A Frog's Blog

Hey there, a lot has happened since I wrote a meaty post:

My hand has recovered after my "pinkie vs tree branch" incident in Moab, though the pinkie doesn't quite point in the correct direction (still swelling in the knuckle joint??), everything seems to work pain free.

I had a meltdown in Utah after opening up at the end of of this blog post
http://daisyalpha.blogspot.com/2013/11/stunning-scenery-injured-finger.html
This meant that I didn't get to re-ride the "pinkie trails" - officially called Magnificent 7, or Amasa Back. Let's hope there's a next time - the particular trail of the pinkie incident was so much fun, it was gently downhill, had a lot of flow, and was a good level of difficulty for me.

I had a fraught 6 hour drive from Moab to Denver, during which it became apparent that the Suby needed expensive open heart surgery - head gasket problems. How is this for strange - the car would start to get warmer than normal, I'd brake or accelerate, and the temperature would rapidly go back to normal. Some gods were looking after me that day. There was a traffic jam due to roadworks for several miles/km and maybe 20 minutes…and the car didn't play up once….thankfully or it would have been a ride to Denver on the back of a tow-truck.

The Suby was left a Suby specialist workshop, they gave it $2000 of love, and it's back in rude health.

When I was picking up the car, an older gent I was talking to said the following enlightening few sentences…
"You're from Australia, your Government is Socialist, right? You have Universal Health Care?
How about New Zealand, are they more Capitalist?"

I'm in contact with the dealer that I bought the car from to see if I can claim some of this $2,000. One of the reasons I purchased this Suby is that it had a whole bunch of mechanical work done it before I purchased it - including replacing the head gaskets….that can be troublesome on Suby's. The workshop that did the work offers a 12 month warranty. The workshop that fixed it for me found that the re-installation work wasn't done correctly e.g. loose bolts and bolts in the wrong place...

I had a great 5-day great trip to Cleveland, Ohio. I rode at Ray's Indoor Bike Park twice, and met & had a good chat with Ray himself…after which I was daunted about my desire to set up something similar in Melbourne. I experienced day-to-day cold & snow like I haven't in the past. I didn't make it to the Cleveland zoo - I want to see Grizzly & Black bears and other North American wildlife.

I'm now in the famed Boulder, Colorado (near Denver) - cycling heaven with a lot of great rides nearby. Unfortunately I collected a nasty cold/flu thing in Cleveland, so for the 3 days I've been pretty much confined myself to the hotel, hoping that rest will get me back to normal quickly. So I wait…with perhaps the deepest voice and best cough I've ever had.

Tomorrow is the only remaining day of "good riding/outdoor weather", at 15 degrees Celcius. I'm in the Denver, Colorado area for another 4 days after that, but the forecast is is 3 (snow), -7(snow), -11, -10. I'm not happy, when I checked the forecast this morning (it's now mid afternoon), I had two days of good weather. The limited visibility of the weather forecast back in Hamilton, Montana is for a few days of -1, after a week of -9. -9. Brrrrrr.

I arrive in Hamilton on Sunday the 8th, and have 5 days to sell the car, pack up, figure out what to leave behind and what to ship via mail (books, bike stuff, warm clothes I've collected on the way, etc). Depending on my mental state, I'm nervous about selling the car. I'm looking forward to hanging out with the crew again, but unfortunately Randall will be in Nebraska.

You've made it this far so I'll tell you about my meltdown in Moab. As I mentioned off the top, I can only attribute the meltdown to opening up" in the blog post that I wrote the night before I woke up feeling "blah".

Average "blah" is
… a desire to stay in bed / a reluctance or inability to get out of bed
… feeling like normal day-to-day activities are too hard
… the concept of doing "abnormal" things is scary and anxiety inducing
… not having the desire to do things that I enjoy

One of the nasty and insidious things that happens when I'm down is that my "world" gets much smaller…. The options that my mind makes available to me shrink…. I lose perspective. e.g. things don't occur to me / or I forget about:
-- really cool or fun stuff I'd like to do
-- doing certain things makes me feel better
-- that I can reach out to people
-- that people contact sometimes make me feel better

Back to the meltdown, during my fraught drive to Denver I started to feel better, found some steely resolve. By the next day when I was on my way to Cleveland I was feeling much better. My first day in Cleveland was a little tenuous, but after meeting Ray on my 2nd day then going for a ride I was feeling ok. Touch wood I still am, though now I have this f**cking cold/flu/disease thing that's curtailing me. It's as if I'm being sent messages to slow down.

You probably like pics, so here's a couple of pics that I really like, pics that'll be in an upcoming post (the pics are loaded & ready to go…but I want to tell the stories that belong to the pics, this blogging malarky takes time you know).

Literally just around the corner from Ray's Bike Park

While I was in Moab

I'm a visual person, I really enjoy looking back at pics I've taken, it takes me to the moment and the period. So many good moments and periods.

Happy

Different start to the day - it was snowing, - 8 deg C, and the Suby was covered a 2 inch layer of snow! Cool :)

The Suby has been dropped off to a specialist for some love. They'll have it until I get back to Denver on Wed next week. A big bonus of leaving it with them was that I didn't have to deal with navigating to the airport parking then stuff around getting the shuttle bus to the Terminal... Instead I had a door to door shuttle service to the Terminal. Easy. Cheaper than parking at the airport = win.

Flew to Cleveland.

Hire car pick up was quick and painless. The hotel doesn't smell - it's a miracle!

The flight wasn't so good. Combine a small jet, that had too much heating, with sitting next to a big guy, and a 3 hour flight before which we sat on the tarmac for 30 mins b/c the pilot was delayed ... and it left something to be desired.

Am now at the Lone Star Steakhouse. Entree was a cup of Texas Chile. Main is a burger with spicy pimento cheese and steamed broccoli on the side. Steamed broccoli. I was initially a little upset that they replaced the chips with broccoli - mmm...chippies, but, it's a good thing, I wouldn't have room.