Road trip PDX to Park City

It was a long drive. A very, very, very, very long drive. I learned something about myself yesterday. My uninterrupted, road trip, drive time limit is 7 hours. Exactly 7 hours. After that I am not a happy camper. I get twitchy, tired, and angry. Unfortunately for me and my traveling companion, 7 hours was the exact point that I took over the driving. While I pumped it up to the Black Eyed Peas at a ear splitting volume. Robert watch an episode of Rome on the mini DVD player. He had to press the headphones to his ears with both hands to block out my Fergalicious song styling. I only sing the Fergie parts cuz I'm a girl and I sound just like her! Seriously, I do.

Idaho
I have some personal road trip dietary rules and one of them is no fast food. Ever! I'm a true joy to travel with. Hour 9 of the trip and the break down begins. I want ice cream! Chocolate ice cream. Haagan Dazs chocolate ice cream. And as far as I can surmise from my perusal of many a fine Idaho road side establishment, THEY DON'T HAVE HAAGAN DAZS IN IDAHO! So I rethink my commitment to clean eating and end up at Jack in the Box. As you can tell from the picture Jack uses real ice cream in his shakes. Unfortunately for us, after a 25 minute wait in the drive thru line we find out that Jack has no shakes and we are stuck in the line. It all works out for the best. Really! No shake means, no rule breaking. And this would have broken three.

1. no fast food
2. no eating after 8 pm
3. no carbs 3 hours before bedtime (at this point in the journey I didn't realize it would be 5 hours before that would happen!)
   

So you see I'm a much better person because of this experience. Really! Okay, I know I'm a bit of a freak but I embrace it.


Utah
What's the difference between an Elk and a Moose any way?
2 am and we arrive at The Canyons. Having spent a fabulous spring break skiing here this year we find our condo The Westgate Resort and Spa easily. The adventure begins in the hunt for the Moose Lodge parking area. It's like parking at a Disney Resort. Multiple levels, all themed but without the guy in the costume directing traffic. With a moose, bear, elk, bison mural at each parking spot. Letting you know that you are safe and secure and in the right spot. 2:15 am and we are still looking for moose, we only find elk. Or at least we think it's elk. Who really knows what it is? This is the closest thing to big game hunting veggie me is ever going to get. And I can't find the Moose! We then take a moment for a semi heated discussion on what the check in guy meant by "take a sharp right turn".

We leave the Elk parking area and turn into another gated structure. This parking area doesn't offer the sweet Disneyfied security of animal murals. Instead it's more of an Alice falling down the rabbit hole/sleep deprived/Twilight zone experience. The walls are lined with doors, little doors, that seem to be getting smaller as we drive deeper into the structure. Each turn we make gets tighter and tighter. Finally we squeeze the car thru a tiny passageway only to end up back the entrance. No Moose in sight.

We then decide that an Elk is as close to a Moose as we are going to get and head back to the first parking lot. (According to the mostly accurate and ever helpful folks at Wikipedi moose and elk are one and the same. Depending on your local. North America = Moose and Europe = Elk. We are in Park City, Utah, North America so that must make the Elk parking lot the Moose parking lot, right????) It's a good thing I'm not dependant on my hunting skills for survival cuz we know how that would turn out. Of course this choice puts us in the wrong lodge once we enter the building. Multiple elevator trips in two buildings to find the unit. 3 am and finally some much needed sleep!

xoxo,
-ski girl
p.s. I'm not exactly sure where my car is but my mountain bike is locked to it. Motivation to begin the hunt again!