When I talked to my good friend Mikkel about a month ago about helping me drive my car back to Vermont from Utah he was all for it. I waited a couple weeks and called him and asked him again. This time he wasn't quite as excited with the plan. He was on break from school in Vermont and had one week left before school started. Being the amazing friend that he is he agreed to help me out. We only had a week to drive back so it wasn't the leisure trip cross country that I usually take, but we did have time to see some people in Utah and Vail before the long drive begun.

Once we arrived in Salt Lake TJ Lanning picked us up at the airport. TJ is doing well, and on the path of recovery as well. He crashed in his first race this season breaking vertebrae in his neck and dislocating his knee. He is wearing a neck brace full time which will be coming off in a week or so. I had to wear one of those for a little while in the hospital as well. I hated that thing, I kept trying to rip it off! I think TJ was actually one of the guys around that would make sure I wouldn't pull off my neck brace. He is doing full rehab for his knee and things seem to be going well. He is in good spirits and I'm sure he will be back on snow next season doing what he loves. We spent the night in Salt Lake with the Lanning's before heading on to Vail...

The first day of driving was pretty short and easy. About seven hours to Vail from Salt Lake. Thats really what my pace is usually like when I'm driving across country anyway. My friend Kate lives and works in Vail and Mikkel's brother lives down in Denver so it was a great place for us to stop for a night. I had a nice visit with Kate. We were thinking about going skiing in the morning but slept in and made a pancake breakfast instead..... Ha, I had to write about it, it was awesome! She made the pancakes but I made some delicious  hashbrowns! After a late breakfast I picked up Mikkel in Denver and the real driving started....

I drove for about four hours through Colorado and in to Nebraska before Mikkel took over. At some point I fell a sleep so I could get some rest and drive a little later. Everything was going smoothly at this point, or so I thought. At about 2am  Mikkel pulled off an exit to go to the bathroom. We were in the middle of no where Nebraska off  some random exit. When Mikkel was about to get back into the car a police car comes up behind him with his lights on. The cop comes out and yells "GET AWAY FROM THE CAR, HANDS WHERE I CAN SEE THEM"  Mikkel at this point is just thinking oh my god what is going on? I'm just starting to wake up in the passenger seat and see Mikkel getting questioned by the police. Apparently in the town we were in there were two businesses that had just been robbed and the police wanted to see if we were involved. After looking at me half a sleep in the passenger seat and running our ID's they turned out to be really cool and let us on our way.

Other then our one run in with the police we had a smooth trip back. I am glad I have my car back home now. Makes life a little easier. For now I plan to be home for a while..... I have been talking to Warner Nickerson about a possible trip over to Europe in February to travel with the guys and watch some racing and be around the scene. I'm not sure if that will happen or not.

Thats all for now,

Cody

P.S. You easterners will be happy to know that there is more snow in Vermont then there is in Utah!