A Dream Begins...

Soon I’ll be starting the first leg of I’ve come to refer to as a “US Tour”.  It’s been a dream that’s been at the back of mind for years.  When I explain what I’m doing, I’ve had all kinds of reactions from surprise, to being an inspiration, to “you’re crazy”, and “you’ve got some balls, girl!”(My boss)  I’ve even had it referred to as a “female mid-life crisis”. (Thank you Popette)

So what is it that I’m exactly doing you might ask.  I’m about to enter into a new exploration of the USA’s lower states – just my car, my bike, & myself.  Basically, I’m quitting my job and entering into a nomadic lifestyle.  The plan is to do this for 2 years and to travel at random.  There’s no set time though I am thinking of starting in the Pacific Northwest and heading south along the coast to start with.  Yeah, maybe I am crazy.  I’ve been saving for 4 years and am downsizing to a car.  I’m really doing what is the opposite of people when they reach their 40’s.

But I want to travel the US and see sites, landmarks, National Parks, and etc. while I’m still young enough and physically able to enjoy it.  I had originally planned on being 42 years old when I started this voyage.  But I got side tracked with bicycle accidents and other things.  I wasn’t able to saving as much as I thought I could and now three years later things have kind of aligned and fallen into place.

Photo- from Farewell Party- Lynda, Paul, Curt, and Kym.

It just now feels right to do it.  I will admit that I felt like my life has been in a bit of a holding pattern for the last couple of years.  I’ve felt like I’ve been in a stalemate and walls have been closing in on me.  So here I am 3 years later and it seems as though everything has finally come to formation.  I have enough in savings, my lease was up, and that maintenance issue.  Well, that maintenance issue was an infestation of bed bugs in my apartment building.  I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy but in the process of which has happened to have wiped me out of a great deal of clothes, bedding, and furniture.  Currently, everything I own fits in a small 5’ x 5’ storage unit and my car. 

Photo- from Farewell Party- Dana, Art, Wes, and myself.

So this last week I went in and quit my job.  I was somewhat surprised by them taking it so well; enough, so that they are doing a going away luncheon.  When I sat my boss down and told him what I was doing it seemed rather interesting.  I thought maybe he might have been in shock.  It seemed like every other line that came out of his mouth was—“you’ve got some balls girl” or “you’ve got some BIG kahuna’s!”  I rather had a hard time keeping a straight face.  I don’t think he knew what to think of what I was doing.

Photo- Diane, Kym, and myself.

This last Saturday night a few of my cycling buds had put together a going away party.  Several of my friends that showed up had given me gift cards for me to use on my voyage.  It was good to see everyone and to get a chance to say good bye too.  You see, yes I have a storage unit here in SLC, but I’m not too sure where I’ll end up when the two years are up. 

Photo- Julia, Myself, and Penny.

So this Tuesday morning, I start on the first leg of my adventure.  I shall keep you posted here.

RAGBRAI Highlights...

Why does it seem that the bad get forgotten over time and the good times seem to be what sticks?  I keep on thinking about my RAGBRAI time (the whole four days) and I can’t help but smile at some of the things that happened. 

Like the night before when the team had a dinner and we loaded up the truck.  During the dinner, we went around and introduced ourselves.  As we started introducing ourselves we discovered that the newbie’s got a little something extra written in black marker on their calf.  Here’s all of us newbie’s lined up on the loading truck ramp.

Photo- All the newbie's with VIRGIN written in black marker on their calves. 
I'm near the middle in light green shirt.

The real funny thing was that this is a common thing done to people who are doing their first time at RAGBRAI.  I ran into quite a few “VIRGIN’s” as I rode along.  Some even had it on both calves!

Another time, it was an afternoon after I had finished the ride for the day.  I had stopped in the downtown in the overnight town to have some lunch before looking for the host house where I would stay for the night.  I ended up eating with this married couple who were from South Carolina.  The gentleman was originally from Waterloo, Iowa.  As I was talking the wife said that her husband was concerned about having her come along because she’s an organizer and usually has everything planned down to the last detail.  As she was learning, RAGBRAI is not one of those rides that you can plan; it’s a more go with the flow type.  But she said she was having fun opening her mind and boundaries.  Meanwhile, her husband had decided to get a little treat while we gals were talking.  He came back with a plain little white paper bag.   “What’s in the bag, dear?” She asked.  It was a Maid-Rite sandwich.  She rolled her eyes,” It MUST be an Iowa thing!”  I told her it was and Iowa was the only place you could get a true Maid-Rite.

Another morning, I riding in a pace line with these guys from Chicago area.  It’s nice cool and the sun is coming up as we are cycling along a picture perfect rolling hills of corn fields.  There’s a slight haze of fog off in the distance giving a golden pink hue to everything.  One of the guys in the group, says” Is this heaven?”  Another guy in the group says,” Don’t say! Don’t you dare say it!  I DON’T want to hear THAT line again.”  I was just cracking up and was half tempted to say the famous movie line from Field of Dreams… “No, this is Iowa!”

Photo- First night of RAGBRAI and a Beautiful sunset over the golf course near where my tent was set up.

Another night, the cycling team was out shooting the breeze with all of our lawn chairs forming a big circle.  We were all talking and one of the guys had been interviewed on TV and also been interviewed for the newspaper.  I asked him why he was so news worthy.  One of the other guys piped up that he had been seen streaking naked through the main street area of town.  I quickly came back with a retort,” And THAT was considered news worthy?!”  Everyone cracked up at that and there were even retorts about hitting a man when he was down.  Awww… it was all in good fun!

There were several more highlights such as discovering one of the gals in the group graduated the same year from the same high school as I.  Another one of the guys grew up down the street from me but was 7 years older so we never really knew each other.  All kinds of weird little coincidences and quirks.  It really was a good time except for the heat.

RAGBRAI-- Ups & Downs...

Tonight, I'm writing this as I sit in my hotel room in Cheyenne, WY. I'm on my way back to Utah and have had a week of ups and downs. I first left for my hometown of Cedar Rapids, Iowa; last Thursday evening with an optimistic plan of doing a bit of visiting with family and then doing RAGBRAI.

Well, even the best laid plans seem to change. I did some visiting and started RAGBRAI. I managed the first three days of RAGBRAI. The worst three days as far as heat and humidity that RAGBRAI has ever seen in its 40 years (go figure!). All three days were 99 or above with one day climbing up to 104 degrees with 80% humidity. Oh and did I mention there were winds that were up to 20 mph too? These were some tough days and I really found that the humidity was getting to me.

But I will say that those three days of RAGBRAI were amazing! It was a sea of bicycles as far as the eye could see along the wonderful hilly landscape of Iowa's corn and soybean fields. There were people all along the Iowa roads that were cheering you on; some were selling water, cookies, or almost everything. Some were not selling but giving water out for free, or offering to douse you with their hose, or even others were handing out frozen pops. Main streets in small Iowa towns were closed down just to bicycle traffic and filled up with vendors offer to sell food or wares to the cyclists that came through the town. It was just AMAZING! I don't know how else to describe it.

There were tons of references to corn, soybeans, and pigs.  In fact, some of the signage for the ride had me cracking up.  One advertisement had a sign of showing corn with a picture and then soybeans.  Then underneath it said-- RAGBRAI- Need we say anymore? 

There were plenty of things that would only EVER be seen on RAGBRAI.  There were pink buses that were serving up pork chop sandwiches and plenty of riders were enjoying them at what some may consider the un-Godly hour of 10AM.  As one co-team member put it,"Where else could you have 20 cyclists at 10am sitting on the side of the road eating pork chops and thinking that this was the BEST meal ever?!?!"  

FOOD, food, and more food!  There were hard boil eggs on a stick and bacon on a stick being sold right along with bottled water and gatorade.  There was bicycle jewelry being sold next to temporary tattoos.  Breakfast sandwiches, pancakes with sausage, and tacos with eggs were commonly seen too.  Later on you would see smoothies, pizza, brats, tacos, pies, pastries and almost any kind of food you could EVER think of.  One fellow rider said that this ride was ALL ABOUT THE FOOD!  And from what I saw that was VERY true!

I was rather even surprised by the beer and bloody marys that were being sold at 8AM as you're going along.  There were a few cyclists doing that but it wasn't really a majority as I had almost been lead to believe from the rumors that I heard prior.  Most riders were partaking of those beverages after they were done for the day and then limiting what they consumed because they were riding the next day.  Dehydration was a concern and most cyclist that I met were mindful of that.

Photo: Boys-N-Cars watercolor I did of my nephews for a Father's Day present.
The youngest one here is the one with dark hair.

My second day was the worst. I had received a phone call from my little brother the night before that my youngest nephew had passed away due to complications after a surgery. He was only 13 years old. I was rather a bit of a basket case that day and only managed to ride 47 miles of the 85 miles that I should have rode. My head and heart just were not in it. I found I could not keep food down and when you are riding that is NEVER a good sign to have. I ended up getting SAG'd in that day. I did manage the next day's ride but then had to call for help when I was brain dead trying to find the host house. The combo of riding 84 miles with 104 degree humid heat just left me STUPID.

Wednesday night I managed to get a ride back to my mom's. I had opted not to ride on Thursday to give my body a bit of a break but I also needed to be back for a viewing(Friday) and funeral(Saturday). That basically meant that RAGBRAI was over for me. I was disappointed BUT I needed to be else where.  Jerryd my upbeat little nephew who always had a smile will be missed.  Only the good die young and in this case that statement is very true.  He always had a smile and seemed to be easy to please.  Rest in peace little man!

Off to IOWA...

I'm off to Iowa this afternoon after putting in a half day at work.  I'm breaking up the long drive from Utah to Iowa into two days.  I figured to make it more manageable.  There was a time in the past when I was younger that I used to do the 19 hour drive in one day.  What can I say but I was young and crazy!  I'm SO excited to be heading back there to do RAGBRAI; a week long event of bicycling across the state of Iowa. 

Photo- of myself and a couple of my cycling buds
that I'll be missing this next week.

I'm hoping that I've prepared enough.  I've managed to get about 175 miles of cycling in the last week.  My main concern is how the humidity will effect me while cycling.  I hope that cycling with 100 plus temps here in Utah will have helped me to prepare but there's no telling until the real thing takes place.  Let's just hope I can do it.  This is the first time I've ever done a touring event like this and I've probably have over packed as is my normal thing to do.  Oh those Girl Scout tendencies come up every now and then.

I've left myself an out on the fourth day if I just find I can't do it.  The fourth day of the riding event goes through my hometown and I've told my mom that I may end up calling it quits at that point.  I'm planning on staying with her that night; enjoy a nice hot shower, do some laundry, etc..  If I can't see myself going any further that next morning; I may end up with a longer visit at Mom's place.

Photo- "Mom's Flowers"; a piece comissioned by my mom
that I've sent her photos to and I hope she likes the real thing to. 
Yes, I painted this!  You can read more about the piece by clicking here.

This morning, it looks like the forecast for Iowa will be in the low 90's for the week with varying directions of winds of about 10mph.  I didn't check to see what the predicted percent of humidity was.  I must admit that I'm in one of those "ignorance is bliss" modes.  I grew up in it and I'm hoping that some where in there that my body may surprise me and adapt to the situation.  So keep your fingers crossed!

Wicked Witch of the West Ride...

Last night as the temperature soared to 102 degrees in the Salt Lake Valley, I was crazy enough to plan on doing the Emigration Bike Ride.  I figured it would be good preparation for the RAGBRAI that I’m going to do in a couple of weeks.  Unlike last week’s Emigration ride which was 100 degrees at the start.  There was at least a little breeze last night.  I was teasing one of the gals that did the ride with me last week that we were doing the Wicked Witch of the West reunion ride.  She laughed but some of the other people at the start looked at me warily when I said that.  Then, in a crackling voice with some hand motions I cried, “I’m MELT- ting! I’m melting!”  Then everyone was cracking up!

I had recently gotten a new replacement seat for my bike.  The old torn seat that had survived a totaled bike accident in 2007 was getting pretty cracked and worn.  It was time for a new one.  It was on the way towards the canyon that I discovered it wasn’t tightened down enough.  I swung by a local near by bike shop and they helped out really quickly.  But I got separated from the group for a bit.  I pushed it a bit and caught up finally about a mile in the canyon with the gal I rode with last week.  It was as I was coming up behind her that I cackled a laugh and said,” I’ll get you my pretty!”  It was just TOO funny.

After doing that, I slowed down and took it easy.  I waited up for another cycling bud to catch up and we managed our way to the top at a much slower pace.  No racing tonight with 100+ temps.  The name of the game was just getting there to the top.  Four people ended up turning around early because the heat got to them.  It was a night where I savored that coast down the canyon.  I didn’t pedal until I had to and just let myself go along for the easy ride down.  I deserved it!

Catching Up, Checking In, & Etc...

It’s been about three weeks since I’ve been on here.  Life gets busy and I have dropped the ball on my postings here.  There’s been a great deal going on.  I’ve been trying to get more cycling in for preparing for RAGBRAI that I will be going back to Iowa for in less than 15 days.  I just got a suggested list of what to bring today and need to start doing a prelim packing.  This is the first time I’ve ever done anything like this and I’m still not sure what to expect. 

I’ve also had a bit of a “maintenance” issue with my apartment and had a weekend that I stayed in a hotel.  Thank goodness the Utah Arts Festival was going on and I just made a mini vacation weekend of it.  I’ve still managed to do a bit of painting.  I’m currently trying to do a bit of catching up with a couple of commissioned pieces. 

Then, more recently they’ve done some changes of job responsibilities at my work.  I’ve been doing some training and just haven’t had the time that I normally would have to jump on here and upload a post.  They’ve referred to my new job responsibilities as a job “promotion” but at the same amount of pay.  But they did say that they would re-evaluate in 4 months.  Hmmm…. Not sure how that works and not too sure if I’m really happy about the whole thing.  But I’m playing along for now.  I’m rather in a wait-n-see mode.

 Checking In…

AND since this is a Friday, I’ll do a quick check up and a late end of month report.  As far as weighing in, I’m at still needing to lose 8 lbs. to my goal.  It seems to be a constant now without even trying.  I was rather hoping that with doing more cycling that my weight would have dropped down but I will admit that I’m probably eating more because I’m cycling more—so I guess you could say it’s a bit of a vicious circle in that sense.  Darn it!

Month End…

1)      Saving Money—Did very well this last month with this one.  I managed to save 3o% more than what I had planned for the month.  Most of that was thanks to the art booth I had up at the Little Red Riding Hood Bike ride at the beginning of the month.  I’m hoping to be able to put some more in savings this month with catching up with some commissions.

2)      Uncluttering My Life—Well, the “maintenance” issue in my apartment helped me out HUGELY with this goal this last month.  It forced me to go through some closet areas and other things. But I had already also donated quite a bit of stuff to a local Boy Scout troop for a HUGE Yard Sale they had in Mid-June.  Between those two events, I’ve managed to cut back on quite a bit of the items I don’t need and don’t use.  Amazing sometimes what we decide to hold on to.

3)      Cutting Down on Eating Out—Not good this month either!  There wasn’t enough time to cook at home between the cycling and the “maintenance” issue.  So drive thru’s became some what of the norm for my dinner meals, I will admit.

STATS For June…

383 miles Cycling

13.5 miles Running

47 mintues on the elliptical

And I’m now up to

28 Books read for the year!

(I think 60 books is attainable!)

Bummer, Upper & Happy Father's Day!

I was a bit down before I stepped on the scale this morning.  I just got home from the mornings Jump Board Pilates class and discovered it would be the last class that sweet Laura would be teaching.  She’s decided to do some changing around in her life and won’t be teaching the early morning pilates classes.  Bummer!  I’m going to miss her sweet encouraging presence on my early Friday mornings.  But I wish her well; especially today and tomorrow during the Ragnar where she’ll be running 17 miles as part of a team.  Good Luck Girl!  She’s just amazing!

Photo: "Basketted Purple Bike"; Watercolor on 5" x 7" Paper
A Painting by me that was recently sold to a fellow cyclist.

But I felt quite a bit better when I got on the scale and found I was down 2 to 3 lbs. compared to last week.  Yep, the scale was tittering between two numbers.  Flashing back and forth with those red lights and trying to decide but I was happy to see the change!  YES!! Now THAT's an Upper!  I'm going in the right direction!  I’m now between 5 to 6 more pounds to lose till my goal weight.  It would be REAL nice if I could be down those 5 to 6 by the time I go back to Iowa for RAGBRAI bike ride (July 22-28); but we shall see or shall I say—time will tell.

I did however improve my stats in working out this last week...

114 miles cycling

5.1 miles running

35 minutes on the elliptical

And  

1 Jump Board Pilates class

I want to wish a Happy Father's Day to all of you Father's out there.  Go enjoy the day and go do something fun! Be it some fishing, cycling, or some other manly pursuits!  Have FUN!

A Quick Friday Check In...



"Tulips Along for the Ride"; A Watercolor
on 11" x 14" Paper
that I painted a couple weeks ago.

I need to get back at it! 

So here goes… I was NOT at all happy with the scale this morning.  Of course, I had no one to blame but myself. 

That Darn scale, it was reading that I was up 2 lbs. from when I weighed in two weeks ago.  I will admit that I was terribly sidetracked with getting everything ready for the Little Red art booth and this last week I was on my bike a little but nothing near what I had been doing.  I got a total of 54 miles on the bike and THAT was it other than one Pilates jump board class.  I didn’t go for any runs and I didn’t log in any time on the elliptical machine.  It was a pretty pathetic week for me overall.  Well, it’s time for me to get back at!  I need to get more exercising in and back to watching what I eat.  I need to be good for a change-- Oh Boy!  Is that possible?  Hmmmm....  So by next Friday’s check in I SHOULD have good news to share.  I hope!

Catching My Breathe!

It was a busy week!  I feel like I’m just starting to recover from this last weekend.  I’m finally almost back to normal; if ever I would consider myself as such.  Last Friday,  I forgot to do my weekly check in and I also didn’t do my month end report as I was driving on my way to Lewiston, UT to set up my art booth.

 Last weekend (Friday night and Saturday day) I had a booth full of my artwork and various other items featuring my art up in Lewiston Fairgrounds in the Little Red Riding Hood Expo while the wonderful all female Little Red ride took place on Saturday.  When it came time for me to head out on the bike, I started feeling a bit under the weather.  I never did venture with my bike on to the scenic route.  That was a bit disappointing.  I think it was all of the stress of setting up and manning my booth.  It was the first time I had ever done anything like that and I felt like I was a chicken running around with my head cut off.  I will admit that it was FUN and I did manage to sale some of my art which was also fun too!

Friday night ended up being pretty busy in my booth after the costume contest which I entered.  They had all the costumed individuals get up on stage and dance.  How do hippies dance?  I didn’t know so I went up there and just wiggled around.  I imagine I looked quite foolish but isn’t that the name of the game with any costume contest.  It was fun but there were costumes a great deal better than mine that came up on stage.  I was the second one out of almost 20 on the stage.  But here’s me doing my wiggling thing…

Photo of myself "Wiggling" on Stage.

I do however have the stats for last month….

428 Miles Cycling

16.75 Miles Running

1 hour 25 minutes on Elliptical Machine

3 Pilates Classes

And

I’m up to 24 books read for the year.