-| Vacation is All I Ever Wanted |-
[and a link to Tim's Version of it]
Here is my story about the vacation to New Mexico. Apparently, I left out some details that Tim thought were important - and maybe it was partially so he could defend himself a little - or credit himself for his conquests.9:30 PM December 5th
I packed my things according to the multitude of lists I had created; and placed these bags of items in my vehicle the night before I planned to leave. I went to bed later than planned, which caused me to begin to worry about the schedule! (THE SCHEDULE - is very, very extremely important to me when I travel. I try to stick to it no matter what happens.)
10:00 PM through 11:30 PM December 5th
Constant phone calls barraged me and prevented me from going to bed. Also in this time period the friend stopped in to get the key and information on how much to feed cat.
Finally, I get to go to bed. Concerned about the amount of sleep I had planned to get for this trip compared to what I was actually going to get, I climb into bed and fall asleep almost immediately. I slept heavily and woke when the alarm sounded. I have no memory of any dreams I have had and got up and made my way into the kitchen to start the coffee pot. Next to the coffee maker, two thermos bottles stood on the counter in anticipation of being filled.
While the coffee was brewing I took a shower, brushed my teeth and packed up the last remaining things, like shampoo, toothbrush and other things. I constantly checked the time on my watch, and I was happy that I was still making good time. I heard someone in the living room and found my friend Tim had let himself in - which is not uncommon, he's been doing this for about eight years.
He then asked if he could go with me and makes two phone calls and just like that manages to get time off work. I am standing in my living room amazed at how easily this was obtained for him. He didn't even have to claim a family emergency. I never get time off that easily, but having someone other than the dog to talk to on a 30 hour drive will certainly not be something I would pass up. This also benefits me because with an extra driver I can get to the destination half a day sooner than the schedule had planned. Or one would believe so anyway.
You see, travel with Tim can be frustrating at times for someone like me, who wants to get from (point A) to (point B) with as little disruption as possible. Tim, on the other hand; wants to stop to pick up hitchhikers or talk to any people we encounter about who they are where they come from and where they are going, and worst of all, Tim is willing to drive 40 miles out of his way because he heard about some giant two headed chicken somewhere between this town and that town.
"Dude!" he would say, "How often do you see a two headed chicken?" This is typical Tim philosophy. I on the other hand, sit in the passenger seat wondering who gives a fuzzy rats ass about a chicken with two heads. We don't eat the head; we don't use the head for anything. Show me a chicken with 4 drumsticks and you have my full attention. That is just more practical.
Another bit of advice for anyone traveling with Tim - never take your eyes off the road. I'm not saying he is a bad driver. Most of the time you can relax and have no worries. The seat reclined slightly, cup of coffee in one hand, the other hand behind my head we drive down the highway as the sun is just coming up. I am fully relaxed and watch the world go by through the window. Then, I look over at Tim; who has a cup of coffee in one hand, an Egg McMuffin in the other, looking down at the map in his lap and steering with his knees. "If we turn off here instead we can go see this guy I heard about that sells old VW vans that he makes into yard art."
I am sitting over here with my arm outstretched motioning him to inch back over to our lane, before he ends up off the road somewhere. I am not in favor of his grand idea to go see VW yard art and I want to stay on schedule. The more time I have to kick back and do nothing in the mountains of NM the happier I will be.
We had to stop every few hours to let the dog out and walk around for a few minutes. I took advantage of this time to clear the trash from the car in a feeble attempt to keep everything as clean as possible.
We stopped to sleep twice on the way there, one night camping at a KOA campsite and the other night it was Days Inn (whoohoo lap of luxury there.) But I was glad to have a shower and get some solid sleep.
Most of the vacation was spent sitting around and talking. Ate dinner out way too much, but apparently my buddy, David doesn't like vegetables, red meat, or anything else other than chicken and pasta and ground turkey. He doesn't like much of anything and apparently his girlfriend didn't want to cook. We offered to cook and they quickly rebutted, stating we HAVE to try this restaurant or that restaurant. I came home so tired of restaurant food I think it will probably be after Easter before I feel like going out to eat again.
On two of these restaurant ventures, we ventured to eat "hot" wings at two different places. Since the people we were with claimed (at the first restaurant) that the wings were "really hot" they ordered medium-garlic and 'hot' (25 of each). These were basically just chicken meat, no heat to them but the beer was good. Second restaurant, we look at the menu and they had these wings that were listed on the menu after "extra hot". We order these, along with some extra hot, some hot and some medium garlic (25 of each to appease everyone).
When we ordered the blazing hot wings, the waiter says, "Oh no no no - they are very hot." And we agreed that this was a good thing and again asked him to bring blazing hot wings. Tim gets annoyed and says "JUST DO IT- bring it on". The waiter again tries to talk us out of it telling us they are very very hot, and runs back to the kitchen to get a sample. Now, these wings were indeed very hot, and we ordered some of each as originally planned.
David broke a sweat after 2 and downgraded himself to medium-garlic and hot, as did his girlfriend. Our other two friends pretty much stuck with the extra hot - and after about 3 of the blazing wings I could not take it anymore and also downgraded to extra hot. At this point I could no longer taste anything anyway so it really didn't matter. Let us turn our attention to Tim, who is happily engulfing blazing wing after blazing wing; hardly having touched his soda. Also notice he has not begun to sweat, turn red or show any other signs a person eating extremely spicy food normally has. Tim was very happy with the blazing wings and eats about fifteen of them.
Each day was pretty full of various tours, ski trips and sitting around talking. I really think I drank more on this trip than I have in the past year. I took a camera and 6 rolls of film and completely forgot about it while I was there. Somewhere I have pictures of New Mexico but they are from June-if you want any of them I am sure I can dig them up for you.
On the trip home, Tim wanted to do most of the driving; and I was okay with that other than while he was looking at the map and not watching the road. Even with someone there to say, "Stay on this interstate 215 until you come to exit 302…" He has to take the map from you and look at it to repeat what you have just said. I am exhausted, but had fun and it was a good vacation.
Tim's Version of this Trip can be found [Here].
He sent it to me after I posted this, he says I left out some important details.
I decided to include it here for your reading pleasure._____________
29 Dec 2001- perotheus.com
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