Run to the Foothills!

A couple weeks back I rode to San Diego to see some friends.  Now, I don't know what it is, but every time I go to San Diego, I end up in cold rainy weather.  So much for "Sunny San Diego." Saturday morning I woke up to the predictable grey matter in the sky.  It was a morning much like my other mornings in San Diego, mounting our iron horses and mobbing it down the road to Lucky's Diner for breakfast. Rounds of coffee are poured as we sit next to each other talking about our weeks, and the ride ahead. We finish breakfast by opening about a dozen fortune cookies splayed out on the diner countertop where our check would be if it weren't for Lucky himself hollering out some figures at us from behind the kitchen window where he was preparing a patrons breakfast.  We hear "twenty dollars for all of it," in his best heavy asian accent.  We smile back and forth at each other and put a nice tip in there for Lucky. It was a bit warmer after breakfast than when we'd walked in, which isn't saying much, but I was determined to shed a layer.  Pockets of sun warmed me up as the 4 of us on this day chased each other through the millions of San Diego freeway interchanges and on to a lovelier two-lane windy road with dry brush, red rocks, and old oaks.  Testing grounds for new mods and adjustments.  Figuring out how far we can lean left and right whilst letting the road naturally take a little metal off here and there.  Nonetheless, our small wooden outpost in the foothills was there to welcome us with refreshments, aka, jerky sticks, high octane sodas, and a round of cigars.  Up the road from the outpost was what seemed to be a biker wedding. We joked about crashing it, but I don't think that was anyone else's style but my own, so I found a spot of sun coming through the old oak canopy and warmed up on the benches while we smoked and joked.  Did a lot of talking about how great it'd be to retire up in the hills someday.  Did a lot of talking about goin back to school, too.  These days, ya gotta be savvy.  I figure I have some more schooling to get out of those ol' Veteran educational benefits waiting for me.
Anyway, just taking the first sick day to bring you my last tale of the Foothills.

That'll be my bike parked outside the classroom door.

Cheers!

Random acts of disappearance.

You probably thought the earth was round, but somehow I managed to drop off the face of it. So that must prove it's flat. At the dawn of this discovery I slapped myself in the face and said "snap out of it, Jack!" And so I did. I started to poked my funny little head out from under my shell and started doing things like contacting long lost friends, and doing things such as apologizing for my disappearance act. I for one thought it was rude of me, but whatever. All I could do now was rise above the hole I dug, and start swimming again. 

Maybe it comes down to the fact that I like challenges. Maybe it comes down to the fact that I'm oddly human, and rarely get a chance to feel like it because I'm secretly hard on myself and somewhere in this free spirited two wheeled beast is an overachiever. But I do have this to say, 2012 is the year of unabashed self understanding. I'm working my way back to those old self attained stress free mantras that I used to zen to. Here's to the cosmos.

Operation "be and do."

Switzerland

That is the Matterhorn directly in the middle of the range tip in the clouds.

I recall that was a really good throw.

Walking in a winter wonderland.

Raclette

Playing the holiday songs.

Candle-lit christmas tree.

Fondue!

And now for some photos from my last trip to Arcata.

Waking up and climbing out of the bed of the truck, 

to the sun climbing top the redwood skyline,

And playing the first song that comes to my mind.

"Summer in Arcata"

 Sangria mornings.

Hiking in the thick of Arcata.

Moonstone Beach Sunset