Ragnar McDowell 2017: The Aftermath
On the last blog, Team Breaking Rag finished another successful Ragnar McDowell, and we took some amazing showers at Amadeo and Christina's house.
After lunch, we hugged Christina and Amadeo goodbye, and we headed over to see Jake and Keeli. While I'd been doing pretty well so far, by this time the lack of sleep was really catching up with me; I was now clean with a full belly, and since Chris was driving, I nodded off a few times between our buddies' houses (about a 20-30 minute drive, so not long), including once in the middle of a sentence. Apparently, I was trying to convey to Chris that it looked like a car behind us had a Christmas tree on top (not really - it was just my brain going into full holiday mode a bit early), and I kept slurring my words. Once he realized that I was just nodding off mid-sentence and not having a stroke, he calmed down and the drive continued.
As we reached Jake and Keeli's and unpacked their Ragnar stuff from the truck (completely covered in dust, of course), I rallied, and while the gentlemen took to sampling all sorts of good things from Jake's well stocked adult beverage collection, I enjoyed some tea while we relaxed on the couch and caught up with one another. Eventually, our buddy and sometimes Ragnar teammate (after Los Coyotes, I think it'll be a while before Matt lets us convince him to Ragnar again) Matt came over, and eventually the plan was made to head to one of our favorite local spots, Mellow Mushroom, for some pizza and more beer. Everything was delicious, and of course, I have zero pictures of any of it. In fairness, by the ripe old hour of 8pm, Chris and I were face-planting into the table, so we said bye to Matt (asking him to wish his wife Kristie and daughter Kailyn the best - we missed seeing them this time) and headed home to enjoy the fantastic guest room at Casa de Keeler.
The next morning, having slept around 10 amazing hours, we wandered out to find Jake already awake, and we visited with he and Keeli a bit longer. We had to get on the road soon, as we were heading to brunch with a few more folks we needed to see before we headed out of town.
After lunch, we hugged Christina and Amadeo goodbye, and we headed over to see Jake and Keeli. While I'd been doing pretty well so far, by this time the lack of sleep was really catching up with me; I was now clean with a full belly, and since Chris was driving, I nodded off a few times between our buddies' houses (about a 20-30 minute drive, so not long), including once in the middle of a sentence. Apparently, I was trying to convey to Chris that it looked like a car behind us had a Christmas tree on top (not really - it was just my brain going into full holiday mode a bit early), and I kept slurring my words. Once he realized that I was just nodding off mid-sentence and not having a stroke, he calmed down and the drive continued.
As we reached Jake and Keeli's and unpacked their Ragnar stuff from the truck (completely covered in dust, of course), I rallied, and while the gentlemen took to sampling all sorts of good things from Jake's well stocked adult beverage collection, I enjoyed some tea while we relaxed on the couch and caught up with one another. Eventually, our buddy and sometimes Ragnar teammate (after Los Coyotes, I think it'll be a while before Matt lets us convince him to Ragnar again) Matt came over, and eventually the plan was made to head to one of our favorite local spots, Mellow Mushroom, for some pizza and more beer. Everything was delicious, and of course, I have zero pictures of any of it. In fairness, by the ripe old hour of 8pm, Chris and I were face-planting into the table, so we said bye to Matt (asking him to wish his wife Kristie and daughter Kailyn the best - we missed seeing them this time) and headed home to enjoy the fantastic guest room at Casa de Keeler.
The next morning, having slept around 10 amazing hours, we wandered out to find Jake already awake, and we visited with he and Keeli a bit longer. We had to get on the road soon, as we were heading to brunch with a few more folks we needed to see before we headed out of town.
Between Freyja and Anoki here,
I enjoyed my cat time over the weekend as well.
Great to catch up with friends!
We miss these folks!
We next headed to Mother Bunch Brewing in downtown Phoenix, where we met up with some of my girlfriends from work, Ashleigh and Sara (whom my frequent blog readers know as Murph, of course). I made Chris go sit at the bar so we could have lady time (what? He needed to study anyway - he was fine), and we had an awesome time enjoying delicious food and even better company - it was really nice to catch up with these ladies - it had been waaaay too long! Eventually, Chris came to join us as well, and he chatted with everyone, too.
We did get a picture before we headed out:
Hooray for brunch with buddies!
After that delightful morning, it was high time to hit the road, so we hopped on the 10 and headed west. The drive home was uneventful - we stopped a few times for gas and bathroom breaks, and we were back in Long Beach by around 7pm, even with a stop to grab dinner to go. Once we made it in the door, we were greeted by this happy face, enthralled to have the whole pack back together again:
"You guys came back!!!!!"
As you can probably glean from this set of blogs, we had an absolutely fantastic time in Phoenix for the long weekend - we visited old stomping grounds, ran Ragnar, and most importantly, got a chance to see tons of our favorite folks (not all of them, of course - it never works out that way), each of whom we miss greatly now that we're 6 hours away. All in all, an absolute success of a trip!
Later!
Amy
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