Thanksgiving, 2008 - ROAD TRIP!!!

Giving Thanks On The Road, November, 2008

I met Jacquie at the wedding of a mutual friend on October 7, 2008. She came out to Baltimore on business the week of Halloween. When she asked what I was doing for Thanksgiving, I said I had no idea, but I was hoping to get an invite from Brian or my brother. Jacquie said she was going on a roadtrip and that I should come. I asked where she was going. She said she had no idea. That sounded like a lot of fun. So I took a week to think about it and then called her up and asked if she were serious and then booked my flights and rooms.

Here you go.


Morning from my balcony at the Cheyenne Mountain Resort, Thanksgiving Day, 2008.

Morning walk through some really cool rock formations (Garden of the Gods?) in Colorado Springs, CO, Thankgsgiving Day.

An unexpected storm dumped enough white stuff on Colorado Springs on Thanksgiving night that, with the rear-drive car and a 4-hour ride ahead to Taos, NM, we decided to book rooms again at Cheyenne Mountain Resort instead of going down to Taos in the dark, icy wetness. Here's morning on Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. Fortunately they still had rooms, though they were different rooms.		The obligatory "through the windsheild shots on the way down to Taos. The weather was really nice and sunny. The clouds in the area were often striking.

The view to the west on the way down to Taos. I know it was west because I was riding shotgun, yet to inflict great harm to Jacquie's bimmer.	Speaking of Jacquie - Jacquie.	Dot on the right, Riley on the left.

My absolutely fabulous room at the El Monte Sagrado Luxury Resort. Man, this place was just fantastic. I think all the surfaces in my room were covered in fur. The room was just really, really cozy. See that armoir? To make that, they actually launch the wooden frame at high velocity on a rocket sled directly into a prepared cow carcass.

We missed this incredible gorge on the way down. (This should have been our first clue.) We would have stopped to look around, but we already knew I was a little casual about leaving the hotel, and making my flight out of Colorado Springs was going to be a little tough.	See the lead in those clouds? Yeah, well we didn't. Our 4 hour ride back to the airport was going to take a lot longer than that because of what these clouds were bringing. See how that mountain in the distance looks like it's getting a lot of weather up on its top half? Yeah, well....	If I had to guess, I'd say the shutter tripped when someone reached for the camera.

That's the real weather up ahead.	Remarkably, after doing 5 grand worth of damage to Jacquie's car two days earlier (of course neither of us knew it was 5 grand worth of damage, or that I nearly killed the car, at the time), Jacquie asked me to drive again on Sunday. I was smiling here, but by the time we got into the snowstorm up in the mountains, the turtled SUVs made me put my smile away.