Way Too Many Miles Driven

I have depleted all my green karma that was built up in St Louis. To live in Idaho is to drive a car. A lot. There is no other way around this fact unless you stay put and do nothing, because everywhere you may need/want to go is very far away. The sad fact seems to be that to live lightly it is necessary to live in a large city with a public transport system.

I imagine I put close to 800 miles on my car between Friday and Monday getting to Boise and back for Owen's climbing competition. Of course it was not necessary we go. But we went to this one and will go to others, in Bozeman, Salt Lake, Vail, Pocatello and Cody. If we had a team to go with we could carpool but Owen's team days he left back in the big city with the good public transportation system and lots of amenities, like a climbing team.

We did have fun. We always do. We got in our first night of camping for 2009 under clear, star-filled skies and single digits temperatures. We found the perfect, completely empty campground (not many people are crazy enough to camp in the cold...but we love it) less than 10 miles outside of downtown Boise. It is situated right next to Lucky Peak Resevoir on the road that heads to Sun Valley from Boise.


The competition was held close to downtown at Boise Peak Fitness. Owen agreed with me that it is the best indoor climbing facility that we have ever been to. There were lots of kids competing, with the biggest team coming from Monument Gym in Sandy, UT.

Owen rocked. He climbed as well as I have ever seen him. I know I am a bit biased, but even the coach of the kids who placed higher than he said he was an amazing climber. If he were just, say, 4 inches taller I don't think there was a route he would not have been able to complete. The drawback of indoor competitions is that you have to use only the designated holds. If a hold is out of reach you are out of luck. In outdoor climbing you can use any and everything to get to the top.

I did not get many good photos because I kept forgetting to use my camera.











After the competition was over we cooked up a hot lunch on a picnic table outside an office building downtown. I have to laugh because Ben was, from an early age, mortified that we could not just go eat lunch at a restaurant like "normal people". Owen, on the other hand, requested this lunch and even picked the location. Then we went and hung out for a while at my favorite coffee house at the corner of 5th and Idaho St. before heading back into the car for the long stretch back to Idaho Falls.

BTW, thanks to Tony for uploading the Harry Potter movie, REM and John Denver onto Owen's MP3 player. It made the drive bearable for Owen.