Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Engaged!

Up front I just want to say that I have the best husband ever, and he has an amazing family so if while reading this at any time a thought pops up that would make you think that I feel otherwise please refer to this statement!

Two years ago I traveled to Colorado over spring break to ski with Lindsey Beal then Sankat flew out to meet me and we drove across the Rockies to Moab Utah.  I love to backpack which is a sport where you pack a tent, food, stove, clothes, sleeping bag and anything else you think you might need and walk around in the wilderness for several days hopefully not seeing any other humans:)  Sankat does not think that this is a sport more like torture, but I decided to introduce him to this sport in the Mecca of backpacking, Canyon lands national park Utah.
In 2008 spring break my girlfriends Laura, Lindsey and I spent 7 days in the backcountry of Canyonlands hiking in and out of 3-4 canyons a day.  It was 80 every day the views were spectacular I thought it was the best place to introduce Sankat to this kick ass sport.
Any-who Sankat and I are headed into Arches national park right outside of Utah where we are going to car camp and look at the spectacular arches.  He keeps asking me about the cell phone signal in Arches and I keep telling him the whole point of doing this is not to talk to anyone else!!!  We pull up the park's campground is full so we have to drive into Moab and camp at this sketchy car camping joint where a muscled man in a camper may murder you in the middle of the night.
We drive back to Arches to try and catch delicate arch at sunset where the light of the sun setting casts an amazing red glow across the desert.  Of course it is cloudy and about to sprinkle (it only rains about two days a year in Moab).  We reach the trail head at Delicate Arch, I grab my pack we get ready to make the one mile hike in.  Now I've been skiing for the past few days and have adjusted to the altitude but Sankat who just flew into Denver the day before is huffing and puffing I'm concerned he's going to pass out in the desert, but I'm so excited to be at Arches I'm hiking away.  When we arrive at delicate arch there is a family there, Sankat wants to go stand right next to the arch (which is on the side of the cliff), and keeps pestering me to take my backpack off so but I won't because I want to look like I'm hiking for the pics.  Finally I do give in to walking to the side of the cliff but won't relent on the backpack.
It is there that Sankat asks me to marry him I had NO clue!!!! The ring is beautiful but my fingers are so swollen from hiking it won't go on, I don't care I shove that shit on and am SOOOOOOO excited We're engaged and my ring ROCKS (no pun intended).
We hike back, get in the car and decide not to cook dinner in the sketcholo trailer park but to celebrate by having dinner in Moab.  (Of course Sankat makes his phone calls to his family, and mine with our two bars of service).  We try to order champagne to celebrate but the pizza buffet doesn't have it we do settle on some crummy Colorado wine but I don't care because I'm engaged.  Oh yeah I forgot to mention it's Jeep Safari weekend in Moab so all the Jeep lovers of the USA descend on Moab and drive their larger than life Jeeps all over the beautiful red rocks.  Of course along with Jeeps comes Jeep people, so Zeke's pizza is full of Jeep driven families all dining together Sankat is the only brown man for as far as the eye can see.
It is also super windy so as we drive back to our trailer park campground full of trailers with Jeeps even larger than than their campers, the red dust of the desert is blowing like no tomorrow.  Sankat and I spend our engagement night in a tent with red dust blowing through as my finger swells so large with my new ring that I think we may have to go to the emergency room to get it cut off.
The next morning we wake up and I'm still determined to take Sankat backpacking.  As we drive towards Canyonlands the sky is super cloudy and white stuff is falling from the sky.  Sankat asked is this snow??  I said I hope not.  We spend the next 24 hours hiking, sleeping in a tent in below 20 degree weather and planning our wedding.  The next day we bail out and decide to join the Jeep Safari peeps in the revelry and get a hotel room in town.  No more dust, no more snow, just civilization at the LaQuinta Inn.
The amazing thing is that this boy still wants to marry me!!!