lessons learned (in Moab)...

Roughly 2.5 years ago, I went on a road trip to Moab, Utah, with a group of my closest friends. I cannot think about that trip without smiling...

I remember having a super unlucky day our first full day there:

*I got food poisoning off of what must have been bad cream cheese.
(All I had for breakfast was a bagel with cream cheese, and orange juice)
*Said food poisoning made me vomit once at the hotel.
*We went mountain biking and said food poisoning made me vomit once on the trail.
(Don't worry, I ran away from a potential audience in my friends)

*On our way down the rocky trail on our mountain bikes,
I went over the handlebars of my bike.
Scary as it was, I didn't snap my neck or my spine or crack my noggin: SCORE!

*Oh yeah, I shredded my pants with the biking incident. In the front.
From knee to waistband. (Talk about humiliation!)
*Oh yeah, and my legs got pretty bruised from "the incident" as well.
*I lost my wallet that evening too. Yep, I had my purse, but my wallet was gone.
(I found it at the restaurant after I called and asked them about it; they said it wasn't there,
but I went back just in case; I found it under the table.)

Throughout the ordeals of that day, I was able to laugh it off. (Except maybe for the shredded pants part. That wasn't funny to me for weeks, and I couldn't handle my friends laughing about that part in front of me until the weekend was over.) Anyway, I'm pretty sure the reason that crummy day was so bearable is because I was surrounded by amazing people who cared about me.

Lesson #1: Friends make even the crappiest situations so much better.

I'm not the only one who learned lessons on that weekend. Oh no; the girls (unintentionally) enlightened the fellas on that trip.

Poor Jason. Poor Cameron...the girl:boy ratio was 2:1, and our guys learned 3 very important lessons. The hard way. In quick succession...

The day after vomitting and diving over my bike, proved to be another day to remember. The night before, we didn't get much sleep; we were on vacation, after all...

We got up early-ish and hiked to the Delicate Arch, and made our way around Arches National Park to see all that we could see. The remainder of the day was spent jeeping/off-roading in the Canyon Lands. We had a cooler full of food and 6 bodies crammed into the Amigo: we were off!

As it turns out, the fellas had a desire to see everything the Canyon Lands could offer...when we found ourselves at a new arch, etc., we'd jump out for a photo-op and then back into the jeep and drive to another beautiful location.

The beauty wasn't lost on me: I was in paradise, really! But...when lunchtime came and went without a mere mention of stopping to eat, I became concerned. At 2:30 or so, I mentioned some foody thoughts and was basically ignored. The driver (one of the menfolk who shall remain nameless) said, "But we have to make it to Island in the Sky before sunset!" I'm sure he was only thinking of his feminine travel companions, sure in his heart of hearts that we'd be stunned by the beauty of the sun setting over that amazing patch of earth. So I kept my mouth shut and went along for the ride.

-When I say "I kept my mouth shut" I mean I began to shut down. I'm a big fan of breakfast, but can't fit much food in me in the morning; the last thing I had eaten was a granola bar on the trail to Delicate Arch at around 9:00 that morning.

As we made our way to Island in the Sky, it started getting chilly and all I had was a light jacket and a baseball cap; hardly the kind of gear to stave off falling temperatures...

I'll have you know we made it to Island in the Sky just in the nick of time: we ran to the Edge and watched the sun set over the glory that is God's Canyon Lands.

Nameless driver glanced in the direction of his lady friends, I think expecting us to be dabbing our teary eyes from the sight we had just beheld...and nameless driver was taken aback when he saw something else entirely. I daresay we (all the girls) had blank stares on our faces.

And then I asked our driver for his keys: I was making a sandwich, and I was making it NOW!

Please remember, I hadn't eaten since 9am, and it was somewhere near 6pm by then: I WAS HUNGRY! Also, I was running on not much sleep: I WAS TIRED! And let's not forget that it was November; night was falling and we were on an island in the sky: I WAS COLD!

That's when the boys learned to avoid what we have coined the nasty Trifecta...

Lessons 2-4: To keep girls happy, make sure they're well-fed, well-rested, and warm. Apparently guys don't stop to think about such trivial things when they've got a goal in mind...which is totally beyond me, but whatever.

Lessons: learned.

Here's to The Crew: I love you guys, always!