Finally I have my 'puter back and can write to my hearts content. Now if we can only get A's fixed we'll be blogging fiends,
fiends I say. It's only fitting then that half the week's gone before I get to tell the saga of our return home.
We had such a great time at Scott and Cath's over TG weekend. The hostesses with the mostesses etc etc. On Sunday we purposefully booked a late flight so we could relax getting home. This gave us the chance to have breakfast with C&S in town (with little c in tow, of course). One last hurrah. I of course had to get the moral equivalent of huevos rancheros (a long standing tradition from our many TG trips to Alisal). But I digress.
The trip home. Wow. As we turned in on Sat night, I thought of my Mom and Sister, waking at the crack of dawn to be on the road for their 12hr drive back to SF. I did not envy them. I felt quite smug in fact. The journey from Oakland to Flagstaff was 7hrs door to door and not unpleasant. Now I tend to be on the early side, indeed preternaturally punctal to a fault. So although its only 145 miles to Phoenix I left 5, count 'em, 5 hours to make our flight. We left ~1-ish for a 5:30 flight. [A tells me that "anyone that knows me would know that I think it is in
sane to leave that early for a flight."] It all started well and the drive was bee-utiful. We tried to take pics but they don't really do it justice. At some point on the drive we saw a sign that said accident 65mi ahead, use alternate route. What I
thought was that they were diverting traffic on an alternate route. What they
meant was your on your own, figure something out. Turns out hwy 17 was completely stopped. By 5pm is was clear we would miss our flight. That's right, I left waaaay too much time and we still missed it!
After we realized we were gonna miss the flight it was time to figure out what to do. We were in New River, 33mi from Phoenix. Hwy 17 was basically stopped (again the picture doesn't do it justice). There was an alt route that would eventually (we finally found out) get us into Phoenix ~ 6. Since this is an Expedia ticket, we would need to check in by 7:30 in order to be eligible for stand-by. That was an option. However, all flights from Phoenix to all Bay Area airports (including Sacto) were booked through the end of the next day. That means we could end up rolling over our standby through to Tuesday! We decided to drive. Took 10W -> 5N (passing very close to downtown LA). Rolled into Oakland at 5am pst. Phoenix - Oakland was ~12hrs. Total door to door: 17hrs. Mom and Nicole were the smart ones!
Well I hope the next story is a happier one. For now I leave you with the moral of the story:
(for an explanation you'll have to ask A)
-E
Here's more pictures:
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Well we made it! After much hand ringing and hours of practice the piece went off rather well. As Katy so aptly put it "I would like to point out that dozens of hours of rehearsal can be wiped away with one cryptic swipe of a conductor's hand." I think I promised not to post her picture. I can never be sure :->
Duykers mentioned that the inception was 6 years ago! I for one am happy it went well but am ready to move on. I've been neglecting my regular gigs (Clockwork and PME) a bit. It will be nice to get back to work. I have so many ideas for J&P now. And Clockwork has a whole gaggle of new tunes to roll out. Speaking of which, we will be at the Cayuga Vault in Santa Cruz this Sat. I think that's gonna be my last gig for the year. Time to relax and have some fun!
