Quote of the Day.

Doorbell rings, D goes downstairs to answer it -

UPS guy - "Are you Dave"


Apparently Brian forgot to put the #A on our address (when he shipped a couple new tires for D) and the UPS guy just barely remembered that we, rather than our duplex neighbors, are Dave.

This is noteworthy, as right after we moved in here our UPS guy knew us well... the quantity of bike stuff arriving in the mail has steadily diminished over the last year :)

Just maybe...

“I think we’ve exploited all the countries on earth for people who really want to work for nothing.”


Mr. Konheim said.

Quotes.

From the University of Montana's website. (The university accepted it's first students in the fall of 1895).

"I hiked around town, the air sweet and dry, and was sort of overwhelmed by the perfection of it -- the old courthouse, the train depot, Mount [Jumbo] and Mount Sentinel rising up, the neon bars, the funky festivity of a college town ...."

-- Garrison Keillor


There are 3.1 million acres of wilderness within a 100-mile radius of campus.

"I’m in love with Montana. For other states I have admiration, respect, recognition, even some affection. But with Montana it is love. And it’s difficult to analyze love when you’re in it."

--John Steinbeck, "Travels with Charley"



"John Updike once called Missoula the Paris of the Nineties, because of the city’s legendary population of writers, but Paris lacks three world-renowned trout rivers and proximity to Glacier and Yellowstone National Parks."

--Outside Magazine



"Missoula -- it’s Montana, but it has feng shui and herbal tea."

-- Garrison Keillor, in the Missoulian




"Missoula ruins so many careers. People visit, and then throw everything away just so they can stay."

--Best-selling author James Lee Burke, in Men’s Journal



"Montana is the only state with a triple divide allowing water to flow into the Pacific, Atlantic and Hudson Bay. This phenomenon occurs at Triple Divide Peak in Glacier National Park."

–- 50states.com

"No. 11 small place for business and careers."
--Forbes Magazine, about Missoula

"No. 2 among small cities."
--Inc. Magazine, about Missoula in "Top 25 Places For Doing Business in America"

(Sounds good...)

From the National Park Service Morning Report.

Grand Canyon National Park (AZ)
Follow-up On Manhunt For Carjackers

On Monday, May 12th, park law enforcement rangers conducted a criminal manhunt following a carjacking at gunpoint of a visitor vehicle from Twin Overlooks on Desert View Drive (Highway 64). The manhunt was associated with the investigation of a motor vehicle accident in the same location that had occurred three-and-a-half hours earlier. Rangers investigating the accident immediately determined that there’d been an attempt to drive it over the rim of the canyon. Initial efforts to find the occupants – identified as brothers Travis and Willard Twiggs, ages 36 and 38 respectively – were unavailing. The vehicle was towed from the scene and impounded. Investigation revealed that Travis Twiggs, based at Quantico, Virginia, was known to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) associated with recent tours of duty in Iraq. The search for the two men was impeded by a significant delay in receipt of the initial report by park dispatch. Immediate efforts included checkpoints outside the park and near Flagstaff, conducted with the assistance of officers from the Coconino County Sheriff’s Department and the Arizona Department of Public Safety. Weather conditions deteriorated overnight, with four inches of heavy snowfall blanketing the South Rim. The search continued on Tuesday, but without results. It was accordingly suspended that afternoon. On Wednesday, the white Dodge Caliber that the Twiggs’ had stolen was spotted at a Border Patrol checkpoint at Welton, Arizona, located 29 miles east of Yuma. A pursuit ensued which continued eastbound on Interstate 8 past Gila Bend. The 130-mile pursuit involved officers from the Border Patrol, Maricopa County Sheriff's Department, Arizona Department of Public Safety and Pinal County Sheriff's Office. Tohono O'odham Indian Reservation officers spiked the Caliber’s tires, but the car continued for another mile before going off the roadway. Pinal County deputies and Border Patrol officers converging on the car heard two shots and accordingly withdrew. Maricopa County and U.S. Customs helicopters hovered over the area for about 20 minutes, watching the vehicle. Bomb squad robots were called in and were used to determine that both Twiggs’ were dead. According to a Pinal County spokesman, one man evidently shot the other, then killed himself. [Submitted by Ken Phillips, Incident Commander]

In 1906 -

Dewey Bridge was the way to get from Moab to the outside world in Colorado.

In the 1980's it stopped serving motor vehicle traffic.

In 2000 it was restored for pedestrian and bicycle use.

In 2008 it burned as a consequence of a child starting a brush fire in a campground.

When it was build, it was the second longest suspension bridge, west of the Mississippi. It continued, till it burned, to be the longest Suspension bridge, and the longest clear-span bridge in Utah.

A few more photos from the weekend.

The "Mexican Hat" - and the crazy cliffs behind it. There is really not a mile of the drive from here to Moab that isn't interesting.

D on Elephant Butte, looking through the summit register. It goes back to 1976. The first time we got to the top I was soooooo enchanted with the idea of a summit register and D was sort of like "Oh - I don't do those things." Let's just say - he does now :)

The start of the second rappel. You do one repel on your way up, and one on your way down. Right below the bottom of the photo the rappel does free, into an overhanging amphitheater. The first time we did this route it was the second Rappel I'd ever done in my life - the first overhanging, and my first in the dark. I remember it well...

D coiling the rope at the bottom of the above rappel.

How to stem a pothole in five easy steps.

Starts are always ackward. Do your best.

The classic two legged stem, for as long as both your feet can reach both walls.

Match Feet.

Get your legs under you again for the dismount.

Only preceded in awkwardness by the start... the dismount... hope the friction holds you.
(From the descent of Elephant Butte, in Arches National Park)

The drive up.

We were headed NorthEast this weekend. The clouds were fun driving through Dine Country, better known as the Navajo Nation, better known as The Rez.

Green.

Can you see it??? There's green in that there dirt!!!

Quote of the Weekend.

Six year old girl, with her mother, on their way back up the Bright Angel Trail, Grand Canyon -

Mother - "Just... wait right here a minute."
Girl - "We hike faster than daddy."

Food!!!

After getting back from Iowa, I decided, for once, I should cook D something, instead of the other way around. However my meal ended up being very Midwestern.

Mashed potatoes, watermelon, and Corn on the Cob... with Burgers.

A distinction. In Arizona you buy "Some corn on the cob", in Iowa you buy "A couple ears of Peaches 'n' Cream" or some other specific variety. In Iowa - you know the differences between varieties of corn, and you have distinct preferences.

We also substituted ground Turkey, instead of beef for the Burgers (keeping D off the Evil Red Meat as much as possible). For D's I added PepperJack cheese, green peppers and homemade Guacamole on toasted MultiGrain bread from Chompie's. Yummy.

Then - on Saturday - we pan cooked the rest of the Ground Turkey into Sausage Patties and used them on Deep-Dish Pizza.

You can now order pizza from D with either Hand-Tossed or Deep-Dish crust. Spoiled - that's me.

We were inspired to make it this way, from America's Test Kitchen. Except to access the recipe online you have to create a user name and password... lame!!! So D just edited his regular recipe with a few changes he remembered from the show - like using Milk in the dough, and lining the pan with olive oil before putting the dough in, which essentially Fries the bottom of the crust while it's in the oven cooking.

It came out lovely!!!

Quote of the Day.

Talking about the Pizza -

M - "Why is your pizza all puffed up on the sides and mine isn't???"
D - "Cause my pizza likes have veggies on it."

Home.

She was supposed to be delivered to our house last night... but someone at the LBS in Des Moines decided to send it back to the LBS here, instead of to our house as specifically directed. Which meant that last night, right after I got to work, I got a distraught call from D saying the tracking number showed it was delivered - to Daniel at the front desk. We don't have a front desk - nor someone named Daniel. Which caused momentary panic on his behalf, till the snaffu was figured out.

D picked her up from the bike shop after work today and brought her home. Just a shadow of her former self.

And then D promptly stole his wheel back and started working on getting it set up for tube-less. Which he says was a success!!!

We have a weekend full of Cereal planned for sometime in the future and I'm debating whether I want PomPom or M'Lady for my adventures that weekend... which might involve some Honey Nut Cherrios, but definitely no Coco Pebbles!!!

Wondering. More and More.

Apparently the first person I talked to, over at the MVD, didn't know what he was talking about - when it comes to titling cars in Arizona.

Funny - seeing as that's his job.

So I'd assembled the majority of the paper work he had told me I needed and wanted to talk to someone in person about how to handle one link, the last link, that I was having a slight problem with.

I went in, explained my whole story to someone new, and was told that the link I was having such a problem with, wasn't even necessary.

Okady - Good news and Bad news. So one part wasn't necessary but the paperwork that I had on another part was wrong. I couldn't use Georgia papers, I needed them to fill out the Arizona version of that exact same paperwork.

I got that Arizona version filled out and went back there today. Turns out the first guy was still way off, the woman I spoke to just the other day only had it half right... and I do in fact need something from the link that was causing problems, except not what I thought I needed before.

Tomorrow morning I'm going to call up the son of the deceased car-dealership owner and tell him, that even though, just two days ago, I told him I needed nothing from him, I do, in fact, now need something from him, but it's different from what I told him I needed from him before.


Oh - and this wouldn't even be a problem if the car hadn't been repossessed. If the car hadn't been repossessed, the paperwork I have right now would be sufficient to get the car titled and registered.

The only reason they know the car has been repossessed, is because I have a Affidavit of Repossession, signed and notarized from the bank. The only reason I have that, is because the first MVD guy told me I needed it, so the bank in Georgia created one for me. So - I very well might have paperwork that I don't even need to have, but since I do have it, I need even more paperwork!!!


And right about now - I want to find that first guy from the MVD and hurt him. I want to hurt him.

If he hadn't had me get the Repo note, and knew what his job required the first time I went in there - I would have had my car titled about six months ago. As the paperwork I really, actually, truly needed to have, I have had for that time... but was told it was not enough.

Oh - and I'm going to have to pay, like, $100 in extra fees for not registering the car in the proper amount of time - because I was spending that time procuring this needless paperwork.


When things like this happen, I don't blame the bureaucracy. I blame that individual man - who did his job poorly. Who didn't bother to fully inform himself, who didn't take the time to ask his superiors, but just told me what to do himself, and in doing so, told me to do the wrong thing.

Umm...

D was downstairs playing with his bicycles when he called up - "If you hurry you can come see this tarantula" -

so I ran downstairs!!!

then I ran back up to grab the camera. I told D to keep it from crawling into the evergreen bushes while I ran - so he corralled it with the bike pump, which I included in the photo for size. It was a solid 3 1/2 inches!!!

Walnuts.

Happy little star cookies.

Something like a cross between a sugar cookie and shortbread - then, as I've recently enjoyed doing with chocolate chip cookies, I mince up some walnuts and roll one side of the little dough balls in the walnutty powder before squishing them down into the star-form trays. Not only does it add this delicious crunchy texture to the bottom of each cookie and almost enough protein to justify eating them, it also makes them Super easy to get out of the pans... no spray, butter, or parchment needed.

Differences.

It is sunny in Arizona. And our apartment seems to reach out, grab the sunlight and bring it into every little corner of the house.

This was not the case during the week I was at my parents' house in Iowa. Even if there was some sun - it never seemed to make it's way inside, due to things like -
a) Large Trees
b) Elaborate Curtains
c) Room orientation

I like sunshine. It's easier to get out of bed before 10am when there's gobs of sunlight filling the bedroom. I turned into a slug at my parents' house. I really hate the yellow light put out by most incandescent light bulbs - I'd rather leave the room in semi-darkness. This exacerbated the issue of their house.

I also like our internet - which sometimes seems slow, but is a freaking Prodigy compared to the AOL Dial-up that my mother continues to suffer through. She doesn't know what she's missing.


The plan as of now, is to have D go check out Missoula during a long, two-week road trip in June. While I really can't go with him, I'm now slightly hesitant to allow him to pick out an apartment for us - as Missoula starts out having not nearly as much sunlight as Arizona, it will be doubly important that our lodgings facilitate maximum sun-capture.

Quote of the Day.

"Viewer discretion is advised.

The Renaissance artwork in the following program contains nudity."


-20/20 intro


I'm sorry - are you kidding me???

Not the pictures.

I had everything arranged. Timed out. Scheduled. There were layers when each thing needed to be done.

We left for Decorah, went to the meeting. Ran into Dave Nice and the boys he came in with from Nebraska - as well as meeting Julia (the single speeding female) - and all was enjoyable.

Got back to the hotel, finished the last items with my bike, showered, and had my mother hack off my hair. Braided it, held it at the top, cut. She just kept hacking and hacking... I have a lot of hair. I was Really high energy at this point - all excited and giggling from having less hair than I'd ever had in the entirety of my life - and had to slow myself down to get to sleep.

Woke - mother drove me to the start. I sat in the car till I saw Guitar Ted come round. We lined up. We started.

We started up a hill and I immediately noticed my saddle was too low. This was something that was scheduled to be adjusted before we left Des Moines for Decorah - so after it had been set I hadn't thought about it again. It was not on the list to be addressed at any later point, and since I'd sat in the car at the start I didn't mount up till we rolled out.

I thought I'd just take it easy up the hill - but my legs were in the wrong position - it was stressing my knees - so I hoped off on the side of the road to adjust. With two gloves on, it took me a minute to get my multi-tool out, I was impatient, I was being passed by everyone, so I pulled it up, tightened it, and hopped back on... it was the slightest hair too high. I tried to ride, it wasn't working. I hopped off and adjusted it again. Perfection.

But I was now behind everyone. No big deal.


There was a notation a little after 1 mile to "Continue" on the road you were on - I kept riding. I got to the second direction "Turn Right at Clay Hill Road". I hit Clay Hill Road a little farther on than the milage indicated, but just presumed my computer was a tidge off and noted the difference for future calculations. I turned Right. Not long after I was suppose to turn left at Spruce Ridge Road.

I could not find Spruce Ridge Road. I passed an Aspen, and/or Oak, and/or Evergreen. Several roads in a row that were all named after trees... plus there was a tree covered ridge to my left... I thought, it's down here somewhere. So I kept riding. I kept riding till I hit a Super-Walmart, was several miles OVER what was indicated - and I could be 100% sure that Spruce Ridge Road was NOT the next road.

Turned around. Rode back, paying attention, trying to find this road. Got back to the intersection, checked that I had in fact turned the right direction. And turned around again. I was going to ride back, and turn at whatever road was exactly where Spruce was suppose to be, Milage wise. I'm not sure what the logic was here... but that maybe the road sign on Clay Hill said one name, and the road turned into Spruce, and it was just an error on the cue-sheets (this is not so crazy as it sounds, there really was an error on the cue sheets later on). I knew I was on Clay Hill Road. I knew I had turned Right - Spruce had to be there somewhere.

I rode back, noting the exact milage I was suppose to go, and saw a guy in a pick-up turn into a parking lot. So I rode over to him and caught him as he was walking into work. I'm pretty sure I freaked him out. I asked if he knew where Spruce Ridge Road was. He looked at me like I was a demon from the underworld and said he'd never heard of a Spruce Ridge Road in his life.

Shit.

So then I noticed that someone else was driving the pick-up and had dropped him off. I rode over to the truck as it turned around and asked the driver if he knew where the road was. He said the same thing his son had - No f-ing clue.

At this point I turned around again. I rode back up from whence I'd come - and realized that there was, in fact, a reason for them to have said "Continue on Quarry Hill Road" - somewhere up in the twisting woods I had not continued on the road I was on - I had merged onto Whitetail Road.

Doh!!!

So I road back up Whitetail and got back on Quarry Hill. I rode till I ran into Clay Hill Road Again... slightly different location. And when I say slightly different - I mean entirely and completely different. They didn't even look like the same road. I really can't imagine how the first Clay Hill Road I was on could possibly connect with, or be the same road as the second Clay Hill Road I ran into. I Google Earthed it when I got home, to try to make sense of it all.

After my second turn Right on Clay Hill Road I quickly ran into Spruce Ridge Road. Right were it was suppose to be. I turned left and pulled out my camera to take a picture (see previous post). I was Really f-ing excited.

I noticed that while the cue cards said I was suppose to be at 2.something, my odometer actually said 11.something. I had lost myself to the tune of 9.5 miles. But I was really excited to be on Spruce and to know that even if I got wicked lost, it was possible for me to find my way again.

So I continued.

Really - I was feeling good. My clothes were perfectly arranged and I was staying pretty warm. My feet would get cold on fast downhills and I would have to wiggle them around to get them happy again, and my forehead and cheeks were getting wind burned and I had to pull things around and rearrange a little bit - but everything was in relatively good shape, considering the 30 degree temperatures and 15-20 mph winds.

I had managed to make myself eat some food and drink some water - which was difficult, because, while I was relatively warm I knew I wouldn't be if I stopped at all, for even a minute. The roads seemed great - from all the talk of water, there was only an occasional puddle or trickles across the road...

and then at one point, I made a turn, straight into the wind and my mind just shut down. It flashed "You're Done" and then stopped working all together. I turned around and rode a short distance to where I could get some cover from the wind and called my mother to come pick me up.

I think if I'd thought about it. Pulled out my iPod. Talked to myself. I might not have stopped, I might have kept going. But that speculation is superfluous, because my mind said NO - and that was it.

The coldest I was all day was when I was trying to tell my parents where I was and how they could reach me.

And afterwards it all seemed like such a wasted opportunity. I wasn't really cold. My legs didn't hurt. I was generally following my plans for food/water intake. So why did my mind tell me to stop???

Part of it was that I'd done the math. I wasn't riding fast enough to make it to the check point in time. Once you took off the miles I'd spent getting lost, there was just no way I could make it all up at the speed I was going. And with the wind as it was, I knew I couldn't pick up the pace enough to make up the difference.

I'd done the math a few hours after I'd "un-lost" myself, and somewhere, deep in my consciousness my mind had been dwelling on that fact - and about half and hour after I'd made that realization I stopped. It was like four nuerons in the back of my mind were conspiring against me. I'd told myself that even if I knew I couldn't make it to a check point, I should continue as long as I could regardless. But those little radical nuerons staged a coop - and it was over in five seconds when my mind said NO - and I made the call and after that, it was too late.


Really - in one respect I'm distressed, because I know my body could have taken me farther. But then my mind is part of my body and it said No - so really, while there was more I could have done, I didn't do it, and therefore, in many respects I couldn't have done it. And that's that.

I see it as an opportunity lost. I had this great opportunity, I put so many different pieces to gether to get me out there and to that very spot at that very moment, and even though I know I couldn't have made it to the first check-point in time, and my race was going to end pre-maturely, the lost opportunity is that it ended even a hair sooner than it might of - and it was such a great little adventure that I really am sorry I didn't get more of it.

The route was really beautiful. What I saw of it. Even with the evil grey clouds, the wind and the slight bit of weird hail/snow precip - it was beautiful. And I can only imagine how enjoyable the rest of the course they put together might have been. I'm sad I didn't get to see any more of the little world they assembled for us.


I'm also sad that no woman finished. Not like I can say that - because if I didn't finish I can't blame any of the other women for doing what I did. But I really thought this year would be the year. I didn't really think it would be me, but I thought it would be someone... and there's melancholy in that.


I guess the question that looms in all the competitors' minds after they process through their race is - what about next year???

TransIowa v4 Trip - a few photos.

Note: I'm working with AOL Dial-Up at my parent's house... AOL hates me... photos will eventually be posted.

Snowball.

Why you should not work on bike stuff in your childhood room that's been redecorated with hand-embroidered doilies.

P.S. Tenacious Oil is about as hard to get out of linen as it is to get off your hands.

Long Hair.
Short Hair.
At the Race Start (note oddly positioned saddle).

Spruce Ridge Road.