I have returned. You can hold your applause until the end.
I left New Mexico at about 0940 my time and arrived home 1047p my time. A good 13 hrs drive time, yeah? (I may or may not have mathed correctly. I'm a bit road weary.)
It was a shorter drive home than out. Mostly because going home, I knew where I was going. Going out? Not so much. I mean, I knew my destination, but I've never driven there from where I live. I've driven there from Southern New Mexico, but not coming in from a bazillion miles to the East.
I stopped a lot, just for a few minutes at a time, going out. Checking my Google map and making sure I knew where my turns were and what not. Lost all internet connection several hours out (Podunkville, Middle USA), but my map still showed my destination (a little blip) and my car (a little car) and so I was able to navigate just the same. (Good thing I looked hard at that map the night before I left whilst I was at work.)
After getting on I26 in Trinidad, Colorado, I lost my little blue dot showing my destination. Now... I still knew, generally, where I was headed, but... losing that dot sucked ass because a general location is not a destination... it's an area in and/or around the destination. Fortunately, I was able to text my friends and they walked me in. Mostly.
Angel Fire, New Mexico was the destination. Ski resort, off season, obviously. When I got there, I could't find where I was supposed to go... 1) because I was quite tired... it was 330p their time... and I'd been on the road since midnight their time. 2) I was told to turn at Lowe's. So... I'm looking for a home improvement store... which I can't for the life of me find. (This is a tiny town, mind you, 1089... but I assure you, those are not full time residents) Turns out the Lowe's they were referring to was a grocery store... who's sign was too small for me to see (with my tired eyeballs) and behind a bunch of other shit.
My friends had to come rescue me. Fortunately, I was right across the street from my turn. I just didn't know it. So it was maybe a whole 5 minutes later that they pulled up.
We had good times. Drinking and laughing and driving about and what not. A lot of mule deer right off the back deck of the house we stayed at. Never saw any elk, though we went driving about trying to find them. Visited a brewery, drank good dark beer and always at good food back at the house. (These peeps can cook!)
Good times.
The only bad thing about the drive home was the heat. Jesus Henry Christ. My truck thermometer said 100F when I rolled through Lamar, CO around noon. And here I am without a stitch of air conditioning in my vehicle. It was in the upper 90s most of the way home.
My friends' sent home frozen bottle water with me, 3 bottles, which I poured over my head as they melted, at distant intervals on the way home. Stuck an ice bottle down my shirt for a while. Both helped a bit. It was nicer when the sun started going down. 80-85 is still plenty warm, but a lot cooler than upper nineties, for sure.
I have driver's arm tan on my left arm. It's going to be 2x (at least) darker than my right arm. The sun beat down on it most of the way there and most of the way back. That'll be cute.
Doing laundry now... tossing a week's worth into the wash, so I don't have to do it tomorrow. I have to return to work tomorrow night. Blech. Necessary evil, unfortunately.
And now I'm going to go have a lie about on the couch and look/nap through some on tv. I want to stay awake as long as I can, but I have feeling that's not going to happen. My ass (and the rest of me) is plenty damn tired.
You may now applaud my return.