{"id":16013,"date":"2017-09-10T22:12:46","date_gmt":"2017-09-11T02:12:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.runkevinrun.com\/?p=16013"},"modified":"2017-09-11T03:40:12","modified_gmt":"2017-09-11T07:40:12","slug":"mashed-and-loaded","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/?p=16013","title":{"rendered":"Loaded and Mashed"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pre-Post: Dang it!\u00a0 I should’ve called that woman behind me at the Hollywood Bowl “Countess Zsa Zsa Gabby Bore!”\u00a0 Too late now; I’ve already “published” that blog post.\u00a0 Sometimes I go back in and edit things after the fact but I always feel a little guilty about doing that… like I’m making Greedo shoot first or something.<\/em><\/p>\n

Last night I had the great privilege of having a progressive dinner in downtown Denver with Kerry and her friend Andrea.\u00a0 What’s a progressive dinner?\u00a0 Drinks, Dinner, and Dessert.\u00a0 And dessert was at D Bar, two Food Network veteran chefs’ place de deliciousness<\/em>.\u00a0 I know that’s a lot of “D”s for the night, but I can safely swear under de <\/em>oath that it was Grade A great fun.\u00a0 And that’s not just because I had a few glasses of wine (hence the “loaded” in the title… what’s the “mashed?”\u00a0 More on that in a moment).<\/p>\n

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It’s always a delight to catch up with Kerry.\u00a0 The two downsides to the visit were A) it was too short and B) I got to crash in her guest bedroom.\u00a0 The latter is a huge problem, akin to how ya gonna keep ’em down on the farm after they’ve seen Paree?<\/a>\u00a0 Kerry’s apartment is something out of a Hollywood set decorator’s dream, the kind of thing you’d see in the movies when some supposedly “ordinary” person goes back to their apartment in New York and it’s this gorgeous pied-de-terre<\/em>.\u00a0 Kerry’s apartment is definitely jaw droppingly great and her guest bed is the comfiest of comfy — but then again Kerry is not ordinary, she’s extraordinary so maybe the parallel doesn’t exactly work.\u00a0 But the point is, how do I go back to a murder hotel when I’ve seen the sun rise over Denver from Kerry’s place?<\/p>\n

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Answer – I just have to.\u00a0 Because Bowman, ND, does NOT offer the same sort of views.\u00a0 But it does offer sunsets on the horizon.<\/p>\n

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Next question: are those Nutella beignets from D Bar?<\/p>\n

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Answer: Yes, yes they are.<\/p>\n

And are those homemade cinnamon <\/span>rolls from Kerry’s refrigerator?<\/p>\n

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Yes, yes they are.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

It was a long 8.5 hour plus drive from Kerry\u2019s to the packet pickup and free pasta dinner in Baker, Montana.\u00a0 And then it was another hour or so to my hotel in Bowman, ND.\u00a0 When booking accommodations a few weeks back, I couldn\u2019t find any vacancy in Baker and thus opted to double up for the first two days of the series at the Trail Motel.<\/p>\n

Along the long and winding road from Denver to Baker, I did take a momentary detour to Devil\u2019s Tower.\u00a0 I hadn\u2019t been there since 2006 when Steve and I ran Deadwood and roadtripped around the MidWest.<\/p>\n

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The Brothers Hanna at Devil’s Tower, circa June 2006<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I assume I\u2019ll have the same reaction when I (eventually) run a marathon on the moon.\u00a0 The moon will be a disappointment as it won\u2019t be made of cheese, whereas Devil\u2019s Tower is decidedly lacking mashed potato-ness.\u00a0 [Editor’s Note: And there’s your “mashed” from the title, y’all!]<\/em><\/p>\n

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The Hanna Solo at Devil’s Tower, circa 4 PM, 9\/10\/2017<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I was too pressed for time and too cheap to pay the $15 to go up to the monument proper.\u00a0 Plus, since I was alone it just didn\u2019t seem worth doing.\u00a0 Miss you, Steve.\u00a0 Wish you were here.<\/p>\n

Indeed, on top of missing my brother on this road trip adventure through the insulting and dismissively nicknamed \u201cflyover country,\u201d I was also feeling a bit guilty about leaving my mom to fend for herself in Florida as Hurricane Irma barreled into the sunshine state.\u00a0 I\u2019m a bad son for leaving mom high and dry (well, high and eventually soaked\u2026 but hopefully high enough not to be flooded).\u00a0 To be fair to me, and to try and make myself feel better, she can evacuate to Disney if it comes to that.\u00a0 And this may be apocryphal but my understanding is that Disney only allows cast members into the shelters and no family members alive.\u00a0 It\u2019s like a disaster movie dramatic moment of choosing whether to stay or go\u2026 I like to imagine some cast members turn to their children and say, \u201cWell, Bobby.\u00a0 Susie.\u00a0 Here\u2019s two jars of peanut butter and a knife.\u00a0 Your mother and I love you very much and hope to see you after the waters recede.\u00a0 God speed!\u201d\u00a0 And they turn and this giant metal door closes upon them as they wave goodbye to their offspring.\u00a0 Annnnnnd\u2026 scene.<\/p>\n

Point is, maybe it\u2019s for the best I\u2019m not there in case Mom has to evacuate so she doesn\u2019t have to worry about having an extra jar of peanut butter for me.<\/p>\n

Anyhoo, I made it to the pasta dinner and grabbed my stuff and a plate of penne.<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0 \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I also asked the Rueckerts and George if I could get a photo with them; the one bold-faced rule in the participant information emails they send out is not to bother the timing table as they have jobs to do on race day.\u00a0 I\u2019m a stickler for rules, so I haven\u2019t wanted to ask them to grab a photo after a race.\u00a0 But this being PRE-race, the rules don\u2019t apply, and, well\u2026<\/p>\n

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I\u2019ve checked into the Trail Motel and am refreshing the storm tracking imagery over Florida.\u00a0 Fingers crossed all are okay there, but if you\u2019ll permit a bit of selfishness, my toes are crossed too because most of all I want my Mom to be okay.<\/p>\n

Love you, Mom.\u00a0 Sorry I\u2019m not there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pre-Post: Dang it!\u00a0 I should’ve called that woman behind me at the Hollywood Bowl “Countess Zsa Zsa Gabby Bore!”\u00a0 Too late now; I’ve already “published” that blog post.\u00a0 Sometimes I go back in and edit things after the fact but I always feel a little guilty about doing that… like I’m making Greedo shoot first […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16013"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16013\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}