Colorado River Ride Part 1

Day 2 was a nice break from climbing as the ride pretty much followed the Colorado river out and back. It was nice gentle rolling hills which we are very used to. The scenery was very cool with the river to one side and the red rock cliffs on the other. The only problem with this was that those canyon walls kept us in the shade for most of the morning and I was freezing.

No sooner do we get out of the canyon and into the sunshine, but the head winds pick up. Uuugh, there seems to always be some force working against us, but we plugged on. I have become an expert drafter which unfortunately means that my scenery consists of nothing more than watching Karlo's back tire, but it's worth it to catch the draft.


Lunch was really nice at the Redcliff Canyon. We had quite the spread in such a lovely setting. I so enjoyed sitting in the sun, chatting with our new friends, and strolling around taking snapshots near the river.


Dinner was at this same place which was also a winery. We had time to sample the wines and swap riding stories with other bikers. Dinner included a talk by an ex-racer and two-time Tour de'France rider. What a hoot it was to hear his stories. It was so inspiring to hear all about the passion for riding that stayed alive in him for over a decade. How does anybody develop such a passion? Especially when it consists of riding over 20K miles a year in the worst possible conditions. My God it was inspiring.


Between the stories from the pro-rider and stories about cancer survivors, it all just made me reflect on life. It made me think back to both rides we just rode, when I got passed by a guy biking with one leg. Here I am wishing the uphill would end quickly and this guy flies by me, no doubt just thrilled to be on a bike. It made me wish that I could develop a passion for life (the same passion that the ex-pro biker had for riding) without having to first face death. I wonder if it's possible to really live like you're dying, when you're not. I really want to strive for that feeling.

The Climb That Never Wanted to End

Well, I survived the first day of biking. I have to say that the sweet carbon fiber frame bike added a little taste of Heaven to my Hell. I really do love that bike. And the thrill of riding it lasted for just about the entire 2.25 hour climb. It made it just ever so slightly less grueling. I was very proud of my performance getting up that never-ending climb. I guess I have to credit P90X for getting me in somewhat of good shape. I felt "loaded and ready to go" as Tony Horton would say. As a matter of fact I heard his voice in my head as I dug down and pedaled hard. When we got to the top, the thrill of the scenery wasn't quite so great, as we were there the day before. So we just concentrated on filling our tummies and resting our wobbly legs.


Next it was time to turn around and ride back. How hard could that be since we biked nearly constantly uphill? Of course it's never that easy. The last 5 or 6 miles was 'rolling' but for some reason it felt like it was all uphill going back. We had 10 mph head winds and my stomach decided to completely cramp up after lunch. It never fails. When am I going to learn that I can't eat while biking? I have to admit I had a tough time making it to the intersection where all the downhill started. It was like an oasis . . . seeing the road sign up ahead. Once we made that turn my stomach relaxed a little because the hard pedaling was over. We spent the next 20+ miles cruising downhill. What a thrill ride that was. The only tricky part was avoiding all the cow poop scattered about the road. Seems there are lots and lots of cows that just roam free everywhere. A million acres of land and they have to poop on the road. Thank God no pooping cows where on the road as we came flying down.

Today was the first time we tried out the helmet cam video camera. Sorry that I can't upload any footage just yet, but I will soon after getting home. It's pretty neat.

Nothing felt better than getting back to the hotel for the biker party. There was free happy hour food and drinks, even a band playing. How glorious it was to sit outside in the sunshine, drink a couple beers, eat some munchies, listen to the music, and meet and talk to new friends. We had a ball.

It might not have been a great idea to jump in a hotub after the beers. Oh my goodness I thought I would pass out. Took everything I got to drag myself out of the tub, into the room to shower and to dinner. I think it's finally hitting me now. I'm exhausted. And I think that means it's time to sign off and hit the sack.

Adventures in Moab

This is the land of outdoor adventure and we are fitting in nicely. Everybody is so incredibly friendly and we have so much in common with everyone we meet. Karlo and I were made to be in a place like this.

On our first day I got up long before the sun came up. This always happens when I travel West and it simply killed me that I was up, wide awake and pacing around the hotel room, with no plans to go out and shoot at sunrise. My problem was that I didn't have any idea where to go. It's not as easy as . . . say being in Maine. All you need to do there is open a map and head for water with Easterly exposure. But here you're surrounded my huge rock formations or mountains and sunrise and sunset are a bit more tricky. Add to that the problem of this place being enormous. You may look at a map and decide that a park is close by, only to find out it's a 60 mile drive. Nothing is really 'close' here. So I decided to save myself a whole lot of frustration and just forgo the picture taking in favor of lounging around the room. I have to keep reminding myself that this trip is NOT about the photos.

After a leisurely breakfast we headed to Canyonlands National Park. The cool (or maybe I should say scary) part is that the drive to this park was the same bike route we would take the following day. The one that requires us to pedal up hill for the first 25 miles. Holy Lord, after we drove it in the car I was terrified and ready to just pack up and go home. "Hills" out here and "hills" at home are two totally different beasts. It would be a miracle if I could make this ride, especially considering it was the first of the season. God help me.


We spent all morning in the park taking nice easy hikes and snapping some photos along the way. None of the pictures were all that great as every photographer knows that taking pictures in the middle of the day is a no-no. But I didn't really have many other choices.

At one point we were hiking up some sort of slick rock butte. I didn't realize how technically tricky it would be to get up and down. The rock was just bald and super slippery where there was the slightest bit of sand on it. I was panicking over the fact that I was carrying my brand new camera. I didn't care about hurting myself falling (maybe it would get me out of biking) but I didn't want to break the new camera. I got 90% of the way up when I flat out refused to go any further. Now I had to figure out how the heck to get down. It wasn't pretty. I had to resort to scrambling on all fours and shimming down on my butt. Yeah, I'm not too fond of the Moab "slick rock" and there's no way in heck you would catch me mountain biking on it.


The day was really nice and leisurely. We visited a second park called Dead Horse Point. The name wasn't too appealing, but the views were amazing. We couldn't stay out too long because we needed to get to the bike shop to pick up our bikes. So much for sunset pictures, but this trip is not about the photos (helps to keep reminding myself of that!)


Two hours seemed to disappear. Time always gets warped in bike shops and travels at twice the speed it normally does. After spending over an hour in the shop we had to go back to the hotel to set the bikes up - put our own seats and pedals on and get everything all customized us for our bodies. Karlo set my seat height and handlebar pitch and sent me out in the parking for a test drive. I rode for 15 seconds and came back to tell him that we have a serious problem. I instantly fell in love with this seriously expensive carbon fiber frame bike. It was so sweet and I dreaded going home to the bike that I once loved. It was just not going to compare to this baby. Suddenly I was so excited to ride the next day I couldn't wait . . .

Damned Near Perfect

That is one of Karlo's favorite lines and I thought it would make a good title to describe our day today. And it's amazing too because travel days usually never go smoothly. But for some reason the planets lined up in our favor today and it all went great.

Last night got off to a shaky start when I realized that I didn't have the battery charger for my new camera. What a ridiculous rookie mistake that was - leaving the battery charger in my office. But it all worked out. We had to drive by the office on the way to the airport and the short pit stop paid off. The charger was sitting on the floor and took only seconds to pick it up. We took back roads to the airport and it was a pleasant and stress-free ride. Both of our plane trips were perfectly on-time. Actually they arrived at both destinations earlier than scheduled. I have to say that our entire experience flying Southwest was a breathe of fresh air. We are officially boycotting United Airlines and I'm just thrilled to pieces with the friendly service of Southwest. Kudos to them for a fine job. My only concern was their 'free seating' where nobody has assigned seats. I just wanted to be able to sit with Karlo and it worked out just fine on both flights. They were smooth and pleasant throughout.


We had a little layover in Denver and I was just thrilled to be in Colorado. I always wanted to visit and I'm hoping my next stay lasts longer than 30 minutes. I'm pretty sure I love Colorado and I can't wait to go back. Our bags arrived with us in Salt Lake City and that's always a plus. We ended up with a little bit of a free rental car upgrade and I'm not even sure why. When we got into the car we realized that neither of us brought the Garmin GPS. Darnit. How would we find our destination? I had my phone, but I didn't bring my car charger. Grrrr. I was not happy. But 15 minutes into the trip I realized that the car had a USB port. What a concept. My wall charger just happened to have a USB and sure enough it worked like a charm in the car. Not only that, but I could play my music through the car speakers. I was just thrilled to pieces and decided that maybe we need to get newer model cars with these cool new features. Such luxuries.

Yikes!!! Not used to seeing this through the windshield.

Thanks to Droid we found our way to Moab with no problems. At first Karlo grumbled about the traffic in Salt Lake, but that quickly faded. We ended up in no man's land and stayed there for the next 4 hours. It was quite the interesting ride through amazing terrain. I was so happy to finally make it to Moab. Mostly because I forgot to pee at the airport and it was a LONG drive. Arriving in Moab was quite the experience. It was literally 4 hours of NOTHING and then suddenly we are in the coolest little outdoor adventure town. We instantly felt at home. I can't imagine a place that we better fit into. Every person in this town, other than the ones that live here, are here to either bike or hike. Finally, I can go out to dinner in my hiking shoes and fleece and fit right in.

And speaking of dinner and damned near perfect, I don't think Karlo could get any happier than this . . .

I thought we were supposed to wait until 'after' we biked to over indulge, but I guess Karlo is practicing early.

What Time Is It?

It's vacation time. And how do I know???? Because my shoulder is killing me. It never fails and it angers me greatly. But I am going to do my best to relax and de-stress. Hopefully we'll have some fun and make some memories. Still not sure if I'm carrying the real camera on the bike, but either way I hope to get some nice shots of the unique scenery. Stay tuned for the trip reports.

My Latest Addiction - The Michael Jackson Experience

Yup, I admit it. I'm addicted to a new Wii game. And the funny thing is that it never even occurred to me to ever buy this game. I knew nothing about it and never even heard of it . . . but one day I was innocently reading my emails and there was a message in my inbox from Amazon, telling me all about this great game and offering me a 'one day special.' Well, how could I pass up a special deal? I had to buy it.

And I'm so glad a did. What a stinkin' hoot this thing is. Now don't get me wrong, I still love my "Just Dance" games. Those are still lots of fun too. The biggest difference is that these Michael Jackson songs include his real choreography from his music videos. Now who doesn't want to learn all the moves to Thriller? Come on . . . You KNOW you do!

I normally don't like games that keep most of the content hidden until you get good enough to 'unlock' the material. And I mostly don't like that feature because in many games (like driving ones) I suck and will never unlock the extra material. But this one is sweet because I'm a good enough dancer to unlock everything. And the stuff you unlock are actual lessons to teach you the real moves. They are not easy and the lessons move really fast so you need to watch them dozens of times to get them, but it's a challenge and it's so much fun that it's addictive. I could play this game all night long.

Check out more details about the game (and buy yourself a copy) below:

Michael Jackson The Experience

And another interesting thing that I learned about Amazon this weekend is that they will take old games back in trade. Once again, I got an email from them asking me to trade-in some old games. I selected three titles that I never play (mostly because I'm terrible at them and can't unlock anything). Amazon pays the shipping and I'm going to get a $30 gift card toward any purchase on Amazon. Just like that! The easiest $30 I ever made. So if you have old games kicking around check out their trade-in program.

Photos of the Week 8

#59

My Dad the pool shark. This is quite possibly the only thing that he likes about his new home. He sure is having a ball playing.

#60
We removed all the Christmas mantel decor on January 1st and somewhere around mid February I realized the mantel was completely bare. I thought it was time for all new decor and I really suck at decorating a mantel so it took forever. I love the lantern because it's a battery powered realistic candle that flickers and comes on every night for 5 hours. The glass plate is beautiful and only took Karlo and I an hour to agree upon at Pier One. We considered a dozen others, but finally settled on this one. So fitting for our house and I love that it reflects the light. The photo is too dark to see the other items :-(

#61
I did really good with my 'dots' this year, but this one is a doozy. Easily the biggest and most painful to date. As you can see, my finger swells up like a sausage. To make matters worse, I now I have another dot on that same finger, on the joint, which makes bending my finger impossible. Now add to it another terrible dot on my middle finger and another brewing on the thumb. By the time vacation rolls around I will likely not be able to use my right hand at all. Perfect! By the way I took this photo with my big DSLR, obviously with one hand, my left hand. I'm getting good at using my left hand for everything!

#62
This Wii game is my latest obsession and probably deserves it's own blog topic. All I want to do is sing and dance like Michael. At least it gives me more reason to walk around the house wearing one glove. Yes, I'm actually doing that to protect my dots! Stay tuned for more scoop on the game.

#63
My new Miami sandals that did get their own blog posting so no further explanation is needed.

#64
More new stuff I had to buy for vacation . . . I bought this cool Camelbak for our bike trip. Only problem is that it's much bigger than I had anticipated (always the danger with online shopping). It was cool enough to keep, but I really struggled with the decision on whether or not to bring it. This day was all about packing and preparing for vacation #1.

#65
What on earth is Ayurveda anyway? It's an ancient holistic approach to health and healing and I've been fascinated by it for years. I always wanted to take a course in it and I finally found one at a yoga studio in CT. Tonight starts my 6 part class and I can't wait to get started.