Nepali bound, almost.

---

Whew! A lot has occurred since the last entry. Early December, as Phil headed to Phu Quoc, Vietnam, and I made my way to Australia, honey moon part one had officially ended. We both buckled down in the winter and returned to Colorado—Phil working like crazy, and me doing the best to fill in with random jobs. I fit in a quick trip to Hawaii and a couple of trips to Pennsylvania, and we tried to get in as much skiing as possible, despite the minimal winter that Colorado had.



We are happy to report we are back on the road again. And unfortunately the road is how we started off the trip, rather than the taking flight, as we had intended. Last Wednesday, April 10^th, Phil and I arrived at the Denver airport with bags packed and itineraries to Kathmandu, Nepal via Delhi, India in hand. Having thoroughly researched the visa situation, we were convinced that we could get our Nepal visas upon arrival, and didn’t need even an Indian transit visa, as we were flying out within 24 hours to Kathmandu.



The United desk was less than impressed with our lack of Visas to India, and would not ticket us for our trip. After great exasperation, phone calls, and even some tears, we left the Denver airport, defeated—back to Parker and the open arms of my mother and sister in law. Although we were talking with United representatives on the phone that agreed that we need not the India visa, the ticketing agents failed to agree, seemingly because they didn’t recognize our carrier out of India to Kathmandu: Spice Jet. Evidently, United employees will lose their job and United will be fined heftily if we were to get deported at the airport. We’re still fighting the good fight against the United beauracracy—more for the time lost than money lost, but I’m pretty sure it’s a lost cause.



Regardless, we did our best to make lemonade out of our United lemons, and decided to head for the hills for the week, before making a second go of it to Nepal—this time through Dubai. We packed the car with camping gear, happily grabbed the dogs, threw the bikes on top of the car and headed for southwest Colorado. We found some great riding and camping in both Cortez and Dolores—our favorite being appropriately named ‘Phil’s world.



We even got to camp at a KOA last Saturday night. Only mentionable because of the fix we found ourselves in at about 1am that night. . It being a beautiful night, we didn’t put up the tent, but simply set out our sleeping bags and slept under the starts. With the strict KOA dog rules in place, we had Scout tied to the picnic table and Oscar tied to a wooden stake, that consequently also had the water spicket attached to it. Thus, when Oscar sprang for a rabbit late night, he pulled the water spicket out with the wooden plank. We were awoken from deep sleep as a 20 foot geyser was erupting and spraying down upon us. Scout made a pretty good lunge away from the water, dragging the picnic table with her (not so good for her newly repaired ACL) leaving our entire kitchen set up in the newly formed mud. Phil managed to plug the force of water with his thumb—while I ran to the empty, dark, office without a soul in sight. Finally, I called the KOA office, and they miraculously answered, and turned the water source off. I guess we were somewhat fortunate in that it was cold enough that our sleeping bags simply froze—better than soaked, I think.

After one last day of riding in Durango, we drove several hours northwest to Moab. Though the weather didn’t fully agree with us, we found solace in the desert, and found it good preparation for our forthcoming trip to Dubai. We are lucky that even when our 'vacation' became unhinged, we could still find some good vacation spots at home.

---

Photos

Phil and Phil's world
Sweet mountain biking area in Cortez.

The Dawgs.
A little smooshed, but happy to be included.

Comments

[stacey joyce]

oh my
wow you guys! sounds like you are making the best of your situation and smiling through it (as always)! very impressive. the best of luck to you!!!