Archive for the ‘Wanderings’ Category

Yesterday we biked about five miles up the Santa Fe trail and back. We would have gone further, but there was some lack of communication about water. Then we made a trip to the bike store to buy things we needed for our bikes, like extra water bottle cages. Berck oiled and otherwise maintenanced our bikes when we got back, somehow punching a hole in his tire. He made me go back to the store to buy a patch kit.

He repatched a slow leak today, and we did another probably couple miles before he realized his leak had returned. We had to head back, Berck on his half-flat rear tire, me finally able to keep up with him, and water for twice as far as we’d gone. We took another trip to the bike store to buy a new inner tube and a portable pump.

The bike store is in a neat location right next to the Santa Fe Trail, though we don’t bike by it because we’ve been heading north and up so we can come back mostly downhill all the way, much better than the other way ’round. I feel like a poser in my Tour de France hat, but then, what better place to wear it.

Berck likes biking because you go fast. I am really enjoying it, especially along the trail. There are all sorts of spring flowers blooming. The trail follows Monument Creek, so there are interesting cliffs and other rock formations along the route. The Santa Fe Trail is very near our apartment, but we take the bikes down in Arthur to the trail head. Otherwise we’d have to navigate a very busy six lane road or ride on the sidewalk, like you’re not supposed to. Plus, there’s a huge hill up for almost all the way back. Maybe when we build some strength we’ll tackle it.

In the meantime, boy does my butt hurt. My hands hurt after the first day, so today I wore my dad’s old racketball gloves, which helped emensely. I’m also realizing why someone threw my bike away. It’s just a Huffy ten speed with mountain bike wheels, and the gears are missing some teeth. Berck’s lube job seems to have made the chain slippery enough to keep falling off today. Berck says it’s my shifting. It’s also much heavier than Berck’s bike. If we keep doing this, I’ll definitely have to get a new one.

I’m starting a nice collection.

This weekend we drove to Pagosa Springs in southwestern Colorado to see Berck’s Aunt Debbie, Uncle Dan, and the cousins from Tampa. They were there taking a vacation at a resort in which they had a timeshare. It was nice driving all the way there until we got into Pagosa Springs itself, when it started raining. If you go fast enough in a convertible in the rain, the water just flows over the car, and you don’t get wet. This worked for a while until it started hailing. Hail is too heavy for the convertible trick. It also hurts your ears when it hits. We stopped at a gas station to put the top up and for Berck to wipe down the inside of the car with paper towels. Then we found the resort and checked in.

The Kasprzyks arrived shortly after, and we caught up before they took us out to dinner. The resort had given them a guide to the city, and we decided on one restaurant and piled into their rental minivan. It was a lot more expensive than we expected, so we drove around trying to find a local brewery. Berck went inside to check and reported that it looked wonderful… a relaxed atmosphere, lots of local brews… but they didn’t serve food. We checked another restaurant nearby, but it didn’t look great. We finally settled on a Mexican place called Ramon’s (or Ramen’s, as Uncle Dan called it). It was quite tasty and even served some authentic looking soup that none of us had ever heard of.

We stopped by the grocery store on the way back, and Uncle Dan instructed me to go in with Aunt Debbie and Kyra to make sure the shopping finished quickly, but I bowed out because my foot hurt. I stepped on a hay hook on Friday when feeding the horses and knocked a hole in my foot. I got endless ribbing for it after that, especially when it didn’t hurt enough to keep me from walking across the parking lot to buy a case of beer at the liquor store. We went home and played a game that evening called “Would You Rather,” a good group game.

The next morning we got up early (I couldn’t sleep past 6:30 am, when I usually wake up) so the K’s could take us rafting. We all fit on one raft. The K’s opted for the waterproof rain pants and shirts. Berck and I just used the pants, which were nice to have, since we got rather wet. It was a beautiful day, and the river was full and fast. No one fell out (it wasn’t a rough ride), though our guide in training jumped out to retrieve our other guide’s kayak paddle he’d lost the day before, before swimming back to the raft behind us. Uncle Dan sat in the middle of the raft and took pictures constantly. His coup de grace was getting a shot of us heading straight into a huge wave. Unfortunately, he apparently sacrificed the camera for the photo, since it got a good bit of water in the it. The K’s have endless digital cameras, though, and this was their oldest one.

We returned to the condo to drive off and pack, then were treated to Baja tacos and buffalo and elk burgers for lunch at Kip’s Cantina all together before Berck and I headed out. We ate out on the patio with all the K’s shivering in the cool afternoon breeze of an approaching thunderstorm. They couldn’t understand how all the Coloradans were traipsing around in shorts and t-shirts. Ah, Floridians. Our drive back was uneventful but pretty rainy the whole way. We’re having another wet May, like we did last year. Pagosa Springs was so green, with all the budding trees in full bloom, beautiful.