Folker's Journal

9:48pm: I'm home!
There were two things I hoped to do between Colorado and Pennsylvania.

The half-mind catalog website said there was a hash in Wichita that meets every Tuesday evening.  But I was unable to get a response from anyone via Yahoo Groups, Facebook, or their phone hotline, so I concluded the hash is defunct.

I had asked a friend from Indianapolis if she were amenable to my dropping by on my way home to play some chamber music, and she was amenable.  But it turns out that this week she's out of town.

So I put in two very long days of driving, much of it in the rain, and arrived home an hour ago.

I was gone 36 days.  I drove 7500 miles.  It feels good to be home.  I enjoy the traveling, but 5 weeks of it is enough, and there are things I want to accomplish here.

10:45pm: Boulder
I'm finishing up 5 days with my sister Judy in Boulder, CO.

Friday Judy and I went on a hike.  Boulder is a beautiful town, right up against the edge of the Rocky Mountains.  We hiked in the snow up to Green Mountain, an overlook 2500 feet above the city.  (I bought a pair of Gore-Tex hiking/running shoes so I could make the hike.  I wish I had had them in Salt Lake City).

Saturday evening Judy and I went to an unusual chamber music event.  It was sponsored by members of a professional group called The Classical Revolution, and it was held at a coffee house in Boulder.  First we heard the Tesla Quartet, a string quartet composed of Ph.D. students who receive training from the world-famous Takacs quartet resident at the University of Colorado.  They performed the Debussy string quartet.  Then the Classical Revolution performed Mozart's "The Hunt" Quartet.  It was an intimiate setting, not more than 20 or 30 people in the audience, and I sat on the floor right in front.  The performance was followed by a chamber music reading session.  Judy and I brought our instruments, and we played a Mozart flute quartet.

Sunday I hashed with the Boulder/Denver hash.  I must be on a wet-n-sloppy streak with hashing, because this hash took us across several irrigation canals with water that at times was waist deep.  Apparently hashing in this particular set of canals is an annual event here, because almost everyone knew what to expect.  The weather was in the 40s, so it might have been a disaster if it were longer, but we were back to our cars and dry clothing after only 35 minutes on trail.  We retired to the hare's home for chili and down-downs.

I spent some time with other relatives in the area: Saturday afternoon with my nephew Mark and his family, Monday evening with my cousin Shirley.  My Dad lives here and joined us on some of my activities.  I spent Monday afternoon going over old family photographs with him.

8:21am: Snow
The plan was that I would take 2 days to drive to Salt Lake City, then find some trails in the Wasatch mountains to do either a 2 day backpacking trip or a longish day hike.  But the weather forecast was for snow.

I did a longish drive on Monday, stopping in Elko overnight, and a short drive on Tuesday, so I could get to Salt Lake in the early afternoon to evaluate my options.  A very helpful attendant at the REI store had some suggestions for me.  Since I wasn't equipped for snow, the higher elevations were just not going to be an option.  There was no snow falling in the city, but the mountain peaks were swathed in clouds, and it was probably still snowing there.

So Tuesday afternoon I took a 2-hour hike up Neff's Canyon and back.  The trail started in a residential neighborhood on the edge of Salt Lake City, and went straight up.  The trail was slushy at the bottom, but got more snowy as I ascended.  Where the trail got steep and rocky and slippery, I turned around and returned to my car.  I finished with my running shoes and the cuffs of my jeans soaked.

Wednesday dawned bright and clear.  But I knew there was still a major snowstorm to the east of me, and some of the major roads I wanted to take were closed.  I subscribed to the Wyoming Department of Transportation email and text message system to receive alerts on closings and openings of I-80 between the Utah state line and Cheyenne.  I headed out from SLC in the morning, and by the noon, all the roads were open.  There were a few icy patches where I had to take it easy, and I saw lots of vehicles that had spun off the road.  But I made good time, and got to Boulder before 6 PM.

11:14pm: At Becky's
I'm finishing up 5 days in Mountain View, visiting my daughter Becky, her husband Jay, and 7 year old son Perry.  Highlights of the visit included lots of good food, playing Wii with Perry, a walk on the beach at Half Moon Bay, and visiting the Mountain View farmer's market Sunday morning.  I used to live in this region of California, and I feel very much at home with the culture and the scenery.

Today my cousins, Melody and Leonie, dropped in at Becky's house.  I hadn't seen either of them in almost 40 years.  I had thought I had permanently lost touch with that branch of the family, but Melody managed to locate me about 6 months ago via Facebook.  Melody, Leonie, Becky, and I spent the whole afternoon catching up, reminiscing about our relatives, and making promises to keep in better touch in the future.

11:44am: Vegas, Big Sur
I took three days to drive to Mountain View.

After finishing my hike I found a motel about an hour south of Grand Canyon, in Williams, AZ.  Williams is on Route 66, which has mostly been bypassed now by the newer I-40.  Sunday was a short drive, and I bypassed I-40, where I could, to stay on 66.  There's a consciousness of the historic and folkloric legacy of Route 66.  It seems half of the restaurants and tourist shops along the route have "66" in their name.  The entire town of Williams has a 1950s decor.  There are even Burma Shave signs along the route, probably placed by a historical society.

Sunday evening I took in Las Vegas.  I saw "Mystere", a very good show by Cirque du Soleil.  The rest of the town was glitzy, but I'm not enamored of it.  The casinos have unique facades, but inside they're all the same.  The slot machines are all tuned to the same C major chord.

A longish drive on Monday took me to Morro Bay, CA, so that I could spend Tuesday in a leisurely drive up Highway 1 along the Pacific coast.  It's a slow but scenic drive.  At one beach I stopped at I saw elephant seals by the dozen.  I took a 3 hour hike in Andrew Molera State Park in Big Sur.  I had an excellent dinner in Carmel.

So now I'm at Becky's in Mountain View.

9:08pm: Hiking Grand Canyon
I had a great hike in the Grand Canyon.

The first day was the most interesting.  I came down the Hermit Trail, following the Hermit Creek Canyon.  The Grand Canyon as a whole is impressive, but the most interesting parts are the side canyons.  Where I was the canyon might have been a half mile wide and 2000 feet deep.  Many places I was looking straight down.  Two steps off the trail would mean instant death.

The geology of the canyon is fascinating.  It's about 5000 feet vertical from the Colorado River to the South Rim.  The top 3000 feet consists of horizontal layers, which are the same everywhere in the area.  The layers tend to alternate hard rock that erodes in vertical cliffs with softer rock that erodes in sloping benches.  Getting down from the rim to the river involves following the benches to find places where breaches in the cliff palisade allow a vertical descent.

Getting around absolutely depends on the trails.  These trails were constructed 100 years ago or more, using ropes, mules, dynamite, and shovels.  They were built for tourists like myself, people who want to see the canyon up close, and who don't mind a little physical effort to do so.

I hiked about 14 miles the first day.  I set up camp at the mouth of Monument Creek on a sandy beach just above the river.  There was one other tent on the beach, probably a family with kids, but we were far enough away that we didn't interact.

Even though I had a tent set up, I decided to place my sleeping bag outside the tent, on the sand.  I lay on my back, watching the sky darken, the bats come out, and the stars getting brighter.  I fell asleep quickly, but I would wake several times in the middle of the night.  The position of the stars told me the approximate time.

Day 2, Friday, was less interesting.  Once I hiked out the Monument Creek canyon, most of my day was following the Tonto Trail, which follows one broad shelf of shale about midway vertically between the river and the rim.  It got interesting navigating around the side canyons, but most of the day was a slog in the hot sun through desert vegetation.  I put in about 12 miles.

The second night, my campsite was at Indian Gardens.  Suddenly I was in "the corridor," the most popular set of trails in the Park.  There was a huge campground, a ranger station, chemical toilets, picnic tables, stables, and an army of boy scouts and their leaders.  You could see the lights of Bright Angel Lodge on the rim from the campground.  I attended an hour-long presentation by a park ranger on the geology of the canyon.

It's only 4.5 miles from Indian Gardens up the Bright Angel Trail to where I had parked my car.  My original plans were to make a side trip Saturday before starting up.  But I finished Friday with some soreness in my right foot.  It turned out that ibuprofen and a night's rest helped my foot tremendously, but I didn't want to take a chance on finishing with a limp, so I headed straight up.

Compared to the Hermit Trail I came down, the Bright Angel Trail was a superhighway.  I saw fewer than a dozen people per day my first two days; today I saw hundreds.  The trail was wide and smooth, and suitable for horses (I saw a few).  Of course, it was all uphill, but the switchbacks kept the grades gentle.  I got back to my car before noon, feeling in good shape, wishing I'd chosen to do one of the side trips before starting up, but realizing I'd made the safe choice.

7:05pm: Grand Canyon
12 years ago Stefni and I visited Grand Canyon.  I was so taken with the scenery that I made it a goal to return and do some backpacking in the canyon.

The Park Service requires permits for all overnight camping below the canyon rim, and most people apply for their permits months in advance.  I suppose I could have applied for a permit months ago, but I didn't want to tie my trip down to specific dates.  So I didn't know when I got here whether or not I'd be able to get a permit.

The Park Service classifies campsites as "Corridor", "Threshold", "Primitive", and "Wild".  The corridor campsites have the best facilities, and the highest traffic, and it turns out that if I had wanted a corridor campsite I'd have to wait a few days.  The threshold campsites are harder to get to, more primitive, and more solitary.  That suits me just fine, and I was able to put together a 3 day, 2 night itinerary that promises to be both challenging and rewarding.

I spent today wandering the touristy areas of the Park, and getting ready for my hike.  Tomorrow morning I'll head out bright and early.  I'll let yins know how it comes out.

12:03am: Houston
I went to Houston to spend a weekend with Ralph, a chamber musician I know from SummerTrios.  Soon after I arrived on Saturday, we drove to the home of Ed, Ralph's viola teacher.  Ed is actively engaged in coaching his students in chamber music, and he welcomed me to what appears to be a regular weekly session.  Ralph's about my age, and there was another guy of the same generation, plus three young men between 15 and 25 years old.  I used Terri's aluminum violin to double the second violin part on one movement of a Borodin string quartet.  Then Ralph loaned me a spare viola, and I played first viola in a Mozart quintet.  Later Ralph and I observed as Ed intensively coached 3 young people in a piano quartet.  When the group included me and the other old farts we mostly played without interruption.  But when Ed was coaching the younger musicians it became an intense teaching session, with Ed noticing and correcting every flaw in the music.

Sunday Ed came to Ralph's house, bringing a young cellist with him.  We played a piano quartet by Mozart.  After one movement, I declared that I really didn't like the sound of the aluminum violin.  Ed offered to let me borrow his violin, since Ed was on piano.  But after playing another 3 movements with Ed's violin, I realized that Ed's wooden violin was only marginally better than Terri's aluminum one.  When we switched to a string quartet by Beethoven and Ed needed his violin back, I was happy to go back to the aluminum.  My David Golber violin, which I left home, sounds so much nicer than either instrument I played today.  But I'm gaining a new respect for the sound of the aluminum one.

I left Ralph's to drive to The Woodlands, TX, to meet Stefni's brother Chuck, his wife Judy, their son Charles, his wife Gina, and 3 year old grandson Gavin.  We had a pleasant dinner together, then I returned to Miriam's house in Waco.  Tomorrow morning I'll resume my drive westward.

9:26pm: Waco
I spent the few days with daughter Miriam and 16 year old grandson Tyler in Waco, TX.

Miriam lives in a rambling, rickety old farmhouse that's way too large for her and Tyler.  They're surrounded by about 2 acres of land, with two barns that are falling down, a chicken coop, and a garage.  Miriam obviously loves living here, and spends time trying to clean up the grounds.  She hopes some day to raise chickens and guinea hens in the chicken coop.

Miriam took half days off from work so we could spend time together.  Thursday we visited the Waco Zoo and Friday the Texas Rangers' Museum.  The zoo was nice; the Rangers Museum was ho-hum.

Unfortunately I didn't get to see as much of Tyler as I wanted.  He's been home from school for the past week with the flu.  I couldn't tell if he was really sick, or he just didn't want to go to school, but he didn't want to go out when Miriam and I went out.  However, he's not sick enough to cancel his weekend trip to see his bandmates in Midlothian.

I went for a nice run this morning along the banks of the Brazos and Bosque Rivers in downtown Waco.  Cameron Park has beautiful running trails through the woods.  I saw many other runners, almost all of them young, very fit, and female.  I suspect the majority of them are from the Baylor cross-country team.

Tomorrow it's on to Houston.

2:30am: N'awlins
I left Chris and Lucida's early and drove to New Orleans.  I spent an afternoon and an evening exploring the French Quarter.

I had a really great catfish po-boy sandwich for lunch.

Terri recommended a restaurant called Brennan's for dinner.  When I got there I noticed two things: first, it was fancy enough that I thought I might be uncomfortable going in wearing jeans.  Second, it was 9:15, and the restaurant closed at 9.

So I went to a less formal place called "Gumbo Shop."  I had a combination plate of shrimp creole, red beans and rice, and jambalaya.  Not fancy, but pretty tasty.

Bourbon street is a swinging place, especially after dark.  Wall-to-wall bars, restaurants, tourist shops, galleries, voodo shops (Isis would enjoy it), and dozens of strip clubs.  I saw 4 different places that called themselves Larry Flynt's Hustler Club. Girls in skimpy outfits stand in the doorways to lure customers.  Aggressive guys stand outside on the street, promoting the strip clubs.  (D-A-D - help my out with a vocabulary word for these guys - not shills, not barkers, what???)

And the music is loud.  Most of the places were rock & roll.  I found only 3 places with traditional music - 2 jazz and 1 cajun.  The cajun place was practically deserted.  The one jazz place I spent some time at was packed.  I noticed a lot of gray hairs among the patrons.  The younger people were at the places with the electric guitars.

2:29am: Crispy
Monday I left Savannah in a driving rainstorm and drove to Birmingham.  I planned to meet Chris, AKA Weekend Gynecologist, between 6:15 and 6:30 PM.  I thought I timed it perfectly, getting to his door at about 6:25.  But nobody was home.  So I got in my car to wait for him and check my email on my Android phone.  After a few minutes I wondered why my dashboard clock read 6:35m while my cell phone said it was 5:35.  Then I realized I must have crossed into another time zone.  So I found a place where I could get some coffee and make a few phone calls.  I returned an hour later, and Chris was waiting for me.

Chris is a hasher who left Pennsylvania in 2006 to return to the area where he grew up.  He's currently working for Americorps supervising volunteers who want to help build houses for Habitat for Humanity, and doing the construction himself when there are no volunteers.

We went out for barbecue, then returned to the house to wait for his girlfriend, Lucida, to return.  She is a professional violist with the Alabama Symphony, and Monday evening she was at a gig in Montgomery, so I didn't meet her until about 11 PM.  Everyone went to bed soon thereafter, so I didn't get much of a chance to know her.

2:28am: Injuries
My hands got cut up quite a bit at the Interhash.  It was sawgrass on Saturday, and oyseter in the shallow water on Sunday.  There's one gash on my little finger that may take a while to heal.

9:23am: Ballbruiser
Sunday's trail was billed as the "Intracoastal Ballbruiser."  It involved swimming across about a one-eighths mile intracoastal waterway three times, and walking/wading through tidal grasslands with shoe-sucking mud.  Definitely a shiggy-lover's trail.

The weather was getting nasty, so I decided to skip the evening festivities at Greyson Stadium.  Apparently so did a lot of other people.  I met up with Moon, Rex, Buffalo Nut, and Twisted Sister and we had a nice dinner downtown.

The nasty weather in the Southeast also makes a side trip to Disney World a lot less attractive, so I'll be heading west from here.

5:21pm: Two trails
It makes a difference what the occasion is when you lay a hash trail.  Friday night there wete about 1500 people, so the trail had to be simple.  It was mostly a straight shot from the hotel area to the ON ON venue at Greyson Stadium.  Some folks ran, most walked.  I walked with friends to the beer stop at Forsyth park.  Then I linked up with Beaver Balls, who wanted to run the second half of the trail.  I ran with him for a while, then when he pooped out, I ran the rest of the way.

I was coming up to a small parklet, and I saw a few people looking for something.  I wondered if it might be a geocache, and indeed I was right.  A few years ago I made a small attempt to geocache, and I was unsuccessful.  So I stuck around.  Eventually the cache was located, in a small Tupperware bowl, which the guy with the GPS said was about 17 feet off from where it was supposed to be.  I didn't stick around for examining the contents of the cache.

On in to the stadium.  Beer and food and bands.  I wandered around looking for people I knew, had conversations with them, then wandered some more.  I drank a lot of beer.  I was pretty wasted by 10 PM, so I hopped on the bus and went back to my hotel.

Saturday and Sunday everyone has a choice of at least a dozen trails, so each trail can be more challenging (or less challenging, for those who want a short trail.)  I wanted to do the Tybee Island run.  It didn't promise to be very challenging, but the scenery was interesting, and it was hared by Moon.  But when I got to the buses, it was full.  So I opted for one of the tougher trails hosted by the Black Sheep Hash out of Atlanta.

It turned out to be a great choice.  It ran us through some choice swampland, wading through muck that at times was thigh-deep.  Several people saw snakes on the run, but I missed them.  Alligators were rumored to be in the area, but none were sighted today.

A great circle afterwards, too.  (For my non-hashing friends, a circle is an excuse for as many people as possible to do a ceremonial chug-a-lug for various real or made-up honors or crimes.)  This is the 15th biennial Americas Interhash.  It turns out that I've done 12 out of 15, more than any one else in the circle, so of course I had to chug a beer for it.

10:08am: Okinawa pre-lube
Got to Savannnah about 3 PM yesterday, checked in, and ran the Okinawa pre-lube.

The Interhash officially starts Friday, but the Okinawa crew typically sponsors an extra event the night before.  Not that there are any Japanese involved.  I think the event was originally put on years ago by a bunch of people who used to live there, but now the only connection to Okinawa is the name.

It was a typically f-ed up run!  But everyone eventually found the on-in at a bar a couple of blocks from where we started.

12:01am: Road trip day 1
I didn't get on the road until 4:30 PM, then I had to fight rush hour traffic getting out of Pittsburgh.  But I managed to put in 350 miles before stopping for the night.

Already I'm violating my desire to do all my driving in daylight!

1:57pm: Aluminum violin



I'm hoping to find some people to play music with on my coast-to-coast trek.  I'd love to take my violin with me, but leaving a violin in the trunk of a car in the sun is a sure recipe for turning a valuable instrument into junk.  When I last did a trek in 2009, I brought an electric violin with me, but it was awkward.  It didn't sound very good, and it required a lot of extra equipment -- amps, cables, etc.

It turns out Terri has an aluminum violin.  Many years ago someone cleaning out their attic gave it to her.  They had bought it as a decoration, and when the decoration wasn't needed, they offered it to Terri.  Now Terri's allowing me to borrow it for my trip.

I did some research about it.  Alcoa in Pittsburgh made aluminum violins in Pittsburgh in the 1920s and 30s, and several of them are on display in the Heinz History Museum.  This particular violin was made by the Aluminum Instrument Company of Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1932.  The company was formed by Dr. Joseph Maddy, founder of the Interlochen Music Camps.  Dr. Maddy wanted an instrument that would stand up to rough handling and outside use; 435 of the instruments were made in 1932, selling for $50.  The idea didn't really catch on, and many of the instruments went unsold.  Many of the surviving instruments were accidentally destroyed in the 1970s.

Terri's violin has serial number 139.  It may have originally been covered by a faux-wood lithographed finish, but it's now just shiny aluminum, with a wood fingerboard and pegs.  It sounded rather awful when I first picked it up, but I've put a new set of strings on it, and that warms the sound considerably.

So now I'm set to play.  I hope to set up a number of occasions for playing chamber music or fiddle music along my way.

3:36pm: LiveJournal vs. Facebook
In another week and a half I'll begin another driving trip across the USA, with stops in Savannah GA, Waco TX, Mountain View CA, and Boulder CO, and probably a lot of points in between. For past trips I've enjoyed sharing my adventures via my LiveJournal blog.

Everybody's on Facebook these days, and LiveJournal seems to be passe. But I really like the style of a blog. Facebook status updates seem to be mostly one-liners -- I prefer a carefully prepared entry that may span several paragraphs. LJ entries stick around for a while -- FB seems to be more ephemeral.

So I'll be putting my trip diary on LiveJournal. I've got Facebook set up to automatically copy the LJ entry. My FB friends will see the first few lines of the entry -- if they want to see more they'll have to expand the update.

I upgraded my LJ account to paid status -- that should get rid of the annoying ads. At least I hope so. If you see ads while you've viewing my LJ blog, please let me know.

Here's the link to my LJ blog: http://folkerhhh.livejournal.com/

5:35pm: Second anniversary
Today is the second anniversary of Stefni's death. I lit a candle in her memory. A year ago I lit a candle for her while I was on my cross-country drive. Then it was painful for me to do so. Today the pain was a lot less.

Being in my new apartment spares me a lot of pain. Before I moved I felt I was still living in Stefni's house, and her presence was felt everywhere. Now my apartment is mine, and the reminders of Stefni are the things I chose to bring along with me.

Stefni left behind an lot of ethnic stuff - folk costumes, books, records, CDs, jewelry, mostly from southeastern Europe. She left explicit instructions as to how it was to be disposed of. Some items have been shipped off on consignment, but most of the major items she wanted auctioned on eBay. I estimate that process is a little more than half finished at this point, so I've still got a bit more work to do.

It also helps that I'm in another relationship. Terri and I share an interest in music -- she's a flutist and a violinist. We spend a lot of time playing together, sometimes just the two of us, and sometimes in larger groups. We attended several music camps together this summer -- two for chamber music and one for Scottish and Irish music. Like me, she's a widow. I've been meeting members of her family, a few at a time. Last month I took her with me to a bar mitzvah in Colorado, where she got to meet all my extended family in one huge group.

8:41pm: I'm finally settled in. I spent a few hours today hanging pictures and finding a place for decorative knick-knacks. I've still got the second bedroom, which I'm using as a storage room, to organize, but at least my living space is the way I want it.

The location is turning out to be great. There's not much of interest in the immediate vicinity, but it's close to stuff. I can get to Oakland or Shadyside about 10 minutes (if I avoid rush hour) -- from Mt. Lebanon it used to be more like 20 to 25 minutes.

The river trails are nearby, in fact just across the 31st Street Bridge. It's good for marathon training, because the river trails are flat.

When I moved to the apartment, I left a lot of stuff behind. Then last weekend there was an estate sale. I arranged it with Sydney Moore, who is in the estate sale business. She managed the whole thing without my being involved. I deliberately avoided the house when the setup and sale were going on, because seeing all the leftovers from 29 years of suburban living spread out on card tables would have only depressed me. When it over, I came back to a clean and empty house. I paid Sydney a lot for the service, but it was well worth it.

10:28pm: I'm moved, but the place is a mess
Well, I made it into the new apartment. I'm here, but just barely. Monday I was packing until 4 AM, then up Tuesday morning at 7:30 for the movers to arrive at 9:30. They took 7 hours to load up, travel from the old place to the new one, and unload. I had made a date with Terri to see Carmen Tuesday night long before I scheduled this move, and I saw the opera with her, but I could barely keep awake.

Today I woke up feeling like I really wanted to be back in the old house. But I made progress today. The bedroom and bathroom are almost the way I want them, and the computer's hooked up. But I still don't have a functioning kitchen, since I left all the dishes, utensils, cookware, condiments, and spices back at the house to be sorted through. I'll return to the house tomorrow and pack and move what I need in the back of my car.

It's going to take a while before I feel moved in.

6:59pm: I'm moving!
I've been thinking of a move since Stefni died 18 months ago. I have no need for a 5-bedroom house and I'm tired of being responsible for maintenance and upkeep. I've got some trepidation about leaving the home Stefni and I shared for 29 years, but I think the move is the right thing for me at this time.

I'm moving into a schoolhouse built in 1871, and newly converted to residences. The apartment is high-ceilinged and bright, with 4 huge windows. There's a huge living room measuring 25 by 21 feet. That will be my computer room, music room, and recreation room. There are two smallish bedrooms, one of which will be for storage, especially of Stefni's unsold costumes. The kitchen's all new, and there are one and a half baths.

My address will be 3080 Smallman St. #1, Pittsburgh, PA 15201. My cell phone number continues to be 412-512-4566. I will not have a land line. I'll be making the physical move on Tuesday, March 23.

5:44pm: I'm back
After 33 days on the road, I'm back in da Burgh. I put 8100 miles on my car. Great trip! Now to get to work...

11:42pm: Rocky Mountain National Park
I took a hike in Rocky Mountain National Park today. I lost the trail a few times and had to bushwhack to find it again. But I had a good time. I made it up to Baker Pass and the Continental Divide. The mountains of Colorado are gorgeous!

Now I've done everything I wanted to do on this trip, so starting tomorrow I've got nothing on my schedule except pointing my car eastward and driving.

10:19am: Red Dress Run
I drove to Salt Lake City in time to join their Red Dress Hash. (Becky helped my buy an ugly corduroy red dress in Mountain View so I could join them.) Red's appropriate, because it's University of Utah's Homecoming Game day, and everyone wears red. We ran aournd the stadium and through the areas where the tailgaters were partying. My bugle was much appreciated when the pack got split up. Afterwards we went out for pizza, briefly attended a party for someone who was leaving town. I was given crash space by Licks and Grim. Now it's morning, and I'll push on further eastward.