natbikes.com

Hello there,

After the first 6 years when they grow an inch annually, Joshua trees will only grow a 1/2 inch per year, making this bad boy over 200. The lady in the national park asked my twice when I told her I did not need a bag for my post card. Happy Earth day buddy.
True to form my ‘16km hike’, on a trail that you ‘can’t miss’ ended up being a tad longer. Niki and I hiked from the Mojave side, where all the joshua trees are spread out like an orchard in the tilted desert, through/ over the dividing mountain range, to the side with the saguaro cactus.
People wonder what I am planning.

Nat’s to Do List:
-Own a house
-Build my own house
-Hike up a big mountain.
(some of these are long term)
-Spend more time hiking in general.
-Ride my bicycle up past the Arctic circle, to the northern end of the farthest north public road on the continent, and hike the Klondike Gold rush trail on the way. And it would be cool to do it with my father.
Oh wait. That last one I am going in a couple of weeks.
(I will be leaving for this trip in a few hours)
Tasks which I have already completed would include:

-having the stove top espresso maker explode over the ArchBikers entire kitchen. And by all over I mean 3 walls, ceiling, floors, cookbooks, and everything else.
-imitate every animal at the San Diego zoo
-attending an urban underground chic party at the Getty Center

you know when you drop a knife and think, thank goodness I moved my foot in time?

-drop a knife and have it spear your foot. check.

-while cruising Rodeo drive I spotted the Bugatti Veyron the worlds fastest, and most expensive car. If you have 8 minutes this is a pretty cool video. Oh get this — $1.7 million per car, but they cost Bugatti (VW) 6.8 million per car to produce, so it is an engineering feat/ loss leader. Yeah.

-attend DisneyLand. Really I am against the whole overpriced amusement park (the closet, punk, anarchist that I am). It was fun, I can see why it works, but damn, it’s California. Spending 3 days ($83 +tax a day) there covers the cost of a wetsuit and surfboard for 3 years of fun.
I bought a new Bob Ibex for the 700km of dirt roads I will be encountering later.

Maintenance will be possible at Bentley dealerships, but repair service will require a flown-in mechanic, whom the company promises will be available 24 hours a day

Since all the ArchBiker does is work, it is hard to give him a shout out. Of course we did float around and surf a few waves at Trails. It was good fun, but no KOM jersies were won, nor records broken. Good times.
I was also living in his Laguna Beach ‘beach-house’, but you could also accurately call it the back end of the garage with a sheet as a dividing wall, and notice that the ocean (not the beach) is only visible if you climb on the roof.

Mrs. AB also scored her second wingwoman point.

Yes - SO I am procrastinating packing for another of my 2 month ‘holidays’.
a) 20 h drive to Vancouer in the faithful Subie
b) 3 days on the Island - attending a beach wedding in Tofino (it’s byob - bring your own (rubber) boots
c) meet Dad, and drive to Quesnel BC
d) repack our gear
e) ride to Inuvik at the end of the Dempster Highway, which is quite literally the end of the world (all that is left is swimming over the pole to Russia). 3000km, and a dozen different roads
f) because that isn’t enough … hiking the Klondike gold rush trail
g) hitch hike back to el subie?

Oh, time for a little rant?

What is with compulsive bagging, everywhere? At the grocery store I always say, ‘no bag thank you’. But, next thing, my bread (already in a bag) or milk (already in a jug whose handle is easier to carry than the damn bag) is bagged. So I take it out and give it back to them. Which is annoying to them because it’s extra work. Wait - the extra work was putting it IN the bag. ‘I’m saving the plastic trees’ always meets blank stares.