Sunday, June 8th : Day 1

As I've alluded to in a few of the recent posts, I just got back from a driving trip around the Western USA. Utah, north and south, all the way through Nevada and skirted up the side of California. Well, because I know you won't read the whole thing if I write about the entire week in one post, I'm going to take it day by day.

Today (according to the title), I picked up Writer, whom most of you know I taught with at a Jr. High for 4 years. She had spent a lot of time down in the Moab area, and knew of a couple nice ghost towns and offered to show them to me. So, off we went. I picked her up around noon and we headed down. We were making really good time by the time we made it to SR191, so when we saw the upside down airplane at the Moab airport we decided to pull over and get a few pictures. Great in theory, not so much in practice. Now, I've gotten in the habit of not locking the car using the little button on the door, it's got me into trouble before. Unlocking it with the button is safe, unless you mistake 'lock' for 'unlock' and leave the keys in the ignition. I knew the second the door clicked shut. Good thing my brother has a set of keys to my cars. Oh, wait. He's 233 miles away. And my cell phone is in the car. So Writer and I trek down to the Moab "International" Airport looking for a pay phone and a wire clothes hanger. We get the hanger, and the phone number for Gary's Locksmith in Moab. I figure I'll call and see how much it's going to cost to have him come out and open my car, before wrecking it with the hanger. $50, and unlike the joke, it's not the same as in town ($40). So, rather than fight with the hanger, shred the weatherstripping on the door and scratching the panel, I ask him to come out. He doesn't even flinch when I tell him I'm 300 yards or so north of the Airport, pulled out on the side of the road. Makes me feel better, obviously I'm not the only idiot to lock his keys in the car out in the middle of nowhere on the side of the highway. 45 minutes he says, and to his credit it was just over an hour. Good thing I found a chair stuck on the fence on the way back to the car, gave us something to sit on. (see picture way up there) I tell ya, we got a lot of looks from the cars passing us on the highway. Well, it took him 34.65 seconds to get the car open and cost me $50. The rest of the evening was enjoyable, but uneventful. Well, except for when Writer spilled water all over the table at dinner. I think she did it to make me feel better about locking the keys in the car. At least that's what she said.