A tear ran down my cheek...

[slowride]

...as I walked out the door from the FedEx building, where I just sent my Stratos fork off to the dude that bought it on eBay. But, Mr. Mike at Universal Cycles dried up my tears with the promise that my new (02) Z.1 Freeride would ship today. Ah, such bittersweet memories...

OK, that's really cheesy! Anyway, I sold the Stratos, and I got enough for it to buy an 02 Z1 and a spring kit. I was going to wait for a 03 Fox Vanilla 125RLC, but they don't seem to be in stock anywhere, and I need to finish my bike and get riding. It's 76 degrees here today! Plus, I talked to my sister last night, and we have tentative plans to do the White Rim Road in Canyonlands in a month or so (depending on when/if we can get a campsite). So, I need to get the Monkey done instead of waiting for a fork.

So glad it's getting warm again...

[Scott]

"It's 76 degrees here today!"  38 degrees and rain scheduled for the next 4 days so "A tear ran down my cheek" but that's what I get for moving to Massachusetts from Reno!  Get that bike up and running, times a wasting...

[GET]

Heck, its 85 degrees here in the St. Louis area and I'm putting on many miles every weekend.  I guess I should count my blessings.

[Matno]

Some of my buddies do a huge White Rim trip every year. It works out nicely as a "business expense." One of them is a physical therapist and the other is the LBS manager. They take a bunch of doctors down there to schmooze/encourage them to refer patients to the PT practice. In return, they all buy their bike stuff from the LBS so everybody is happy.

At any rate, I'm jealous that you might be going there. I would love to do that ride. It's been a long time since I went to Canyonlands. (Good memories there. It the very first place I ever drove a car. I was 12 and my dad got really sick and asked me to drive. Then he promptly went to sleep! I was so stoked! It was a nice rental car and the roads were free of traffic. What a blast...)

From what I hear, the White Rim ride isn't very technical, but the scenery is incredible. There are some technical sections though, and of course, you can make ANY ride technical if you try hard enough! Hope it works out for you. I'm still trying to convince my wife to let me do a 500 mile road ride in Idaho in June with my brother. It's my only week off this summer and she wants it to be "family time" but she won't be able to ride with us because that's only about 4 weeks after our baby is due. (Not to mention that we're planning on doing it in 4 days, so she'd have no fun at all!). I'm not giving up yet. She flew out to Utah without me last night (spur of the moment), so maybe she'll think it's more "fair" if I get to go out there too... :-/

[slowride]

Congrats on the baby!

I'm really looking forward to this trip. I've never been to Utah, and my sister lives pretty close now (in Colorado). I've read that the White Rim isn't technical too... perfect for this group, since the other 2 are not experienced at all. It'll be a good intro, hopefully get them riding, because I'm planning on going back in the fall to hit Moab.

As long as my sister keeps moving to interesting places, I'm set. She lived in Phoenix before this, and I spent one week there riding with a group from MTBR and then hiking and camping in Sedona, Flagstaff, etc... then went back the next year and spent 5 days at the Grand Canyon (hiked down one day, camped 2 nights in the canyon, and then hiked out the last day).

Plus, she lives right by Aspen/Snowmass, so that means ski trips in the winter too... and oneof those hills has a freeride park also.

Anyone want to pay me to be on permanent vacation?