Friday, July 31, 2009

Gene's 36th Birthday

Gene aka Dad turns 36 years old today. Peter has to be in Santa Barbara the next day so we're driving from his Las Vegas basketball tournament - about 6 hours away. We left right after Peter's last game in Vegas and really didn't do much for a birthday celebration. Dinner was at In-N-Out and dessert was Starbucks. No cake, no song, just the Jone family together on the road...who could ask for more.

We're Here!

Posted by Gene

Last night Tay and I finished packing up and loaded the car. Thinking we wouldn't see our house for the next week and a half we unplugged and secured everything. The plan was to go into the office for half the day and then drive out by noon to be in Vegas by midnight.

Things didn't go as planned. There were too many last minute items at work that needed tending to. Then, J told me that I had to take Tay to The Children's Hospital in Broomfield to check on his cast. In addition, Tay forgot his sunglasses at the house and I forgot my pills. By the end of it all, we didn't start driving until 6pm.

Most of the drive was in the dark and Tayler slept through most of it. We finally arrived in Vegas at 5:35 am. When we got to the hotel Tay said to his momma, "Wow! that was a short trip." I turned and replied, "'Cause you slept through most of it..." He just grinned and started playing. Aaaaah, kids are so innocent, huh?

The most impressive part of the drive for me was seeing how good our 2007 Toyota Avalon did on gas. We got up to 40 miles per gallon...it was amazing. Plus, it kept me awake while driving. :-)

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Drive to Las Vegas

Leaving at 6am, Peter and J rode with Kim and Brody Hornaday to Las Vegas in their Dodge Ram. The drive took about 15 hours. Since Gene has to finish up some things at work, he and Tayler will be driving over on tomorrow (7/30). It's been a long drive with some time left to rest up for the next day's games.

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Basketball Road Trip 2009

Are you ready for 3,250 miles of road? Well, we're getting ready for it. Here's the story and reason for the trip:

Peter was accepted to attend Michael Jordan's basketball camp in Santa Barbara, CA for the first week of August. The camp was paid for, airline tickets purchased, car rental, hotel stay, etc. Then, Peter got invited to join the Trinity basketball traveling team. The two traveling games would be right before and right after the MJ camp. We decided to make the commitment and have him join and get more national playing time on the court. Since the airline tickets were non-refundable we lost the $700 that we paid for those...what a shame. Running short on cash, we decide to drive the entire way.

Here's the trip itinerary:

JULY
29 : Leave Colorado, head to Las Vegas, NV and check in to the New Orleans hotel.
30 : First Day of Games
31 : Second Day of Games and leave by 5pm to Hyatt hotel in Thousand Oaks, CA


AUGUST
1 : Check out of hotel and drop Peter to MJ camp at Santa Barbara, CA. Check in at Crowne Plaza hotel in Ventura, CA
2-4 : Peter at camp; Gene, J and Tayler relax at the beach.
5 : Check out of hotel, pickup Peter at Camp head to Wichita, KS for tournament
6 : Arrive in Wichita, check in to Hilton hotel and go to first game
7-8 : Tournament games
9 : Check out of hotel and drive back to Colorado


Here's the planned route for our drive: