Hate me. I do.

Once again, I find myself in a situation, and I'm not sure how exactly it happened.

I've been asked to go on a "media trip" to the Grand Targhee Resort.

Why me?

Dunno.

It got very real last night.  The email with my flight confirmation came in, and I sat there looking at it and going "hmmmmmmm."  When asked a couple months ago if I'd be interested in going, all I could think was that eventually I'd get bumped off the list by a more legitimate candidate.  I figured nothing would come of it, mostly because if I've learned anything by being the most relevant irrelevant person in the "industry," 25% of all things that are 100% actually come to fruition... half the time.  Always prepare for disappoint, and sometimes (close to rarely but not quite) things will work out in my favor.  It's a pleasant surprise.

This must be one of those times.

I'll be honest.  When I got the first email, I had to google where Grand Targhee is on the map.  Wyoming?  How about that?  I've never been there.  And what's that?  The same part of the planet where the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone National Park happens to be?  I've fallen into something good, and that's not even talking about the mountain biking part.  I might have to invest in some footwear that isn't flip flops or cycling clicky-clacky shoes.  I mean, if they ask me if I wanna see some of those things in a once-in-a-lifetime-hell-yes scenario, I don't wanna be flip-flopping around.

They're probably having me come for the mountain bike stuff tho.

"Voted #2 in the Top 5 Best Bike Parks in the Northwest region on MTBparks.com three years running."

That's a good start.

2,200 feet of lift service downhill trails, 61 miles of XC, DH, and whatever else you might wanna do trails.   I've been staring at pictures and reading trail descriptions all morning.

I'm a lucky POS.

And here's the crazy part.  They actually asked me if I wanted to bring my own bike or get hooked up with something from the Grand Targhee demo/rental fleet.  I had to be honest.  Nice bikes are what they are, but my bike is muh behk.  I've had enough experiences sorta like this to know that I'll spend the first few rides fiddling with things, just trying to get the bike and I on the same page.  I might get one good ride once the relationship has found a happy place, and then I'm back on a plane.

As much as I hate air travel with my bike, it's better than wasting ride opportunities because I'm fiddling with squishy/shifty/stoppy/cockpit bits.

So, yeah.  I asked if I could bring my Vertigo Meatplow V.7.  I just looked up the elevation... 7,408 ft at the base, 9,862 ft at the top.  Oof.  Remind me to put the 32X20 on there before I leave.  I sorta wished I had a suspension fork for the bike before heading out there (for pure pleasure), but I've been researching lately, and I've found that I've fallen into the money pit butthole between Boost and non-Boost.  I'm suffering from analysis paralysis, cart before the horse, chicken and egg sadness scenarios.

I've gotten nowhere trying to solve this problem, and I don't expect that I'll make any progress before June 30th.

Have I mentioned that I vibrate with excite?

Because I do.  I really do.

No "racing."  No planning.  Just show up at the airport, ride my bike, meet new people, eat, drink, and be a human in a place that I've never been a human before.

Pinch me... not too hard tho.  I bruise like a ripe banana.