Babysitting vs. Riding

I just turned down a motorcycle ride on Saturday because I'm babysitting the granddaughter.

Me in my BMW t-shirt and Ava. She wins every time. :-)

Quick Update

Not motorcycle related, directly anyway...

So, after I got laid off, many people were quite upset. Turns out, some of the folks who fund my salary, were not happy. I am paid by at least 3 different grants. One of them decided they couldn't continue to pay my salary. They neglected to inform the other grants or get their input. Those other folks were not happy at all. So, I am currently still employed. Basically, my lay off has been postponed for another 6 months to give me time to continue working on these other projects and to try to come up with a longer term plan for my position. In the meantime, I'm looking for a more stable job.

The good news is, I've been riding a lot more. Riding always makes me less grumpy when I get to work. It's been quite a challenge to remain positive and professional on the job. Motorcycling helps a lot. It also saves me some money being cheaper at the gas pump. And, I'll need to do more of that while my future employment is in question.

The GS went over 22,000 miles last week. My warranty runs out September 12th. I had some stuff checked out after our vacation. I got my clock and odometer fixed. It was a blown fuse. The bike looks great according to the certified BMW techs. :-)

I also added a new sticker to the GS. I took off this sticker from the rear left side panel.

I replaced it with this sticker that I'd been saving since 2009, waiting for the inspiration to come to me as to the best location to place it.

 The Forester just rolled over 17,000 miles yesterday. :-) Oh, and did I tell you that my lovely hubby got rid of the dead Bronco in our driveway? I can now park the Forester in the driveway! Woo hoo! We are down to three cars in front of our house (that's down from 5). Our pseudo son-in-law has been using the small truck since the grandbaby came. We've just learned that he is skilled at tile work and plumbing tasks. We may have a chat with him about exchanging some of that work for the truck. We've got lots of projects in the hopper.... Could be a win-win for everyone. :-)

The hubby and I had our first official co-babysitting night last night. Little Ava has hit a constant crying stage it seems. She screams more for her mother (of course) than for others. Her mother is quite exhausted. Here she is, as cute as can be, while she's not crying. :-)

Happy trails folks!

More photos from our trip!

I had every intention of finishing this up long ago but, life gets in the way of blogging darn it all. My sister-in-law and her two boys visited last week. And I found out Friday that I'm being laid off, effective October 1st. And then I got sick. I've been home all week fighting this darn cold that I'm sure I got from the visiting toddlers. Darn them. Luckily, the granddaughter hasn't picked it up (knock on wood.) So, instead of sharing the gory details of the rest of our trip, I'll just share the photos. Really, that's the interesting part, isn't it? :-)

Day 2 in the park we decided to ride the Canyon Rim road from the opposite direction, stopping at the points along the way that we missed the day before. We also stopped to hike to the Devil's Kitchen. My fear of heights really kicked in on day 2. Weird.

It was a bit sandy in places.

This rock offered some shade so we stopped to take some photos.

It was a busy trail. Lots of families hiking around.

We didn't realize it but we were supposed to be heading towards those tall rock formations.

The Devil's Kitchen.

We went too far and had to back track. I started getting weirded out by the trail along the edge. Well, since we went too far I guess it really wasn't the trail! Yikes!

Great views!

The hubby. :-)

It's actually quite cool and shady in the Devil's Kitchen.

Cryptobiological crust on another trail on our way back to the bikes after hiking the Devil's Kitchen Trail.

The hubby. :-)

Relaxing in the shade before gearing up to hit the canyon rim road again.

Have I mentioned the amazing views?

The bikes. :-)

This interpretive panel goes with the view below.

This view goes with the interpretive panel above.

Cooling vest. Best. Invention. Ever.

Shade tree.

Beneath the shade tree. Self portrait.

Lunch spot.

We went back to the pizza place for dinner and cold beers that night. We had the peach pizza and it was so tasty!

On the walk back we wandered a bit through town. There was some music about to happen in the square but we were too tired to sit and enjoy it.

The next day, our anniversary, we traveled to Glenwood Springs. The plan was to drive to Hanging Lake and hike there. But, it was so over crowded we decided to skip it. We live close enough that we can come back some other time. People were parking all crazy on the sidewalks and blocking other cars. We didn't want to fight with them. We did have our anniversary dinner at the local brew pub. And it was good. :-)

Bicyclist out for a poker run.

Lunch was had in Silverthorne at the Mountain Lion Cafe.

Ending mileage.

618 miles. 5 days. 1 national monument. 2 Colorado towns. And a lovely time was had by all!