Monday (8/18/08) – (Atlanta) Mostly sunny, hot and dry to near 90 H, 70’s L in Georgia.
Updated the sales pipeline for most of the morning, then had a very brief call with Arlene at 2pm. Amanda’s last day was on Thursday last week, so Marlo is watching the kids until Friday, but Ashley kept them busy today and was out for a few hours this afternoon.
Returned a rug at Home Depot during lunch, then had to get my Earthlink account reactivated now that I am no longer an employee of the company and I don’t get a free account. Spent the evening packing for the trip to Utah tomorrow and had dinner with Ashley and the kids this evening.
Tuesday (8/19/08) – (Atlanta/Salt Lake City) Sunny and warm in Salt Lake City with temps to the 80’s H, 70’s L.
Ashley went to work at the office this morning, so Marlo came by the house at 8am to watch the kids. As soon as she got in the door, I left for the airport and caught an 10:50am flight to Denver. Had a brief 40 minute layover, then flew on to Salt Lake City on another packed (but much smaller) Delta jet. Arrived at 2:20pm in SLC, rented a SUV from National, then checked in to the Hampton Inn near the airport.
In just 15 minutes, I was able to change into some hiking clothes and prep a small day-pack for a hike at Brighton Ski Resort. It took me about an hour to reach the trailhead and another 2 ½ hours to hike the six miles roundtrip to Lake Catherine, but it was well worth the effort. After climbing under ski lifts in the first mile, I finally reached the dam at Lake Mary and followed the western shore to a much smaller but still scenic Lake Martha. The two are separated by a short five mile walk, and a young couple that I met on the way informed me that a cow moose was resting in the meadow surrounding the lake.
I easily found her and also discovered she had a small calf with her that was feeding along the shore. Took some photos, explored a small campsite nearby, then made the climb to Lake Catherine which is the last of the lakes on the Brighton Lakes Trail. It was 1107 feet from the trailhead to this lake, but it was the most remote, and least crowded of the three. Situated in a bowl, it was a really scenic and peaceful place to take a break and I shared a pack of M&M’s that I had with a small chipmunk that scavenged two pieces that I had accidentally dropped on the ground. I saw no other hikers the entire time I was at the lake, and after a restful break I hit the trail again for the decent to Brighton Ski Resort. The final three miles went much quicker than the ascent. I returned to the trailhead by 6:30pm and walked through a pack of marmots in my final steps.
Despite the large number of day hikers that I met on the trail, there was very little activity at the base of the mountain. So I drove down to Solitude to explore a village at the base of the ski resort and only found one restaurant that was a pizza place open for business. Solitude is a beautiful place and would make a great (albeit quiet) family trip, but I decided to drive further down the mountain to a restaurant that I noticed on the way up. It was a small B&B cut into the side of the canyon that had a deck in the back. Ordered up some BBQ, had a brew, and enjoyed the view of the mountains.
By 7:30pm, I was on my way to Salt Lake City and back at the hotel pool and hot tub. Had a brew that I purchased at the 7-11 which rounded out a perfect day on the trail. Spent the rest of the evening watching the Olympics and working on the computer to prepare for some meetings tomorrow. My computer “blue screened” on the flight today, but I was able to revive it enough to get some emails answered in the evening.
Wednesday (8/20/08) – (Salt Lake City) Mostly sunny with temps to the 80’s H, 70’s L in Utah.
Woke around 7:15am this morning and answered emails and prepared for our sales calls today. Picked Rob and Trista up at the airport and their plane arrived on time at 9am. We went straight to ClearLink whose office was right near the airport (and next to the Hampton Inn where I stayed the previous night). Had a two hour meeting with ClearLink, then had lunch at an Olive Garden downtown that was next to our Obeo meeting – in fact it was in the same building! Our discussions with Obeo lasted about an hour, then we drove to Xmission which we discovered was only about 11 minutes away. That had us ahead of schedule and since Xmission agreed to meet early we were able to finish our meeting with Agemni (and founder Clinton Felsted) by 5:30pm.
Took both Trista and Rob to the airport for their evening flights out – but had to make a return trip to pick-up Rob who was unable to get on a standby flight to Atlanta. Dropped him off at the Ramada Inn, then headed back to the Hampton Inn for the night and watched some TV and more of the Olympics tonight.
Thursday (8/21/08) – (Salt Lake City/Atlanta) Sunny and hazy in both Utah and Atlanta. Clouds rolling in from Hurricane Fay in the late afternoon in GA. Temps to 86 H, 73 L.
Had breakfast at the Hampton Inn near the Salt Lake City airport, then turned my rental car in and caught an 8:30am flight to Denver on a small jet. It was packed as was my 757 ride back to Atlanta on Delta. Rode in coach again and worked on my computer most of the way (after getting it to work despite constant booting problems.)
Got to the house by 5pm and tried to jump on a call with American Satellite – but it had already wrapped up. So I ran a back-up on my laptop, boxed it up, then rode with Ashley and the kids to the UPS store to ship it to Miami for repairs. We ate at El Porton tonight while we were in the shopping center and used Pat King’s gift certificate again for dinner. Returned to the house to watch the Olympics, put the kids down, and cleaned up the pool – which is green from copper leaching off the water heater. Or is it algae?
Friday (8/22/08) – (Atlanta) Mostly cloudy with periods of sunshine. Temps to 81 H, 68 L in Georgia.
Marlo was over at 8:30am to watch the kids today. I fed them breakfast, then worked off my desktop computer since the laptop is DOA and in Miami for repairs. Fortunately, I had a back-up drive on hand which allowed me to do an expense report and access some files that I needed.
Worked until 5pm tonight, updated some journal entries, then worked on the kid’s playset in the evening. Ashley took the kids to the mall late this afternoon, then returned with them for dinner.
