Back home and getting ready to leave again!

The bike tour was a blur. I met some amazing kids during the ride, and surprisingly was not too beat up after about 550 miles in 7 or 8 days (I can't remember now)! I will remain in contact with the kids through our Facebook connection. They finished in Point Pleasant, NJ on August 27th. I got a call from them when they finished -- letting me know they were thinking of me. That touched me!! I just learned the day before that a close friend died after a 16 month battle with gastric cancer and I was pretty emotional. Their call really made my day.

Between the bike tour and now, Rob and I took a group of scouts and their dads on a hike in the Sangre de Cristo mountains near us. It was challenging and fun, and the boys really enjoyed it. We're really proud of them for their hard work! We're already planning next year's adventure.

After that I was miraculously home for like 10 days in a row. It was wonderful.

I just returned from a 5 day work week in Creede at Humphrey's Lodge -- a magical place on the Roaring Fork River, at Wagon Wheel Gap. Just outside of Creede. I clean and help in the kitchen. It's fatiguing work - lots of standing, but fun and the guests (all family) are very nice people. That was my last week to work there - I will miss the hubbub and might work there on a more regular basis next year. Stay tuned.

Tomorrow Rob and I leave for our next trip -- a hike on the CDT from Berthoud Pass to Rawlins, WY. Rougly 315 miles, depending on if we get lost or take some "scenic detour" that Ley or Wolfe suggest... (those are the guys who make maps of the trail) I am leary... Better go check our food drops and gather gear!!! Luckily, Rob's done most of the planning (and training) for the hike. I just get to swoop in and go. Aiming to finish on or near my birthday -- Sept 22.

Summertime and the livin's easy....

Well, not so much easy as somewhat hectic. We're hiking a lot this summer - more so than other summers since we moved here four years ago. With Rob's 7 days on and 7 days off work schedule, it frees up a lot of time for him to get out and about. It's harder for me to hold a steady job and also hard for me to do my own job (that seems to be the theme of this blog - me working, or hardly working...) But, we're living our lives while we can, and while I am having a tinge of regret and feeling like a big loafer, I will have to remind myself to look back on my life when I am in the nursing home wheelchair bound.

I have been asked to join a bike group that is cycling across the country to raise money and awareness for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy -- an illness that affects mostly young boys. There will be (I think mostly)young women on this ride and so I was asked by a friend we met hiking two years ago if I would be a ride leader. Have I been riding my bike a lot? No. Will it be hot at the end of July/first part of August? Yes. Did I agree to do it? Of course. I'll be meeting up with the group in Denver and riding with them to Kansas City from July 24-August 2. 600 miles. I'm a lunatic. The ride started in San Francisco on June 24 and they are headed east, chugging along old two-lane highways and back roads through some pretty magestic areas of our country. I am looking forward to the "breadbasket of america" section.