I've Seen Better

I don't like being negative on here. I don't like having a negative attitude in general. It puts me in a bad mood and I'm incapable of hiding it and it makes people not want to talk to me, and who enjoys that? But I'm about to unleash a little negative energy, just because I'm kind of needing to and I'll phrase myself better if I do it here.

My day started, more or less, at midnight last night. I got out of a movie with some folks, and nobody was hanging out afterwards, so I got home and realized I wasn't all that sleepy. I decided I would skip town for a couple of days. Anybody who's been following me here for awhile knows I do this from time to time. Sometimes alone (Pagosa Springs 2004, Omaha 2006, Puerto Viejo in Costa Rica, Pagosa again in 2006) sometimes not (Chicago 2006, New Orleans 2008). Last night I left with no particular goal in mind, although I did pack my snowboard just in case.

I have an application on my iPhone that tells give me snow reports for all of the resorts in America in order of their proximity to me (Snocater if you're wondering, it's fantastic). I checked it before falling asleep in my car at a rest stop in the Texas Panhandle last night, and it told me that Wolf Creek was the nearest resort that had received snow in the past week. So I decided I would go to Pagosa again. Then I woke up and started driving again, and everything started the long downward spiral into the most difficult personal road trip day I've ever had.

First off, I made reservations in Pagosa. Shortly after, dad texted me to tell me there were blizzards incoming. I checked the snow reports, and sure enough, "severe winter storm" warnings at all of the resorts that were open in all of Colorado and New Mexico. So I had to decide: drive the seven hours back to Waco, or power through and pick an alternate location? I decided on the grand canyon and cancelled my reservation in Pagosa. This cost me 10% of the room to do since I was making a "day of" cancellation. Then I pulled off for gas and got hit in a speed trap and got a speeding ticket. I brushed this off, and headed towards Flagstaff (nearest sporting goods store before the grand canyon) to pick up a below-freezing rated sleeping bag. When I got to Flagstaff, all of the sporting goods stores were closed down for a concert in downtown.

So I had to change my plans again. I had been planning to make my way to Las Vegas tomorrow, but I decided I would go tonight. I called ahead to make a reservation for a room, just to be sure I would have one when I got there. It was a non-refundable reservation at the Bellagio, simply because if you're going to go to Vegas then you need to do it right. Two hours away from Vegas, my front left tire blew out. I pulled off to change it. While I was changing the tire, in sub-freezing temperatures, in started to snow. Hard. Then, when I got the original tire off, while I'm standing there shivering and freezing, I put the spare tire most of the way on. It got hung on a lug nut, so I reached around to change the angle of attack a bit. That's when the jack gave out and broke in half. The tire nearly came down on my hand, but I pulled it out just in time. My rapidly moving hand knocked the spare off of the lugs. It fell under the car, which landed on the tire and popped it. It popped my SPARE TIRE.

I called a tow truck service. They said it would be 30-45 minutes. I waited an hour and a half and called them. They forgot about me. They sent a second guy. Another 30 minutes. I called again. Guy #2 went the wrong way. I called again. Guy #3 found me, but only after calling me on my cell and having me explain where I was three times to him. He had been checking the wrong side of the highway. All the while I'm soaked and shivering in my car.

He started to change my tire after replacing the spare into its rim and reinflating it. His jack broke. He had a spare jack. It was too short. He pulled out the first one and it worked again. All of this ended up costing me $120. I drove to a Best Western and will take my car to Wal-Mart to get new tires tomorrow. I think I have to fix my brakes now too since the car has landed on them three separate times.

Ugh. On the bright side, I do have my health, and I am still alive, and I have a family who loves me very much. But I don't think I can remember a worse day in recent memory, and this is supposed to be my vacation. Yargh.