... This weekend is tricky because we are installing new kitchen cabinets that I evidently ordered.
🤣 So easy to forget the "little things". 😉
The story goes that we had been talking with the person at the local cabinet shop (plus furniture, clothing, home decor, paint, etc) and let her know what our final choice for color, door style, hardware etc. That was evidently the indication to order them. I got a call at the end of August that the cabinets were complete and in the warehouse.
It then became a question of when to have them delivered and subsequently gather a team of willing, mostly capable friends to assist with the install. I can't offer much in the way of alcohol, but food, lodging and a dog that demands balls be thrown - those things I CAN offer.
Illegitemi non carborundum est!
Sorry, stranger in Nebraska, but I will be in Scotland all next week....otherwise I would jump at the opportunity to throw balls at Maddie, THEE Dog.
Two Million Mile Rider...All 7 Continents
Exploring the World in Comfort
I'll come out to help, if I can throw the new pup for Maddie to fetch. 😉
Sounds like a pretty epic kitchen make-over in the make-ings. 🤩
Hold my keyboard and watch this! 🙃
@sheath the more the merrier. Though Utah is a fair hike away from central (and I do most accurately and literally) mean central Nebraska. I'm fairly certain Maddie does need more canine socialization because she acts like the wants to play, but is often overwhelmed by an enthusiastic canine greeting.
And, Yes. If it is thrown, Maddie will try to fetch it.
Illegitemi non carborundum est!
Made it out for a ride around the block to warm up the engine for an oil change. 😎
Hold my keyboard and watch this! 🙃
Death Valley
Panamint Valley.
Titus Canyon
Well Friends,
Got out on a little ride out and around Florence/Winkleman/Coolige today with a couple of friends. (Snowbirds are migrating south, now that the weather is a little milder.)
Temps were warmish, but not so bad. I think the high was somewhere around 88F (31C.)
Not much for challenge; looked like a grader had just cleaned up the roads, but there were a few areas where the gravel had been piled up in the road, so a little fun for the lads!
Wasn't much for a breeze, so clouds of dust from power slides around corners hung heavy in the air for a long time.
Greg and David both chose their R1200GSA's for the ride, with Greg deciding to air down after the first deep gravel stretch!
Ended up laughing myself silly as I pulled up to Greg having a Mexican Standoff with a large bull. I think I heard the bull bellow "Ye shall NOT pass!!!"
The face off went on as I pulled up, and then David. The Bull finally decided to idle off, not exactly yielding the right of way, but deciding we weren't worth the trouble to decimate.
Stopped at The Boulders for a little hydration and cell phone service.
Then ended up at Waylon Jenning's old hangout in Coolidge, "The Gallopin' Goose."
One of our other Snow Bird friends met us there for either a very late lunch or very early dinner. I had the 1/2 lb mushroom swiss/chili pepper burger and found it to be quite good.
All in all, it was a very pleasant ride and nice to see a couple of friends back from the Great White North! Nothing broke or fell off, but Greg says it is getting to be time for me to do something about the slop in hack wheel swingarm pivot point. Says he could see a little wobble when i hit the brake.
Checked it out when I got home, and it is probably time to put a harder axel bolt in. The original one made it 32,000 miles, but it has a lot of wear, where the bushings ride on it.
Love the Mexican stand off.
Horned Hereford bull.
They were bred to have no horns amongst other things.
Though many decades ago I helped (lackey) with a small invitro fertilise program one year.
They took eggs from a cow with dark pigment in and around her eyes.
The solution for "pink eye" cancers of the eyes.
A weakness in the breed.
Placed her fertilised eggs in a bunch of other cows to speed the program.
Don't know how successful it was long-term.
But cool to see.
Stunningly beautiful day today. 😎
Didn't get out on the Screaming Yelllow Zonker, but I did get the Screeching Yellow Zonker out to vacuum the yard.
Supposedly Monday will be a nice day, and will work towards getting the Screaming Yellow Zonker out for a good off road romp. Like this:
Hold my keyboard and watch this! 🙃
Gas station in Dallas was an eye opener paid at the counter and realized that the staff had no idea when you asked for 5 gallons, it did not compute with available combined brain power. Ask in dollar amounts was ok; could have been my accent of course but as usual i was able to understand them perfectly
Was that Imperial gallons, y'all.
Well Friends,
Went on a little adventure yesterday with @Prmurat and his charming wife Regitze.
It all started with Philippe texting me a map link a week or so ago, saying we should do this little day ride, and have lunch at the Cleator Yacht club, on the way back.
I took a look at the map, below, and thought, wow, looks like fun. I knew the road from Crown King to the I-17 was basically a nice dirt road without many challenges, so did not bother to glance at the "Terrain" map, immediately below the Google Map.
Probably would not have changed my opinion about the ride, but might have better prepared me psychologically for the fun that ensued! It was a very challenging ride!
We met up at the Mobil station just north of Wickenburg about 9:30 am and proceeded up the 93 to the 89 through the very scenic Yarnell valley, that we have all ridden through multiple times. Smooth pavement, some twisties along with great views out across the valley as you climb.
Team Murat were on their Yamaha S10/DMC Expedition rig and I was on Black Betty (that sweet girl.) Two well matched rigs, one manual trans, one DCT.
The weather started off a little coolish, high 60's F (16+ C) and climbed up to maybe 90F (32 C) at the high point of the day, before we started to climb up in elevation.
The dirt portion of the ride began as we turned off the 89 at S. Wagoner Rd. and wound our way past some spectacular ranches and a historic wood floored steel bridge.
The road was in pretty good shape for a few miles, just the typical AZ washboards that we get when it has not rained for a few months. No wind, so dust clouds hung in the air for what seemed like an eternity. We traded positions lead to follow, occasionally, maintaining a healthy gap between rigs to avoid breathing anymore of the landscape than necessary.
Cool bridge:
This particular section of road, as we passed the ranches and started to rapidly climb (read steep, steep here) up to the 5,771 ft. Elevation at Crown King, got a lot more interesting.
This stretch of the road is truly the toughest stretch of road/jeep trail that I have ever taken BBTSG down, since her construction. It was comprised of many stretches of deep sand that ran a hundred meters or more, each. There was also fluffy powdery sand in the washes and creek beds, combined with very steep, maybe 20+% grades full of rocks, ruts and rock ledges. It felt like climbing a rock wall from time to time, but with plenty of sand to sink into if you missed "the line" by a quarter of an inch or so.It is about 39 miles of crazy.
Of course Google Maps led us down a few dead ends where turning around proved to be a little challenging on the narrow 2 track road/trail.
Before things got interesting:
Things were beginning to get interesting here:
Philippe pondering his life choices or at least his riding partner choices!
c't'd next post
C't'd
Ok, so previously, I have mentioned that I considered pulling the winch off, since I had not used it in the past couple of years, other than to pull a broken subframe back together on the hack.
On this trip, we were all rather pleased that I had belayed that decision and kept the winch mounted and facing forward. As a ref. it is a 3,500 lb capacity Warn Winch with 50 ft. of synthetic winch line on the spool. I also carry another 50 ft. length of winch line, soft shackles and a folding shovel.
Here is either the first or second hole I dug in the sand with the rear tire. One was turning around in a sandy wash that turned out to be a dead end, the other was when for a micro second of in attention (distracted by a "U" turn road sign) I missed a line and the hack wheel caught on a football sized rock, spinning the rig cross wise to the direction of travel. Rig was sitting on the skid plate, both times:
This was one where I got to help recover the Yamaha out of a wash about bike depth that ran diagonally across the road, with about a foot of sand in the bottom. Note Regitze both pushing and balancing the chair. She worked hard all day, pulling, pushing, and generally encouraging us both!
View back from Philippe's rig. It was nice that during most of these events, one rig at least was not stuck, so we had something to winch off of, if one or the other of us would sit on our rigs and hold the brakes on: btw those ruts are a lot deeper in person.
We both took a "free ride" through one of the washes when a very nice family stopped in a side x side with a winch, conveniently, on the other side of the wash. (I, of course know that we could have gotten through, eventually, but would have been crazy to turn down help like that!)
This was quite off camber, note the angle of the people standing.
We climbed in elevation as the sun sank over the ridges. Team Murat does NOT share my love of riding at night! Regitze broke out and shared their coffee (again!) We were all getting a little beaten down by the recoveries, at this point. We tried to tally it up; we think we each got stuck 3 times bad enough to need a winch, with several where just pushing and rocking got us free.
The photo that didn't get taken occurred after winching off a washtub size boulder failed to free me from having both sunk to the skid plate and have the front wheel jammed against about a 12" high rock ledge in the middle of the road. (Spoiler, the boulder moved.)
As despair lurked around the corner and the sun went away, I decided that a scrubby sage bush behind the rig might hold a winch line, so looped the cable under the bike out to the rear, tied off on the base of the sage, and happily pulled the rig back off the rock ledge and out of the sand.
The photo needed but not taken was Regitze crawling under the bush and unhooking my winch line. She is a great riding companion! No rattle snakes were disturbed in the making of this picture!
As we continued to climb up through the forest, in the dark, things got pretty steep and rocky. There were some dusk views out across multiple ridgelines that were spectacular pinks and purples as the sun faded. We all had our hands full navigating the road, though, so sorry, no pics.
We were all pretty happy to see the bright lights of Crown King come around a bend. We stopped in front of the Crown King Saloon to plan our next course of action.
Regitze, that smart girl, noticed a "vacancy" sign lit up near some cabins, and went into the Saloon to see what it might take to rent one. Turns out there was a nice, clean 2 bedroom cabin available for the evening, so we decided that rather than brave the last hour or so of dirt road to the freeway, at night, we would stay up there. She even got us toothbrushes!
Once we got settled in, we wandered back to the Saloon and discovered two things:
1. They served food.
2. They had a band and were having their Halloween party in full force.
Greasy bacon cheeseburgers, jalpeno poppers, chips salsa and onion rings never tasted so good!
Next chilly morning at sunup:
Rode down to the freeway, through Cleator and Bumblebee. It was quite scenic and considerably milder than the prior evening's ride: saw a herd of deer and a few quail.
c't'd
c't'd
Stopped in at the Cleator yacht club to shed some cold weather gear: Yacht to the left.
Spirits were back to "high" in the morning:
Usually I am more happy to see pavement turn to dirt, but this morning, the dirt turning to pavement was kind of welcome:
Gas stop in Rock Springs, said our farewell's and headed home!
The brand new (prior to this trip) Mitas E07 Dakar tire on the rear of the bike tells the tale of adventure!
Ok, so as many of you know, on prior, much less strenuous adventures, I have broken frames, sub frames, shock absorbers, fenders, what have you. I am very pleased to say, "nothing broke or fell off" of either rig!
I will also state, if you ever want to have an adventure, Team Murat are the ones to have it with. Philippe is known as "The Beast" for good reason. He has an old injury that makes one arm without strength. He did this ride essentially one handed! (I was sweating some stretches with both hands!) Regitze pitches in and and helps wherever it is needed, along with providing moral support, wit and humor. She also has enough sense to say "hey, there is a vacancy sign" and encourage a couple of crazy guys to stop for the evening!!
Overall, it was a tough ride, but I'm sure looking back on it over the years, none of us will regret how it turned out. A lot of fun and adventure was had.
Looks like the work done on both rigs has served Team Desert Yacht Schooners well. 😎
Hold my keyboard and watch this! 🙃
