The Drive to Cascade Mania

Ramoo has spewed for years how the July Cascades Trip is his best trip of the year. Yeah, like 5000 foot ascents, super-scary loose rock on alpine ridges, really truly bad weather and Ramoo without a bath for 19 days in a row could be fun... I keep thinking, "I should have done this when Ram was pudgy and I was skinny," but have to settle for current conditions - a lack of conditioning on my part, and Ram literally on steroids. At least we had young, cute Ram Jr. to lead anything scary and carry the big loads. I signed up.

Fortunately, so did Bucky, so I would have a congenial partner-in-misery, chasing up them big mountains after Ram and Young Ram. I tried to convince myself my slightly screwed up shoulder was excuse-enough, but couldn't quite do it. So, 10:30 pm (having successfully avoided packing for 2 days, finally conceeding) July 17th, I poured a quart of oil in the old Honda and headed north for Bucky's Salt Lake Villa, planning on catching a few hours sleep here and there.

Needless to say, long and boring. From my house in Mt. Carmel to Larry's (Tres Fabulous) House in Winthrop, 1144 miles over approx 26 hours. Thankfully, Bucky did most of the driving, AND brought along a most excellent book on tape, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon.