A SHORT POST from PIKES PEAK

This was such a cool place and was unfortunately left off the "returning home" entry,
so wanted to share a couple quick words and pics here.

The road up was extremely curvy and stretched on forever...switchback mountain! I understand they hold quite the internationally famous car "Race to the Top" every year. (Officially called the "Pikes Peak International Hill Climb")

During our stay in Colorado Springs we traveled up the road to Pikes Peak.
This is the highest elevation we've ever scaled. It was warm and summery at the base but frigidly cold and blowing like crazy at the 14,100' summit!

Rufus enjoyed this trip the most. It didn't occur to us how much he loves snow! (which he doesn't get much of a chance to see). He ran and ran like crazy and then slid around the slope like a baseball player sliding home. We freaked a couple times thinking he was just going to slide right off the mountain top!

The most surprising thing to me was the thin air. And I mean thin...like non existent! I walked maybe 100 feet and my world started spinning. I couldn't get enough oxygen and had to slowly make my way back to the truck and catch my breath. A very strange experience that put a whole new perspective for me on mountain climbers and NFL football games played at Mile High Stadium.

The day trip was incredible and highly recommended to anyone venturing near there.

That's it! Short and Sweet!

I'll leave you with Rufus. That reminds me...we met a young couple on one of our hikes that had saddled there small dog up with one of those new digital movie cameras. The camera view pointed out over his head and always showed his ears (which were cropped and pointed). It made me wonder if we shouldn't try something more creative with this blog. Like narrating from Rufus' point of view and include pics taken from his point of view on the world : ) I might just try that with a future entry and see how it feels...as always thanks for reading!

  

Second Annual Summer Ride

We had such a great time last year and couldn't wait to get back out there this year. It's clear this will become an annual summer trip with our very good friends Kevin and BJ from Deer Park. (BJ was our neighbor in Davenport for over 20 years).

Last year we barely finished our final leg home from our Canada Hot Springs ride, and we were already planning this years trip through the Washington Cascade Mountains.

A little early morning coffee at the home pad while we were waiting for Kevin and BJ.

We enjoy riding the 650 BMW "Maxi-Scooter" and certainly have no issues keeping up with the full size bikes we've ridden with. At just around 600lbs Sheila can still handle riding on her own, and we both appreciate the automatic transmission and nimble handling in small towns. So far, on four day trips we've not run into storage issues either. With that said, I've been having thoughts about moving to a full size bike, and have had my eye on the new BMW 1600's.

The upgrade (pictured above) would give us longer travel range with a much higher level of comfort (especially for Sheila). It's really too expensive at around 30K. We are beginning to ride longer distances, more frequently, and fatigue sets in pretty quickly. It's still only a conversation right now : )



DAY ONE

...started out just a little sloppy but ended in a downpour as we pulled into our first nights stop in Winthrop. Eventually the weather cleared enough for us to venture into the tiny tourist town for dinner and laughs.

The hotel was a little expensive, but very nice with private balcony views of the river beneath us.

 DAY TWO


...was all about the ride through the cascade mountains. This was the reason for the trip. The air was a tad chilly, but the views were incredible. Nothing like doing this ON a bike instead of IN a car.

200 miles later, the much dryer day ended in Oak Harbor after crossing the Deception Pass bridge.

We ventured into Deception Pass National Park, strolled the beach and took in the view of the bridge from below. The rest of the evening was spent quietly relaxing and conversing with our friends.

 DAY THREE


...took us over Stevens Pass and just outside Leavenworth for our last overnite stay. Our cheapest "Motel" of the trip and probably the most interesting of them. Let's just say, our room felt like staying in your Dad's cement block basement and the ice maker was coin operated! The Asian couple that ran the second of two hotel options in Cashmere were a hoot and offered us free bottled water and fed the ice machine with coins : ) The only eatery still open happened to be an oriental place that served fantastic food and multiple flavors of Saki. We tried them all out of curiosity of course.
It was a wonderful final evening.

 

After a quick morning tour of the Applets and Cotlets facility and breakfast in a very cool 50's themed diner, we hit the road one last time.

DAY FOUR


...wound us through the burned areas near Leavenworth. A short walk down to the rivers edge  proved there was still beauty to be found just about everywhere. Mother Nature can be brutally harsh on us humans at times...but she takes care of herself and doesn't ask for permission to do so.

Hitting our 800th mile in four days took it's toll on both us and the bike (blown front fork shocks). So the final ride was a little more bumpy that it should have been : ) But the sun was out, and for the most part it was a beautiful final day.

Of course we've already begun plans for next years 3rd Annual Ride.

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I'll close with this piece of beach art. Thanks for reading!

Taking a Step Back to Move Forward

This will be a fairly lengthy entry : )

As is usually the case, we have already set out on our fourth year journey without closing out our third. We could just skip the summer highlights, but there were several good moments we wanted to share heading home last spring.

We ventured even further south in Texas last winter to Port Aransas, which makes for a very, very, long (9 -10 back-to-back days) drive "home" for our summer in Deer Park, WA.

After three Texas trips we finally made it to the USS Lexington "retired" in Corpus Christie.

 Always love touring the old military ships. I find it fascinating to learn how crews lived on them for such long periods of time. If you know me, you also know how I feel about dentists : ( It's like a horror movie every time. This particular ship image would have fit me perfectly. (note the patients expression).

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We like to briefly mention any campgrounds we run across that surprise us. This was an excellent little spot hidden away in New Mexico. Complete with rocking chairs and a patio!

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 The highlight of our trip home was our "resting spot" in Colorado Springs.

The image above was taken our first night. A warm, sunny backyard BBQ.

This was the scene two days later. Some areas received 12 inches of "unexpected" snow which made it impossible for us to leave. It was beautiful however, and we enjoyed the time even more : )

We booked afternoon passage on the Royal Gorge Railroad in Canon City. We've always wanted to take a multi-day trip by train. This was only for an afternoon, but really enjoyable.

 We had "bar style" window seats in the "Club" section for the trip. Besides the awesome views of the canyons the trip featured lunch, drinks, and an outdoor open air car. They pretty much allowed us to venture anywhere on the train to enjoy the surroundings. The seats were about $100 total for both of us, and well worth the afternoon adventure.

The rest-of-the-way trip from Colorada was fast and furious. We were basically ready for a few months off after logging some 15,000 miles around North America.

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 When we hit Deer Park we immediately set about making it feel like "home". Last year we built the wall, landscaping and storage shed. This year added new outdoor furnishings.

Our spot on the golf course is truly a comfortable place for us to return to each spring.

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The summers' events included a visit from our Montana friends Darrin and Terri.

We captured an image of the very elusive horse-donkey-zebra on our drive up to Mount Spokane!

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 Shelby and I spent Fathers Day together (movie, mini golf, batting cages) I enjoyed it immensely, thank you Shelby!!!

The girls are both huge animal fans so Cat Tales was also on the summer's hit list.

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Late summer we returned the favor and traveled to Montana to stay with Darrin and Terri! We had a great time visiting, touring the Great Falls area. Many thanks to them both for sharing their home and spending time with us.

This is the shortest river in the U.S. and you're looking at all of it : )

We biked and barred. Clearly, we eventually forgot how to put on our head gear.



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And lastly, but certainly not leastly...my sister Eva got married. CONGRATULATIONS EVA and SCOTT. The wedding was a weekend event held at a remote ranch in Cle Elum. What a great idea that allowed us to spend extra time with the bride and groom, family and friends.

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WOW. That was a lot of info crammed into a single entry. But, it also gets me all caught up for new blogs as we venture forward this fall! First up...the Olympic Rain Forest!


I'll leave you – as is customary – with this softball sized dandelion.

Thanks for weeding : )