this one i did sign up for. . .

sunday morning dawned very, very, early this week. we had made plans to ride up the north control road to mount lemmon. we had attempted this a year ago last march only to get stopped about 6 miles from the top with ice and snow.

what?!?

yeah, i said ice and snow, in arizona, tucson to be more precise, in march. after dumping the dakar for the 3rd time and losing traction more times than i can count, i threw in the skull cap and scrubbed the mission.

i was glad we were going back to finish the ride. it was something that i always wanted to accomplish, if only because of it's previous failure.

so i signed up for another attempt. this one when i *knew* there would be no snow. i wanted to reach that summit and experience summerhaven, the little town at the top. it was going to heat up down in the valley, so a cool 72 degrees was calling to me. it was compelling.

so we rolled out of bed at 5-ish and were headed out on the bikes by 5:30. yes, that's 5:30 a.m. we rode through coolidge, hooking up with 96 ranch road, to something, then freeman, then willow springs ranch road. 96 ranch road has a couple patches of deep sand and one particularly nasty rut that ran perpendicular to the road. of course i was going too fast to even attempt to minimize the damage, so i just set my jaw, leaned back to lighten the front end and braced myself for the bone jarring to subside. it did, and i was on to the next thing.

we arrived at oracle, which is the starting point for the control road up the north side. the temps were so modest, we decided to risk having breakfast before heading up. it was about 8 a.m. at this point i'd say. nothing beats a good plate of mexican food for breakfast.

and then we mounted up and headed for the turn off.

much of it was typical back road. it had it's share of twists, turns, ruts, pot holes, gravel, washed out sections, etc. along with the stray idiot that drives too fast down the middle of the road the opposite way because it's mostly deserted. that's mostly, not always.

when we started to ascend, ye did his typical disappearing act. i always wonder why he asks me to go for a ride with him and then never rides with me. in his defense, he did offer to let me lead, but somehow getting shown a wheel around every turn is not my idea of relaxing. so i normally ride my own ride and i'll see him sometime over the ride, depending on how long a ride it is.

everything is going smoothly. at one point i noticed the gps said it was 16 miles to the top. by the time it reached 15 i was surprised. i could have sworn it was more like 5 miles, not the one it indicated.

anyway, i started clicking off the miles, trying to remember the exact corner where i threw in the flag on the previous trip. doggone it if they don't all look alike. every time i'd think i found it, i'd round another corner that looked just like it.

so i look at the gps, i'm 2 miles from the top. the map squiggly is all over the place, back and forth, so i know the switchbacks are getting tight at this point. i come up on a left hander thinking to myself "i've got this licked," when suddenly my bike is dead. it didn't sputter, it didn't lurch.

it. just. quit.

it was like a rock dropping from the sky. i hit the ground so quick i didn't have time to react. the bike ended up sideways on a downhill slant. as i was flat on the ground, i realized i couldn't just right myself. i ended up rolling around on the ground like a potato bug until i could get my feet headed downhill and underneath me. it wasn't a pretty sight and i gave praise to the Lord that no one was around to witness my complete and total humiliation.

well, once my arm and hand pain began to subside, i realized the bike was still on, (not running, mind you) but the headlight was shining off into the ravine i narrowly missed. what to do. . .

okay, that last part was put in there for drama. i never once questioned what i was going to do. i knew darn well i was going to turn the bike to the off position and wait patiently until ye came back to right it for me. the only question rolling through my mind was how long it would take him to actually miss me.

suffice it to say, it was a while. i think he was at the top and ordering lunch. . .

okay, not really, but it was a while. so anyway, we got the bike upright and i gave it the once over. dang it! the crash took out my left mirror, and the left turn signal, although still attached, was hanging like a limp noodle. now normally, it's not a big deal and just the cost of doing business in the AT world, but if you've ever owned a bmw, nothing costs less than $100 to fix. and it goes up from there.

when ye made it back, he did this fancy thing to turn his bike around. it was impressive. he swung the back end of that heavy klr out and had it going the opposite direction when he stopped, back uphill again. it was a spectacular sight.

but the payment for that spectacular sight was his bike quitting and refusing to start. after he muscled my bike to a semi-level patch of ground, he boarded his bike and rocked it back and forth trying to find neutral. he kept at it, turning the key off, then on, rocking, hitting the starter ad nauseum. it was after several attempts that i yelled to him that his light was not coming on.

we did the ever so graceful shouting back and forth trying to get the point across as we both had earplugs in. we couldn't hear each other, but i'm quite sure people in phoenix some 90 miles away could hear us just fine.

so he had to pull his seat. only we didn't have a very good selection of tools. so he pulled out his leatherman, got the situation under control, started the bike (it was a short) and we headed to the top.

the temps were marvelous and we did a tour. all too soon, we decided to head back down. this time we took the paved road down the south side. by the time we reached the bottom at 11:30 a.m. it was near blast furnace temperatures. we stopped briefly on the way home and ye said, "let's get going before we spontaneously combust!" i thought it was a little to late for that but. . .

we made it home, stripped off our gear and dove in the pool.

it was a good day.

i'm sad

the kind of sad that makes your elbows ache. the kind that sucks the energy out of your body, mind and heart and lets it ooze out into a undefined pool that soaks into the earth beneath your feet.

the kind of sad that only those you love can cause.

"i didn't sign up for this"

we really want to get a piece of property in the mountains to park the RV, and be able to leave it up there. that way we can spend extended periods of time in the cool, mountain air, and w would like to be able to work remotely via satellite.

yesterday we planned a moto day trip up to near and about show low, AZ.

the first test of combat was to figure out which bikes we were going to take. and actually it was a very short test. w has 2 of his 3 bikes that are awaiting work. the other is not street legal. that basically made the decision for us. we were taking the sv1k and the dakar. one is a 1000cc twin, the other a 650cc thumper. massive difference in top end speed and torque.

i rode the thumper. in all fairness, w did volunteer to ride it several times, but it doesn't fit him well at all and it fits me. it is, after all, my bike.

so when we got to the salt river canyon while i was gathering speed w was. . .well, he was gone. when i finally clawed my way up the other side of the canyon, he had pulled over to wait for me. he even turned the bike off.

okay, now i was a bit peeved. turning the bike off while waiting was just an insult.

we made our way to show low to view this promising land. it started when we turned off the highway onto a two lane graded road. with each and every turn, the road degraded. first it was a bit of washboard, after a couple of turns, the gravel changed to lava rock. at this stage, it was washboard, lava rock and eventually small ruts joined the repertoire. those small ruts soon turned into large ruts. the lava rock disintegrated into a powdered silty dust. then the powdered dust to sand. then sand into a rock strewn goat trail.

and you would think that would be the end of the story. . .but alas, that is just when it got interesting.

we headed down yet another cattle path (i know this because of the pies that littered the path) when we both stopped short. the earth ahead gave way to. . .an 8 foot sheer drop off that picked up at the same level some 20 feet away.

we both turned off our bikes and walked to the edge of the precipice. yep, there was no getting through that. we stared blankly at each other for a brief moment. w had the gps mounted on his handlebars. so far it had lead us to this precise point on the planet. i wasn't trusting it to get us out of it.

"well, can we head south and go around it?" i queried. w checked the gps and said "no, but i think we can go north." so he mounted up and headed in that direction. i had a much more difficult time turning my bike around and navigating it back through the silty sand and around the corner. i did it by walking it. there was no way i was up to picking up the dakar and continuing on. i was playing it safe.

so, on to the next challenge, which presented itself all too quickly when show low's answer to yosemite's el capitan came into view. i had only a split second to feel my total disgust for the whole situation before i just gassed it and climbed. i never doubted the bike could handle it. i wasn't so sure about the rider. and i was crabby.

did i mention i was crabby? let me back up. i woke up crabby and with each passing mile, i became crabbier. we had traveled over 200 miles at this point. are you doing the math here?

so back to the goat paths. . .one turn lead to another. the road went from bad to worse, from worse to "this makes the road to gonzaga bay look like a superhighway" bad. muy malo.

i saw w stopped up ahead. by this point, i wanted to eat him. whole. as i pulled up to him, he was gazing off in to the distance. he said "look at that sky, isn't it beautiful?"

LOOK AT THAT SKY, ISN'T IT BEAUTIFUL!! are you kidding me! have you totally lost your mind! are you not aware of that last N ("where N is a very large integer") miles that you dragged me through sand, silt, rock faces, gullies, mountaintops, baby head boulders and countless other non-seen dangers! are you in a parallel universe!!!???!!!

i said in my head. out of my mouth came a very terse, "yeah, beautiful."

wow, what a ray of sunshine i was.

"are you mad?" was the next question. my mind exploded into a multitude of colors that i can not even begin to describe. and honestly, i don't know why i was so angry, other than the fact that i was just crabby. i had already talked to myself about how i had the bike for the terrain. it was challenging, but i had the skills to handle it. skills i would have given my eye teeth for a few short years ago. and i had the time. so was i angry, yes. why? i have no earthly idea.

so having had that conversation in my head already, i turned and said "well, let's just say i didn't sign up for this." so, with that our face shields went down and we continued our odyssey.

just when i thought we were in the clear. . .our final obstacle. traversing the opposite side of el capitan. by this time i was emotionally spent. i could see the bottom of the hill and what looked like graded road at the end. i stuck the bike in first gear and tapped the brake to the bottom.

after that it was on to graded roads that improved the reverse of how it had disintegrated going in.

and i must apologize once again to my dear husband for my very inappropriate nastiness. i am sorry.

when all was said and done, we decided against any of the properties we had seen. we did find a couple of promising camping areas that had power and water for the RV.

we got back home after dark. i was tired, bone tired and it felt good.

a drop in the ocean . . .

you know we do what we can, but sometimes it seems it's a drop in the ocean.

there is SO much need out there. so many people living either on the edge or being sucked off the edge.

and. it's. everywhere.

neighbors that are our age or better, getting vehicles repossessed because of carrying a mortgage and the other party falling through, the renters being evicted from their houses because the landlord defaulted on the mortgage, the string of lost jobs due to the economy. the money being spent to supposedly stem the flow, only to find that it doesn't benefit a fraction of the people in need.

in need.

the need is everywhere.

young couples trying to do things the "right way," pay their bills, work their jobs, plug away. it's a constant struggle.

and that is here in one of the richest countries on earth. it struck me when our german missionary was in awe that this country could be so clean, so abundant in it's resources and our neighbors to the south be such a striking contrast. "how can that be possible?" he asked.

it's scary, and it's time to wake up, america. forget the government, forget the conversation at the water cooler, forget those afraid of losing their accumulation of toys, vehicles. . .stuff. there is a higher power at work here. "From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked." don't trust me on this, look it up. i'll give you the book, chapter and verse. Luke 12:48 it can be found in the best selling book on the planet. The Bible. God's instruction book.

it truly doesn't get any clearer than that.

whatever you are currently doing for your family, community, neighbors, double it. it will come back to you multiplied. i guarantee it.

Update

so we took the germans down the street to teach them to ride the dirtbikes. before too long, kim (22 year old male), was whooping and hollering having the time of his life. he thoroughly enjoyed himself. anne did well also. she learned to ride the last time she was here in feb. of 08.

such wonderful young people. some of the members from church invited them over and spent some time with them on saturday afternoon into saturday evening. they had a good time and enjoyed meeting new people.

we took them to do some last minute shopping on the way down to the nogales us/mexico border. they were able to purchase everything they needed and were quite impressed with the barnes & noble bookstore in tucson. we left them in nogales about 3:00 p.m. i haven't heard from them again, but am quite sure they made it home okay.

today, monday, i had victoria all day. her mommy, who has m.s., had an appt. with her neurologist and a 3 year-old just isn't something to have along on that type of thing. so she stayed with her nana. she has a bit of a cold, so we downed some benedryl to take care of the soupy bits and slugged through our day.

i am not above bribery, especially when it comes to naptime for a little one that didn't sleep well the night before. i know she didn't, because she kept waking me up to "tuck her in." i finally gave up and lifted the sheet to let her sleep what was left of the night with us. she's so spoiled.

so i bribed her. sue. me. but seriously, how many 3 year old little girls will take a nap so they can have a manicure/pedicure. she knows to pick out her polish before sitting down, including searching through all 3 carousels. you never know where that perfect color is hiding.

i want to make sure to teach her things, so today we talked about the art of tipping, and thanking the technician for their skillful work. they just love her in that shop. everyone is very nice to her when she's there. they even changed the satellite t.v. to cartoons just for her. for a little bundle of raw energy, she sits as quiet as a church mouse when it comes to her nails.

here she is:

here she's observing the delicate work of applying a flower to those tiny, little toenails.

she's a tomgirl. mostly tough as nails, but appreciates the finer things in life. :-)

wild weekend

i'm not sure exactly what's happening this weekend. the whole thing is being played by ear.

our german friends arrived at about 10:00 a.m. on friday morning. i picked victoria up from the daycare shortly thereafter. by the time we got home, kim, the orphanage volunteer and victoria were fast friends. such nice people, it's a blessing to know them.

anne is back as well. she learned to ride the dirtbike last time they were here. such great fun! it sounds like tomorrow morning will be filled with more of that. then w and i will drive them down to nogales, where they will walk across the border, find the tufesa bus and take it back down to navojoa. they are a lot of fun.

facebook is a curse!

facebook is a fast "snippet" form of communication. it's fast, easy and effortless. i wish some people would think about that and not try to post an entire blog's worth throughout the day, but i don't own it and if they can't figure that out, then i will eventually work through it and get over it.

that said, it has made me extremely lazy about blogging. suddenly, blogging seems so much deeper and time consuming. i need to slow down.

we took the rv up to the mountains last weekend. what a blast that was! we didn't get to leave until about 9:00 a.m. on saturday morning. we reached our destination about 3 - 3.5 later. the kids got to watch a movie and play on the way up.

when we got to the camping area, we needed to find a place to set up camp. not an easy task when you are 38.5 ft. looooong. i realized, as we were driving around, how much we enjoy the solitude. even the grandkids were saying "nope, it's too close to other people."

there are a couple of reasons for that. we have dogs (and i use that term lightly being a pug and a boston terrier mix) that we like to let run and explore. if we are too close to other people, we have to worry about them begging and/or bothering other people and pets. and. . .well, quite honestly, we're loud. between w and chris, we are VERY loud. :-)

the kids get to watch a movie right before bed each night, so that's 90 minutes of generator time. that can also be annoying for other campers.

but that's just the set up. . .we found a space, pulled in and unfurled our awnings, pulled out the rv ground pads and set about having a good time. it was so cold at night, we set the heater to come on at 50 degrees, it came on a few times. the kids were freezing. being menopausal, i was in hog heaven.

the next day (sunday) we decided not to head back down the mountain too early. about noon, several rigs appeared from the bowels of the mountain and headed home. no, not us. we were going to soak up every last minute of that cool weather. the kids wore long sleeves or jackets the whole time.

by mid afternoon, a storm was blowing up. w and i decided we should talk the awnings down and get them rolled up so they wouldn't be caught by the wind. halfway through that task we ended up sitting with the kids inside while the lightning struck uncomfortably close. it finally died down as expected. when we opened the door, we found it muddy and slick. it was the kind of mud that stuck to your shoes so they soon weighed 20 lbs. each.

w pulled the hydraulic leveling jacks up. it was then that we discovered one of the rear tires had gone flat. it was on the tag axle. after a few minutes of head scratching, we decided to limp it to clint's well (gas/service/camping store combo in the middle of nowhere) where we could at least change it on solid ground.

before that could happen, of course, w backed the beast up, put it in drive and proceeded to spin the tires. yep, we were stuck in mud. he used his montana upbringing to expertly rock the beast, but it wasn't going to break free. we decided to lower the jacks, lifting the wheels off the ground, throw some rocks under the tires for more traction and see what happened.

one side was working, the other was spinning uselessly. we stuck the jack support wood under the tire on the back side. w rocked it again and this time it broke free!! he got it out onto the dirt road.

off we limped toward clint's well shedding tire chunks like woodchipper. fortunately, the service station was still open (6:00 p.m. on a sunday evening), and they agreed to change it for a very reasonable cost.

then back down the mountain. it was a great time! the kids (including w) found bones and rocks for their collection. fun stuff!