My Computer Returns

I must apologize for the lack of updates lately.  I had to send my computer off to the manufacturer for a warranty repair and writing on a mobile device is just not the same.  I have left Lander and am now on my way to Moab, UT.  Those of you who mountain bike will probably know the significance of this, but if you don't please be assured that Moab is a mountain bike paradise.  I can't wait to sink my teeth into some of the most iconic mountain bike trails in North America.  But more on that in a few days.

Right now I'd like to catch you up on my stay in Lander.  I made an extended stop there because that is where my brother, Matt, and his wife, Florie live.  I offered to watch their house and all their animals for a week while they went to visit Florie's family back east.  The house comes complete with a dog, three cats (not including Ron Swanson), twenty-four chickens and a veritable textbook on the day to day chores to keep up on.  The first day was a bit daunting but I got the hang of it pretty quick.  I won't bore you with the day to day play by play.

Some climbers in Sinks Canyon.

I spent the exploring the area and riding the local trails.  There were three main areas that mountain bikers frequent near Lander and all of them were quite fun and most of them provided a few challenging sections that would be great skill builders for most riders.  I'd say my favorite would be the Catalyst Trail in Sinks Canyon on the middle fork of the Popo Agie (pronounced puh-poh-juh) River.  Most people run it as a shuttle ride since the main way to get to the top of the hill is to ride up a rather long section of road.  However, a new trail was made recently that allows you to climb on dirt to the top of the proper downhill part of the Catalyst Trail.

Matt's preflight

I stayed in lander for a few more days after Matt and Florie returned to get some family time in.  I took advantage of my brother's free days to take the family airplane up for a spin.  This was a real treat for me.  Before I was born, my dad restored a 1945 Aeronca Champion, a very basic, very small, single engine, fabric skinned tail-dragger.  When I say "basic," I mean it.  The thing literally has the bare minimum to make it a flying machine.  No electrical system, which means that in order to start it, you have to get out and turn the prop by hand.  It's the aeronautical version of roll starting a car.  This also usually means no radio, though my brother added a small handheld radio and inter-comm which was a luxury.  I grew up flying the Champ with my dad or my brother in the back seat, yelling at me over the engine noise.

It was a trip down memory lane to be in the Champ again.  I hadn't flown in it since before I graduated high school.  But, it performed just like I remember (maybe a little better since my brother upgraded the engine a bit).  We took an areal tour of the town and Matt's house before heading out over the plains to do a few fun maneuvers.  After a bit, we went out to a lake bed where some of the local pilots practice off-airport landings.  Unfortunately, the lake bed was no longer dry but there was another one near by that we decided to check out.  We made one pass and it looked pretty decent so we came around for another so we could touch for a moment to gauge how rough the ground really is.  It is amazing how hard it is to gauge the ground from the air.  Even when you're looking at it from just a few feet up it'll look pretty smooth but as soon as the landing gear get a taste of dirt at 50 miles per hour, you get a much different idea about that silky smooth lake bed.  After a quick touch, we decided not to push our luck and turned back towards Lander.

I left a couple days after that.  While I was there, my brother and I managed to get my heater and oven working in my little Toyota home which I'm sure will prove useful in the coming months

I think I had better leave it at that.  Hopefully now that I have my computer back, I'll be able to make smaller, more detailed updates more often instead of trying to condense almost two weeks into one post.  See you in a few days!