real life

So, would it really be that weird to set up my tent in the living room? I'm actually thinking of doing this- just to keep the smell of vacation around. I'd probably lose most of my 'adult status' though, and god knows it's taken me about 20 years to reach my current level of respect in the grown up world.

Maybe I'll do it antways and just not let anyone come visit- so if you were planning on coming over in the next couple of days, either post pone or be prepared.

Here are a couple of photos that I've been working on:

More of the ghost town

Salt Flats





Randoms

on with it

Bishop is in our rear view mirror. We've made a pit-stop in Salt Lake where it's cold and raining. I'm already wondering if I have it in me to make it through the upcoming winter. Here's my mantra: Please keep air travel affordable and Thank god I'm not in Minnesota. (sorry guys, it's just that you're a little crazier than me, and not in the good way).

We had 2 good fly days out of 7. I tell you, Bishop is a windy place. This means lots of disappointment for the competitors, as well as a whole lot of free time on our hands.

I'm not complaining though, I had a blast and was really sad to leave. It was great to see our flying friends. These are people that we only see on the road, sometimes in foreign countries, other times in the deserts of a bumble-hick town. These are special friendships. No frills, no sparkles. We bask in each others B.O., and wake up with two tasks: Coffee, fly and the occasional clean skivvies.

There were no catastrophes. One reserve toss and a day hike out of the mountains, one sprained ankle involving the flight of an unmanned wing, some fingers crushed in a car door, and a spilled margarita-pretty good, given humans aren't (yet) born with wings.

Pilot Favela- or Shanty Town.

This is an example of just how cheap paraglider pilots are. Too cheap to pay the 10 bucks for a camp site, so they fit 8 tents to each site, costing each person $1.25, more $$ to drink with... I guess.

Bishop, or Mars.

4 people in the front seat, 4 in the back and a 85 pound dog. 9 gliders in the bed with 3 more people holding them down. 4-wheel low, 40 minutes up to an 8,300 foot launch. Note, we're still smiling. (Kansas- the one in the green hat has a 3 week old with him on the trip- proving to me that you're life doesn't have to stop because of kids)

Melanie feeling some happiness- she's on my back-up list.



This is Bodie Ghost Town. One of the craziest places I've been to yet.













Chair Crater, Nevada.

desert rats

After reading the newspaper for the first time in a week in a half, and seeing that the world has gone to the lions, we've decided that we'll be just fine living in our truck, wondering the countryside. Someone's gotta make use of the tax payers public land.

my favorite person of the day

On the road

Chris and I are at the National Paragliding Competition in Bishop, California. It's basically the moon- that is if there's a desert on the moon.

We took Dyggs with us, and the big $$$ truck. Now that we don't have a wonderful and completely loving- and loved- mother in law to baby sit him, he's with us for the long haul. So far it's been working out well. The pilots are giving him more love than he knows what to do with.

The only complaint thus far is his flatulence issue. When you have 10 guys in the truck, in 4 wheel low crawling up the side of a mountain, it can be a problem. He's only been kicked out of the truck once and luckily he can run faster than we can crawl.

We drove through Salt Lake on our way out, had coffee with Chris's Dad and talked a little politics- just to get my blood pressure up- and then drove till we could drive no longer. We found a dirt road a followed it until we found a spot that looked appealing to lay down our sleeping bags. This is what we woke up to:

Wow! I love that! Going to sleep, not able to see past your headlights, and then waking up to something more beautiful than you could have imagined.


It's the second day of the comp, and it blew out today- got too windy, even for crazy competition pilots to fly in. There's not water to be heard of, so we're on the prowl for activities to fill our time. I think that we may be permanently changed, and maybe not for the better, by the time the comp is over.

So what do you guys think of the color change?

I know that there are a ton of people reading this, but you're all too shy and timid to use the comment tool- and I'm feeling so alone and far away from you.

So do you like the colors? hint: use the comment tool.

The Website is Down

So THIS evidently, is what Chris used to do for work... a long, long time ago...
and is the origin of why he despises the cubicle, and will probably never, ever again serve as an employee.

Ahhh... I understand.

I realize now, only after watching this clip, that I have had the pieces to complete the puzzle of his past- all of this time, but had never pasted them together into the reality that is was.

What a reality. I am so glad that it is in the past-tense.

I have found even more respect than I had had before, for my gypsy man.

Tour De Fat

I was already under the impression that Fort Collins is the greatest place yet that I've dropped camp in my short 31 years. But something happened this past weekend that I was completely unprepared for.

Have you ever heard of the Tour De Fat? I hadn't, at least not until I moved here. Even then, just hearing about it didn't do it justice for me. Not until I actually experienced it did I understand just how mind boggling and brilliant it really is. My love for Fort Collins has just reached a new depth.

Imagine 7000+ people dressed in costume, riding bikes. Fabulous!

The Tour De Fat is held annually by the New Belgium Brewing Company, which is home to Fort Collins. It's goal is to increase transportation via bicycle- but that's only one of their many efforts to be environmentally sustainable.

Chris and I chose to move to Fort Collins in order to decrease our - I'm going to say it- Environmental Footprint. We live right in town and we both make an effort to bike everywhere, short of Utah. Seriously though, the town is small enough that you logically don't need a vehicle- unless you're really lazy.

This is why I'm so amazed. I was already floored by how many people choose the peddle over the car daily, but to see 7000 of them all in one place! Even if they weren't decked out in outrageous costumes it would still have been maybe the coolest community events that I've ever been part of.

Here's a few photo's that I took. To those of you who have been patiently waiting for my photo's, remember that 'patients is a virtue' because I took exactly 1016 of them and I really love the attention that I'm getting by leading you along. Keep checking my flicker account -just click on the picture in the right upper corner of this blog and look in the "Tour De Fat" set.

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