Government Shutdown Be Damned, We're Going Riding

A group of like minded individuals, similarly effected by the government shutdown, climbed onto their respective steeds and travelled to higher elevations.  The six of us left dusty Phoenix behind and climbed through pine covered mountains to eat at the Haunted Hamburger in Jerome.

The Space Shuttle 990 did not touch dirt on the ride, and she grumbled about it, but she was in good company with Victory, Harley and Triumph through twisties in Northern Arizona.  It was fantastic.  Riding allows you to shutdown your brain and just take in the scenery.  Its the best kind of therapy.

A literal breath of fresh air.  A weekend of relaxing, of reclaiming my mind from the chaos of the daily grind.  

Government Shutdown Be Damned, We're Having Fun Anyway

Instead of moping about the continued government shutdown, we took advantage of the forced three day weekend.  It was a gift.  We took early delivery of our teardrop trailer.  Its ours, we're paying on it, but its not technically done yet.  SoCal is behind on delivery of a few items.  So we were without running water, but hell, who cares.  I wanted to go camping.

It was just going to be overnight, so bedding, food and clothes were packed and after breakfast on Saturday we cruised on up to Reynold's Creek again.  We enjoyed our weekend there in April (<- see links) and we couldn't think of a nicer spot to try out the teardrop.

Once through Miami, we began our ascent into the mountains.  The temperature dropped and the trees appeared. By the time we stopped to set up the temperature was in the mid 60's.

This was our view from camp.  On our left, a rock face.  On our right, a very low creek.  Apparently fall is not the time for running water.  There were pools dotted throughout, but the flow was minimal.

We took a walk up the road, and Rommel found a pool to dive into.

After our walk, we headed back to camp to have an early dinner.

I was dressing my bratwurst, when I glanced up at the Jeep.  I couldn't have planned a cooler shot.

As I was eating, I turned around to see Elly sleeping peacefully on her bed, while Rommel sat menacingly behind her.

The sun began to set and the colors on the rock face changed by the minute.  The reds and oranges deepened, until the sun finally set below the mountains and left them gray against the twilight.

My boy painted with light while I was playing with long exposures.

I set the camera down and cosied up to the fire with Mike and the dogs.  We lounged by the fire for a few hours, soaking up its warmth.  The dogs were put to bed long before we turned it.  Sleeping with two large dogs inside the teardrop will only be on emergency basis only from now on.  Serious bed hogs left me with little sleep.

Mike woke before I did and snapped our morning view.  Clouds raced overhead northward until the left a clear blue sky.

Elly and I laid around for a while, enjoying the cool fall air. She's not a morning dog.

We all took to the creek for some early morning wandering.

Fall has just barely begun to show its face in southern Arizona.  Yellows have just started to dot the trees, an occasional orange or red leaf was visible, but greens still persisted throughout the forest.  It was beautiful.

There were still a handful of butterflies fluttering around. They haven't received the memo that summer has ended.

We left the creek and wandered back to camp for brunch.  Dog Was Here:

Dog is somewhere in this picture.  Go ahead and find him.  He was doing his best sniper impersonation while we ate.

Meanwhile, Elly found a spot of sunshine and mimicked a baby deer.

Sadly, our time here was short.  Camp pack up was quick, and we were on the road by 11.  It was 61 degrees, sunny, breezy and wonderful.

We climbed and descended back into scrub brush and cacti.  Temperature climbed and traffic increased.

We were home within 2 hours, it was 83 degrees.  The trailer was unpacked and we were back to the daily grind.  Thankfully our weekend isn't over yet.  We had dinner with the folks.  And tomorrow we're off to ride with the guys up to Jerome.  We were given a long weekend and we're taking full advantage of it!

(The trailer will go back to John this week to be completed.  On our next trip, I'll do a better review of it.  Hard to review something that's incomplete.  But as a teaser weekend, I LOVED it!)

Colorado Dreams

Watching our new trailer being built has me dreaming of our next big vacation.  And to my surprise, I discovered a few pictures on our bullet proof camera that I forgot I had taken.  Right now, I'm desperately missing trees, trails and sunsets.

Bridal Veil Falls - Telluride, CO

Gas station in Cortez, CO

Until our next journey...

Teardrop Build: Part II

We popped on over to Canyon Country Teardrops yesterday to in part check on the progress of our build and to drop off lug nuts for the Jeep wheels that will be on the trailer.

John was, as always, gracious and answered every question Mike had about plumbing, electrical and time lines.  We're pumped!! I took a few snap shots for posterity's sake.

A few short weeks and we should take delivery of our brand new Krawler!! 

Teardrop Build

So we checked on our Teardrop build today.  As mentioned before, during our last trip to Colorado, Mike and I talked and planned and thought about how to redo our existing camp trailer.  Mike built it last summer and it served us well.  The more we thought about it, the more we leaned towards a 4x4 teardrop.  Luckily for us, there is a local builder for the SoCal Teardrop. John, of Canyon Country Teardrops lives a measly 40 minutes away.  We have been able to stop by and check out his current builds to scheme up what we wanted on ours.

Aside: Pete and Mandy bought our trailer from us and I'm excited to see how they modify it.

Late last month, John picked up our trailer and all its bits and pieces and began putting it together.  John  (and SoCal) have been great.  We've added 10 inches to the length to the trailer. No problem, they said.  We wanted a table.  SoCal says...probably not a good idea, but how about this... We wanted a cover for our water heater, which they didn't mass produce. No problem, they said.  They've been awesome.  The best part of SoCal, is everything is made in house.  They make the chassis, body, tables, doors, etc.  Its made in the USA baby!

So we're excited.  What's even better, is John welcomes us to stop by and check it out.  And we did just that today.  John has the kitchen completely built, just not installed.

(excuse the crappy iPhone pics)

All of the accouterments are laying in his living room, awaiting install.

The body is mostly together.

There's John, explaining the build to Mike.

The doors are skinned.

The chassis is complete and just waiting for the box to go on.

We left his house excited.  By next week, it should look more completed.  I've already started planning out curtains and storage solutions.  Hopefully by the end of October, we'll have our first camping trip in our completed Krawler.  

Adventures at Home

Between work and the heat, we haven't explored nearly as much as we would have liked this summer.  We haven't had any fun.  But due to late season rains, the fun came to us.  The kids had a good swim tonight, right in the neighborhood.

Remember to explore.  

You can find adventure anywhere. 

The Saga of Sasha

While we were in Colorado, I got a Facebook message from Jenn.  She started telling me a story about Sasha, the Rottweiler.  She went on and on about how she went missing in 2008 from her home in Indiana, and how she mysteriously ended up in the Humane Society in Phoenix.  I was laughing while relaying the story to Mike because Jenn was beating around the bush.  It took her forever to finally ask me if we would be willing to pick her up.  When she finally got around to the fact that Sasha was in Phoenix, I knew immediately we would pick her up, before ever being asked.  I would hope a friend would do the same for me if Elly or Rommel were in the same situation. I can understand her hesitation: Jenn and I have never met.  We connected through the internet years ago and remained friends, transitioning from Livejournal to Facebook.

One problem: they wanted her picked up immediately.  The Humane Society takes in 130 animals a day, and did not have the space to keep her.  They were kind enough to agree to keep her until noon on Monday.  We arrived back in Casa Grande Saturday night, a day earlier than planned.  We decided to pick up Sasha on Sunday, since we were home and a shelter is no place for a dog.  I kept that to myself.

Mike and I drove to Phoenix and went to the wrong shelter...crap.  We made it to the correct location, square in the ghetto.  And we waited..and waited.  We watched 10 people turn in perfectly healthy cats and dogs.  I wanted to puke.  We decided to make a donation; by the time our number was called to collect Sasha, our donation tripled.  

She was tiny.  A Rottweiler should not be 65 pounds of skin and bone.  Having never met us, she came right to us and hopped in the car.  She gave us kisses throughout the drive home, she knew the horror was over.

Once home, we began the initiation process.  I was a little worried, our dogs were still tired and cranky from a week of camping, and Sasha was stressed and scared.  There was a little fear biting on her part, but once she realized that she was in a safe place, everyone settled down nicely.  

She fit in nicely.  Sasha loved Mike and followed him everywhere.  She would attach herself to whomever was moving about the house and would try to go to work with us. She was great on a leash and loved walks.  We were thrilled when she began eating more and more.  She went from eating 1/2 a cup a day to almost 4 cups.  It was noticeable, she slowly started putting weight on and her coat was a thousand times shinier than it was on day one.  

Jenn would touch base everyday, mom was worried and anxious for her to come home.  Kindred Hearts Transport stepped up to get Sasha back to Indiana.  By the following Thursday, I was informed that she'd be starting her journey on Saturday.  It was like a punch in the gut; we both became extremely fond of Sasha and her waddle.  I wasn't ready for her to go.

I don't know the totality of her life, but I can't imagine it was all that great.  She wound up in a shelter at least twice and 1800 miles from her original home.  She gave birth to a litter of puppies that have since disappeared.  She's felt the pain of being abandoned.  Through it all, she exudes nothing but love.  She wants to wrestle and play the nose game, she wants to be cuddled and loved.  She wants to congregate and play with other dogs.  She wants to BE your companion.  I have so much respect for her love of life and people and mostly for her perseverance.  

I know she is going back to her mom, to Jenn where she belongs.  I know that she will spend the rest of her days loved: going for hikes, cuddling, relaxing.  For that I am thankful.  It helps the melancholy that both Mike and I feel.  I won't lie, I shed a few tears this morning after we saw her off.  

UPDATE: Sasha made it home!!  After a full week on the road with wonderful volunteers who fawned all over her, she landed in Indiana on the 17th.  And it went viral.  ABC Chicago was on site for the reunion and did a nice story about Kindred Hearts and the importance of microchips.  From there it exploded.  First ABC Phoenix mirrored the story, then CNN, Good Morning America, Yahoo news, and the story even ran in Indonesia.  Our girl is famous! She had more hits than the new dog in the White House. WIN!

I love a happy ending.

The Arizona Humane Society is overwhelmed.  Phoenix alone, takes in 130 animals a day.  If you're thinking of adding to your family, adopt.  There is a cat or dog out there just like Sasha who just wants to be part of your family.  If you're thinking of donating, donate to your local shelter or Humane Society: it could make a huge difference in a cat or dogs life.  

Lastly, if you have a dog or a cat, seriously consider having them chipped.  Sasha would never have been reunited with Jenn if it weren't for the microchip with her information on it.