So Pancake Land and I jumped out of an airplane yesterday. And we did not die. I would try and describe the experience to you, but after rereading the recent descriptions of my adventures, I realize now that I cannot do any of them the justice they deserve. Let me just say that this weekend has been, without a doubt, the best weekend of my life thus far. I do have videos of our jumps, but they are in DVD format, so I need to get them into some format that I can use on YouTube or directly on here. Once I get them in a usable format, then I can take stills and whatnot. The video will describe the adventure much better than I can. I’ll let you know when I get things up and around. Plus, there are a ton of photos that I have not sucked off of Pancake Land’s camera of the various other adventures that we have partaken of this weekend.

It dawned on me last night that, for the next close to 8 months, Pancake Land will be a Puma. A Puma, for those of you who don’t know, is 30-something woman who is dating a 20-something man. My woman is a Puma. That’s hot.

If you have never been to Colorado, I suggest you come up here some time. It is so amazingly beautiful. It is so amazing that, as I was sitting outside this morning, drinking a cup of coffee, talking to Operation B on the telephone, I watched two big-ass deer walk leisurely into town along the railroad tracks. If they had been moose, it would have been just like Northern Exposure. It is surreal up here. The people, all but a few, have been the friendliest group of people that I have ever met. I mean, even a group of long haired, Metallica t-shirt wearing, skateboarders asked us how we were doing as they passed us by. I love skater kids, hell, I was one for a while, but they don’t pop into your mind when asked to name a group of polite friendly people. Here, I’ll prove it.

I want you to think of a group of friendly, polite people.

See, not skaters. (If you thought of skaters it is because you are a big cheater.) This place is so strange.

I did have one of my “Quest for the Holy Grail” moments yesterday. Not in that Monty Python kind of way, either. Sometimes, people want something and they have a hard time locating it. This is always read as a challenge to me. Like in that “the Gods have set forth this challenge for thee” kind of way. I’m sure you all remember the hat incident or the book on kayaking for Pancake Land. Anyways, Little Peddler told P.L. that all she wanted was a Colorado ashtray. We thought “No problemo.” Boy, were we wrong. I don’t know if you have noticed, but smoking is not cool anymore. So, most souvenir shops have removed ashtrays from their shelves. We went to at least six different places, all over Cañon City and its neighboring towns, looking for this ashtray. Keep in mind that I was the one keeping the dream (read as obsession) alive. Luckily, we finally found one. I found it in this little local grocery store. Once I found it and purchased it, I put it in my pocket, (the girls had taken to staying in the car at this point) and walked dispiritedly back to the truck and the girls thought nothing of it, having seen me make this walk several times already. Once in the truck I pulled the ashtray from the pocket and there was much rejoicing.

Overall, this trip as been a great success. Pancake Land had an amazing birthday weekend and got to feel like she has “done something” in the 30 years that she has been on this Earth. I got to ride her coat tails and do a bunch of the stuff I have always wanted to do. White Chocolate got to do a little of both. This weekend rocked. You can always tell that you’ve had a great time when it makes you sad to leave. These next 14 hours of driving are going to be the longest 14 hours of our life. Well, until Pancake Land goes into labor with our future babies (do not read this as “she is pregnant”), then those will be the longest hours of our lives.

Anyways, gotta pack up Ava for the long haul home. Wish us luck. More soon. ~SC