Heaven is.........

.....A sunny 72 degree day with humidity less then 10% and not a cloud in the sky.

.....Having a bike lane on just about every road in and around town.

.....Being able to ride your bike, out your front door to the Farmer's Market every Saturday.

.....Having every vegetable imaginable organically and locally grown available in one spot.

.....Mountains 15 minutes from downtown.

.....Struggling up the side of side of that mountain on your bike to a lookout called "Eagles Elbow".

.....Understanding why it's called Eagle's Elbow as a lone eagle flys over the lake looking for dinner.

.....Unwinding from the day with fresh figs with blue cheese and drizzled with honey and a glass of Pinot Noir, all local products.

.....Experiencing everything mentioned above with the one you love!

Yeah, it was a great day! No pictures necessary.

-Rich-

BMX'ing in Eugene

This afternoon Rich, Snuggles & I rode our bikes (Snuggles rode on the handlebars) over to the BMX track at the local park. I think the park is called Alton Baker park. It seems to be the center of activities here. The nice thing is that it's less than 1/2 mile away. In the picture above, you can see the bike shed where we store our bikes at the Residence Inn. It's a wonderful feature, especially since we have nowhere else to store our bikes. They keep a key at the front desk, and we have our bikes locked up within the locked shed. Plus, we can see them from our window.

Anyway, the 3 of us headed off on our mountain bikes to the BMX track. Rich went first, while I snapped as many pictures as I could. The ones posted are the best of a bunch of about 15. Rich only took 2 pics of me, one of which wound up being my butt, so we're NOT going to post that. Snuggles mostly watched, but she thought it was pretty cool. After a couple of runs we headed back. I found out BMX'ing is harder & more tiring than it looks.

Later that evening, I was pulling out our rice cooker, and it somehow jumped out of my hands! I think I killed it because it's got some funky things in the window and it's not showing any signs of power/life. I was bummed because it's a really nice rice cooker. Fortunately, there's a really good asian market & deli here, so tomorrow's budget buster will be buying a new (but this time smaller) rice cooker. Ouch! In the morning, we're taking our bikes over the the Eugene Saturday market, which is just a mile away, and actually easier to access by bike than by car.

-Laura

Road Ride

Somewhere between Eugene & Harrisburg

Today, I decided to ride my road bike from Eugene to the Monaco Facility in Harrisburg. It was about 28 miles out there, with a strong wind hitting me in the face the whole time. I managed a 16 mph average, despite the wind.

I took this pic, with my phone, of the road I was on for about 14 miles of the ride out. That scene didn't change for the entire 14 miles, there wasn't anything to look at except hay fields but that also meant no traffic!

I pulled into camp Monaco just in time for lunch. I did a quick check on the coach. They have the bedroom slide and driver side slides rebuilt and are starting on the passenger side slide. They hope to water test the repairs by mid next week. So far, they are ahead of schedule; Let's hope they stay that way!

On the way back, I felt like a superstar. It's amazing what a BIG wind at your back, pink frosted sugar cookies and kickin' tunes on the ipod can do for your riding! I skipped the scenic route along the Willamette River, so the route back was 24 miles. I made it back in 1 hour and 10 minutes!

What a great ride -Rich-

Another hot day, another movie

Today was another hot day, but today it was only forcasted to be 100. This is getting crazy! Who knew it got to be this hot in Oregon? I certainly didn't. Anyway, we need cheap stuff to do in air-conditioned areas, so today we went back to the movies, especially since Monday is 50 cent movie day! When we got to the theater, we found out on Mondays, movies are only 50 cents if you buy 3 or more tickets, or else it's $1.50 a ticket. So, I bought 3 tickets for a total of $1.50, instead of buying 2 tickets for $3 (which is still a great deal). Today's movie was "RV" starring Robin Williams. It was cute and a good deal for the price, but I'm glad we didn't pay $7-8/each to see it.

-Laura

Another hot one!

Today was another hot day in Eugene. At 5pm. it was 104! Oh...but since the humidity is only 17% I guess this qualifies as a dry heat. Ug! I do NOT do well in heat. This is one time I'm glad we're not in the moho because the a/c doesn't work very well. Usually we can only get the coach 10-15 degrees cooler than the outside. Today we have the hotel a/c set at a chilly 72 and I love it! We turn it down even lower at night.

Today's cheap source of entertainment was going to a movie at a discount movie theater. Unfortunately everyone else in Eugene had the same idea. I had Rich get in line while I parked a country mile away. We went to see Mission Impossible 3 and it cost us all of $1.50/each! I think Tom Cruise is a dork just as much as the next person, but he is a good actor and his action movies are definately entertaining! If that wasn't enough of a bargain, they have 50 cent movies on Mondays. We may go back tomorrow at those prices!

-Laura

A Mountain Biker Wins the Tour!

What an unbeleivable Tour! Congratuations Floyd, can't think of a more deserving champion! USA!, USA!, USA!.......

From Bob Roll's comments on the OLN website, perfectly summed up!

-Rich-

Paris in yellow

Congratulations to Floyd Landis on an unbelieveable win of this years Tour de France! This continues seven years of domination started by Lance Armstrong and going back to 1986 when Greg LeMond won the first of his three titles. Floyd Landis overcame a disintegrating ship, an incredible loss of power, energy, fuel and focus on the roads during Stage 16 and then he had the most incredible comeback we've ever seen in the Tour de Cycling. On Stage 17, just one day later. Two days later it was the time trial where Floyd Landis blew away Oscar Pereiro. You don't give a man 30 minutes lightly in the Tour de France and I think that is a lesson Floyd Landis will remember and carry with him for the rest of his career. Floyd Landis will cartry the yellow jersey forward in the great tradition of the best American Athletes in the world with Greg LeMond and Lance Armstrong. Congratulations Floyd Landis! Floyd's hip replacement surgery is on the horizon , a couple more races and then a long road to recovery and back to the top of the sport. IF Floyd Landis is Pain Free and as focused and committed as he has been through out his career, it might be a while before anyone else wins the Tour de France. Unbelieveable stories continue to unfold on the roads of France. One of the most thrilling Tours we have witnessed in a long tme. So many twists and turns, ups and downs, much like the road the riders travelled themselves. Thank you so much for joining me on these transmissions everyday for the 93rd Tour de France. God Speed, God Bless and take care. I hope I see you next year.

-Bobke

The Exit Plan :(

The "I"s are dotted and the "T"s are Crossed!

It's hard to believe that we have been on the road for 9 months! Unfortunately, we are at the point we need to start making decisions on the opportunities we have in front of us. The debate for the past few weeks has been where to land in the spring of next year. If you're a regular reader, you know that we have committed to spending winter in Tucson, AZ. Laura has a temporary job with a drug treatment facility in Tucson. She has committed to 6 month's, from October through March.

We love Salt Lake City and have a great bunch of friends already in place. However, we also love the Denver area and I have a great job opportunity there. After much debate, pro and con lists, discussion with family and friends; We have made a decision.

beginning in May 2007, the Bag-it-Tour will officially end in Denver, Colorado! More precisely, we hope to be in Boulder, CO. Boulder reminds us so much of Ann Arbor, MI but with the addition of mountains! We love college towns and everything they have to offer! The price of housing in Boulder means we will be getting something smaller(under 2,000 sq ft), older(pre 80's) and in need of some TLC (read: will need updating). We've done the big house on a huge lot thing and we don't want to do it again. Too much work and expense to keep up; We want to spend our free time playing in the mountains!

For our RV friends, yes, we will look for a place with an RV pad with hook-ups ;)

In an interesting coincidence that we just found out about; The real estate agent that we dealt with back in Michigan, and bought and sold our last 2 homes through, has a sister that is a real estate agent that lives in....You guessed it.....Boulder! We plan on heading back to that area in early September (to coincide with the Mountain Wine Festival :) to meet and explore some areas with her, give her our time table of moving to the area and showing her what types of things we are looking for.

On to the job front. I have accepted a Business Development Manager position with Maverick Ranch. I have represented this company as an independent broker for 5 years. Since my Coca Cola days, I have vowed NEVER to return to Fortune 100, big business corporate America! Maverick Ranch and the Moore family is the pinnacle of the "anti-corporation". They have the necessary "sense of urgency" that you need in business, without forgetting what comes first; quality of life and family!

The exact definition of my job is determined by what I make of it. How great is that! I will be developing new business, primarily in the Pacific Northwest, managing new and existing brokers (since I was one for 5 years) and helping out in the marketing department. Who knows, I may even grab a knife and help out in the processing room! (OK....Not really that far!)

Anyway, if I sound excited, it's because I am! The opportunity here is unbelievable and the growth of the Organic grocery segment is off the charts. The Moore family has been extremely supportive of the Bag-it-tour. They know and are willing to work around the fact that Laura accepted the position in Tucson for the winter; I'll be telecommuting during that time! Plus, living in mountains is something we have both dreamed of since leaving Michigan!

The end of the Bag-it-Tour is a sad thought. It's been a wild and crazy ride! We are extremely grateful to have been able to enjoy a taste of this wonderful lifestyle in our mid thirties. Most people don't have the ability to try something like this until they retire or have dreams of trying it but are fearful for stepping outside of their comfort zone and taking a chance!

One thing we know for sure; We'll be returning to this mobile lifestyle someday in the future. Between the places we've been, the people we've met and the challenge of the next adventure it is too intoxicating not to! However, we're not done yet! So we hope you'll continue to follow the adventure through to end. Thanks to all of our faithful reader's; Those that have sent words of encouragement, ideas for places to visit and those that just lurk in the background as we move about the country!

-Rich-

Trying to escape the heat

Yesterday's forecast was for temps to climb to 102, so we decided to try to find cooler weather along the coast. We loaded up our bathing suits & towels and headed west. When we left Eugene, the temp was already 82 at 10:30am. When we got to Florence (y'all), 60 miles west, the temp was 63! We started by having lunch that the famous "Mo's" where Rich had fish-n-chips and I had a grilled halibut. It was a fun & casual restaurant on the water. I'd read a lot of good reviews about it on the discussions on the Escapees board. Turns out the reviews were spot on because our lunches were delicious!


After playing around on the beaches, we headed back to Florence to get cappuccinos, since it was "almost" cold at 65 degrees. After driving around a bit, we headed back to Eugene, which was a steaming 97 degrees when we got back at 4pm.

After lunch we headed north on the 101 to find a beach for Rich to find some creatures. We found a beach within a few miles and started exploring. This beach was covered in a weird, very dense fog unlike anything we'd ever seen. There wasn't but 10 feet of visibility. Oh...and forget swimming. The water was numbingly cold on our feet!












Here's a picture of Rich, looking for crabs and creatures, being the boy that he is.










After that beach, we headed about 12 miles further north on the 101 to the entrance to the Sea Lion caves. It looked like a big tourist trap, so we drove about a mile further to another beach. This one had all kinds of stuff! First you can see a pic of the bridge we drove over before turning off the road and driving down.


Here's a picture of Rich peering into a pool, looking at marine life:



Rich climbed up onto some rocks to get pictures of waves breaking:


After playing around on the beaches for a couple of hours, we headed back into Florence for a cappuccino, since it was "almost" chilly at 65 degrees. After driving some more around the area and doing some more exploring, we headed back to Eugene, where it was a steamy 97 degrees at 4pm.


-Laura

Wine Bloggin'

If you haven't stopped by the wine blog in a while, or ever, what are you waiting for......Go check it out!

Simply Wine
"Attempting to demystify wine without destroying it's magic!"

We paid a visit to King Estate Winery, just a few minutes from downtown Eugene. We're going to try and avoid double posting, so wine & food related entries will now go into Simply Wine.

We also found a bunch of really useful sites for pairing wines with various proteins, cheeses, pasta and some wonderful recipes; They're worth checking out.

Enjoy!

-Rich-

Catching up

It's been a few days since our last post, so I thought I'd do a catch-up post. Our moho is coming along fine. The leakiest slide is just about fixed. We found out that they are going to replace our overhead cabinet boxes with real wood ones instead of pressboard with "wood stickers". That was an unexpected bonus! They also installed drip cups on the bedroom slide and noticed where part of it had been cut out on the sides. They thought we'd done that to accommodate a picture we had up. Nope! We're a little smarter than that!

Yesterday Rich got an opportunity to hold a seminar on No Wet at Camp Monaco. We thought we were in the perfect time slot because we were just before margaritas. Unfortunately we weren't too popular. Only 5 people came to the seminar and we only sold 1 bottle for a profit of $8. Oh well, $8 is better than nothing.

After escaping the heat wave the rest of the country has been in (been 75-80 here), it's getting hot today and getting hotter through Sunday. Today is forecast to be 96 and tomorrow's going to be 103. Not sure what we're doing today, but tomorrow we're thinking of going to the coast for cooler weather and exploring. It's only about 60 miles from here. An option for today is to go over to Lowell, which is near where I've been biking and hiking. There's a lake there that's beautiful and appears to have rental boats. We're also open to suggestions if anyone has any!

-Laura

Tried to find a mountain bike trail

I slept in again today until about 9am. Once Snuggles and I had breakfast (a waffle for me a biscut & eggs for her), I loaded my mountain bike and equipment into the car and headed out. My directions said take I-5 south to SR-58, and go southeast for 27 miles. Yesterday I'd taken the same route to go hiking, but had only traveled 20 miles on 58, so I figured this would be easy to find. The directions said turn left into the Waldo Lake campground & the trail goes around the lake. Ok..easy enough. First problem came when I'd gone about 27 miles, there was a campground, but it was named "Black Canyon". Second problem is that there was no lake, but a river. Something was definately wrong. I traveled 10 more miles, but never found it. When I got back, I looked at a map and found out I'd been given wrong directions in a major way. Turns out the Waldo Lake campground was 70 miles from Eugene!

So I headed back to the trail that I'd hiked yesterday. I was pretty sure that mountain bikes were allowed. But instead of turning right onto the Goodman Creek trail that I'd taken yesterday, I went straight this time onto the Hardesty(?) trail. It went up...and up and up and up. Just when I thought it would flatten out, it went up some more. I alternated between pedaling and walking. After about a mile, I was mostly walking...and it was hot...and humid. A little while later, I couldn't go anymore, so I rode down. Of course it was fun and over way too soon. So after a quick lunch, I headed back to hang out with Snuggles and get a shower. In the picture below you can see the trail going up....and up and up.


Rich comes home tomorrow.....hooray!!!!!!!!!!

-Laura

Mobile Blog from D' Town

I arrived in Detroit on Friday afternoon and it was hot and humid(typical for July). My mom was nice enough to put me up for the night and had a wonderful grilled fish dinner waiting for me.

Saturday started early. I met Charlie(One of the family owners of Maverick, in the pic above) at the BBQ at 9 to setup. We were going to be grilling, sampling and talking to customers from 10 to 3. The forcast high for the day was 96 and I was was going to be behind the grll the for at least a portion of the day.

I think the heat of the day actually kept attendance down from last year. The event was still an overall success. By the time it was over, I was tired and hot!

After the event, I called up Lexington to see what my mother-in-law was up to. Turns out they were having a little get together for birthday's. I cleaned myself up, had some dinner and made the 1.5 hour drive up. It was an enjoyable evening and great to catch up with everyone.

Tonight I'm back to my moms house for the night. Monday is another busy day. I have to pay a visit to all of my customers, meet up with Charlie to do radio spot about organic meat and get to the airport for my flight at 3 PM.

I'm due to land back in Portland at 7PM.... I can't wait to get back :)

Bike & a hike in Eugene

Today was my first full day alone, while poor Rich gets to BBQ in 92 degree heat in Michigan. I slept in until 9am & stumbled down to breakfast. Later I was trying to figure out what to do for the day when I remembered that the is today. Since it's a little over a mile away and parking is a pain, I rode my bike. It was a little tricky because getting there is a combination of path and road, but I found it. I wandered around without buying anything, then headed back. I had the urge to explore! I thought about taking a drive, then decided I wanted to hike, so I got online and
found a hiking trail that's about 20 miles southeast of here, in the Willamette national forest. Once I got to the Goodman Creek Trailhead, I figured it'd be a good idea to put on some bug spray, since I was going deep into the woods. Here's a picture of the trail about 1/4 mile of the way in.













A little further along, I came across the biggest slug I'd ever seen. You can see my foot in the corner, for scale:














The trail follows along a ridge, then dives down to a creek, before climbing back up to the ridge. Here's a picture of a 1/2 bridge that was built to cross the creek:













Here's a picture of the trail as it meanders along the ridge:













After a bit of climbing, I came to this vantage point, called "Eagles Elbow", but don't ask me why.













At that point, I turned around because it was going on 2pm and I hadn't had lunch. I think this is going to be a chill night.

-Laura

Good-Bye to Rich!

This morning we had to get up at 4:30am to drive 120 miles to Portland for Rich's 8:45am flight to Michigan. 4:30 comes awfully early! Then I got to drive back to Eugene after a quick drop at the airport. I had to stop on the way home because the skid plate on the 'Zuki had some loose and was dragging. I managed to get it wedged up and got a 10am appointment at the Suzuki dealer across the street from our hotel. The trip to the dealer had me in & out 20 minutes and $27 later. No more dragging skid plate. We'll replace it, but in a month or two. This is going to be an expensive month.

Not much else going on. I went for a bike ride this afternoon. There's a 13 mile path right out the door. I love bike-friendly cities like Eugene. Not only are there bike lanes everywhere, but there's also plenty of bike paths, like this one that goes right along the Willamette river.

I'm sure going to miss Rich!!!

Laura

First Test; Mobile Blogger

I just signed up for Blogger Mobile. It allows us to take pics with our phones and upload them, with text, directly to the blog. Isn't technology wonderful!

Here is Snuggy looking cozy in our tempory digs!

-Rich-

Business in Michigan

I will be flying out of Portland International on Friday morning, heading to Michigan, for this:



Every year, my single biggest customer, Holiday Market, throws a huge customer appreciation BBQ. It's a free event for all of their loyal customers. They don't have the usual hot dogs and burgers either! They have representatives from Maple Leaf Duck, Adeils sausage, Jack Daniels BBQ, Foley Fish, Good Humor, Jones soda and their own house brands being sampled all day.

I have participated in this event for the past five years. This year we get top billing as the lead sponsor! We raffle off a gas BBQ grill, give away hats, Olympic collector pins, $2 off coupons and raffle off door prizes; The event is just a blast to work and be part of! I'll be on the grill cooking up Sirloin steak and Boneless chicken breast for sampling!

While I'm out grilling, Laura will be back in Eugene holding down the fort and cracking the whip on the Monaco factory guys! They had the slide out on the coach completely dismantled. It wasn't a pretty site! We're hoping to get some pics early next week.

I return to Eugene on Monday. Until then look for Laura to have some reports from the weekend!

-Rich-

Camp Monaco, Day 1 (of many more to come)

We had our meeting with our service adviser, Jeff set for 10:30 am. It is very similar to a car dealership; The service advisor writes it up, an estimator goes over the coach and totals the job, you approve it, the work gets done and you pay the bill! Jeff was prompt, very friendly and had a little dazed and confused look when we told him how many places we are leaking from. It helps that I did not clean up the water stains from above the door or the windows.

Our motorhome has 3 slides, one bedroom, two in the front. Basically each slide was leaking in some form or another. We also had a leak above the entry door and the window just behind the passenger seat. The total leak count is 6. There are other minor details; The steps like to come in and out while we drive, an access panel above the generator was taped in place when it should have screws. These are minor inconveniences compared to the leaks!

While I was working with Jeff, Laura was out taking a driving course! Here she is with the instructor going over things before heading out on the open road! I'll say this about Camp Monaco, they keep you occupied while your coach is in service. There are all kinds of activities and tours to keep you busy. They keep you well fed too!




Snuggy, meanwhile, was relegated to the back of the Suzuki. She was NOT happy about that.







After taking most the day to go over the coach we got the news and it's not good!

Basically, the box of each slideout needs to be rebuilt. The reasons are a combination of improper workmanship, lack of proper maintenance by the previous owners and at least one botched previous repair. Monaco is also concerned about what type of damage they might find inside the walls, on the floors and in the cabinet boxes from water intrusion. They also hope they don't find any black mold!

Since we are the second owners of the coach, there is no warranty! I asked them to take the leaks under consideration due to the age of the coach, only 2 years and the fact that we they could only get us into the factory 3 months after making the appointment, making any potential damage worse.

It turns out, the previous owners had made an appointment with Monaco for these very issues. They never kept the appointment. (obviously choosing to sell the coach, which we now own!) SO, it appears that we have a pre existing condition. The good folks at Monaco are going to pick up the tab for repairing the leaks and any subsequent damage that may have resulted! A good number of people on bulletin boards and in RV parks have said this would probably be the case. Monaco stands behind their product and wants happy customers.

That's the good news. The bad news is, it's going to take up to 3 weeks to do the repair! We are going to be in a hotel (Residence Inn) untill the repairs are completed. I guess there are a lot worse places then Eugene, Oregon to have to spend 3 weeks! Eugene has tons of stuff to keep us busy; Mountain biking, road biking, wine tours and Portland is only an hour away.

Hopefully, I'll be able to get some pictures during the de-construction and re-construction of our home, stay tuned!

-Rich-

Arriving at the Monaco repair center, - Harrisburg, Oregon

After 3 long days of driving a total of 876 miles we finally made it to the Monaco Corp.'s repair facility in Harrisburg, Oregon. For those that don't know, Monaco purchased Safari (the maker of our coach) in 2001. We weren't able to get a spot in the "campground" until tomorrow, so we're dry camping in the parking lot tonight. We're definately not alone though. The best part is that it's deliciously cool here compared to where we've been the last 2 weeks. For the past 2 weeks we've been in 90+ (32.2C) degree heat. When we stopped outside of Portland at the Wilsonville Camping World it was a beautiful 72 (22.2C)degrees and sunny. We got the moho parked and realized we probably only have enough water for tonight, so we headed into Eugene (18 miles away) for some cheap dinner and wifi.

Tomorrow Rich will meet with our service advisor at 10:30, while I attend a ladies' driving class at 10am. Fortuantely this class uses their moho's, so I don't have to worry about denting ours. We're not sure how long we'll be here, probably only 2-3 days at the most. I'm really hoping we'll get everything wrapped up by Thursday so we can move the coach to McMinneville, where we stayed before. On Friday Rich flies back to Michigan for 4 days to do a customer appreciation BBQ at Holiday Market in Royal Oak. We appreciate Holiday Market as they are responsible for 90% of our current income. If anyone in Michigan is going to be anywhere near Royal Oak on Saturday, stop in to Holiday Market. You'll get a lot of good, free food!

-Laura

Not Much Time For Bloggin'

It has been a busy week here in Salt Lake!

While bombing uphill (to 10,000 ft) on bikes, bombing downhill at Sundance and Park City, BBQ’s with Karen & Rich, welcoming Karen’s sister Cathy to SLC (another loss for Michigan), dinner with Cari and Gregg, birdie play dates with Snuggles and their 10 cockatoos, fixing windshields and selling No-Wet, we have been neglecting the blogging duties! It didn’t help much that the KOA has switched from a pay internet to a free system. The free system is just crap and has not worked about 95% of the time we have been here!

Today, we check out of SLC and begin our trek to Eugene for our Monaco factory appointment on Tuesday morning. We will take a couple of days to make the 875 mile trek to Eugene. We have stops planned in Boise, Idaho and Boardman, Oregon.

I’m sure we’ll have plenty of things to write about while we hang around Monaco next week! I just know it won’t be nearly as fun as this past week 

-Rich-

Downhilling at Sundance Resort

Today Rich, our friend Karen, and I loaded up our car & headed out to Sundance ski resort for some downhill action. We paid for an all-day lift ticket and headed up. Now up until this point, I thought I was a pretty good downhiller. After all, as long as I can see where I'm going, I'll ride without using my brakes and over anything (or so I thought). We get off the chairlift at the top, wait for our bikes and head off. I followed Karen and learned NOT to follow Karen's lines, because we both wound up sinking into some 6" deep sand/gravel. This was the first steep, gravely, loosy section that lead into some singletrack. By the time we stopped to gather at the start of the singletrack, I'd sceared myself silly. This was going to be a lot harder than I'd thought it would be!
I followed Rich & Karen down, but at a bit slower pace than they were going. There was one part where the trail was quite narrow with a loonnggg dropoff on the right side. We came to a "corner" where there was a panaramic view of the mountains. We got to chatting with some locals about life in SLC.(see pic)After some more sketchy, loose downhill, we got back into the woods where the trail was smooth and we were surrounded by evergreens. It was the prettiest part of the trail. After a short bit, we popped out onto a paved road & zoomed back down to the chairlift.



We jumped back onto the chairlift, since Karen promised she could take me onto an easier, but longer trail. Even though it was longer, it went a lot faster. It was smoother and basically criss-crossed the mountain with sharp switchbacks where you basically stop, point, & shoot your bike downhill. After that run we had some lunch of sandwiches we'd packed, then it was back onto the chairlift for Rich & Karen. I sat out to rest my arms, which were getting tired. After they got back, I took my final run on the "easy" trail. Rich & Karen took a different trail which turned out to be too short, so they went up for one last run.

Oh...and the other pic is these little squirrel-like creatures that were all over the mountain. Rich even managed to run over a couple!

It was a good & tiring day. I'll sleep good tonight!

Arrived in Salt Lake City

Ok...we're back in SLC. We drove a whopping 180 miles today, landing in the SLC KOA around 12:30pm. We'll be here for a week, before heading over to Colberg, Oregon for our factory appointment on July 11. As you can see from the weather banner above, it's hot here, around 92 today...but it's a dry heat. After we got set up & had some lunch, I called our friend, Karen (a Michigan transplant). We talked about the ride she thinks I can do tomorrow. It's a kind of shuttle ride, but still involves a ride that starts with a 2 mile climb up to 10,000'. Uh...I don't think so. She said her husband, Rich knows I'll be slow. This guy does Ironman triathalons. He doesn't know what slow is until he meets me. I talked to Cari Anders of Cockatoo Street tonight. We're going to hang out tomorrow while Karen and the Riches ride. Since Snuggles just got a shower & a pedicure, she wants to go out while she's looking her best. Trimming Snuggles' nails is always a struggle. Cari says 3 of her 10 'toos line up and hold up their feet when she brings out the file. Oh..if only trimming our 'too was so easy!

Later Rich and I ran out to our favorite SLC grocery store, Harmon's to pick up a few things, especially supplies to make Mint Mojitos. Now I'm not a big mint person, but these are really good on a summer day. Harmon's was out of mint! Their excuse? "Well, we're running a special on salmon & a lot of people cook salmon with mint." WTF???? I've had salmon 7 ways from Sunday and NEVER with mint. Have you ever hear of this? We did find a Wild Oats with mint, so all was not lost. After a couple of mojitos, we BBQ'd up some chicken and chilled for the evening.

-Laura