I'm exhausted. Physically, mentally, emotionally. Just exhausted. I switched to mountain time today, so I lost an hour, but it's 9:45 mountain time (8:45 pacific, which is what I'm now used to) and I'm so ready to crash for the night.
Lets back up to yesterday. It was bother grey, rainy day at the ranch. Most of us skipped another ride in the morning, but it looked like it was clearing somewhat after lunch, so we went out for an afternoon ride. It's was an 11.2 mile ride that took about 3 hours. We started in the rain, but it did clear up about half way through. But it was still pretty cold, about 50 degrees or so. So I was very bundled up, which meant that I didn't actually get all that cold - just my hands because my gloves aren't waterproof and my ears. My parents' friends let me borrow an extra rain slicker of theirs, which was an absolute godsend.
Before the ride, I was considering changing my plans and staying an extra day in order to get more riding in. I felt a little cheated that I didn't get to ride much because the weather was so bad. It's no one's fault, obviously, but I wanted more riding. But once we did the ride, I was pretty sore and decided I had actually had enough and was ready to leave. So I stuck with the original plan of leaving this morning.
I'm still pretty upset over the loss of Jackie. She went into surgery late last night for the organ harvesting. Even inner death, she was a giver. Her gift of organs went to 6 different people in Southern California, ranging in age from 4 to 60. So that's obviously been on my mind a lot over the past couple days. She was an Aggie, so I need to figure out this whole muster thing and see if its something that I can go to when time comes to honor her. There have been a couple of memorial funds set up for her and while I haven't yet contributed, I think that my donation is going to go to an a&m scholarship being set up in her name for women in engineering.
So this morning I packed up all my stuff, said my goodbyes, and left the ranch right on schedule. It had been 6 years since my last visit to the ranch and I don't want it to be that long again, but I have to find a different week to go in the future, and potentially some friends to go with me. This week in June that my parents go is next to impossible with my theatre schedule, plus it's my parents group of friends. I need people my age and in my life stage. So I need to see if I can find some friends that would want to go up in late August or September. If I can't find anyone, I can always just call up the ranch and find a week that has people my age and go myself. It's not like I'm uncomfortable going by myself, or making friends. And it's not like I don't know all the staff at the ranch as well, so I'm sure I can make it work.
I had about a 9 hour drive today, so that was pretty long. I drove 3 hours to Sandpoint, Idaho and had lunch there. Then I headed over into Montana. Around 4 PM (mountain time), I decided I needed a break, so I pulled over and took a little cat nap before proceeding. I finally hit glacier park around 6 PM. I don't remember what my logic was when I was booking my hotel, so I'm not sure why I booked the many glacier hotel (maybe it was price?), but the way to get to the hotel is from the northeast entrance, so I had to go all the way through the park, the north for a bit, and then back west into the park. Nt the most efficient location, but it sure is beautiful. My room is on ground level, so it opens right out onto the lake.
I think tomorrow I'm going to stay in this area, maybe do a boat ride, maybe do a couple of ranger led programs and then on Sunday check out other areas of the park. I'm planning on driving the going-to-the-sun road in the opposite direction from what I did today when I'm leaving the park on Monday, so I need to figure out what, if anything, I want to explore more for the days I'm actually in the park.
For now, must needed sleep.
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