Oh, It's Such a Perfect Day. I'm Glad I Spent it With You.

Our first full day in Moab was probably one of the best days of my life. Of course, there are many "one of the best days of my lifes", but this was among them.

We got up around 6 am because we had heard that the park would be crazy busy later in the day, and we wanted to hit Arches around 7:30.

John went for a run and got lost. He got back right about when we were supposed to leave and meet our friends, Chels and Burne.

He was kind of cranky about it the whole thing and told us to go without him. So, we did...And the park was so cool. There wasn't much hiking, but such beautiful views and we did get to climb around on rocks and in arches.

We picked up John and then headed for lunch at Moab Brewery. Our server was super cool and we talked to him about where we should go mountain biking.

Coadster had no interest in mountain biking, but she did want some time alone to work on her on-line Summer school course, so we left her at the room and headed the the Bar-M Ranch trails.

The trails were great for me, who is not good with the scary technical downhill stuff. Close to the end of the first trail we rode down, we found the actual Bar-M Ranch store fronts and played with some of the cut-outs and other goofy, touristy stuff. My favorite.

Fortunately for me, John is a good sport about all my dorkiness and even takes photos.

I didn't see a grindstone, so I sat anyway.

We went out for pasta for dinner. Coadster's favorite and then went to the Powerhouse swimming hole in Mill Creek.

 Word on the street is that this place got crazy crowded during the day, so we went closer to evening.

When we first got there, there were only two people there. A couple from Alberta, Canada and they were great. They told us the best place to jump from the waterfall and told us about the other cool places they'd been to in the U. S.

We headed home just as the sun was setting and it felt like we were in a movie.

The moon was going to be full the next day - my birthday, but it still rose loud and proud as we were getting ready for bed. We had to wake up at 5 a.m. the next day for my birthday hike at Canyonlands.

I think this covered all the bases for a perfect day.

Don't Go Chasing Waterfalls. Please Stick to the Rivers and the Lakes That You're Used to.

Okay. Here we go. You will now be hit with a barrage of vacation posts. We had a great trip full of cycling, hiking, swimming, rock climbing, eating, hanging out with friends and family, and all around having a great time.

We got up early on Saturday morning and left Iowa City at about 5:15 am. It was a 12 hour drive to Breckenridge, but because of mountain time, we got there at about 5:30 after gas stops and one peanut butter and jelly lunch stop at a rest area in Nebraska.

We rented and AirBnB in Breckenridge in a little resort there. It was really cute and they had a pool and a jaccuzi and tennis and basketball courts and Coadster said she would love to be able to afford a place there. Me too, sister, me too.

We met our friends at the Breckenridge Brewery for dinner and drinks.They had great food there.

Afterwards, our friends were exhausted, so we wandered around the downtown area without them. I made Coadster take ridiculous photos of all the statues and she humored me and played along. She was a VERY good sport.

After we got back to our place, we stuck our feet in the jacuzzi and went to bed by 9 o'clock. We were all exhausted from driving so much, and the altitude, and we wanted to get up early the next morning to see stuff before we headed for Moab.

Since the bike path was just across the street from our place, John and I rode our bikes around and met Coadster and our friends for breakfast the next morning.

After we ate and rode back, we decided to find this hiking trail that supposedly led to a waterfall. Sounds perfect, right? Well, it would have been, if we had actually made it there. We mistakenly took the long way there that turned out to be an unmaintained trail where we had crawl under downed trees and hike almost straight up a mountain.

We finally gave up and went down the mountain and discovered a much easier hike there, where we drove up the mountain and THEN did a little hike on a well maintained trail to the waterfall.

Of course, by that time it was getting late and we still had to eat and drive five more hours to Moab.

So, we hiked some more and it, of course, took longer than we thought it would.

We hiked to over 12,000 feet, and that meant we ran into snow on the mountain and were able to have a snowball fight in the middle of July, which was another first for me. We never made it to the waterfall at the end, because we ran out of time. We turned back around and hiked down the mountain to our car.

The big problem with all of this hiking from 11,000 feet to 12,000 feet is that I get altitude sickness. I believe Iowa is like 700 feet above sea level. The hike was pretty rough for me, but Coadster did get a few laughs at my expense as I had to stop and breathe/wheeze many times up that mountain.

By the time we finished, I had a migraine so bad, I had to sit down on the curb while John and Coadster paid the meter before we had lunch.

We finally headed to Moab. I took my migraine meds and passed out in the car...Or tried to. The scenery from Breckenridge to Moab was so beautiful, it was hard not to gawk the whole way.

We made it to Moab, just as the sun was setting. John had to fix his flat mountain bike tire and two guys from England who were there to ride mountain bikes, kept coming by and cracking jokes. I fell asleep pretty early and I was glad I did, because the following day was so busy and so great that I needed to rest up for it.

We'll See the Bright and Hollow Sky. We'll See the Stars That Shine So Bright.

It's time for another traveling through books post. This time it's for the month of June.

I read seven books last month. Since I'm in Summer reading mode, I tried not to read anything too intense. I like to save those Russian type novels for January and February.

1.) The first book trip I went on was "American War" by Omar Akkad. It is a futuristic story about the second US civil war that is to be fought over the US government trying to outlaw fossil fueled vehicles. That seemed pretty believable to me, actually. It was dark and sad and violent, but I liked the story. I just don't think I want to travel to the South during the second coming of the civil war again anytime soon.

2.) The second book trip I went on was "The Pisces", by Melissa Broder. It was bizarre. It was uncomfortable and hard to read at some points as well, but it made me glad that I am in my 50's in 2019, and not in my twenties.  The whole idea of Tinder makes me a little sick. Anyway, the point of this book was to make people uncomfortable, so it succeeded there. It was mostly about a  young woman's very unhealthy need to fill her life with love/romance/ a man. Also, there is a merman in it and he's not Ethel. It did take me to Venice Beach again, and I did like that.

3.) "There There" by Tommy Orange took me to a Pow Wow in Oakland, California. I loved this book. I loved all of the back stories and the characters and how the ending was a little ambiguous.



4.) My next trip was a short story collection called "Florida", by Lauren Groff". Guess where it took me? You got it - Florida. I liked some of the stories more than others, but they were creepy and weird and suspenseful and great Summer reading.

5.) Next I went to Hawaii with Sarah Vowell and "Unfamiliar Fishes". This was a non-fiction account of the colonization of Hawaii. It was very interesting and of course, sad. I hope to go to Hawaii for real one of these days too.

6.) My sixth book trip was charming and sweet. I'm sure I read "The Wind in the Willows" by Kenneth Grahame as a kid, but I don't remember it. I'm glad I read it again, because it was a sweet little trip to the woods with quirky animals and their zany adventures.

7.) My last journey of the month was one of my favorites. "Anything is Possible", by Elizabeth Strout was very well written and gave different perspectives of people from a small town in Illinois. It was thoughtful and very realistic.

This month I am going on a real, live, trip, so I may not take as many book vacations. I think it's a good trade.

All My Bags Are Packed. I'm Ready to Go.

Well, kids. This time next week will be my 54th birthday and we will be in Moab, Utah for it. I can't wait. Coadster is going for part of our trip with us, and poor Stinky has to work, so she and her husband will housesit and take care of our cats and garden.

I've always wanted to go to Southern Utah and check it all out. I'll just miss the cats and my garden. The poppies will probably be all done blooming by the time we get back.

Plus, I won't be there to pick off and kill all of the Japanese beetles that want to infest my garden.

I will try to write a few more times on here before we go and I also might try to blog from our trip, but I'm not promising anything. If any of you all have suggestions for hikes or things we can't miss while we're there, please let us know.

Party People - All Around Me, Feeling Hot, Hot, Hot.

Okay. I'm going to write about my weekend, because I haven't done that for a while and it was one of my favorite weekends of the year.
 

The last weekend of every June is Trek Fest - a celebration of all things nerdy. Supposedly, Captain Jame T. Kirk will be born in Riverside, Iowa in the future, but why wait to celebrate until then? Instead we can make a weekend of demolition derby, parades, music, and speakers.

The best part for us, is that our friends Seaghan and Kathy throw a big party every year that starts with the parade on Saturday morning.

We always ride to to Riverside with our friends. It's a nice 17 mile ride there, which is mostly flat with a few rolling hills at the end. We ride the same 17 miles back too, but some of our friends get car rides back to town.

This year they had horses and goats to play with at the party. So much so's the better.

Also this year, my brother came to visit for the weekend. He did OOBRAI with us a couple of years ago, so he knows most of the people who were there and then met a few more. It was great to have him around. He was also a good sport about wearing weird headresses.

We stayed at the party for lunch and to hang out for a bit. John's ex-wife was back visiting from Oslo, Norway, and it was great to see her.

I think I forgot to mention this, but it was hot, hot, hot. Some of us got a little heat strokey on the ride back, so we rode slowly and stopped in the shade for a  bit.

Then when we got closer to town, we stopped at Sand Lake and REALLY cooled off.

It was heavenly, until the zombie apocalypse happened behind me.

Just when we didn't think the day could get any better, we were accosted by adorable puppies, who just wanted some love.

We ended our ride at Big Grove for food and beer and shenanigans.

We got home and chilled out for bit,  and then walked to Heyn's ice cream for milkshakes. We then headed home and watched "Raising Arizona", while all trying to not to fall asleep. It was a nice end to a perfect day.

As it always seems to be with life, nothing is either all good or all bad. On Sunday we were supposed to ride 50 miles there and back to get lunch in Kalona. Unfortunately for me, I had a migraine and couldn't do the ride. Instead, I stayed home and read a deliciously cheesy novel on my back porch with some fat orange cat accompaniment.

My brother had some heat strokey issues on the ride on Sunday, so he came back pretty fried.

Fortunately for him, he had something to look forward to. Stinky brought her brand new puppy over for us to meet. His name is Javy and he's a Baussie (a Boston Terrier/miniature Australian shepard mix). He is the sweetest boy.

He and his older brother Jaxson are working through their new siblingship issues as well.

I hope you all have a lovely holiday tomorrow and that there are puppies involved. Puppies make everything better.