Thursday :: 20 November 2008 :: 02:35 PM
35 days to Christmas!
EC4 04 Sep 2006 Labor Day Ride Up The Mountain
It's been a little longer than I thought, getting back to this. I was thinking this summer would have found my four-wheeler trecking up several mountains in the North Idaho area. But, alas! most my expeditions were limited to going to town to run errands and picking up supplies.
Today, I started my adventure with a relaxing cup of coffee with Babe, who met me at Starbucks. Didn't say some Babe I met at Starbucks. I said I called my Babe and had her meet me at Starbucks for coffee before I began my trek up the Canfield Mountain another time.
I know what you're thinking: "This guy's just bragging. No way he'd get some Babe like her to meet up with him!"
Well, you're dead wrong. This Babe is my girl; has been for the last twenty-five years - and yes, I am very blessed by that. To prove it, here is a picture of us together. Does this look forced? Does she look unhappy?
Man, you're distracting me from my story . . .
After coffee with Babe, I called Lem, AKA my son, Andy, to meet me on the way to the mountain. All of you who frequent Cummins Forum or Powerstroke Forum and other places throughout the diesel performance world know my son, Andy, as Lem.
When we finished taking our publicity shots, we head up the mountain.
Here is an area that has been posted "No Riding" for some time. Some people just don't get it; so now we see this trench has been dug across the place.
Some rules we may not agree with, but they are rules nonetheless. If we continue to break the rules, soon we will have no place left to ride. If you want to make your own rules, buy your own mountain -- but don't ruin riding privileges for the rest of us.
Stopped to take this photo of the towers atop the mountain. So now Andy's ahead of me up the hill. Actually, he was already ahead of me. He took his Honda up this steep trail and I sat and looked at it for awhile. After all, his is a 500cc 4x4 and mine is only a 250cc 2x4. But after a moment, I decided to try it. After all, the worst that could happen is that I could have to turn back down or roll it. Well, I gave it all I had and practically stood on the handle bars -- and made it up easier than I thought.
When I arrived at the top, Andy was already waiting for me.
It was a fine view from up here but not a good day to take photos. As you can see from the background, there is a lot of overcast -- however, the overcast is not clouds but dust and debris from all the forest fires blowing this direction!
Maybe we'll get photos another day. Maybe one of these days, we'll check out another mountain.
As we began our trek down the mountain, we were met by four hikers on foot.
Had a great trip today! Only one close call: As we were heading down the mountain, a girl on a bicycle was riding on the right, her left. We caught her as we were going down a ridge with a bend to the blind side. I saw Andy jerk to the left and did the same just in time. She's probably the type who rides her bike facing traffic; ignoring the fact that bicycles are subject to the rules of the road.
I heard of a recent case where a bicycle rider was hit by a car while crossing the road in the cross walk. It was held in court that the driver of the automobile was not responsible because the bicycle was in violation of the rules of the road. Wish more bicyclists (I am one, also) would heed the rules instead of thinking they own the road. Sometimes, it can be fatal trying to prove it.
Well, enough soap box for the day. Hope you all have a great weekend and we will see you again, soon!
Random Humor: Another Work Place Joke
A group of managers were given the assignment to measure the height of a flagpole. So they went out to the flagpole with ladders and tape measures, and they were falling off the ladders, dropping the tape measures - the whole thing was just a mess.
An engineer came along and saw what they were trying to do, walked over, pulled the flagpole out of the ground, laid it flat, measured it from end to end, gave the measurement to one of the managers and walked away.
After the engineer was gone, one manager turned to another and laughed. "Isn't that just like an engineer? We're looking for the height and he gives us the length."