Father's Day is finally behind us and we are back at it... Mountain biking that is. We met Pete at a set of trails just outside of Hurricane, Utah. And seriously, they pronounce it "HurriKen". I believe that is to easily identify outsiders. Anyone with all their teeth is also suspect. Anyway, we met Pete at 6 AM, a reasonable time to start given the temperatures are over 100 degrees by afternoon and
only in the 80's that early. Julie helped Pete on with his camel back hydration pack, I took his bike out of the back of his truck, "Got your car keys?", Julie applies sunscreen to Pete's neck, arms and legs, "Did you lock the truck?"... Honestly, it is like getting a 5 year old ready for school. I have to think he manages on his own the days we are not with him, or does he?
A few month ago, Pete had just gotten home from a relaxing trip to Vegas with Cookie and was now spending all afternoon, every afternoon in the garage going through cupboards. We kept asking Cookie what could he possibly be doing spending so much time in the garage when she finally spilled the beans.... He was looking for his checkbook. His checkbook, in the garage? It turns out he stashes his checkbook in an inconspicuous place whenever he travels so that a thief will never find it if the house is ever broken into. Well that makes sense I guess...but only if you can remember where you stashed it! After weeks and many hours of searching, he finally found it in a different, more obscure location. This seemed odd and we really got a kick out of it, until the HurryCane Incident, not to be confused with the town (previously mentioned), or the weather. One of Cookie's sons had purchased a HurryCane as seen on Fox News for her as she can have some difficulty getting around the casinos. He asked Julie and me to see if she was using the gift he had purchased more than a year ago. While we were at the house for Sunday dinner we asked about the cane. Julie and Cookie went to her room to retrieve the cane, still in the original box. As Julie carefully opened the box to remove the cane, money started falling out...lots of it. In fact the final count was $840 in twenties laying all over the table. Cookie immediately turned on Pete, "Why did you hide money in there?". "Me?, why would I go into your closet, open your HurryCane box and shove $840 in it?". Pete was making some good sense. Cookie has a history of stashing Vegas money for the next trip and not always remembering where she placed it. In fact, Pete told us he found a stash of bills in one of the winter coats Cookie never wears. He siphoned money from that pocket for months until it was all gone and never a word was heard from Cookie. All we know is that if anything ever happens to them, we have to go through every coat, book, sock, you name it to make sure we are not giving away some Vegas trip. Oh, and in case any of you are thinking about hitting Pete and Cookie's house for the cash/check book when they are away, it is now kept securely in our safe which I might add is heavily guarded, if you know what I mean.
Back to our bike ride. We wanted to stage the seat in the backpack incident for all of you so you can see what we get to experience on our rides. I have to admit Pete is a good sport and willingly subjected himself to our setting up the photo, the laughter and almost falling as we had him pose on a steep hill with the bike seat wedged into his backpack. If you will remember, it happened on a previous ride on these same trails and Julie did not get a picture because she was too busy rescuing Pete. Sometime I just think she has her priorities screwed up!
 |
Pete walking his bike down the switchbacks
(Reenactment) |
 |
| Julie assisting Pete with the set up for the picture. What you can't see, Pete sliding and almost falling, Julie cracking up! |
 |
Seat hung up in backPack
(Not the actual event) |
Now you see what we have to deal with! You also get to see the extents to which we will go to provide entertaining blogs. Speaking of pictures... Pete has been trying to heal from his last several falls and can now cough without screaming, move his shoulders somewhat and has lost most of the scabs on his legs. All of this has left him a little gun shy while riding. He does not approach the loose rocks or steep downhills with the same vigor he once had. On this particular ride we came up to two steep hills that are one after the other. I sped down the first one and waited for Julie and Pete. Pete stopped at the top as did Julie. She calmly walked Pete through the ride down the hill describing the best path and some nuances to watch out for. Having done her job she came gliding down the hill to wait with me while Pete built up his courage. Slowly he tipped the front wheel over the edge and ever so cautiously made his way down the hill without a problem. I pictured a similar approach to the next hill and went down first. This is a steeper hill with a steep drop close to the top and much more challenging than the previous hill. As I was part way down, I could hear another cyclist roaring down the hill and gaining on me quickly. To be honest, I was a bit angry with whoever this thoughtless rider was and planned to give him or her (politically correct) a piece of my mind once I got out of their way, just as I heard the crash. It was Pete! Don't ask me what got into him, although I soon found out...the bicycle seat if you know what I mean. I quickly laid down my bike and ran over to the pile up, man and bike, inter-tangled in positions neither of them was intended to be in. Ok, as I was running to the pile up...a thought did cross my mind, if only for a split second...do I get a picture? I know you are all gasping, but this was a catastrophe of unimaginable proportions and how could I pass it up? I mean we had just finished setting up a picture to reenact a previous incident, and here it was, right in front of me! Ok, I did the right thing this time and proceeded to untangle Pete from his bike. At one point I was pulling his foot from the spokes and trying to raise his bike off of him. It turned out the handlebars were twisted in an unfamiliar position with one end under Pete's stomach. He kept yelling "It's caught, it's caught!", as I yanked on the bike to get it off of him. I thought he meant his foot which I had just freed from the spokes. Instead it was the handlebar poking him in the gut as I tried to lift the bike. We eventually got it all sorted out and I'm happy to report that Pete is none the worse for wear with perhaps the exception of the seat impingement which should heal over time.
Not wanting to give Pete a day off, and wanting to end this blog on high note, we hiked today and spotted a baby Mojave Desert Tortoise ! And a big one. Quite a good day for spotting tortoise.
 |
| Adult tortoise |
 |
| Baby Mojave Desert Tortoise (ahhh) with Pete's scrapped up shin |
No comments:
Post a Comment