That is why we go to rehab

A number of my loyal Pete Chat readers have wondered how our little friend the Rally Monkey has been doing. If you don't remember after a series of "incidents" we discovered that it was best for our simian buddy to take a little time to get his head on right, thus we sent him off to rehab.

I'm not sure how many of you are familiar with the church movie "The Prodigal Son" but rather than fly RM to rehab in Utah we decided to drive up from California. So we hit the road for some quality time and what turned out to be about 200 miles of awkwardness and 440 miles of open road beyond that.

During his time in rehab the RM was lucky enough to have a few visitors. My niece Kate was of particular support. She chose not to judge his past actions but rather embraced him for his efforts to get better.
The Rally Monkey was allowed to leave the facility and to visit friends in the area. Gabby and Kimba did their best to make him feel welcome but Gavin was no peach. The gentleman is most often the center of attention and thus he was unable to set his massive ego aside to help the RM in his process of healing.
And yet even when surrounded by people that cared about him he was all alone. battling the demons that had sent him to rehab in the first place. I knew that it wouldn't be an easy road to recovery, instead this would be a journey of self discovery.
As the RM's closest friend I thought it would do the little guy some good to get out of town and out into the country. We jumped on the Heber Creeper and took a leisurely train ride.

But just as things seemed to be looking up, it looked as things were getting better he appeared to want to end things again. I knew that a command decision needed to be made and drastic beach therapy was necessary. We packed our stuff and headed south. It must have been that Southern California air because immediately there was a rejuvenation that was so apparent. He was back to his old self. There was only one thing left. The little guy needed to get his mojo back and return to the Big A.

When called upon he was ready. He rallied the crowd into frenzy and he had rallied back from his personal demons. I could not have been prouder than I was that day.

Congrats to the Angels 2008 AL Western Division Champs. Let's get some jewelry!