded. I press on. As I passed through the northwest corner of Arizona, I hook up with two other cars, and we form an impromptu paceline. Each of us took turns at the front, with the others following close enough to take advantage of the draft. We weren't bumper-to-bumper like in NASCAR, but we were still close enough to use the car in front to break the wind and improve our gas mileage. As I exited from I-15 north to I-70 east, I give a wave of thanks to my cohorts. The road ahead and behind me is empty and with 109 miles to the next services, I get the feeling this is prime speed-trap territory. Without a "rabbit" to follow in sight, I lessen my speed a bit, click on the cruise control and glide along at an indicated 85 miles per hour. The speed limit was 75, but previous roadside radar posts had shown me that my speedometer was off by several mph, so I figured I was safe. Perhaps twenty minutes later, I spy a white car in the distance behind me, closing fairly fast. The Utah State Patrol cars are white or gray so, just to be safe, I click off the cruise and drop my speed a bit. The car closes the gap quickly, passes me, and I see it is just another driver. A driver who happens to be driving his Nissan Altima at a good clip. "Go rabbit, go!" I shout to myself, urging him on as I tuck in behind him about 100 yards back. We cruise along for an uneventful thirty minutes or so before we start to hit the hills. My little Honda, a four-cylinder car without much power, needs all the help it can get going up hill, so I closed the gap between the "rabbit" and I to take advantage of the draft again and let him pull me along. As we crested one hill, my heart skipped a beat when I saw there was a State Patrol car on the median, pointed the other way. I immediately let off the gas, only to see the patrol car start turning around. Up ahead, an eighteen-wheeler is driving in the right lane, presenting me with a bit of a quandry. I check my mirror and sure enough, the Statey is coming after us. My "rabbit" had already passed the semi and I wrestled with the question of passing it and hiding in front or waiting for the cop to go by. I decided to pass. I get around the truck and tuck in right in front of it, not dangerously close, but close enough to hopefully give the patrol car no reason to nab me, especially when the Altima is a half-mile ahead of me. I drove along, tension filling my body - one eye on the road, one eye on the cop in the mirror. The patrol car doesn't hesitate in the slightest as it zooms by the truck and I. "Wheeeewwwww..." I let out a big sigh. That was close - a bit too close. I reminded myself that getting back without a ticket was more important than saving an hour's drive time. Besides, I was close enough now that an extra five or ten miles per hour wasn't going to save me much time - especially since the car would struggle going over the mountains. A few minutes later I pass the nabbed Altima driver and silently thank the rabbit for a job well done. "Thank you, good sir. You have fulfilled your purpose on this trip. I wish you well." Just then, Peter called to check in. "Well? Did you stop in Vegas? Are you golfing?" "Nah," I said. "I was making good time and decided to keep rolling. I'm almost to Colorado." "Wow, you ARE making good time" he said. He spoke to Roe or Cassidy to the side, "He's almost to Colorado." Back to me, "Well drive safe and give us a call when you get home." "Will do," I reply. Technology is an amazing thing. There I was, miles west of nowhere Utah, and my friend had called to check in. As I crossed into Colorado clouds had begun to push up against the western slope, and they were starting to shed rain. I received another call from another friend. This time it was Tamra. "Hi. How's your trip going?" she asked. I tell her I've had a wonderful trip and that I was almost home. "I knew you were travelling and I just wanted to let you know that there's a winter storm warning going into effect at about midnight tonight." "Yeah," I said. "I'm driving through it now. The mountains are hiding behind the clouds. I'm making good time and hope to be over the mountains before it hits." She tells me to remember to consider stopping somewhere for the night if it gets bad. "I will, but you know me..." "Obsess much?" she jested. "Yeah, I'm a very goal-oriented person," I replied. Especially when driving. "Well you take care and be careful." I promised to. At that point, the rain had started coming down hard, so I told her that I needed to get off the phone to focus on the drive, and thanked her for the weather update. As I approached Glenwood Canyon, a black dually pickup truck passed me. "Go rabbit, go!" The familiar phrase rang through my head again. I tuck in behind the driver, who lead me through the rain and traffic for an hour or so before exiting. The rain had become an intermittant shower by this point, and I hoped it would remain that way as I climbed the western slope. Twelve hours after departing Burbank, I had made it back to the outskirts of Vail. I was making great time! After pulling off for the last refueling of body, mind and machine, I returned to the highway for the final push over the mountains, feeling confident that I'd best the record fifteen-hour "commute." Then it began to snow. In a half-mile, I went from cruising along at a nice clip to a dead stop as the freeway turned into a parking lot. Four lanes merged down to two as snow covered the road and people forgot how to drive. Trucks whose drivers had ignored the "Chains Required" signs were randomly strewn across the road. Cars were stuck all over the place, a few had skidded off the road and down the embankments. The mountain snow had hit so hard and so fast that the plows hadn't even made it out yet. I sat in my car, unmoving, for thirty minutes, being grateful I didn't have to worry about running out of gas. "So much for making record time," I thought. "Patience, grasshopper." As darkness fell, I finally began to make my way through the morass of distressed vehicles. At one point I had to come to a stop, and couldn't get moving again - the icy road gave me no traction. Fortunately, a wandering band of good samaritans (see arrow in pic below) were pushing stuck vehicles out of their respective quagmires. They gave me a push, and I was off again. Crawling along at twenty miles per hour, I was just happy to be making progress. I crept along through the remaining mountain passes for two hours before coming down into Golden. The snow had turned back to rain, and the final leg was uneventful. I learned the next day that I had been lucky to make it through the mountains at all - the Department of Transportation had closed the roads by the time I got home. ... What a great trip! I accomplished my goals, spent some time with good friends, and squeezed in a bit of adventure to round it out. Club Golf Network will be launching lots of new functionality for the 2006 season, and keep checking our golf blog for more entries!

Other Golf Blog Entries
Tuesday, October 4, 2005	Wednesday, October 5, 2005	Thursday, October 6, 2005
Friday, October 7, 2005	Saturday, October 8, 2005	Sunday, October 9, 2005

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