There are days...

...when it doesn't pay to get out of bed.

Yesterday was such a day.

My primary purpose this trip was to "move back in" to my digs in AZ.  Of course the Adventure 150 would get lots of service, but I also expected to be riding my 1998 Yamaha XT 350.

Normally I come in the fall.  For me that's the best choice for weather, like the three bears, not too hot and not too cold, but just right!

The current temperature here is 100F and it's going to stay that way for most of my remaining days.  Coming from the North Country, I can appreciate heat but riding in gear at triple digits, can be life threatening. Especially in a country where most of the water resides in a cooler!

Although I have the use of a mid sized truck this trip courtesy of Judy and her brother Harold, between the work I am doing here and the heat, I have simply not made it out into the mountains except for the day Holly and I visited the White Tank's on the west side of the city.

I'll be able to extend my range with the Dakota!

In my spare time I've been looking at my surrounding area maps and thought I might try and put some time in around Teddy Roosevelt Lake.  I bisected this mountain range a few years back and it appeared in a CB story (Rolling Up the Rim) shortly after.  State highway (?) 288 climbs up to nearly 8000' on the back way via Young, to Payson.

Having a truck and bike, this route would give me the option of exploring the countryside and camping out at a comfortable altitude.  The higher up, the cooler. That was the plan but as so often happens, that Murphy character showed up and spoiled the show.

I'm fueling up the 350 from my little Jerry can.  It's one that  has a security spout.

Yup... that's a gaping hole, just waiting to catch the unwary!

Hi tech vented can... useless

The apparatus has a spring and self sealing device that is meant to curb a loss of fuel when using.  On the spout, there is a protrusion that is designed not to pass fuel unless the spring is sprung, so to speak.  The 350 has a rather large opening in the tank about 2 1/2" across and to get fuel flowing, you have to rest the tiny protrusion against a solid object, in this case the opening lip of the tank and voila... fuel flows into the tank.

As I am filling the tank I think quite unconsciously to myself, this has the makings of a disaster.  Just about a nano second post thought, my hold slips and the entire spout assembly, at some velocity I might add, flies off, you guessed it, right into the fuel tank!

Now what.

See that little red troublemaker...

I have my saddlebags secured, which I would have to remove, followed by the seat, side covers, the louvered air deflectors that channel air over the engine, and finally, the fuel tank itself, all of this during the time I am draining nearly 3 gallons of gas that I just put into the tank... out!

I really don't want to remove all this stuff at 99F

Of course the Jerry can holds about a gallon, which means I have to find a suitable container for the other two.

Fortunately I have a clean plastic coffee can, plus some empty oil containers, that will between them, hold the fuel from the full tank.

Peering into the tank with a pen light, I at first could not see the red spout.  Probing with a bent metal hanger, finally turns up the spout and I begin the process of attempting to 'fish out the item'.

To say this turns into an ordeal and bypassing the cussing and swearing that increases in volume the more times I have the thing in my finger tips only to have it slip away yet again, and thinking I'm back to removing the tank, which of course I was trying to avoid, I finally manage to fish the thing out on my 99th try!

Now remember... it's like 99.9 degrees, I'm mostly in my sunny back yard, sweat pouring off me, I'm in no mood after all is done which included filtering the fuel a few hundred millimeters at a time, from an oil can back into the fuel tank

I'd spent nearly the entire day with this thing and by this time, after chiding myself dozens of times in NOT immediately recognizing how wrong this could go.  By then I was thoroughly disgusted and worn out at my little misadventure that I can only think of a cool shower and a fluffy bed!

Trip to Roosevelt Lake would have to wait.

Sometimes, you have to listen to what the Universe is telling you!

Deja Vu?

SOMEHOW it seems odd this trip.  After the last two visits to Phx I spent in a hotel room feeding the local feral cats, coming back to my southern US home this trip is anti climatic.

I have a bed again!  Yu Hooo

I'm "moving" in again.  

Patio is tidied.

It's been nearly 10 years since I first moved in and at that time I had no furniture whatsoever.  I spent the better part of the first week on an air mattress!  Eating take out food.

Last year has been like holding back a big boulder!

Much different now due to the circumstances but nevertheless, in many ways I am once again, moving in.

After the flood of '17, the place is pretty much rebuilt.  On the main floor things were pretty much stripped down to the block walls and upstairs the first 2' of sheet rock down needed rebuilding.

This is my first visit since repairs were completed just before the first day of Spring.

We walked the Waterfall Trail at White Tank Park

With a pleasant time-out while Holly flew in from Seattle for a short stay, it's been day and night sifting through many dozens of boxes looking for this and that.  Many times I had to go through the same boxes remembering what had been put there by the construction crew.

Truthfully I still need a few hours to go through the last of the packed boxes but for the most part I am up and operational. I've had to purchase some items that were discarded after the flood (caused by a leaking toilet tank) but although I no longer have my dresser drawer or night table, it doesn't matter.  I have plenty of room and bought more hangers for the closets!

Very pretty easy trail, no water in the canyon of course.

On another trip I will complete the moving in process but for now, things are fine and I feel like I've done nothing but work for 2 weeks!

I was checking out maps yesterday, looking for some ideas on where I may ride in my remaining short time, it's been 18 months since I last had the 350 out in the desert/mountains.

Sun L scooter, my mule.

Pedals at the ready

I remade her private rampart perch!

Boo can sleep standing up!

THE scooter is doing yeoman service once again and I an't tell you how pleased I have been with this little 150cc SUNL Adventure scooter.  It's reliable, gets around 80 mpg and I can cruise at 50mph/80kph all day long.  Only the fastest traffic leaves me at green lights, most times I'm not passed till after 40 mph which is good enough in town.

Been a great bike!

The XT Yamaha took three kicks to start even though the fuel in the tank was bought for $2.20/gallon, nearly 2 years ago!

I bought this bike because it was simple, reliable and available.
I'm on my way to the library and a few errands and when I return I will take up the map quest again and decide on tomorrow.

For now, it's life as usual here in the desert...

It's hard work being beautiful and lovable

No picnic being a Dad...

 

Up at 3:30 am... couldn't sleep.  Been a common occurrence for many years now, caused mostly by dull aching pains punctuated by sharp dagger/needle pricks around my right hip and back.  I don't like sitting for long periods.

This stems back to the 2002 rear ender, and has been getting progressively worse as the years go by.

I climb outa bed hobble around to the living room, hoping to get some sleep on the couch and not bother the cats or wife.

As I'm laying there looking up at the bookcase, I think back to a month ago when little bitty Izzy, after climbing the ladder to the top as she often does, was rushing around eight feet off the floor on her 24' drag strip, and overestimating her traction, took an unintended leap off the end!

Izzy doing what cats do best.

I saw the tail end of that and was at her side within a couple seconds but she didn't seem any worse for the leap/fall.  It's only 8 feet and I read somewhere that cats have survived 10 times that jumping/falling off buildings. Cats have an uncanny ability to righting themselves and landing on their feet. In fact both Einstein and then later one of his daughters, Scribbles ended up in my neighbors 'yard' three floors down when they were young!

As I'm laying on the couch, remembering these things, I'm thinking to myself that being a Dad can be a thankless task.  After all, from the moment you hear the words "I'm pregnant, and it's not yours..." (just kidding) you enter a new world.

I've watched my own daughters who are now both in their mid thirties, with both pride and trepidations over the years.  We have covered a great deal of ground since they were born and always of course there is that underground fear.  My friends think I joke when I comment that having lived to fifty, the remainder are bonus years.  I actually believe that.

Things most definitely change once you have kids.  If you are a parent you'll understand what this means.  It's not so much a fear of myself getting lost in the desert or being hit by a car or having a heart attack... all three of witch have happened to me in my own lifetime, but a fear for them. 

Take Holly for example, my eldest.  We've often talked about her traveling spirit, sometimes into less than safe environments.  Bouncing around in the bed of a decrepit pick up truck in Central America, various countries in south Africa and backpacking for months throughout Europe as a teen. 

Much of my family thought I was a poor father for allowing these adventures, but truth be told, how can you expect your child to behave in a manner that contradicts your own?  That would be like telling them to stop smoking as you light up.

Anyway as I am trying vainly, to get comfortable on the couch, these thoughts are racing through my brain.  The age old juggling between what is good for them, when you should encourage and when to apply the brakes. 



Coco waiting impatiently for our flight to PEI  "Let's go Dad"

It's never easy being a parent. 

The last ten years I have spent as a second adult in my relationship with Brenda.  Her adopted daughter is now 17 and believe you me... she has been more than two fistfuls over the years.  Her defiance, attitude and actions border on the edge of a cliff oft times.  I say as a second adult because my input into parenting has been wholly unwanted.  That's the truth.  Sometimes I question what in fact my role is or if I even have a roll? 

Like the three cats, the three girls all have different personalities and of course we hope with age comes wisdom both for cats and kids, but regardless, and despite a parent's best efforts, a child can turn out a hundred ways.  It's often as much luck as skill... and unlike a motorbike... they don't come with instruction manuals.

Lisa, my younger daughter is now married and a parent herself.  She is realizing that it's become a whole new gig, lots of sleepless nights, feedings and changing of diapers.  Pretty much a thankless job, but if we are looking forward to it being easy, I have a piece of property in Florida that I can sell you cheap...

Don't get me wrong.  I am and have always been an involved Dad.  I love my girls, all three of them although there are times right!

Somewhere around 5:30, I realize that I did manage to get a little sleep, Tylenol helps. I was woken by Coco, my latest rescue cat that I found under the tarp of my Ascot 500 on my Phx patio 18 months ago.  She seemed to be saying to me... "dad, come to bed and keep me company."

 

My '82 Ascot 500

 

I did.