"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.