Weekend

wow, what a weekend!

friday afternoon we headed up to the AZ Biltmore to begin our marriage retreat. we had never been to this resort and it was quite nice. so, here we are, at a christian marriage retreat and the other conference taking place simultaneously? . . .hell's city tatoo. i could not make that up.

we all got along just fine. some of us were printed, some were not. i must say, tatoos have gotten quite colorful and imaginative. i just wonder if the guy with the face tatoo is going to be happy with that when he's 60. . .

the retreat was hosted by comedians and i laughed until my stomach hurt. what is it about comedy that makes reality so darn funny? anyway, it worked. on saturday, the comedian gave a part of the marriage seminar. it was very interesting. he was able to get his point across with humor. isn't there enough seriousness in a marriage already? so, two thumbs up for both the resort and the retreat.

saturday evening, we visited with the grandkids at their house before they had to go to bed.

sunday morning we headed out to box canyon near florence for a little dirt bike ride. wow, it is so beautiful back in there. that little ttr performed like a champ. i was remembering the last time i was in that canyon and had my dr650. what a pig that was! ye and i switched bikes and i systematically shredded every street part off the drz400 until it looked like it had fringe made of parts. . .what a kind, understanding man he was to allow me to do that. ;-)

but the ttr was a dream as it sailed across the top of the dirt and the lower seat height allowed me to maneuver in the tight, rocky stuff. i'm very happy with it.

A Collection

flying is a horrible thing these days. pack, call a cab, get to the airport early, stand in line at security, go to gate and wait, and wait, and wait. the whole time flights are being delayed, postponed and cancelled. you run to the bathroom 7 times with luggage in tow so you don't have to climb over 16 people on the plane to use what is effectively a port-a-potty, only much smaller.

finally, you are being boarded. now they want everybody to hurry because they are running behind. . .2+ hours late going out, 1 hour late coming back. and that's happening all up and down the terminal. . .what happened to providing a quality service?

so, when i get back, i am picked up by a gentle man bearing a dozen red roses, a card and a 20 oz. bottle of diet pepsi, because he knew i would be thirsty. he was right. awwwww.

okay, that's it, i'm keeping him.

highlight of my trip was meeting my p.m. and his amazing wife. they are much more than i expected, and i was expecting great things. it's comforting to know there are not one, but two such people gracing this earth at the same time as me. truly magnificent people.

so we're heading out to a marriage retreat tonight. i've always had a desire to do one of these, but am even more excited about this one because it is being put on by comedians. how fun is that?!? and it's being held at a very nice hotel here in town. one of the few i've yet to stay. and another couple is going with us. so i'm looking forward to sharing good times, with good people and be able to pick up on some good communication tips as well. should be fun!

Backs and Business

so my pain guy is referring me out to a surgeon. luckily the surgeon's first appt for a new patient is oct. 4. i kid you not. but it gives me plenty of time to get my ducks in a row, do some research on other options, physical therapy, give my diet time to make a difference, etc.

i do not want to give up dirt biking. there simply must be another way, and i will find it.

so today i got the orders to be at a meeting in minneapolis on tuesday and wednesday. i'll get to meet one of my project managers for the first time. i can't wait!!! unfortunately, the current project manager will be out of town and i won't meet her, but she's going to be with her daughter and brand spanking new grandchild, so she's in good hands. ;-)

maggots. we're having maggots this week and i can't wait. also gives me a deadline to get my house in order. i've been looking for a reason and here it is. we'll be hosting a glo-maggot in september too!

life is good.

Weekend

blogs are a little like "video confessionals," so here's mine.

i unpacked my ventura pack, the tailpack and saddlebags yesterday. 1 full week after we got home. now, just so you don't think i'm such a pig, i had pulled out the dirty clothes and laundered them the day we got home. the rest? well, it aged in the bags until yesterday.

and even then most of what was in the saddlebags are still in there, awaiting the next trip.

Where Next?

where next, you may ask. i've been pondering the same question. the dalton hwy is definitely on the dance card for next summer. not something i want to try before then. ;-)

in order to stave off the cold, my mind is wandering south. . .maybe this is the fall that we do creel, mexico with it's beautiful copper canyon. when the contracts are up, we won't have to stop there and can keep heading further south until it gets cold again! i'm thinking camping would have to be a much bigger actor in those plans.

i'll start researching creel. if any of you have any suggestions about which way to go, what to see, what to pack, etc. please feel free to enter a comment.

And Finally. . .

we headed out at about 0800 to allow the kids to wake up and said our goodbyes.

south we headed to one of my favorite roads. a 141 and 145 combo was just what was needed to bring the smiles back to our faces after kissing the grandkids goodbye. those roads are sheer delight!

as we were riding, i noticed something brown drifting across the road in front of me. i was confused. it was the color of a paper bag. . .it appeared to be drifting, but not in a "light as paper" sort of way. that added to my confusion as i studied the object. . .closer. . .closer. holy crap! it was some sort of rodent dragging the lifeless body of another one across the road.

and, of course, by the time i was able to identify this oddity, i was about to run over it! so i did the only thing that i could at the moment. . .i slammed my eyes shut and braced myself for the sickening snap of tiny little bones and the inevitable bump as i mowed it over.

and it never came. so either the slamming of eyes shut/grip the handlebars/bile reflux combination had me too focused, or by some miracle, i didn't hit it afterall. i prefer the later scenario, so i'm going with it.

we rode toward, behind, around the side of rain all day. it finally dumped on us for about 10 miles once we crossed in to arizona from new mexico. by the time we reached our stopping point for the night, springerville, we were dried out once again.

that night was spent discussing the day's events over some wretched jack daniels foo-foo drinks and a bag of peanuts.

the next morning we steeled ourselves for the impending wall of heat, but first, we planned one last "hoorah" in the form of the salt river canyon raceway. :-D even on shagged tires ye was fully leaned over at the first corner and i didn't see him again until we met up on the other side!

life was good.

and when we got to globe and discovered the impending wall of heat was a fizzle, we were euphoric! seems the monsoons had kept the temps down just for our return. that meant that the whole trip was hot-free. woohoo!

we arrived at the casa at about 11:15 a.m. to two shredded unused diapers on the familyroom floor and swirls of dog hair littering the entire house.

it was good to be home.

so. . .what's next i hear you ask? we're thinking adventure trip. . .something south of the border. . .maybe when my contract expires in september.

oh, and there's always that haul road ride to prepare for next summer! ;-)

Colorado

we stopped in colorado to see our other grandchildren. we sure miss getting to spend time with them. courtney is 4, connor turned 1 while we were there. how cool is that!

we spent wednesday night visiting and reading storybooks to courtney and visiting with her parents. connor was teething and more than just a little terrified of us as is typical for the age. that's okay, we've been on this planet for quite some time and knew, with a little time, he'd come around.

after a good night's sleep, connor was our best friend and even graced ye with some cuter-than-is-legal snuggles.

we ran the little ones ragged the next day with a visit to the mall/maul. ye hates the mall and refuses to go unless there is a life-threatening emergency, but for the little ones, he went along with nary a complaint. he even feigned remote interest (which is to say he didn't throw up) when we took them both to the build-a-bear store. then it was off to chuck e. cheese for $20 worth of tokens. now that was fun and ye perked right up!

we lunched in the food court so the little ones could have their favorite meals. i got an aqua-massage which was quite the tasty treat! after all that excitement, it was time to head back to the homestead and let little connor and his grandparents have a nap.

up again, we all headed out to dinner with daddy in tow. had a great meal, lots of wonderful conversation and headed to an amusement park. little courtney was in heaven as daddy and ye raced around the go-kart track. daddy took courtney in his kart, but that didn't stop him from flooring it the whole way around. she kept telling him to go faster. little connor kept his grandma company on the sidelines.

we spent the evening looking at pictures and relaxing.

all too soon it was time to depart and we packed up with promises that it would not be so long until our next visit.

we had some very special roads to ride heading south.

Onward

okay, so where was i?

oh, predicting a 5:00 a.m. departure. shyeah, right. well, we wanted to stick around long enough to bid mother ywr a fond farewell. and that we did. that left us departing about 7:45 a.m. but worth the delay for sure.

we headed down a few roads that occassionally had a curve, turned a few corners and then we arrived at red lodge. we had lunch of a couple of greek salads at a quirky little place called "bogarts". then we headed south.

wow.

beautiful as we climbed, and climbed, and rode switchback after switchback so far up i dared not look over the side of the very small barrier between me and 11,000 ft. down. what a time to have acrophobia. ;-)

and the most delicious thing about such a high climb is what goes up, must come down. and down we came with delectably similar twisties and switchbacks. two thumbs up and a bug in the teeth for that one!

and that brought us to . . .wyoming. gosh, what can i say about wyoming? we took one of the roads that had those little scenic dots beside it, but i never saw the scenic part. then, in the midst of our boredom, mr. younger-than-most-of-the-shoes in-my-closet, wyoming state trooper pulls us over for speeding. good heavens! i wasn't even leaning!!!

to be honest, i had no idea what the speed limit even was or how fast we were going. i had long ago zoned out from boredom. so mr. trooper pops over the top of this hill, approaches and flips his lights on. before he could turn his squad car around, we had pulled over since we were the only vehicles on the road. sure enough, mr. aviator-glasses writes us up. sigh. that meant going considerably slower through the rest of the state.

amazingly enough, that mileage that i had been struggling with, running out of gas at 144 and such, was greatly increased with the lower speeds. my next gas stop was at 192 miles. wow, maybe ye was right when he said the reason for my poor mileage was all in the twist of my right hand. who knew?!?

we spent the night in rock springs, wy that night. i think we got the last room in the town, frequented a local jb's down the street for some grub and went back to the room to sleep. i know we turned the tv on once, but we had some reading to catch up on so it was off before we even found anything interesting.

the next morning we were off to colorado. it was only about 250 miles and we left quite late the next morning. we had slept in and were slow to pack up knowing that it would be a short day. anywho. . .once we hit colorado, the road turned to crap. and that was a shame because it was twistie and wonderful scenery. the road surface, however, left much to be desired and we were disappointed in the riding for that day.