New Pickleball Recruits

Yesterday I played pickleball all day long. As much as I love the sport, it is really hard for me to play for that long because I'm not in good enough shape to do it. Why did I play that much then? Because in the morning, I played with some of the regular players.



This is Carol, Austin, Lou and Buddy.

I just met Carol and Lou. I'm not sure how I just met them because they've known Austin and Nathan for years. Or most likely almost two years since that is how long we've been full timers. Buddy is someone I briefly met last year. This year I was able to get to know him better. I can't believe I missed not knowing Buddy better last winter because he is the best. He has a great smile, a great laugh and a great attitude towards life. He's pure sunshine. As much as I adore Buddy, he is not why I played all day long though.



This guy was:



That is Connor. He is one of our new pickleball recruits. He's about ten years old and he already plays almost as good as me. He rocks.



Then there is this guy:

That's Kelby. He's twelve and he was the first in the family to be sucked into the world of pickleball. He's awesome after only one day of playing. And he's really fun to play with. He's definitely worth playing past my physical comfort level!



Of course if they play, then Dad has to join in the fun.

Vern is not only great at the game already, he is one of the most entertaining people I've ever watched play. He dives, he spins, he runs in circles, and moves his feet like a skilled dancer. You just have to see it in person. In the meantime though, this gives you a taste of it:

I love it when we have new recruits. It is so much fun to play with them. Especially when they are as cool as these particular recruits.



Living the life in Florida!

A Country Ride in 49x16 Gearing...

We've finally set up my fixed gear bike, and the build came out much spiffier than I initially planned. Concerned citizens saved me from putting cheap components on a nice frame and I was able to get good deals on a very nice crankset and wheelset. One tiny problem however: the crankset has a 49t chainring and the wheelset came with a 16t cog, so the bicycle is geared insanely high. I decided to keep the cog and replace the chainring, most likely with a 44t. But that has to be special ordered, and in the meantime I really wanted to ride! Opinions are split on whether it is wise to ride on the road in such a high gear, but the consensus is generally "no." Having tried it, I agree - though it wasn't nearly as bad as I anticipated.

Riding in traffic was fine: It was not difficult to start at intersections, and to stop I simply used the brakes. Braking with my legs would have been out of the question after accelerating, but with good brakes this isn't an issue. I then went on a 20 mile ride on the Minuteman Trail, which is pretty flat but with a sustained upward/downward incline depending on the direction of travel. The gearing was doable. I felt it in my leg muscles, but not in my knees, and was fine the next morning. But while doable, it wasn't much fun - in the sense that I prefer to cycle at a high cadence and most of the time that wasn't possible in this gearing. It was exciting how fast the bike accelerated on flat stretches, but the upward inclines felt like walking up an endless staircase. It was neat to experience just as a way of physically understanding how different gear ratios work in fixed gear, but I would not want to ride that way on a regular basis.

On my previous bike the gearing was 48x18, which felt slightly too low toward the end. So I am thinking 44x16 on this one should feel just about right. The bike is great and I am looking forward to many country rides in an appropriate gear in the coming months. Don't know why, but it feels really good to ride fixed gear when it's cold outside!

Mesa Verde :: Balcony House

After having first visited the Cliff Palace, the tour of Balcony House was as much about the ladders, passageways and tunnel that had to be traversed in getting there and back as it was in seeing the 40 rooms of the complex. The tour to Balcony House is touted as being the most adventurous of those offered at Mesa Verde and is definitely not for the faint of heart!

Getting down to the level of the Balcony House involved a series of metal stairways firmly attached to the sides of the cliff.

Then you had to go back up. To that level, up there.

The 32-foot entrance ladder. I got to go up first with the Ranger. I'll admit to being a little nervous. I kept repeating what she had told us: “Don't look down! Keep your eyes focused on the rock in front of you.”

This picture was taken from the second story of the Balcony House, looking down at the ladder and those who have yet to come up.



Upon leaving the dwelling we had to crawl through a 10-foot long tunnel, just barely wide enough for a large person (me) to get through. The Ancestral Puebloans were smaller people than we are today!

Once through the tunnel, it was awkward to get out and stand up again. There wasn't a lot of room to maneuver.

Oh, and then there were two more ladders to climb up. See that chain fencing? It's there for a reason.

Looking down from the base of the second (and final) ladder.

The Ancestral Puebloans wouldn't have had fancy ladders and chain fences to help them get up the cliff walls. How did they do it? The Ranger said they carved hand and foot holds out of the rock. I guess you get used to using what you have available, but I'm very glad we had the ladders and chains to help us along the way!

Amabilis Mountain ..

Ken had organized a mellow outing up Amabilis so that people could either ski or snowshoe. The road up or in has not been groomed yet, so I made the decision to bring fat skis. There were six of us on the trip and it was split with two people snowshoeing and the rest skiing. We had a casual start, and didn't leave Seattle until 8am. With a few stops on the way, we were finally on snow around 10am and headed up the road.

The road conditions down low

Despite the recent warm weather and rain, there was enough coverage down low. Shortly after getting on the road to Amabilis, there were a few dirt patches, but there was adequate coverage from previous skiers to keep going up a track that was put in by multiple parties before us. We skied up under cloudy skies and hoped that they would turn "partly sunny" like the forecast had told us. While the coverage was nice on the road, snow depth in the trees was minimal. The snow on the road had a packed section where people had previously traveled, but the snow was deep and mushy outside of that section.

Upon reaching the intersection for the loop of the upper mountain, two of our party decided to turn around. Liz turned around because she had Nordic skis which just weren't ideal for the situation. And Jack turned around due to blisters from his boots. This was his first time using his AT setup to skin. After our little break the rest of us continued upward, choosing a clockwise direction to complete the loop.

In the woods near our turn around

The conditions got worse from there as there were few people who had gone up that section of trail. The snow had a breakable crust which wasn't good for the two remaining skiers or the snowshoers. It took a long time for us to continue up while the weather worsened. When we finally made the last section of woods before our turnaround, a cool mist was wetting us and I quickly put on a rain shell. In moments we had reached our turn around point, where I donned another layer under the shell. We all had a quick snack/lunch. While us skiers transitioned into downhill skiing we discussed with the slowshoers that we would wait for them at the intersection of the top loop.

And away we went. The skiing was surprising not horrible. With a slightly steeper road than on Mount Catherine, I was able to glide without a whole lot of double poling. But Ken and I did have to remain in the track otherwise we would slow to a stop. A few portions were difficult to maintain speed as they were lower angle or the track wasn't wide enough for both of my skis. Had we not had to wait for the snowshoers, Ken and I would probably have returned to the parking lot in a little over and hour.

The ski out

After a certain distance, the track widened, and was more compact and our speed picked up. I had to occasionally snowplow in order to maintain speed. Sometimes you could just steer into the deeper snow to lose some speed, but this practice proved to be a little difficult as you didn't know what to expect outside of the track. Once closer to the intersection, the packed swath of road was wider and more firm. I really picked up speed on this section without trying. And the last stretch into the meeting point was all snow plow. Ken followed behind me and attempted to scrub speed by sticking a ski into the deeper snow off the packed section. He started to lose control and laid down instead of continuing toward the immanent crash.

Ken on a faster section of the road

We waited a long time before our snowshoe friends arrived. We greeted them and asked if they needed anything. They didn't. And we were on our way. I got to the car in about 20 minutes from that point, and that even included one stop to rest my legs and a short uphill that I had to side step. The lower section of the road had some good snow and the packed section comprised more of the road in certain areas to the width where I could actually make small turns. Before I knew it, it was over and we were back at the parking lot where Liz and Jack were waiting. Once again we waited for the snowshoers, and then it was time to head back to Seattle.

Jennifer and I had done this trip with Gabriel and Lindsay a few years ago. At the time I was new to skiing and debated about trying it on my skinny skis. I opted not to and stuck with snow shoes. After seeing Gabriel's ease of skiing it, and the relative easy conditions, I had wished at the time I had attempted it on skis. While it would be interesting to try it with a Nordic ski, they weren't the right option for today's conditions and I was happy to have my backcountry skis which did not inhibit my performance at all.

A Special Christmas Treat

Since we have lived as full time RV'rs, there are many things that we have to do differently. Most of these things are small trade offs inn order for us to live the life we want to. But it's been nice to get some of those things back when we are sitting in one place for a bit. This being a great example of that:




I have a real (artificial) Christmas tree this year! And I couldn't be more excited about that. Every time I walk in the door and see it, I smile. I love that I can put gifts under the tree, rather than in front of it.



I love that I could put some of the many ornaments that my MIL has given us for Christmas over the years on it. There are so many memories in those ornaments.



It's is really feeling like Christmas in our rig and I'm enjoying every minute of it.




Living the life in chillier Florida!

Iris

An iris in my garden.

Hiking With New Friends

One of the really neat things about living this way is that we get to meet a lot of online friends that we'd never have a face to face meet up with if we were not traveling. Today we met a newer friend, and had a chance to get to know them even better. I met Becky though another online friend, Melanie. I really enjoy reading her blog and figured I'd enjoy her in person too. She was even better in person.

Smart, easy to talk to and really funny too. Mostly, I noticed how peaceful of a person she seems to be. I had a very comfortable day with her and her very cool kids.

We met up at Lake Louisa, along with Aric and Ace, and did some hiking. Although Aric says it is not hiking. It is Florida trail walking. I tend to agree after having done some true hiking in other states. We still had fun!

It's been a bit since I've hiked with younger children. I remembered today what one of the coolest things about younger kids is. They are so timeless. Meaning they just don't change all that much over the years. You can see a huge cultural influence on teens. Not so much with the younger kids. Especially when they are free range kids. This could have just as easily been me and my siblings as kids. Out just exploring the world without a care in the world.

Her teen son (not sure if I can share his name here or not?) was fascinating. We spent a lot of time talking. I learned a lot about war games from him. And guns. He was awesome. I can't wait until next winter when I can spend more time with him.



The day was just one of those lovely, warm days that have me loving my life. Since I do not always feel that way, it's nice when it does happen!