Franklinsanity

Heck of a 24 hours.  Surprisingly little time to post; I’m sure our vast readership has been disappointed.  Therefore, let me catch everyone up, relatively efficiently:

• Saturday was a rainy day in Truckee – but the five kids and I still got in about 2 hours of pinecone-tennis-scooter-frisbee, or something.  It was awesome, though some of the neighbors driving Porsches around didn’t appreciate the massive spiked pinecones we scattered in their path.  Whatever.
• Rain also meant our incredibly awesome and fabulous hosts the Kawajas took us to the Lodge, aka the activity center in their community, which had basketball, ping-pong, shuffleboard, bowling, arts & crafts, pool, a lot of friendly staff, and most importantly, Racer 5 IPA on tap.  I may have gotten cranky because I cleverly separated myself and four of the kids from everyone else, and then the kids separated from me in four directions.  It all worked out – even got a man-lunch in with Chris, which inevitably involved more beer.
• Rain stopped, all went swimming.  Then back to the house; actually napped; played more frisbee, and then to a BBQ that involved two bottles of 35-plus year old wine.
• Bed at 930.
• Up at 7, packing, breakfast.  I’m getting better at this giant-neoprene-bag-of-bags-on-the-roof thing.  Have I not mentioned this?  The Sher-Pak, it’s called.  It’s like something that an S&M fetishist, a car enthusiast and a SCUBA nerd dreamed up – all straps, zippers and rubber – and it holds all our bags, so the dogs can ride in the trunk.  Anyway got everything settled and locked down within 40 minutes.
• Driving by 8:20.  Very excited.  We stop for gas and because Kingsley
• 8:25. We stop for gas.  And because Kingsley can’t not bug out about his bowels and/or bladder five minutes into a drive.  Once again, very excited.
• Reno, Sparks – all the great sites on the way to Elko.  There’s supposedly some kind of Native American art installation right next to the highway a few hours out of Reno.  Helpfully, the website has lots of sort of creepy totemic pictures – and no directions. We find the nearest town, which scares the crap out of us, because it’s mostly shacks, old cars, an unpaved street and generally the kind of place zombies hang out.  No art.  We leave.
• We pass creepy totems five minutes later, right next to the highway.
• 2 pm. Excellent burgers, craft root beer and fries at the dog friendly Mattie’s Bar&Grill.  A great break from driving.  Mattie’s also features posters for a motorcycle raffle that supports the local animal shelter.  The posters feature a souped-up Harley with a small kitten sitting on it – and urge ticket buyers to “Get some PUSSY a home; GET LUCKY and GET SOME and take home a $28,000 bike for nearly free!”  We feel kinship with these kind rafflers – surely they would understand driving cross country to keep your dogs happy.  Or maybe we’ve just had too much craft root beer.
• 4:45 pm.  93 degrees.  Eat a giant slim jim while squinting through the Bonneville Salt Flats.  Speed limit literally is 80 – I’m going around 90 and people are passing me.  We’ve been listening to Jim Dale read Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.  I have to stop the DVD ever 7 or 8 minutes to answer questions.  I think this is fun.  I like answering questions.  It drives Kelly crazy.  Eventually, she and Quinn fall asleep.  Finally, Teddy also asks to just color.  The salt flats go on.
• 5 pm.  We wake the kids up to make them crunch around the salt flats.  I think this is cool.  They find salt-encrusted garbage.  We hustle them back into the car.
• 6 pm-ish.  We find our dog-friendly Sheraton.  It’s big.  They can’t recommend any dog friendly restaurants nearby, so we order room service.  Remarkably, the dogs DON”T urinate or defecate in the room – as far as we know.  The room’s big too.  We get a bunch of food – no glasses and no utensils.  I tell the kids people in SLC only eat with their hands.  Kelly doesn’t think this is too funny (it’s been a long day).  The kids don’t believe me, anyway.
• I also tell the kids the city was founded by people who discovered a book in upstate New York, written by an angel named Moroni.  They don’t believe me.
• Pool, swim.  Shower and bed – only the fold out couch is blocked by a granite table that literally weights 4,000 lbs.  I somehow move it.  Good luck to the hotel staff that has to get it back in place.
• Tomorrow, COLORADO!