It's a Good Day...

I pulled into the trailhead late Friday afternoon and it was nearly deserted. Centennial Cone up in the hills is wide-open, mostly treeless ranchland in the high country.

Standing there in the low angled sunlight imparts a sensation of being on top of the world.

So Quiet...

Even the crickets seem to be respecting the peace with a muted, harmonic song.

Yellow. Late September, late afternoon and all is golden yellow. the light of the sun as it hits just the right angle, before moving on to orange and red. The rolling grassland, dry and brittle waves and ripples in the gentle breeze as the sun sets it aglow...

swoopy double track, the bike performs flawlessly... big 29" wheels roll over all terrain, the double sus smooths it all out, the stiff frame responds instantly to pedal strokes as the trail begins to climb gradually.

This is it. why i'm here. As I warm up, i begin to feel it all flow. shifting, leaning, sitting, standing. I begin to lose myself to that place between the thoughts. this is where my God resides. Right here in the perfect moment. In every moment.

The Sun is still very warm in this late summer heat wave. Cool mountain air licks my skin with cooling breath.

Aloud, I utter the ultimate prayer... "Thank You"...

August in Golden

Ah, the smell of school buses as they cart the little miscreants off to their industrial-educational complex.... means
I can go to the pool in the daytime, the museum, to the park without the shrill screams of the pre-pubescent.

I owned a '71 chevy for 4 years, never had aproblem with it.. I buy a 74 toyota and I spend more time under the hood than I do 4-wheelin. What's up with that?!

The "Rig-O-Destiny" has been through a lot. She saw us through March in Colorado. Propane furnace went out, the company replaced it, FREE. Guess killing us with Carbon Monoxide is frowned upon as a bad business strategy.
New water pump, new poopy hoses.

And then... she needed a new Charge Air Cooler. Had to be custom made. new air bag, oil-sending unit.

Runs great now, ready for the mountains!!!!!!!

Kayaking lessons, Mountain bike demos, 4-wheeling with the Rising Sun club, with a little work mixed in ain't such a bad life.

stinky finger...

That' how you know life is truly different. You can't wash off the stink of diesel and brake dust and silicone spray.
Although, i kinda like the smell.
Just starting to get into the "swing" of this here RV thing. Pull in, plug in, dump, dump air bags, lower the jacks.

finally found the short in the DC socket. Yay! now we can plug in the ass heat, gps, phone.
Started out today in Oklahoma City at the Rockwell RV park. Dusty. Late winter. Strange gaggle of characters all hiding from the wind inside their rv's. The quiet, sad-looking, overweight, older couple in the converted mini-pickup. Everything about them shouted "former Soviet block". From the cobbled together rig, the stooped shuffle, right down to the "cankles" on both of them.

The high-line rig next to us, never saw them. just heard thier poodle yapping.
The fat, old , crippled man who attached a corvette sign to his rig and his old Fiero. Green RV.
The two college girls in the back seat of their car, jacked into the internet.

And I had a nice surprise when I pulled the car off the dolly. Brakes were SHOT! Must have pulled the emergency brake up out of habit and driven that way for 1200 miles. Shit. Shit. Shit.
A trip to Radio Shack, got the electrical tools to fix the DC socket. Two auto parts stores to get a bulb for the fog light and two new headlights. Couldn't see a damn thing last night on the way into Oklahoma City.
Ohandsweetcreamyjesuuuusss Oklahoma has THE shittiest highways I have ever traversed!! Interstate 40, Terry had to do 35 mph to keep the rig in one piece. I mean, the potholes had potholes. Seemed like hours of listening to the Rig Of Destiny slam, bang, rattle, I thougght it was just gonna crumble to pieces on the next raised lump of random cement, before it dropped into the next valley of pothole death...
I was cursing the governor of Oklahoma. What the hell does this state DO with all the federal highway funds they get?! It looks like they just hire retards to dig holes in the interstate.

At least we slept in. Worked out in the heated indoor pool area, and sat in the HOT jacuzzi. $25/night. Place was great.


And I dropped another $480 in the Camping world for a new back up monitor. Yes, that's right, I paid more for a shitty black and white cathode ray tube monitor that does nothing but let me look at my own ass than I did for a 32" 1080p, 120hz, LCD high def TV. Shit. SHit, Shit.

By the time I get to Colorado, this bitch will finally be ready to ROLL!

Well, it was much more comfortable with bright new lights, vibrating ass massage, and a new monitor where I could actually see the car I was pulling, especially when the plug dropped out of the hook up for my tail lights. I pulled over and bungeed it back in before I lost the end on it. So, i bought the monitor just in time.

Stopped in Shawnee, east of Oklahoma City on the way in last night. needed a break from the banging, rattling "interstate". Man, what a weird bunch of characters. aging native americans, surly white trash, ranching families in matching mud boots, underdressed pre-teens in the same boots. weird. Braum's "Fresh Market", meant underripe banana's, ice cream, bologna, ice cream, and more ice cream.

Only bummer... missed seeing the Murray building memorial site. American upon American terrorism.

Wish we had taken two weeks for this trip. Drive a day, stay a day, stop some places...

Day 2 on the Road Not Taken

11:30 pm, exhausted. heading north up I-75 to Atlanta from Tampa, we pulled into a rest stop, yes, a rest stop and decided to crash for the night boondock-ey style.
Cold night. walked the dog, warmed up the inside of the rig and crawled under the down comforter.
Awoke, refreshed with the sun. Worked up the nerve to jump out to turn on the generator and heat things up. The thermometer in the bathroom read 48 degrees. Stepped on the carpet and into a cold puddle of dog urine. aaaahhhhhggggggg. fire up the generator. Which ran but wasn't putting any power to the coach. aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhggggggggggg. Pulled some juice out of the fridge which wasn't running at all. aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhgggggggggggggggggggg. Went out to walk the dog and on the way back saw the coach was leaking out water where the pump was housed. Yup, it was leakin'. aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggooooddddddddddddaaaaaaaaaaaammmmmmmmmmmmmnnnnnnnnnnnniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiittttttttttttttt!

Oh yeah, I'm the "go with the Flow" guy. so I did. At least the truck ran. Just make it to Tom's house I say to myself. From Vienna Georgia (not like the sausages) through Griffin (home of the world famous Chik-Fil-A Dwarf House). I'll just fire up my ass-heater/massager combo and stay nice and... heeeeeeeyyyyyyyy the DC plug just went out!!!! aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Called Brian at Harberson Swanston. Generator fusesd were thrown by the guys installing the new Magnum inverter/charger. Easy fix. Coach has power from the gen now. whew.

Pull apart the outside fridge panel. not running on DC, AC or Propane (and propane accessories);-) fuses all look good. Later in the day, I have the fridge open. switch inside reads "normal, off, high humidity function". Throwing that puppy around yields a working fridge only on the high humidity function. whew. at least it works!!

A quick search on the internet yields a guy an hour north who carries the pump part I need. His name is Art. Married 30 years to the Sargeant;-). He confirms my suspicion, checks his inventory, and voila, I am pumping again. BUT he closes in 20 minutes and is not open all weekend. No sweat, he says, I'll leave the part in a box behind my shop under the stairs, he does, I find it the next day along with my ccard receipt.

Brother Tom, who flies LARGE airplanes for a living, solves my bad ground in the dash problem and seems to get my DC plug working. Cool. my guages now work correctly!! Except we can't get the DC plug working after we stop and buy a fuse for it.
Wait a minute. this here is a dang high-line Monaco Dynasty RV, diesel pusher, Roadmaster chassis, hardwood, yadda yadda yadda. You mean to tell me there ain't but ONE dang DC plug in to run off the battery?! And that one looks like a later modification and it was wired wrong, bad ground and so there is no way to run anything off DC power in an RV that runs entirely on DC power!?
yes. the feesh stinks at the head my friend...
I suppose in 1993, cel phones were rare, GPS was non-existent, not many laptops around.
In 1993, I was slogging through Hillsborough Community College, was a Brown-Belt in Uechi-Ryu, might have gotten arrested for "obstructing justice" for refusing to allow a policeman illegal entry into my home, was just starting to ride my first real bicycle- a red Aluminum CAnnondale with Shimano 600 and clipless pedals, and was still rolling up the sleaves on my "nice" T-shirts when I went "out".

Luckily, it was Pizza night at the Zerb household. Potato pizza. OMG. Freakin delicious! next time, i am trying the PB&J pizza! Hot shower, comfy bed and lots of hugs and by golly, tomorrow we can accomplish anything!

Doog

Day one on the Road not TAken...Yet!

Hit the road late on thursday the 25th. Left Terry's parents' house after 5 pm.
I had thought of asking her if we could skip the visit since we had lunch with them over the weekend. I even mentioned it. Then I thought about it.
I knew that they were close, that her parents had moved down to Spring Hill, Fl to be near her in Tampa Bay AND she had asked me weeks ago if we could swing by with the rig on the way out of town...
So, as she was looking at the time and telling me that maybe we should just hit the road and visit them in April when we came back, I was telling her we would make the time to visit her parents.
Because, really, what can it hurt? go with the FLOW. We are masters of our destiny, keepers of our own timeclock, captains of our ship.
So a small bit of understanding and compassion can go a long way. I wish I had learned that lesson of patience many years ago. Terry makes it easy because she asks so little of me that I look for little ways to give her my love.
Remember the movie "Phenomenom" with John Travolta and Kyra Sedgewick? When he would buy her ugly homemade chairs just to see her? And to slyly support her? Later on the doctor who was his friend yelled at another local who was always having "relationship" problems if he ever bought HER chairs!

Well, I'm buying the chairs.

The cusp of something new...

You know that sensation? Not the one of "biting into a peppermint patty", but the one that hits you as the roller coaster is just about to crest the first drop. you think, "#&%)@#, I shouldn't have done this! Your gut (and your sphincter) tighten up, your jaw clenches, you throw your hands up in the air because the little kid in front of you did it and your girlfriend is watching although every fiber of your being is screaming out...
I mean, you 'know' it's just a ride and you can't get hurt...
The Rig (we haven't settled on a name yet) sits out front. The house is in shambles, piles for donation, piles to take, piles to store.
We are still agonizing over paperwork, contracts, bank accounts, tax laws.
Friends, clubs, jobs, neighbors, family.
Real Estate agents trotting people through the house at all odd times.

We are leaving our home, giving the house back to the bank, quitting and getting laid off. resigning from clubs, to start a business in the biggest economic downturn of the last 70 years!