Wednesday, May 11, 2016
Bernie came and saw and conquered
Sunday, May 08, 2016
Once a year that's all we ask
Monday, June 15, 2015
Bolt Arms for Team Deitchman!
Here is the Pacific, next stop, Atlantic!
Tuesday, June 09, 2015
Ohhhh jamamaa is back in house!
Sunday, August 07, 2005
EPISODE V: The Journey Home
And so it ends.
Karen and I turn our compass heading South, we leave Washington this very day. We will visit Paul and Karen in Portland, we will stay, then finish the drive and ourselves off in a long push back to Berkeley on Monday.
Adieu to the leaders and regions and rides which made this trip so memorable.
More pictures and fuller details will find themselves up soon.
Until then, the road awaits.
See you back in Berkeley for Szechuan, Picante, and hugs all around.
Karen and I turn our compass heading South, we leave Washington this very day. We will visit Paul and Karen in Portland, we will stay, then finish the drive and ourselves off in a long push back to Berkeley on Monday.
Adieu to the leaders and regions and rides which made this trip so memorable.
More pictures and fuller details will find themselves up soon.
Until then, the road awaits.
See you back in Berkeley for Szechuan, Picante, and hugs all around.
Friday, August 05, 2005
Something we hope to see
Yeah, we are working on it. If they would only swim by the house while we are caffeinating in the morning on the deck...inconsiderate sea brutes.
I rode with Gerry Gamez today and the Seattle adventure racing scene is alive and well. He is off to France to support for a french team at their Raid World Championships. Yeah, good times. Six days of fun, all R&R on the Riviera. I hope they don't have to change to many team underwears and socks...
We checked out Seattle earlier and had dinner with Stacy, his lady. She has about four inches on him. They are a cute couple. She must love him to be his support crew. Or I should say, his team's support crew. That dedication doesn't come cheap.
And it falls way off when morning sickness kicks in...
Goodnight ya'll.
A view of the spider we found in the kitchen
This giant beast is what we found in our kitchen. Well, it's the closest I could find on the internet to what we found in our kitchen. A giant, longlegged, mouse eating beast. Atomic mutation type spider! I'll will post a picture of our real spider later when the bandage is off...
A view of Anacortes
Seaside in Anacortes Washington
Greetings from our seaside villa on Puget Sound in warm, cozy Anacortes, Washington. Karen and I pulled in after our stint in Glacier. An uneventful drive, thank goodness. Except for a wildfire we drove through, no biggie. Just helicopters buzzing us dropping water buckets. I flashed back to The Nam for a minute there...
Our leader house sits right on the water. The property next door is listed right now for $1.5 mil. Good neighborhood, no late night burglers ;)
So the island has a network of multiple use trails right in among the houses. By multiple use, I mean Walking, Biking, and Motorcyles. We rode last night, and I have to say, deep in the Washington forests, around sunset, it gets REALLY dark and you don't have lots of time to wander around trying to find a way out. It was touch and go. But I am here to tell the tale right?
We went back and rode this morning. Much more relaxing...
Mark Olson aka "Mr Steroid" kicked our butts this morning, all while riding an old backroads bike with no suspension and rode tires and gearing. He is an animal, luckily he succumbed to our holding him down while one of us could sprint ahead to take the jersey for the stage. Great fun...
Back to work ....
Our leader house sits right on the water. The property next door is listed right now for $1.5 mil. Good neighborhood, no late night burglers ;)
So the island has a network of multiple use trails right in among the houses. By multiple use, I mean Walking, Biking, and Motorcyles. We rode last night, and I have to say, deep in the Washington forests, around sunset, it gets REALLY dark and you don't have lots of time to wander around trying to find a way out. It was touch and go. But I am here to tell the tale right?
We went back and rode this morning. Much more relaxing...
Mark Olson aka "Mr Steroid" kicked our butts this morning, all while riding an old backroads bike with no suspension and rode tires and gearing. He is an animal, luckily he succumbed to our holding him down while one of us could sprint ahead to take the jersey for the stage. Great fun...
Back to work ....
Thursday, August 04, 2005
Time is FLYING
I have come and gone from an entire state since my last entry. Sorry ya'll.
We travelled from Jackson Hole, Wyoming to our next work region, Whitefish, Montana. Whitefish is the gateway to Glacier and Waterton National Parks.
The beginning of the story is our drive in. Because we rode the ski resort in Jackson, we had to finish work the next morning before leaving. Well, it had rained on that trip, so we worked harder and slower than expected. We left Jackson with another false start and had to go back for Karen's bike box. Then, our route choice was to go through Yellowstone rather than boring old Idaho. Tack on a few more hours.
We did see some giant bull elk (which we stalked to within 20yards of, damn they are fat and lazy), a small black bear, multiple waterfalls, and Ole Faithful. We tacked on another half hour or so just waiting for her. A couple picture hikes, and next thing we know it is 830 pm when we hit I15 on the other side of the park.
I15 the east west route that will take us to Missoula, Montana. Here the math gets ugly. There will be 350 miles between us and Whitefish. It's is already 830.
Time for some Smokey and the Bandit. Except instead of Sally Field we have Karen, instead of Burt we have myself (with some seriously wild curly hair), and an unmarked white stalker van instead of the TransAm. Damn beast only gets 90 mph on a downhill...
Red Bull, Sobe, and Tom's Cascade Jalapeno Potato chips fuel the mission. No gas stops, one pee break, with some calistenics for alertness. Around twelve thirty we leave the interstate and get on a state highway. That's when the mild hallucinations begin. It's mainly from the contacts being dry and eyestrain. So I find a local speeder to follow as my running back, I keep on his tail until about 2. Delusions set in. No nodding, that is hand off time for Karen to drive. Just really wierd sights.
So we pull into Whitefish at 230, and we have both visited before, so we go straight to the leader house. Well, right off, it's a little strange. Where are the white 15 person vans, normally VERY visible? Unh, who care's, lets see who is there. We try the door, and it's open. In we go. Lots of shoes in the entryway, a big cooler sitting by the door, very typical. But I see that they place is decorated. Not well, and I don't agree with the flavor, but someone tried. Which is NOT very Backroads leader house. Usually it is part flophouse, hostel, apartment, and office all mixed together.
So I investigate further. The fridge is covered with pictures, but of the same two people, over and over. Odd. The final straw is cut when Karen sees the cat. Backroads has no domestic beasts. That is it, we are outta there!
Well now what? It's about 3am, we are absolutely bushwhacked, and we don't know where to go. Try some hotels: no vacancies anywhere in town. In a last ditch effort, I suggest we go up the hill towards the Big Mountain Ski Resort. I know that area, they might have a room, if not, we camp out in the woods. Karen is not a fan of the idea. We really do HAVE to sleep, we have to work the next day to stay on schedule. Up the very windy road, we get to the "Kandahar Resort" and lo and behold, a Backroads van in the lot! We try the front desk bolstered with new confidence. Oh you are with Backroads, well let me see what we have....
Denied!
But, there is a leader staying with us tonight at the Kandahar, would you like to call them? Three forty am, to call or not to call? Hell yeeah. Jen Nelson has been toasting with her guests the end of a fabulous trip...she is very slow to answer the phone...but when she does, she has the goods on where on earth our friggin leader house is!
It turns out we had been within two blocks of it when we tried one of the local B&Bs. Back down the windy road...
Bed at 4am. Ouch. The following morning I feel like I have been beaten. Uhhh.
And so it continues...
We travelled from Jackson Hole, Wyoming to our next work region, Whitefish, Montana. Whitefish is the gateway to Glacier and Waterton National Parks.
The beginning of the story is our drive in. Because we rode the ski resort in Jackson, we had to finish work the next morning before leaving. Well, it had rained on that trip, so we worked harder and slower than expected. We left Jackson with another false start and had to go back for Karen's bike box. Then, our route choice was to go through Yellowstone rather than boring old Idaho. Tack on a few more hours.
We did see some giant bull elk (which we stalked to within 20yards of, damn they are fat and lazy), a small black bear, multiple waterfalls, and Ole Faithful. We tacked on another half hour or so just waiting for her. A couple picture hikes, and next thing we know it is 830 pm when we hit I15 on the other side of the park.
I15 the east west route that will take us to Missoula, Montana. Here the math gets ugly. There will be 350 miles between us and Whitefish. It's is already 830.
Time for some Smokey and the Bandit. Except instead of Sally Field we have Karen, instead of Burt we have myself (with some seriously wild curly hair), and an unmarked white stalker van instead of the TransAm. Damn beast only gets 90 mph on a downhill...
Red Bull, Sobe, and Tom's Cascade Jalapeno Potato chips fuel the mission. No gas stops, one pee break, with some calistenics for alertness. Around twelve thirty we leave the interstate and get on a state highway. That's when the mild hallucinations begin. It's mainly from the contacts being dry and eyestrain. So I find a local speeder to follow as my running back, I keep on his tail until about 2. Delusions set in. No nodding, that is hand off time for Karen to drive. Just really wierd sights.
So we pull into Whitefish at 230, and we have both visited before, so we go straight to the leader house. Well, right off, it's a little strange. Where are the white 15 person vans, normally VERY visible? Unh, who care's, lets see who is there. We try the door, and it's open. In we go. Lots of shoes in the entryway, a big cooler sitting by the door, very typical. But I see that they place is decorated. Not well, and I don't agree with the flavor, but someone tried. Which is NOT very Backroads leader house. Usually it is part flophouse, hostel, apartment, and office all mixed together.
So I investigate further. The fridge is covered with pictures, but of the same two people, over and over. Odd. The final straw is cut when Karen sees the cat. Backroads has no domestic beasts. That is it, we are outta there!
Well now what? It's about 3am, we are absolutely bushwhacked, and we don't know where to go. Try some hotels: no vacancies anywhere in town. In a last ditch effort, I suggest we go up the hill towards the Big Mountain Ski Resort. I know that area, they might have a room, if not, we camp out in the woods. Karen is not a fan of the idea. We really do HAVE to sleep, we have to work the next day to stay on schedule. Up the very windy road, we get to the "Kandahar Resort" and lo and behold, a Backroads van in the lot! We try the front desk bolstered with new confidence. Oh you are with Backroads, well let me see what we have....
Denied!
But, there is a leader staying with us tonight at the Kandahar, would you like to call them? Three forty am, to call or not to call? Hell yeeah. Jen Nelson has been toasting with her guests the end of a fabulous trip...she is very slow to answer the phone...but when she does, she has the goods on where on earth our friggin leader house is!
It turns out we had been within two blocks of it when we tried one of the local B&Bs. Back down the windy road...
Bed at 4am. Ouch. The following morning I feel like I have been beaten. Uhhh.
And so it continues...
