On The Road Again?!?!?

 And so it begins...We have emerged from the woods like our big harry friend here...

In our deadend state of being we decided to get out and have an adventure, instead of the usual bike race or major ride we chose a less body abusive method of entertainment and landed on a ROAD TRIP.

But Where to Go?

THE COAST is clearly a great option. Driving the PCH seemed like a ripe idea. 

The original plans were to hit Carmel Ca. and head up to Vancouver BC.  Quite the undertaking if you look at it on the map. So we shortened it by cutting out a lot of CA. We figured we'd start in Eureka CA and head on up... and looking at daily mileage we still seemed a bit overwhelmed... 7 hours of drive time each day was looking like a little much so another cut came about. 

BYE BYE CANADA!

oh and Washington too.

SO here is the story of our mostly Oregon Coast Extravaganza  

We drove into CA on the first day through good old Reno NV... it was a quick drive and we had a few too many stops along the way.. once we hit Reno we found us some dinner in the form of QUDOBA! sorry, no photos of the hugenornauos burritos, but dang it all if they weren't just busting at the seems.

Reno has a SIERRA TRADING POST retail outlet

and we spent way too long there!

so we hit the road to Redding for a quick overnight.

We ran into the BIG GUY on our way into Eureka and ended up in this weird ghost town on the coast. Eureka was wildly empty of all but the homeless equivalent of the ZOMBIE INVASION!  

It was weird... the shops were mostly closed though they looked cool inside and the town just had random bums wandering. I think we were the only tourists.

The Town was beautiful though and had some beyond belief architecture... the Mansion below is right out of the LemmonySnikkets series.  Every building was in the same style... all build in the 1880's. 

only one little problem

TSUNAMI!

This is the place we stayed.. can you see the ghost in our room window?  the whole place smelled like bad chinese food except our room thank the heavens above.. it was great! no smell and a great bed and just super cute.

This guy is a huge statue out in the bay 

as a tribute to lost Fishermen. 

He was really cool.

my wife is HOT but always cold

Trinidad Beach was so pretty and empty that we had heaven all to ourselves.

lots of rocks and islands and birds.

This is the Trinidad Light House

The one that started it all... 

Our search for Light!

Trinidad Beach

on to the Redwood Forest

just a bunch of little trees...

you could sleep 12 inside this burned out tree

thats me like 20 feet up this thing

this is big boy

These Redwoods are super cool... now, to those that have been to Sequoia these might look like small little bonsi trees but that is just about Trunk Size.. these guys are Growers! the tallest trees in the world. this guy is like 4 Statue of Libertys tall and shes a huge B.. inside joke, those that laugh get it.

Now we drive, the hiking through the forest kinda wiped us non exercising losers out so we drive and drive and start looking for food... food food food... im hungry.
We hit a little town just inside of Oregon (can you believe we just got to Oregon?)
There was an immediate change in the weather! rain rain and rain... wait, thats not right... it was still beautiful and sunny but there was a change in the people... all of a sudden the world seemed a little bit better. everyone had a how can i make your day better feeling they carried with them.
Signs went from

DO

NOT

LITTER

to

PLEASE 

DO NOT 

LITTER

also the fines went up $5000.00 for littering in Oregon but thats not the point here, or maybe it is... it just seemed like they cared more and made me want to too.

My cute niece Taj was out riding her pet tortoise Flash the other day.

 Erin rode this guy in tribute to her epic ride.

This guy was in the town of Bandon, it was awsome!  super clean and all the people were so great and the fish tacos... let me explain... WHOLEY $#!*STORM THE FISH TACOS!
I mean wow. we like them on flour torts and when they said 2 for $7.00 we thought that was an ok deal... thinking they were your regular little buddies... I mean like your regular size corn tort size, not the bullcrap that Tacos180 is trying to pull off with silver dollar size torts, but regular ones.
Well, they brought out a couple of Cafe Rio sized burittos which they called a taco... and so sooo so good.

That was the 2nd lb added to the belly.

Onward up the coast

We started the real sight seeing from here... look at Erin trying to be a whale... thats a right side jaw bone there she has in her mouth... yummy!

So we met this dude who was telling us about this whale jaw and the area and gave us a magizine that had a bunch of mile points marked, he said he worked in the Light house there and that these were the best places up the coast to stop and stare... 

Despite the thought that he might be sending us too meet some backwood Gypsies who would robb us and sell us into the fish gutting slavery market, we stopped and boy was he just a good guy... these places were super cool. 

thanks random dude! 

ok, so there is a lot of these light houses up the coast but this one is one of the coolest., its elevated from this beautiful beach and you have to hike a bit to get up there. and it was good!

that is the same guy off behind Erin... there was construction on the bridge that led over to the house and we stopped in the perfect place...
You see this coastline.. its beautiful aint it... well, its kind of a rare thing on the Oregon coast.. Im sure its there all the way up but like 70% of the time your behind the huge pine trees.  We stopped where there was like a 50 foot gap in the trees with the most amazing view.

up close and personal

Strawberry Hill

One of the places we were told to stop was here... seals and amazing tide pools...

THEY WERE RIGHT!

We hiked down to the beach which was gorgeous in its own right to find seals out on these rock a ways out... kind of neat but kind of far away so we took matters into our own feet and scurried, scampered, scaled and scuttled our way out to them til they were about 12 feet away across a watery divide. 

This lil fella was just hangin like this the whole time

propped up and puttin out the vibe.

Then came the STARFISH...

I was like hey Erin, you know I've never seen a starfish and she was like me either... and then BAM! There were like a hundred of them on this beach... mostly purple and orange.

They were everywhere. It was so much fun... we would pick them up and play ninja. Talk about the perfect throwing star!  And they would kinda scream in the air like a kid dropping over the edge of a roller coaster and if you believe i would throw one of these your and idiot! no nijas no throwing and no screaming... i did have the chance to flip one back over so he wouldn't be unprotected and into a pool of good water.. he said "thanks, now the birds wont eat me."

The next day up in Newport

we hung out with 

Bubba and his friends!

SEA LIONS

These guys were so great... there were lots more than what you see in the photo here and they have such a great personality. Its like one big game of dog pile but then its like "all set... now don't move."
Seriously, its nap time and when one moves he wakes the bunch. Its like dominoes, almost a nuclear chain reaction.. once one goes the rest follow and its chaos. barking and posturing and awesomness and in about 60 seconds they are back to sleep.  3-5 minutes later, someone shifts and its pandemonium. Then sleep.

The year is 2014... an Apocalypse!

If you are reading this we might already be dead...

The wife has MONO

she hasn't been able to exercise in months... a living hell!

I have been in a walking boot for weeks...

I haven't been on a bike in 6 weeks...


This house is a Bicycle graveyard. the cobwebs glisten in the sun, we have made friends with the spiders, we have hopes that they will get enjoyment out of our decay of steel, carbon and aluminum.

Closets of spandex, a reminder of the salad days. the days we would look at Rock Canyon with anticipation and joy and not the bitter hatred of days gone past.
Green grass... growing longer and longer as we are incapable of winding our way behind the Scotts Reel mower to clip the little green reminders of life and growing.
We sit in our cave in essence scratching our story on the wall but in reality its just one netflix show after the other. Admittedly we had a problem with the beast before the shut in but now it has all but consumed our life.
We seek a glimmer of happiness by seeking out professional help but to no avail. With them all is lost.
We look out to the outskirts of the world, days on a beach in a tropical paradise. But how do we get there from here?
Planes?
Trains?
Automobiles?
And how tiring is the travel? will it make systems worse and negate the idea of relief in the first place?!

On a good day i tilled the garden but the air has had a crispness that has frightened the idea of planting. We now sit inside with our greens,

 all longing to be out in the spring air pushing ourselves to grow and produce more than we are now.
We but sit inside and wait for the time to be right..
We take care of each other better we take care of ourselves.

Is this the end of our days?

for now we pray for a hope, a future, a time where time does not drag on but floats by like the grass on the trail under foot or wheel, where the charge is up a 10,000 foot climb and not the staircase.

We look to the future and hope to find us there with you, you who are out there keeping the trails clean and happy, leading the way as we once did, living life instead of just living and hoping for a life.

Our love keeps us going.

ZION

My first trip to ZION national park!
(sorry photos are turned every which way)

The greatness of it is fantastic but is the small things that bring the love.

 It's the intricate little details 

 that capture the massive heart of ZION.
Then there is the off the beaten path things that surprise you lurking around those last few corners of your day hike.

 This could be one of my favorite things... Hiking Hidden Canyon to see a small arch we passed some people on their way down who told us the arch wasn't worth it... I feel sorry for them, though the arch was small and arranged interestingly in the slot canyon, it was awesome. It's small enough to stand under and touch it but it's got a massive presence. It's not spanning the canyon but rises out of the floor of it and is parallel to the walls. It could be the arch of a dragon or surpentien dinosaur rising from a river bed. To me the arch was cool. The arch alone made the hike worth it but the trail to it was fantastic.  (photo 5 on) are of the trail to the arch.

The New Year

2012 has brought about a lot of stuff and a busy little Bobby...The Hale Theater has undergone enormous changes with repainting re-carpeting and NEW SEATS!!!!!!  The prep work for that kept me busy all January and I was trying to pass a Kidney Stone named Richard which... Ouch, those suckers hurt.
Side note, I have now passed 5 stones and have had a relatively easy time with them until this last one.  He started last July after a 50 mile Mt. Bike race, the PC 50, and it was an ongoing this week i feel fine and next week was major pain, or what i thought was major pain... I now have a new appreciation for Pain.

   It was a Sunday morning around 7 am and I awoke with the pain... no problem I thought, just eat a little bread and take a Lortab all will be well. Usually 15 minutes would do the trick and the pain would be under control, in fact almost gone.  This was NOT the case. The Pain DOUBLED! So, i took another Lortab. 15 minutes later...&^%$@#@$^&##! the pain doubled again. Well, after trying heat packs and showers and hot tubes i finally woke my sweetie Erin to get some assistance (you see, at this time i was tucked in the fetal position on the floor by the bed and couldn't even dress myself. Upon quick discussion with her father the ER was strongly recommended... AND ALL MY THOUGHTS TURNED TO THEE!!! After Dragging Erin to the car and forcing her to run some red lights we arrived at Orem Community Hospital where they pumped me so full of drugs they had to put me on oxygen to keep me breathing and i still HURT. But, the narcotics made the day much better.  My wonderful wife posted that i was in the ER on Facebook and instead of that being a good thing, letting people know, a few peeps were frustrated they didn't get the news first.  I can see both sides and poor Erin was dealing with me ( monster from hell ) having her go get this and tell the doctor that i need more drugs and I'm cold and now I'm too hot and i need a drink and can you catch my puke in that bucket and they need a urine sample, can you do that for me because i cant stand and i cant pee ( 3 times we tried and failed )... in comes the catheter... that is a  n o t s o f u n time.. Well, to make a long story longer we finally got home and i was wiped out, big time.

They wanted me to schedule to have it yanked out of me at the cost of  $1000.00 to my little pocket book and that is after my brothers best friend was going to do the actual surgery for free... Love you P.F. and no the Chinese bistro though they make a mean Singapore street noodle...
We didn't have the money so i did what anyone would do, ask the family for help. And that I did, not in the form of cash but in the form of what my family does really well, Ask Heavenly Father for help... help in passing my stone on my own. I believe i asked them to pray for me on Thursday night or Friday morning and Saturday at lunch (in a very charming little Chilean restaurant by our new house (look for that in another blog) i passed it. The surgery was scheduled for Monday.  love that story!

Ok, now that the side not is over...let me tell you about my awesome wife!!! I love her.  Here is the reason I sat down to write today...

True Grit 50

   This is the hardest race i have done. I have raced some hard ones, Beaver Creek CO, Xterra, The PC 50 which you just heard launched my kidney stone, and some other relentless hill climbing nasties... This race pushed me to the brink of tears and quitting biking all together, I had hamstring cramps, quad cramps, cramps in my lower back, that muscle that runs down the front for your shin... CRAMPS! And lets talk fatigue... i wanted to get off the bike and crawl into one of the Barrel Cacti that lined a lot of the course to take a nap before i let the breath of life exit that one last time... I WANTED TO DIE RATHER THAN FINISH THE RACE.  

That is kinda how i felt...

My baby came in second place behind Kathy Sherwin (i drop her name so you can Google her and see how impressive she is and then relate that to my Erin and see how much my girl kicks ass). KS is the best in Utah and nationally ranked in the US and has been on the international circuit doing multi stage races, we're talking 100 miles a day for 7+ consecutive days.. OK she is GOOD. And Erin is right there with her. Barley minutes behind her in a 5 hour race through the toughest conditions in a race she is doing as a stepping stone to peak performance My Erin is amazing!

I came in over a half hour behind her bloodied and torn apart ( i didn't actually wreck it was all on the inside) and as i crossed the finish line i wanted to pee then pass out and stay there in my pee pants all day until my soul had regained consciousness.  

For me I am happy I crossed the finish line and didn't quit.

 For Erin I am the proudest and happiest for her, almost as proud as when we both decided to quit the race last year to stave off hypothermia and complete incontinence as my body had stopped functioning. (glad she was down for quitting)

Baby, I trying to say I am proud of you no matter what! 

I am so excited for you and this season i want to just spit.

And a Bad Ass Trophy to boot