chlorine before climbing

fun!

i have discovered that starbucks t-mobile wi-fi hotspots are not free. i was very dissapointed in starbucks and no longer have an excuse to go there.

four hours of driving yesterday brought me to morgantown, west virginia. i dropped in on my friends ben & kate, and that's where i found out about the storm moving in. they invited me to stay the night and get an early start in the morning, and i graciously accepted their hospitality! it gets better though, and it gets beer related.
a few years ago i went to pies n pints, a restaurant in fayetteville (new river gorge). it was there that i first tried appalachian ale - and loved this micro brew. i went back to that restaurant on a later trip to get that beer, the first visit it was closed, and the next year we went and they weren't serving it anymore. darn.
so back to ben & kate. we went out for dinner to a brew pub downtown. i love "microbreweries!" i said. "have you ever heard of appalachian ale?" well lo and behold it turns out that they're going to THE pub that brews THE beer that i have been looking for for over two years.

so scratch that off the list.

set out in the morning at 6am to get ahead of the storm. every time i am in west virginia it rains, and not even some sort of noah's ark friendly style rain, oh no, it's much worse. i did another four hours of driving today and covered a lot less distance. the driving was getting more and more intense, and i knew that if this were in canada, i would not be driving. then i got to thinking about the consequences of having a car accident in america. for starters, i would be so *bleep*ed by their health care (or lack thereof) that i would have to turn around and drive my gimpy body back across the border to be put back together. secondly, i don't think that any insurance company would forgive you for driving in a snowstorm in west virginia (fer cryin out loud!). they only get two storms here a year, and it's your fault if you chose to drive in one of them.

so i got a hotel.

i'm really good at this dirtbag thing. it's been fun, an entire night to myself, one more night to take as long as i want to in the shower since a) i'm not a houseguest, b) there's no one waiting, and c) i'm not being timed.
i'm ready for this trip. i haven't climbed in almost a week now, and my last few sessions at the gym really and truly sucked. starting tomorrow, i have climbing partners lined up until almost the end of january. february is being booked now! i am so ready for this trip..