{"id":238,"date":"2009-01-02T23:08:56","date_gmt":"2009-01-03T03:08:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.apadventures.net\/?p=238"},"modified":"2009-01-02T23:32:59","modified_gmt":"2009-01-03T03:32:59","slug":"day-204-conclusion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.apadventures.net\/?p=238","title":{"rendered":"Day 204: Conclusion"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over these last few days of the 2008 year I\u2019ve been dabbling in something I\u2019ve never done before: re-reading our web entries. As our big vacation draws to an end I have this urge of somehow trying to summarize it all in my mind. The best parts, the worst parts, a top 10 list perhaps or a pre-canned response to what has become the standard questions \u201cSo what was South Africa *really* like?\u201d \u201cWhat climbs did you send?\u201d \u201cFavorite boulder problems?\u201d I realize though as I page through both my memories in my brain and our web entries in my computer that there are just so many dang parts I can\u2019t even begin to get my head around them all! It\u2019s been a big year. I mean, a REALLY big year. And the further I read the bigger it gets! Such small details are reminded in my blurred memory of adventures.<\/p>\n

I was reminded that this time last year I was still relishing my bittersweet send of Left El Murray, v6<\/a> at Hueco Tanks, having learned a few days later the Mushroom Boulder had been closed to climbing indefinitely.<\/p>\n

I was reminded that the month of January was dedicated to some major home improvements<\/a> (how could I forget!) with Paul and I tackling both the bathroom in the main house (with hired help) and the shade roof over the hot tub. When not working on the house during the day however, January was also spent out under our woody in the evenings, training aggressively for upcoming Hueco trips.<\/p>\n

Which brings me to February: projecting, projecting, projecting. We spent most of the February weekends at Hueco either under the Martini Roof or at the Bloody Flapper Boulder. These weekends I actually remember quite clearly. Perhaps because I was acutely aware of Paul accelerating rapidly towards his completion of Right Martini, v12 while I moped in self-pity over a stressful work schedule which was leaning too hard on my climbing performance.<\/p>\n

March. The inevitable sends. Paul finally ticks Right Martini<\/a>, a huge and memorable milestone for him. And I snag my first v6 send-in-a-day on Hairpin Roof<\/a> in our backyard on Mt. Lemmon, on my birthday to boot! Ahh, a nice reminder. A nice start to a big climbing year.<\/p>\n

I was reminded that in April my parents came out to Tucson for a visit and we traveled up north to the Grand Canyon. Sheesh! That was *this* year?! If my memory serves me well I don\u2019t believe Paul and I had been keeping up too well with our trail running around this time, yet we decided to run all the way down to Plateau Point<\/a> and back! Huh. Impressive!<\/p>\n

The May log shows no entries on the site. I don\u2019t however, need to be reminded about what was going on last May. My memories are crystal clear. Paul and I were quietly packing, planning, saving, and training for the big trip.<\/p>\n

Which is a great lead in to June. June is huge. June is when we finally say bye bye to Tucson and hit the road, our embarkment on our long-awaited climbing trip, the dream<\/a>. Our first stop: Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado. On the climbing front I eat up The Kind, v5<\/a> and then The Kind Sit, v6<\/a>, declaring that the fun moves rival those of the classic Dragonfly at Hueco. Paul makes quick work of Real Large, v9<\/a> and Tommy\u2019s Arete, v8<\/a> but gets shut down with lack of endurance for The Kind Traverse, v11. On the family\/friends front we enjoyed some good times with my sister Holly, her boyfriend Joe and Jed and Rachael, owners of the to-die-for mountain home that Joe and Holly were renting, and superb connoisseurs of Colorado\u2019s outstanding local brews.<\/p>\n

July. July is even bigger than June! We\u2019ve got Mt. Evans Colorado, Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, Marathon New York and Rocklands South Africa all packed into July! The Mt. Evans summary includes Paul scratching The Dali, v9<\/a> off his ticklist and drooling over the too-high-for-just-one-crashpad The Nothing, v8<\/a>. Two days at Evans was simply not enough. On to east coast family time. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania<\/a> is first, managing to squeeze in a quick day trip to Cooper\u2019s Rock, West Virginia<\/a> for a little bouldering. Next on the agenda is Marathon, New York<\/a> for more family time before saying our goodbyes to the North American continent. H E L L O Africa.<\/a><\/p>\n

The remainder of July, all of August and most of September are pretty much a rushing blur of memories. Beautiful landscapes, amazing animals, new people, and hundreds upon hundreds of stellar boulders….boulders e v e r y w h e r e. This is Rocklands, South Africa. I can\u2019t even begin to summarize these unforgettable days. I page through the 2000 or so photos we snapped while there and try to pick out just a few of the highlights:<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nPaul\u2019s quick send of Nutsa, v12<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nThe day we saw the leopard<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nThe familiar view of Pakhuis Pass<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nThe de Pakhuys boulders <\/p>\n

\"\"
\nMy v8 breakthrough, Minki<\/a> <\/p>\n

\"\"
\nPaul\u2019s devastating knee injury during his best sending go on The Vice, v13<\/a> <\/p>\n

\"\"
\nJeffreys Bay on the Indian Ocean<\/a> <\/p>\n

\"\"
\nAddo Elephant National Park<\/a> <\/p>\n

\"\"
\nBlack Velvet, v11 tick<\/a> <\/p>\n

\"\"
\nRoof on Fire, v5 tick<\/a> <\/p>\n

\"\"
\nA memorable day at Fields of Joy where Paul and I literally just ran around like kids climbing anything and everything that simply \u201clooked cool\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nThe Fields of Joy day continued. Im Juli, v7<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nAnother lasting view from the The Fields of Joy day<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nA beautiful sunset at our darling Weavers Cottage on the Alpha Farm <\/p>\n

\"\"
\nThe Riverside boulders with friends<\/a> <\/p>\n

\"\"
\nA quick evening session at The Sassies with friends<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nPinotage, v10<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nAn incredible Sassies sunset<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nMore of the Sassies sunset<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nOur last day in Rocklands, bouldering at our favorite area: The Roadside Boulders. Paul sending Pinch of Herbs, v9\/10<\/p>\n

After saying goodbye to South Africa the journey continues. The end of September follows Paul and I venturing back west again. Some more time with family in New York and Pennsylvania and then onward to Bishop, California<\/a>. Like Rocklands, the many many days of Bishop climbing blur into one another, a continuous high of happy times. We got to spend an entire month with our dear friends from Germany, a week with the hometown Pittsburgh crew, and a short but sweet weekend with the one and only Courtney. Paul and I also celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary<\/a> by hiking just about every trail up around Bishop Creek and the Buttermilk Country over the course of our stay. The notable boulder problem sends here throughout October and November are too many to name, haha, so I\u2019ll just summarize by saying we ticked the majority of the classics<\/a>….and came oh-so-close on all the rest (ahem, High Plains Drifter). Some pics from the archives that never made it to press:<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nButtermilk Country<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nMe on Skye Dance, v6 up at the Druid Stones<\/p>\n

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\nMy flash of The Solarium, v3<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nFire and Stars<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nPaul warming up at The Sads<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nPaul sending Shelter From the Storm, v6<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nMy tick of Go Granny Go Right, v5<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nPope\u2019s Prow, v6<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nMe \u201csaving\u201d High Plains Drifter, v7 for next time, boohoo<\/p>\n

\"\"
\n…and Paul doing the same on Stained Glass, v10<\/p>\n

The tail-end of November brings us to a spontaneous Last Horrah to wrap up the climbing portion of the big vacation. Paul and I decide to squeeze almost a week into Yosemite Valley, California. And a horrah it was.<\/a> Paul wrapped up his climbing trip with ticking the country classics Midnight Lightning, v8 and The Force, v9. And I snuck in one last v6 send with The Font Problem. And let\u2019s not forget about that turkey cooked over the campfire on Thanksgiving Day.<\/p>\n

Which brings this trip down memory lane to December. December, the cozy holiday month has been spent relaxing and visiting with family and friends back east again. Our travels were exciting and boulder problems fun, but none of that even comes close to a comparison against quality time spent with those we love most. The month of December has been a warm and content closing to an incredible adventure-packed year.<\/p>\n

So as Day 206 rolls around the corner…just two days away…our final day of our exciting 6+ month vacation…the closing to one of the best years of my life, believe it or not I\u2019m actually *not* sitting here asking myself \u201cWhat\u2019s next?\u201d, \u201cWhere are we headed next year?\u201d \u201cWhat\u2019s the next trip destination?\u201d Nope. Not me. I\u2019m still in that satisfied phase, happy to be simply reflecting on what we\u2019ve done versus what we want to do.<\/p>\n

posted by arr from Paul\u2019s parents house in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the night before flying back to home to Tucson<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over these last few days of the 2008 year I\u2019ve been dabbling in something I\u2019ve never done before: re-reading our web entries. As our big vacation draws to an end I have this urge of somehow trying to summarize it all in my mind. The best parts, the worst parts, a top 10 list perhaps […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.apadventures.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.apadventures.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.apadventures.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.apadventures.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.apadventures.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.apadventures.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.apadventures.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.apadventures.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.apadventures.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}