So Ill trip.

Katie and I have been talking about taking a vacation this fall since we have not done so... ever. We have decided to head back to Southern Illinois for a climbing trip. I am pretty excited already, though we will not be going until sometime in November. We were talking about taking a week, which with two days of driving would give us five days of climbing or so. But since it has been so long since we have been out that way, we are already talking about taking a week and a half. I hope I can get the time off from work.
My plan is to say the trip will not coincide with Thanksgiving, so I will be able to work then and hopefully use that to ask for time off around Christmas to get back and visit family and friends in Philly.
I am already working on a training plan so I can get a bit stronger before we go out there and hopefully easily finish problems that I couldn't do two years ago and work on some harder stuff. There is also a new bouldering guide written by Matt Bliss that I have ordered. We are planning on taking Gunner with us and having one of Katie's former coworkers house/pet sit for us.
Here are a few pics from last time...
Myself on Cold Fusion, V3. Didn't finish this one..
Katie on a V1 warmup.
Louis on Fusion, V6. Cold Fusion starts on the lip, Fusion starts under, both follow the same line. Hypoglycemia, V6 also starts under and simply mantles on the the slab once you gain the lip. I like Louis' name of Con-Fusion better though.
Aaron on Body Karate, V9.
Myself near the top of Jimmy's Chicken Shack a 5.6 route which was my first outdoor lead.
In other news, my motorcycle is up and running again. I was very impressed with High Country Harley. Their service was professional, friendly, well priced, and quick. I took my bike in on Wednesday and they said it would be done on Friday. Friday morning I got a call saying the battery was dead and needed replacing but it still wouldn't start. I called back and authorized them to continue work, thinking it would be another day or two before I heard from them. I got a call at 3 pm saying it was all done.
Katie took me down Saturday morning to pick it up. The worst thing was seeing all the nice and new Buells and Harleys there. Drool. Anyway, it turned out it was bad gas and they had to empty the tank and clean the lines and everything. A quick fix I guess. I had been using regular unleaded but have now switched to premium on the advice of several people and the owners manual. It costs a bit more, but if it will help avoid these problems in the future it is well worth it. Plus as my tank capacity is 2.8 gallons, that will be like 60 cents more to fill up which isn't so bad.
I will definitely be going back there for my service needs in the future. And if I ever do have the money to buy something new, I will be going to them as well.
The weather has been strange recently. On July 30th we set a record for lowest high temperature at 62 degrees. Some of the higher elevations had snow! Today things seem to be more in line as I went to the bank and saw 91 on their display. However, we still have yet to turn on the air conditioner and it is August. I think last year it was out in March. The house never really gets too warm at all. The temps at night are always cool, so we have a box fan in the window to pull the air in and cool the house down. Some nights it gets so cold we have to shut the window.
September is coming up already and with that my 29th birthday. Also my fifth anniversary of my cancer diagnosis, and our third wedding anniversary. Lots of stuff!