New Year Resolutions...

Heads up: this will be a long post


Happy New Year! Okay, I may be a little late with posting. I resolve to be better about posting in 2012 (although I am not one to make New Year’s resolutions so we will see how that turns out.) this post is going to cover three trips I took so far this year, and will get me up to date just in time for another trip. Actually I will probably not be able to post this until I am already on the road for trip number four of the year.
To kick off what looks to be an exciting New Year form me, my brother and I drove to Anaheim for the first of the Supercross series. With all the hype that surrounds the opening of the year, we hit the road. Typical of any of our trips we have to travel a good distance to see do anything worth wild, so to keep with tradition; it was about eleven hours drive time to get to our destination.

Windy roads are normal where we live; this is going across highway 20, between the 101 and the 5. I did not intend to get the sign in this picture, but it’s fitting and I like it.

With a day to spend in Southern California we met up with some friends who were also in the area and spent part of the day at Universal Studios. 

No pictures of us, but check out our shadows.

Day three of trip number 1. The whole trip was centered on this day, January 7^th, the opening of 2012 Supercross. A completely sold out Angel Stadium was set for the exciting night. With both classes full of good riders, this season was sure to battle with last year for the title of best season of racing in recent history. There were some surprises in the results, but great racing kicked off for the year.

Kdub's Bike

A1 Lites class results: Dean Wilson with the W

The mechanics packing behind the gate

RV showing the packed stadium why he was wearing the #1

By the time I am posting this Trey Canard had a bad crash in LA. Get well soon Trey!

It seems that the return trip is always a blur; sure we drove for another eleven hours straight, I’m sure that doesn’t help. 

       Total trip: 1,251miles

       Travel time: 21 hours moving

Sacramento bound: aka trip #2

As I have alluded to, 2012 is promising to be a year of adventure for me. Effective on January 13, (yes, Friday the thirteenth) the plans for my future were entirely up in the air. Complete with giving up a part time teaching/dancing job at the local ballet studio, and my house, I intend to see what excitement I could find.  To start this New Year off with a bang, I finally got my hair cut. I had been growing my hair out with only small trims for several years so that when I finally cut it, I could donate to Locks for Love. And what better way to do that than with a visit to a good friend in Sacramento, who just happens to be a hairdresser?

And while I was at it I decided to get myself into a flash mob taking place in San Francisco. So this second trip of the year began with a Thursday 6am departure time to arrive in San Francisco in time for a rehearsal at noon. That’s about where that day’s plans ended but instead of spending a night in the city, my travel companion and I decided it would be more fun to drive to Jackson, then back to Sacramento. Worth it, even if we were in the car all day.

Friday I think we were still recovering from the drive, but spend the day wondering around downtown Sacramento, and since it is our state’s capital we decided to visit the capital building. Friday consisted of walking, eating, and resting. Even more delightful, it was sunny. Friday night the friends we were visiting took us out for drinks and to check out the clubs. Any time you put ballet dancers in a bar, we tend to treat it as if we are at the barre (that would be the railing ballet dancers hold on to in the beginning of class). Good times were had by all…

Sacramento

The top of the dome

The bottom of the dome

Thank You

Vetran's memoral in the park at the capital

treating the bar like a barre

Saturday was the day of truth. Everyone kept asking me if I was really about to cut my hair off, and that just made me second guess my decision. I hadn’t had my hair that short in over ten years. I said I was going to do it, and I figured being the New Year, if the world was going to end, now was as good a time as any. So chop, chop, and chop.

Before

Good-Bye 13+inches of hair

Then out on the town again Saturday night. From experience ballet dancers will be ballet dancers even when it’s not expected. You can read that as at 2 am when we were about to leave.

The new hair, doing ballet out in public around 2am :)

After some much needed coffee we hit the road home on Sunday. Once again on a road that winds through the hills of Northern California. This time it was 299 just as a storm was about to come in and it was trying to snow.

2012 trip number 3 is not too interesting, another 6am departure to make it to the flash mob rehearsal in San Francisco, followed by a long overdue ballet class, visiting with a friend and sharing this bottle of wine.

Project Happiness Chardonnay