The end of Maple

Mt. Pleasant Utah is the local town where we go on rest days to do laundry, get groceries, and read books under a shade tree in the local park. A couple of years ago when we were there for the 4th of July we even has the pleasure of seeing an amateur rodeo where none of the cowboys could stay on the bull for 8 seconds. Since we missed the rodeo on this trip, we felt a little disconnected with local culture so we decided on night to stay in town a little late and taste the delights at the drive-in theater. I noticed that Monster House was playing, but I was going to go to the drive-in despite the movie. After all, it isn't about the movie, now is it? Much to our luck, Monster House had finished its run and Talladega Nights was playing. I had no idea what this movie was about, but it had to be better than Monster House. We pulled the van in, parked it sideways so we could lounge on the crash pad by the open side door and went to the snack bar and bought popcorn. We felt a little awkward at first since we were the only people in the lot that didn't have a huge pickup truck. What is the etiquette? Is it o.k. to drink beer? Is the sideways parked van blocking the view of others? Is it o.k. to get out and take photos of the van? We quickly relaxed when it became apparent that nobody cared a lick about what we did.
For those of you who haven't seen this movie, it is pretty damn funny. Maybe it was the beer, maybe it was the trucks running their engines during the movie, maybe it was the large extra butter popcorn that I consumed during the movie, but I laughed my ass off.


Other things that happened: we met tons of cool people. Here is a photo of Megan and I hanging out with Guy and Wendy. Wendy is from Santa Fe and takes long road trips with her dog, "Lolita, Lolita, Donde estas su pollo?" Lita for short. Wendy and I immediately became friends after I mentioned to her that I helped to start "Climbers for Kerry" and she gave me a big hug. Wendy is nursing an elbow injury, but that doesn't prevent her from climbing on 5.12s at maple. Pretty cool.

Guy travels in his truck 6 months of the year with his dog Mica (cute chocolate lab) and sent Millennium (14a) last week. He has the road trip life perfected. His rig is a custom made Truck topper that is quite well designed. On rest days, he gets a private study room at the college in Ephraim and turns it into an office. He's got it all ironed out.

The camp hosts, Charmaine, Bill and their daughter Risa are some of the sweetest people you'll ever meet. If only all camphosts could be so kind and loving. It makes the experience that much nicer to know that you are being protected and loved by great people.

So after sending some projects and not sending others we had to pack up and leave maple for Boulder, CO. The drive is 9 hours and it freakin' rained like crazy all the way through Colorado. The van, being the powerhouse that it is, kept a roaring 35 mph pace over some of the passes. Also, at elevations over 8000 feet, it emits a loud knocking sound. A bit to make me nervous. Needless to say, the drive sucked.

So here we are in Boulder, hanging out with our good friend Jeff and taking my 94 year old grandma on drives through the mountains. I don''t think she had left the old folks home for a couple of weeks so it was great to get her out. We got a little lost on dirt roads in the hills above boulder, megan got car sick in the back of the van, and that knocking sound kept coming back as I was trying to use the engine to brake the car on the super steep hills. It was an adventure, but my grandma sat there smiling the entire time. She is so incredibly cute!

On Tuesday morning we pack up and board an airplane for Rome, then Lake Como, then Hvar in Croatia, then Ithaca in Greece. I'll keep the updates coming from Europe.

Take care out there,
Marshall