A ride with Daniel

It is hard to believe that 30 years and 6 months separates us. At least for me. But it is true; my eldest nephew is 14 years old (going on 24). When he was a baby, I used to ride my bike to my folks for Thanksgiving and as soon as I would arrive (about 65 miles later), he would greet me at the door and put on my bike shoes and my helmet and toddle around.

Fast forward ahead and my bike shoes wouldn't fit on his big toe. He is now 6'1", 170lbs and wears a size 15 shoe! Anyway, when he sent me an email asking me about going for a bike ride while he was visiting, you can imagined how happy I was. I was able to find a friend about his height (I always imagined that if and when he wanted to ride a bike, that mine would work for him (ha!) ---soon, Mike's will work for him!)

I picked out a super cool Taylor-racing kit and headed over the hill to Truckee. Mike was going to ride over dirt Henness Pass road and meet us at Boca Reservoir. When we got to the pretty-dried up watering hole, Daniel got familiar with the shifting and off we rode. It was beautiful and cold. Clear and traffic free---and cold. Did I mention it was cold?

The roads were virtually traffic free---nothing but cyclists and a random car heading out to cut down a Christmas Tree. When we came to our first "hill", I instructed Daniel to downshift and he did----then he got out of the saddle and the effort combined with the altitude had him seated and out of breath pretty quickly. (His bike weighed twice as much as mine----rigid fork mountain bike with ultegra drivetrain). By this time, Mike had joined us, and we both vividly remember our introduction to riding at altitude, even with thousands of miles in our legs! Sigh!

Daniel didn't give up though and when the hills got too big he pushed his way up the hill. I was very proud! The cold air and altitude and new type of effort created a bit of asthma but he was fine and by the time we headed back he was rolling along and smiling. He was tired and when he said, "I can't believe how easy this is for you Joni", I said..."You get used to it! do you think you'll ever try this again D?" He smiled and said "Yup!" And like most 14 year olds--he's a man of few words. I won't write what we talked about---because it's just between us---but the time together made my Thanksgiving Day!

Happy Tuesday! (Thanks to my brother Rick for the picture!)

Small hound, big travels, family time

When I think of the all the places Sydney has gone with us, it makes me smile. I don't think I have ever known such an adaptable dog.

We really had a lovely time in Marshall. It was too short. It was one of the nicest trips I've had all year, and when I think of all the places I've been this year, (Italy, Colorado, Washington, Oregon and Southern California, Vegas, etc. ), that's really saying something! Granted, most of the other trips were for work and this one was pure vacation---but I really cherish my time with the Taylor's in the little town of Marshall, MN.

We started things off with trips to our dentist...and the next stop? You guessed it. The Bike Shop and Camden State Park. Mike went mountain biking with the "boys" and I went trail running throughout the park! The Bike Shop has expanded and really gone "upscale". We had dinner with the Olson's and saw their new home and now family of "five"---spent time with Pete and Dave and the whole gang.

Minnesota Mom and Dad treated us to an evening out at the MAFAC center and we saw a Russian Cello Quartet (fabulous!). We ate (or tried) bits of (fresh caught) pheasant, venison, and fish. We even went to a movie (which was a treat since we never do stuff like that). Just me, Mike and Diane---we saw American Gangster!

And of course, we celebrated Uncle Jim's birthday and spent time with friends. I topped the week off with a special walk though Camden with Celeste.

Throughout the week, Sydney enjoyed time with her Grandpa and Grandma and cousin Molly-dog. She really travels well. I took a few pictures (before and after hunting pictures) of her (I know this is shocking!) We arrived home late but amazingly well-rested. Once a year is not enough.

Happy Sunday!

Pheasant Hunting

For a girl who has avoided eating anything with eye's until I met my husband, hunting may seem a strange topic. I remember the first time Minnesota Dad let me shoot a can with Mike's gun (from when he was twelve). It was fun, even though I was terrible at it. Now, I go with the guys---mostly just to walk the cornfields and watch.

We headed towards Ivanhoe (not in Poland---but in Minnesota---although I believe it is a Polish settlement) late in the afternoon in search of some birds! With Merle (Haggard) on the radio, expert Dave finds an interesting spot with no other hunters in sight. When you look out at the field, it looks pretty simple to walk through. It is not. Dave is always in his best shape late fall, early winter, because he walks for miles through the thick prairie grass. This is grass that is as tall as me sometimes.

I try to keep up with long legged Taylor Men and dogs until they lose me and I head back to the warm truck to wait. The only sound was a busy farmer, plowing down a field, preparing it for winter and next year's harvest, and of course the prairie wind. It was warm by Minnesota standards...about 40 degrees. Soon I hear a shot, and in the distance I see two orange guys running after a black spot (Molly) and an even smaller white spot (Sydney). I can't even see the white spot without the binoculars'---I just know she's there!

The "hunter's" and hounds arrive back to the truck with smiles on their faces ---they got a bird! Then it is off to the next spot---until the sun goes down---before heading back home to a homemade vegetarian lasagna prepared with love by Minnesota Mom!

It sure felt good to be home in my second home!

Road to Rose

I kept meaning to bring the camera with me over the last couple of weeks so I could capture some of the amazing desert colors, but I forgot until this morning and the reds are all blown off and only the yellows show up. It is time for me to upgrade this camera. It's big (by today's standards); we bought it before we went to Belgium the second time---like 4 years ago, and these new cameras require no "photo-skills" which is key for a gal who has "no photo skills!"

Today was the first time I saw the baby donkeys that were born early this summer. They are soooo cute. In fact I saw lots of farm babies---ponies, calves and even a baby osterich! Wild Nevada. There is even a series called Wild Nevada that explores the diverse and unknown places around the state. One time, I was watching and they were featuring the town (town is generous---with a population of 25) of Baker, Nevada. Low and behold, my former neighbor from San Francisco was featured on the series, as he has a small hotel there. Baker looks neat. It's the last stop on Highway 50 before you hit Utah.

Speaking of that neighbor, this world is so darn small. One of the guys Mike rides with is an attorney and they were chatting about Baker and Mike said he lived across the street from a guy that moved to Baker. His friend said, "Is his name Terry?" Mike said "Indeed". It turns out this lawyer did some work for him.

On my ride home, my handsome husband pedaled up to me on the grinder climb home. We're all grins with major miles in our legs over the weekend!

And, we are leaving for Minnesota on Tuesday. Looking forward to some R&R with Minnesota Mom and Dad! Have a great week!

Some "gambling" thoughts

Seems like an appropriate subject line for a gal who is now living in the Silver State. The thing is, I don't really gamble. Mike and I even laugh about the fact that he'll at least gamble with someone else's money (like when Jeff gave him $100 to play poker with at an Interbike many moon's ago), whereas I will keep the $100 and put it in the bank.

So, as I think back to when Mike and I left Minnesota and moved to Boston, it didn't feel like a real gamble. But I suppose it was. We both had a long history with Seven, and everyone told us that "Boston is like the San Francisco of the East"---it felt like a sure thing on paper. Especially when we were given a carrot to move back to California in a year.

Perhaps our expectations were too high? And the shock of really crummy weather (summer and winter and spring) was a bit hard to take. Our saving grace was that we had each other. That sounds corny---but it really proved true. So when we looked into heading back to the West coast, it was interesting that out of the three job offers I had, we chose the most unknown option. We gambled on a place that neither of us knew much about.

Well lately, it feels like we hit the jack-pot. July and August were of course too hot for my "other half"---but not really all that bad. And spring was lovely. But nothing like the Fall in the high-desert. Who knew? You don't often read stories about the "Fall colors of Nevada", or the perfectly clear 65-70 degree weather, or the calm small-town feel of Northern Nevada. Everyday the sun shines, the skies are a fantastic blue, and the mountain views---I just never get tired of them.

So we took a gamble on Reno and I guess sometimes gambling is a good thing! Happy Saturday from the cute little Scrapper!