THE DAILY

From West to East

After a great two weeks in Arizona, it was time to head back east and catch some quality Burlington, Vermont days...but not before a stop in New Jersey to witness the US Open of Mountain Biking. Since I was flying through New York to get to Vermont, why not extend the layover for the weekend and catch this legendary biking event at Mountain Creek.

Upon arriving at PHX Airport, I immediately thought to myself 'it must be a holiday weekend' because the flughafen was complete madness...it turns out it's Memorial Day Weekend. Guess I should pay more attention to national holidays! Check in took forever, security took even longer then we couldn't land in Chicago (for the connection to Laguardia) so we circled Ohio for an hour. Once we had permission to catch a runway opening the pilot dipped through the atmosphere quick and had us on the groud in minutes.

The departure gate for my next flight was right next to my arrival gate so I simply made a left turn and scanned my boarding pass. I sat down, the doors closed and we were out (would my checked baggage make the connection?). After landing at Laguardia it was down to baggage claim for the 'wait and see' game...my bags were the first three out onto the belt...so lucky!

The rental car counter was a fiasco as well, but it didn't really matter since the entire day had already been going that way and I would be driving in 5 O'clock New York - New Jersey traffic...no need to stress something I had no control over! The roads were packed to the gills, so the refreshed playlist ran through the speakers and I found myself in the lush green mountains of Jersey within a couple of hours.

Now it's time to catch the party at The Rock Garden and watch some crazy mountain bikers go screaming past full tilt through some very rocky terrain. Peace, Blotto