Well, home sweet home. Since I’ve returned I’ve been on many bike rides, watched the sky’s fireworks at a concert at Red Rocks, spent my first night in a 10th Mtn. Hut at 12,500 ft, attended my first concert at Chataqua concert hall, spent time with all the nice friends I missed on my trip, and tried to figure out my place here now that my “situation” is a little different.

I returned home a while ago and haven’t seemed to finish posting my last material. Here is what is left from southern California back to Colorado. Additionally, I’ve had some questions from you. Any lessons learned? Any epiphanies? OK, so I had to look that one up. In any event, a few main ideas stand clear.

1 – Making time vs. taking time. Subtle difference, but it exists. Clearly I was taking time while on my adventure. Making time for it would have put me on the road sooner. We all need to make time for the things we want to do.

2 – Catching up with old friends needs to happen more often. It’s a pretty special thing to see an old friend after many, many days (we’ll just leave it at too long). So you have to catch each other up on the daily details you call your life, but beneath that is the same easy comfort from days gone by. It’s really something, and I’m sure you all know what I’m talking about.

3 – The importance of going to see new places. Yeah, I take lots of time biking and skiing in Colorado, but where else do I go? And why don’t I go there? There are places I’ve wanted to see all my life and have yet to visit. What’s up with that? Based on my experiences this trip, I just gotta keep going and visit these other places too.

I’m still not working, and I’m enjoying the time off. It gives me time to try and finish up the many projects I always seem to start. I plan to have more trips in the future. Under current consideration are eastern US, Europe (vague and large I know), Hawaii, and the Virgin Islands. I’ll send out my future plans and am open to suggestions.

I owe a big thanks to everyone who let me stay with them. Be it their couch, futon, floor or spare room they shared with me it was very much appreciated! More important to me, was the time we shared. I’ll definitely not forget the fun of this adventure! Finally, thanks to those of you who tuned in throughout the trip – hopefully I can bring you more “virtual adventures” in the future!

Well, after a long delay, I finally have some new stuff out there for you. This will probably be the last update from the road. I’ll be publishing the last of the trip once I’m home and that will likely be just under a week from now. I was a little light on the photos, but not on adventure lately. More next time… Enjoy! 

There are probably two types of people viewing this site, those who know what it’s about, and those who don’t. If you know what’s up, please feel free to browse and enjoy the site. I’ll entertain a brief description for those of you who are unclear as to what this is all about.
The world is a funny place, especially during the past few years. We all seem to want more and more, and seem to pursue it by working harder, believing income will make us happier. While there is something to be said for the theory, “if I had more money, I could buy more toys, keep myself more distracted so I wouldn’t realize I’m not as happy as I could be”, I can’t seem to buy into it any longer. So, while we are working, we achieve some financial rewards, but what happens when the jobs go away? What happens when the booming economy busts and we look at the prospect of not working? It seems that most like to pursue new work, get back into the cycle and continue the madness. I’m making a different choice. Since it is rare to have a large chunk of time looming in your future while working, I find it difficult to catch up with old friends, travel, see and do new things or experience life beyond the daily grind of producing whatever kind of widgets you produce. So I’m doing just that, I’m currently on a four week journey to take life on my own terms. This is the 5th day of my journey, and I’m enjoying every minute of it.

On this day, I was pretty much on my own. I dropped Ariana off at camp, then headed to Bandelier National Monument. While I’ve heard lots about Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado, I’ve never been. And I’d really like to see the park with cliff dwellings from the native Americans. So, even though I still plan to get to Mesa Verde someday, Bandelier was a treat because it contains some ruins that I expect are similar. I hiked through the park for a few hours, peeking inside the restored shelters and looking at other areas that had not been restored as well. How these structures were built was very interesting. Farther into the tour, I climbed the ladders to the “Ceremonial Cave”. Three different ladders take you up about 140 feet to a lofty cave. There are still signs of the structures which used to be a part of this area of the park. Also, an underground “kiva” has been restored in the center of the cave’s floor. Kiva’s are Pueblo Indian ceremonial structures that are usually round and partly underground.

After Bandelier, I visited the Bradbury Science Museum. This museum is funded by Los Alamos National Laboratory and is therefore focused on the varying activities at the lab. While the lab’s history is based on the development on nuclear weapons, there is no more testing. I did however see life size models of Fat Man & Little Boy. There were lots of interesting scientific exhibits to look at and learn from. It was fun stop.

Final stop for the day was meeting up with the Tuff Riders. Tuff Riders are a local bicycling club in Los Alamos that a couple friends of mine used to ride with when they lived there. Somehow they go the idea that I wanted to go on a hard ride. After much discussion and treacherous convincing, we had agreed on a “medium” ride. Yeah SHURE! Anyway, it turned out that only Rick and I were in for the “medium” ride so off we went. He called it the Canyon Traverse and it was a pretty fun mix of single & double track finishing up on a sweet trail around the perimeter of the laboratory. We rode past a few areas damaged by fire and erosion in recent years. It’s quite a shame as all the riding there was awesome! The locals definitely lament the loss of some of their favorite trails.

Well, as usual, everyone was awake before me. Carrie was off to work and Scott had dropped Ariana off at camp. Shortly after this, I was up and Scott and I were on our bikes. We were riding just on the outskirts of town (2-3 minutes by bike from where they live) and were crossing some of the areas damaged by fire in the past few years. There are a seemingly endless number of small canyons in Los Alamos and there were fun bits of single track in most of them. Of course, most of these trails have names, but are unmarked. Scott mentioned this before we started. He claimed the normal mountain bike ride for him in Los Alamos was to get on his bike and ride, choosing which way to turn at trail intersections based upon the general direction or which looked more fun. The good news is, it works. It was a great ride!

After the ride, we grubbed on some local Mexican food (might have been “new mexican”). Almost on queue, I entered the land of the food coma. Waking up a little late, riding and having a large lunch left me snoozing on the couch. Revived from my coma, Scott, Lucky (the monkey) and I headed over to camp to pick up Ariana. Shortly afterwards Carrie came home and we went out for more food (if I haven’t mentioned it, food is one of my favorite things). We went to another Mexican restaurant called Gabriel’s (I think). Can’t recall the entre I had but I do remember enjoying it. On Scott & Carrie’s recommendations we did get the gauc, made at your table. Shortly after ordering a kitchen cart is wheeled to the table and you watch the 30-90 seconds of preparation starting with avacados – YUM!

Full of food and bordering on my second food coma of the day, we had one more stop on our agenda. A quick stop by “Camel Rock”. Some of you know the history and the rest do not, that’s fine. All I can say is we had to stop. There is at least on picture in the photos section.

My excellent hosts whipped up some yummy breakfast, then took me up into the Jemez Mountains adjacent Los Alamos. We went on a spectacular hike near Battleship Rock up to the McCauley Springs. It was an awesome hike and the springs were not hot. They were just the right temp and quite refreshing after the hike. We kicked back in the springs for a while, and snapped some fun photos. Somehow, Scott coerced Ginger into a game of fetch with a rather large “stick”. After the fun hike and dip in the springs we retreated to their home for some rest and more relaxation.

Well, after the previous night I was lucky to be on the road by noon. With many miles to go I set out on my journey. I was expected in Los Alamos, NM that night and I was feeling late already. My body was still cranky (mostly the elbow at this point) and when you put that together with the heat & the fact that I was late, all was lined up to blow off riding again. Just out of Vegas and Boulder City is the Hoover Dam. Pretty impressive piece of engineering. All the people whose eyes need a break from the slot machines and flashing lights of Vegas put their dark glasses on and tour the dam, its museum and shop at the “Dam Store”. It was a whirlwind of activity. Good to see folks taking an interest like that .

After the dam, I had to cross Arizona – HOT! All the resources I looked over suggested Flagstaff, AZ as a good area for some mountain biking. Unfortunately this would have to wait this trip. It did look like it would be the most interesting of all the miles of I-40 that I crossed. I have longer list of things I will pursue when I am next in Arizona – including the Grand Canyon, and the petrified forest.

Almost on queue, the AZ-NM border was met with an immediate change of scenery. Switching from the flat to rolling desert of Arizona, I found myself staring at “Painted Cliffs”. I saw beautiful red sandstone reminding me of Moab Utah. It was almost as if the state line was placed here on purpose. I drove on until I ran out of daylight and ultimately found myself at the home of Scott, Carrie, Ariana and Ginger. We had a bit of catching up to do as they recently relocated to Los Alamos from Denver. Lucky for me, it was planned for me to have a few days there.

As usually happened when I had extended stays, it took me a while to get the car packed up and actually get on the road. I was also putting the last updates up, and figuring out how the day was going to turn up. All this was going pretty well. I did get one interesting e-mail, “isn’t Boulder City close to Vegas?, we’ll be there tonight so why don’t you join us…” Um, OK. So I finally got on the road a little after lunch time, this had me right on schedule with all the nice folks who wanted to get out of LA and go to, yep, you guessed it – Vegas. The drive took a little longer than I had planned, and my body was just not up to the prospect of mountain biking. I scoped out Boulder City, then headed into the city that never sleeps. After some interesting navigation (most either know their way around, or take a cab from the airport) I found the Aladin where my friends were staying. Note, I now know there is a circular mall between the parking garage and the hotel, and fortunately I did not walk in circles. I did have to break away from the male tendency to wander about directionless and ask for directions. Once I found my friends, I got cleaned up and joined them for dinner. After a nice dinner, we headed out on the town for lots of fun. I remember a point, late in the night, asking “so, just how is it 3:30 AM?” “Dude, it’s Vegas” was the only reply. After another short period of time, we were at breakfast, the sun was coming up, and we were hoping the window coverings would make the room dark enough to sleep.

Pretty much taking it easy today. Had some small tasks I needed to get done. Stopped in the IKEA store with the digital camera to steal some ideas I liked – We’ll see if anything comes of it.

After this, I pointed my car south towards San Diego to find my old friend Eric. As far as I knew, he was in the general southern cali vicinity so I sent him a quick e-mail a couple days before. Hearing back the next day, we made plans to get together. While San Diego wasn’t on my original agenda, I figured it was meant for me to go there and made it happen.

On the way down, I stopped to snap a couple pictures at a “view point”. You will never see these pictures. In fact, someone should write Cal Trans and have them remove this sign as there is no view. It turned out to be a good stop though. Moments after I was out of the car, a very familiar sounding voice asked, “what is bensroadtrip.com”. Though it was not an old friend of mine, he could have been the voice double for him, and his appearance and movements also reminded me of my friend. We started chatting and found ourselves conversing about the convenience of digital cameras, and how nice it was to be able to take so many pictures. After the story of the camera that wouldn’t break (well, ultimately it did) I was in stitches. Apparently, Tom had taken approximately 16,000 (yes I’m double checking the zeros) in 18 months. Amazing!

So, after a little more driving, I’m at Eric’s office. The car is parked, and I’m trying to find my way to suite they are in. I forgot to mention that it had been quite a while since we had seen each other, both wrapped up in daily life and the time had been sneaking away. I arrive, and the office is quiet, so I just strolled right in like my friend owned the place . It was great to find the same friendly & happy guy I remembered from waaaay back. I was treated to a tour of the office and brief demo of the products they produce (I am a bit of a computer guy after all) and I have to say I’m impressed.

Done at the office, we adjourn for beers at a pretty snazzy little microbrewery a few minutes from the office. We were having a good time catching up, and decided it was time to continue my exposure to San Diego. So, we hopped on the trolley into old town, where the old mission is located. There was lots good things to see here, old churches, the original flagpole from the mission, cannons – you get the idea. I tried taking some photos but darkness was upon us and they did not come out. We grabbed carnitas at The Old Town Mexican Café. Eric was kind enough the two dudes (muchachos) play a couple “happy songs” for us. They will be the ones in the photos with guitars. Anyway, it was getting late and Eric had to work the next day. I still had the hour and then some drive back to Irvine so we called it a night. I’m going to have to get back here soon!

Finally getting some decent sleep, I was feeling better. Mostly did some things around the house, in prep for the next few days. I ended up going to the little bar in Newport that night, and made a bunch more new friends. All you can eat taquitos with a $5 cover. It was a little tiny place and the line to get in was insane (45 minutes or so). However, it definitely lived up to the recommendation I received.

Well, I decided that my shoulder wasn’t completely better yet and to try and get the rest suggested by the doc. So, more lounging by the pool and soaking in the hot tub was in order. Also, I was waaaay behind on my writing, so I needed some time to catch up on it. Quite a bit of the writing happened here. I also needed to do some planning for next few days. I decided on Boulder City, NV for some mountain biking, then Flagstaff, AZ for more biking. This should put me in Los Alamos, NM sometime Saturday eve. I also made some time to have dinner with one of my new friends before I headed out. All in all it was a nice & mellow day.