Well, this might be a tad bit long. It kinda has to be. It’s got to cover two weeks. Ok, where to start. I suppose I should start with the vacation itself…

A whopping two weeks ago I was arriving in Durango CO, a snow set little playground of a town for rich people from the surrounding states. It was like you’d think Aspen would be only with out the recognition. Anyway, at this point we’ve settled into our nice little condo/hotel and make plan to have a week of fun. Which we do. Lauren and I went skiing, cross-country of course, in the Colorado back country (I believe thats how one brochure put it). We also got a chance to go snow-mobiling, take a sleigh ride, go ice skating, soak in the mineral water hot tubs, all that good stuff. It wasn’t until the last night of our little fun in the snow when things took a sharp turn south. By south I mean “not good”.

Mr. Arolfo, Lauren’s dad, was parking the car in a downtown shopping district when he fell and broke his leg. It seems he slipped on the ice, hit a dumpster, broke it once slipping, then in half again when he landed on it. This all was taking place while Lauren, her mother and myself are standing two blocks away wondering where Mr. Arolfo is. After a minute or two, a gentleman who turned out to be a very nice lawyer came walking towards us asking if we were the Arolfo’s. They answered yes and brought us over to where Mr. Arolfo was laying on the ice shivering and in a tremendous amount of pain. They had called the ambulance and they arrived quickly since the hospital was only a few blocks away. Lauren and her mom were visibly shaken and I was kind of in awe but I seemed the only one fit to drive so I ran and grabbed the van and drove them over to the hospital, following the ambulance in case I got lost.

They admitted him to the ER and that’s when we learned the severity of the situation and how badly he had broken it. They would have to do surgery and put in a rod and 4 pins/screws the next day. (this is last Saturday for those of you wanting a time line). So, surgery went well but he’d have to stay in the hotel for three to four days following it. During that time I tried to do all I could to help out the Arolfo’s since they didn’t have much “snow experience” and couldn’t drive and with their father in the hospital they didn’t have anyone to do things like load up the car, pack up the hotel rooms, run errands, stuff like that. The Arolfo’s appreciated it and I was glad to help. What else was I going to do? Leave them stranded on a mountain, in snow, with a crippled father?

Anyway, Wednesday rolled around and we were finally able to leave. Originally my plan was to fly home on Wednesday from Houston but seeing as how I was just leaving CO, that didn’t seem like it was happening. But that worked out well in the end and I was able to get AirTran to give me a credit towards a later flight. So, off we went towards Texas. Mr. Arolfo spread out on the back seat, Lauren’s mom and brother in the middle and Lauren and I at the wheel. I won’t cut any corners and I’ll tell you right now that it was a very long, uncomfortable and nerve wracking trip back across the country. Those first two days were not very much fun. But, rather than complain, I muddled through. There was no point in making a situation worse by letting tempers flair, and I think I did an ok job of staying calm and helpful.

So, we make it back to Houston late Thursday night, sleep, get up Friday, pack and run a few nessisary errands, sleep and get up and leave first thing Saturday morning. From there it was another two days of driving across the rest of the country till I was finally back home this evening. Saturday’s drive was horrible. It was nothing but rain and it was the really bad “horizontal” kind. I’m sure you know what I mean. Today was better, blue skies and partly cloudy most of the way.

So, I’m home, very tired, very very tired and actually quite pleased with my little adventure. It wasn’t quite what I was expecting, but it was fun and interesting to say the least. Even the bad parts had their moments. Anyway, I was going to write some more but I feeling pretty tired. I’ll share what I got for x-mas, my stories about gas stations across the country and how classes went after I get home tomorrow. Why is that you ask? Because I have a class at 9am.

Ok, more tomorrow, I promise. G’night.