On the trail busting my tail

For Christmas Kadizzle acquiesced to The Commander's burning desire to for a mountain bike.  The cost may bankrupt the Kadizzlites, but it will bring joy to the organization.  Our Canadian friend Darch is responsible for getting The Commander into mountain bike fever.  So today we went with Darch and Bryan to work on one of the gazzillion trails they have built over in the Gold Canyon area.  We saddled up the bikes and rode about a mile and then found the hidden cache of tools to begin work on the trail.  In a relatively short time we completed our task and continued to ride the bikes.  It is evident from a little riding that no one is going to do this sport without some cactus needles in the neither regions, and some bruises.  Kadizzle made a good choice and took the short route back to the truck. The rest of the crew rode on into the desert, and even The Commander said she got a work out.  We were both amazed how easy it is to make a nice trail.  One pleasure in trail making is you get to bash all those GD cactus you have always hated.

Upon this Rock I shall build my church.

We made it to the top yesterday.  The trail has been used very
little and in one year the amount of growth is considerable.  The stream was running a little, but not as much as hoped. Although we have done this hike many times it never gets old.  No one uses the trail so once you enter the canyon and start to gain altitude on the backside you have a huge area to yourself.  It is a good thing the trail is marked with rock cairns, otherwise one could not find the trail.  Once on top the view is spectacular. Below is the Salt River and in the distance you can see the tall buildings in Phoenix.

Preview of Today's hike

The Commander is poised in front of the peak we will climb today.  Yesterday we checked the river to find a place to cross.  This morning we will meet Ruth and Rodger on the Salt River and climb to the peak behind The Commander in the photo.  The Kadizzle crew has been up there many times with Megan, and a lot of new friends.  Once we were up there exploring with two pilots and Kadizzle was befuddled when he found what poor navigators they were on land.  On one trip we had the perfect view of a bighorn sheep.  We got very close and a perfect shot. When we first saw him he was right on the peak like some ad in a magazine.

With the recent snow we may be lucky and a little water may be running.  When water runs back in that canyon there are some nice little water falls.  If all goes well we will be sitting up on top having lunch.  The real beauty of the hike is very few people know of the trail.  Since you have to wade the river on most days, people just do not go into that area.  It is too steep and difficult for horses.  Perhaps we can take the track from the GPS when we are back and overlay it on Google Earth.  If you want to follow the hike live you can go to the Delorme site and track us.  The password is Quinn.  We should start up the trail about 10:30 mountain time.

Look for Sunny Skies Today

The Commander always likes something to worry about, so at 3 A.M. she got up and found the water had frozen.  The magic temperature of 32 had been reached in Usery Park.  Kadizzled boiled a little water and poured it on the outside spicket.  The water came on, big deal.  At sun rise the game was repeated.  If it ever really got cold in AZ it would be an economic disaster.

Like a bee headed toward a flower The Commander is going nuts hunting down the exact right mountain bike.  For Christmas the budget board approved her request to bankrupt the organization with the bike of her choice.  The bike will likely cost what one or two years of college cost Kadizzle in 1972.  Our local Canadian friends are avid mountain bikers and have unduly influenced her.

It is good to be away from the brass ball freezing weather in North Dakota.  It should hit fifty here today and actually return to normal by Monday.  Tomorrow the gang may hike.

Back in the Earth Module.

Heavier from Holiday eating the Kadizzles are back in the Earth Module.  There was so much cold in North Dakota a lot of it spilled into Arizona.  It is a frosty morning deep in the heart of this refuge for old people.  Today the module gets hooked up and moved from Darch's yard back up to Usery.   The warm we paid so dearly for better show up.

Getting here was a long drawn out pain in the rectum.  United flew us on their small jets the whole way and they managed to delay the flight for an hour loading the baggage.  Strangely met three people from ND we knew.  Kadizzle did not recognize any of them, but had actually had one on his sailboat.

Festivus, the Holiday for the Rest of Us

The time came to call the ceremonial man with the chain saw.  Fetivus would soon be underway.  Festivus is the annual celebration when one does feats of strength and you get to air your grievances.  The Kadizzles celebrate Festivus with a bonfire on the creek every year.  Symbolically an old dead tree is chosen on the creek bank.  The tree represents old pent up anger that has accumulated over the year.  The Chainsaw man is called and he comes in his special red truck.  After Chain saws a Clause has a beer or two he cuts down the old tree.  Dead wood from all over the creek is piled high.   Used oil is poured on the wood to represent all the pollution caused by too much greed and ignoring Global warming.  The fire is set and a few Festivus songs are sung.  Parts of the dead tree are left in very large pieces.  These are for the Feats of Strength.  Sam and Kadizzle wrestle a very large log onto the fire and the women are pleased to know we still have enough strength to climb up the creek bank.  Later one piece of log is so big everyone at Festivus is called upon to move it.  Moving the log is hopeless.  This represents the spirit of knowing what you can do and what you cannot do.  After trying to move the huge piece of timber everyone walks away humble and ready for the new year to begin with the understanding some things should be left alone.

At some point as the fire burns the Festivus pole is cut.  A long straight piece of wood is cut and carefully trimmed.  The pole has two purposes.  First one can hold the pole and air a grievance.  One might hold the pole and say " Kadizzle you always wear your snowy shoes in the House".   The pole is also used to see who has the most skill at moving burning wood into the center of the fire.

An important part of Festivus is to teach people the world is never the way you think it is.  That is why a huge fire is burnt on the creek on top of water.   Now think about it, if someone said they were going to build a fire on top of eight feet of water you would think this impossible.  However, if you cover the water with ice it works just fine.   Most people when they attend their first Festivus see the fire burning on the ice and are sure it will quickly melt through.  It never does.  The next morning logs are still smoking and the ice is intact.

While the older members of the tribe sit by the fire and drink beer,  Sylvie prepares the ice rink.  Sylvie clears snow and scrapes the ice clean with a broom.  Grandpa pours water on the ice and we let it freeze to a nice surface.  The skating begins without skates.  Without skates one can do many fine figure skating moves to the delight of the crowd.

As the fire finally dies down to a manageable size the sun slowly sets marking the end of Festivus. People scramble up the creed bank freed from the anger they harbored all year because they aired their grievances.  The Catholics have their confession and Festivus has the Festivus pole.

Paranoid.

Amazing when you talk to a lot of seemingly normal people how paranoid they can be.  People seem to fear someone is prying into to their life.  One major problem is why.  Really if someone knew virtually everything about you what difference would it make or who would care?  For a lot of people being paranoid makes them think someone actually cares what in the hell they do or say.  The truth probably is just the opposite.

Now for another side of being spied on.  Kadizzle likes to watch Ted Talks.  If you have never sat down and watched some Ted Talks give it a try.  Very intelligent people talk for about twenty minutes on every subject on Earth.  You cannot help but be smarter after watching a couple of Ted Talks.

So last night Kadizzle got in bet with his laptop and cranked up a couple of Ted Talks.  One talk was about the police using their new zippity do da cameras to spy on just about everyone.  If you don't already know the police now have a camera system that they can drive down any street and automatically take down every license number and also take a picture of the car.  This means that the police can check on up to 80,000 cars in one day.  The law enforcement people can drive down a street and the cameras will read every license plate. If anyone has an outstanding warrant, or ticket, the system automatically alerts the driver.  The system goes way beyond that. Because storing data has become so easy and cheap in any large city where these systems are being used you are or can be tracked.  The cameras are not just in the police cars.  Look at the intersections in most towns and you will see little cameras on poles.  Those cameras are recording every car that goes by.  So when you go to get groceries, if the police want to, they can know when you did.  So what? Well it is always fun to fire the flames of paranoia, because after all Obama is coming to get our guns you know.  The day of Big Brother is here.  Get used to it and enjoy.  In London they actually have people manning the cameras on the street, and they have gone one step farther.  The London police can see you drop your coffee cup on the street and shout at you to pick it up with a loud speaker. Now that is progress. Kadizzle wishes he had a speaker and a camera at the intersection of highway 200 near his house. When a simple minded dinger squeals his tires Kadizzle could yell at him with a loud bull horn. " What is wrong with you, you idiot".   Technology, a blessing and a curse.

Magic Glasses

Kadizzle's magic glasses do not let him see through things, or make him any smarter.  The magic is they can appear and disappear.  Kadizzle in his old age senility has been buying glasses in bulk.  Right now the sun glasses are in bloom.  Kadizzle actually knows where six pair of usable sunglasses are.  On the other side of the spectrum are they reading glasses.  They have all disappeared.  Before we left for the south the reading glasses bloomed.  There were a half dozen reading glasses that came back from no where.  No sadly they have all evaporated.  This means Kadizzle will have to buy another pack of four or six reading glasses.  Hopefully the old glasses all found homes in the library, or anywhere Kadizzle took them off for a second.  Remember the old Sanford and Son show?  Sanford would go to the drawer full of glasses and rummage around for a pair.  Today Kadizzle may stop by the funeral home and see if any stiffs came in with reading glasses in their pocket.  Sometimes the undertaker has some nice stuff.  Once Kadizzle got a nice suit coat with a small bullet hole. 

Home to watch the penguin migration.

The plane touched down in Bismarck today and we got to see the polar bears and penguins scurry off the runway.  Thank God global warming has not hit here too hard.  Doubt Kadizzle will be stepping out at 3A.M. in his underwear for a pee in the turf as was the custom in AZ.   Could get some frostbite in bad places.  The Commander wants to go out and murder some pheasants just to vent about the cold. 

Kadizzle got his due at the Denver airport.  A right winger gave Kadizzle more than an earful.  It was like meeting your mirror image.  We did manage to agree on a couple things, and parted with holiday cheers. From Denver north the ground was all white with cold particles.  The Bismarck Airport must be booming.  Even the grass is filled with parked cars.  If the gloom here does not clear suicide may be a good option. Going through the mail for three months and trying to find something good.  Everything has to be reset for next year and property taxes will be a hit.  Apparently the tax relief we have been promised in North Dakota will never come.

Bumping the Budget back

Recently the Kadizzles budget has gone astray.  Six hundred went up in flames when the kangaroo rats attacked the truck, and there has been some frivolous spending.  However, the Bump God smiled on us today on the way back to Bismarck and $1,000 fell out of the sky.  Making the switch in Denver to go to Bismarck we checked to see if we could help because one of United's Planes got stuck in fog in Idaho.  It worked in our favor.  We told United to make us a good deal and we would stay with Erin over night in Denver.  United coughed up the money and we take off tomorrow.  With Erin in Denver the bump game works very well.  We took a bump from Costa Rica  earlier this year and got $900.  So our travel budget is well under control.

Heading Home

Life is stirring early in the Earth Module. Awake at five the occupants stretched and went through morning rituals. Outside the air is remarkably warm.  Rabbits or something keep triggering the motion sensor.  The magic new phone awakens when the hand moves over it.  Occupants get up to date staring at the electronic devices.

Today the module moves to rest in a friends yard while the explorers head home for Christmas.  Early tomorrow the big plane will wiske the Kadizzles into the frozen arctic of North Dakota where people wear coats and scuttle about.  The strange white substance will be everywhere.  Alas we will be able to see the marvelous Ticklepinch, our wonderful granddaughter.  The clan will gather for food and merriment.  

Finding Peace in the Desert

How to start the day in the desert? Often one finds the most pleasurable things in life to be the simple little free things.  Old Kadizzle enjoys waking up in the desert. Just waking up when you are old should be enjoyable, but waking up in the desert on a sunny day is hard to beat.  One way to make it better is to put on your headphones and wander around.  In previous post Kadizzle has mentioned his mind has turned to oatmeal and he enjoys Krisna chants.  The chants have a serene calming quality that seems perfect for starting the morning.  The Commander is sure Kadizzle listening to Krisna chants is a sure sign his mind has completely turned to fudge.  Now this is the experiment.  It will work anywhere, but the idea is to get up on a sunny morning go outside in a pleasant place and wander around.  Generally speaking this only works on sunny mornings, but sometimes fog, or rain might make it work.  Try any song you want, but here is one Kadizzle highly recommends.  The song is BY YOUR GRACE, it is on the album by Krisna Das. The album title is Heart as Wide as the World.  After you try this you will be very calm and peaceful, or you will be sure Kadizzle needs professional psychiatric care.

We are alive for some strange reason.  It has something to do with vibrations in the universe. Music is vibrations.   An important aspect of vibrations is resonance.  If you hum while you listen to the right music your body will resonate at the frequency of the music.  The Commander shouts at Kadizzle like a dog when he does this, so make sure you are alone.  If this works for you let Kadizzle know, if it doesn’t take a very stiff drink of whiskey.

The Wagon rolls to Usery

The wagon we live in has returned to Usery Mountain Park.  Ah, the familiar sound of the gun crazies firing their paychecks into oblivion

. Across from the park the gun nuts go wild on Saturday and Sunday.  Every wanta be gunslinger in Phoenix is over there practicing for the day of the attack, or it may be the day Obama comes for their guns.  What ever it is they are spending a fortune on ammo getting ready. The war has calmed down as the day goes on, but the constant pop pop of guns never stops.  Because the gun range is an area full of large boulders a strange sound effect occurrs.  After the scared little man fires his gun there is a whoose like a jet taking off. The loud single crack from the gun is plain, but the reflected sound has a unique quality because of the different distances of the rock reflecting the sound.  Right now they are popping at about $1,300 per hour.  A dinger just let go a round of automatic fire. There must be some vicious targets up there.  Once in a while you here the machinegun open up. Just knowing these brave men are among us gives me a sense of securit.

Kadizzle took a nice ride down Bulldog Canyon on the cycle. The rain last night held down the dust and sand a little.  The Commander is going nuts wanting to buy a mountain bike that will cost about half what my college education set me back.  Such is life, we are in the last quarter of the game and we may as well go for broke. In a few days we head North for Christmas back into the land of the frozen.  It is a little cool here today, but that means it got down to 65 or something.

Drunk on Electrons

Yesterday The Commander and Kadizzle went to the electron liquor store.  At Best Buy we got our biannual new cell phones.  We both feel like we have been had.  Each of us now has a new cell phones.  The Commander stayed loyal to Apple and Kadizzle jumped ship and is now an Android man. The new phones cost us nothing, but now we will pay $480 more for cell service, so nothing has become much more expensive.  It took three hours to buy the phones and the dancing would have made a used car salesman proud.

Now back at the Earth Module this is a short list of what has to be charged, two cell phones,  the Delorme GPS, two hiking radios, two laptops, and about three sets of batteries to back all this stuff up.  Half the weight of our camper is now cords, and chargers.  The insanity of staying connected has left us with a hangover.  Our cost of cable and internet services has now exceeded $300 a month.  Of course there is the cost of all the gadgets.  When you are making a connection payment as high as a car payment you know you have entered a new world.  Keeping this crap charged is like raising chickens.  You put out the solar panels, turn on and off the generator, unplug and plug in the phones, the batteries, and move the crap from the camper to the car.  Now a hike involves a normal GPS, an emergency satellite communicator, two cell phones, and a high powered battery pack plus to GMS radios.  Now, when we are screaming as we fall to our death you will be able to know exactly where we are and perhaps get to see it live.

Cactus in the Ass

Today's adventure involved a difficult motorcycle ride.  Our steed the Yamaha 250 hauled The Commander and Kadizzle deep into Buck Spring.  First we had to go up Mill's Ridge with both the cycle and the truck.  After parking the truck we mounted the motorcycle and headed into one of the most remote areas around. Today we did take all the right gear. Even going downhill it looked like The Commander might have to get off and walk it was so rough.  In the worst spot The Commander hoofed it downhill. There was no question she could not ride up that spot.

When we got to the spring Kadizzle dropped off The Commander and headed farther down the road.  It was a difficult ride but Kadizzle managed to top a ridge and got a good view of where the road went and Lake Apache.  It looked like the road went a long ways farther. It was tempting, but if something went wrong it would be a hell of a mess. So Kadizzled headed back to where The Commander was exploring the spring. By a desert miracle there was a tiny little seep of water that could have saved a desperate man.

After lunching at the spring the trip up the steep road full of babyheads  (that is the nomenclature for rocks about the size of a baby's head littering the road) began.  When the cycle reached the worst part The Commander dismounted.  Kadizzle roared the engine and shot about three quarters of the way up the steep road.  As luck would have it he stalled out and the motorcycle fell on him, forcing his hind quarters into a cactus.  The mini disaster left Kadizzle pinned under the cycle and it did not look good from The Commanders viewpoint. Other than an ass full of cactus barbs Kadizzle was fine, but getting the cycle up and off him required the help of The Commander.  After pulling some barbs out of Kadizzle we checked the cycle and it came through the mess unharmed.  Unfortunately there were two choices.  With the engine running try to make the last twenty yards pushing the cycle with a team of two or go back down and make another run.  Kadizzle decided to make another run.  If he wrecked the second time there was no question he would get the idiot of the week award.  The cycle god smiled and on the second try Kadizzle made it up babyhead pass, with cactus in his ass.

How to drown efficiently.

Today the Kadizzilites set off on a canyon hike.  Remarkably we were ill prepared.  First, Kadizzle thought surely The Commander would have the new super duper rescue device.  Well of course she did not have it.  So we set off up a narrow canyon near Peter Bigfoots hide out.  In no time it all it became apparent this was a water shoe hike.  Kadizzle stripped down to his underwear and water shoes and up the running stream we went.  The scenery was remarkable and the the difficulty of going forward continually increased.  With all the equipment we normally carry of course today we would not have a lot of it. Our amount of rope was limited.  We forgot technical climbing gear, and so on.  However, like the idiots we are we persisted. Our plan was to follow the steep narrow wet canyon until it met the road again.  We came across many spectacular pools and waterfalls.  At last we reached a point that it looked beyond our capabilities to go farther. The rock was slick and steep.  Undeterred we rigged a home made wedge like device and put it in a rock crevice above us.  This took some unique engineering and planning.  Without the aid of a fallen tree component it would not have been possible. We used the fallen tree as a ladder to rig up a suspended rope. The rope allowed us to reach the next level.  Finality some good sense sunk in and we realized we could go no further.

After we turned back Kadizzled was wading down the stream half naked when he slipped and fell into the stream.  The little stream had about the equivalent of a six inch pumps worth of water running down it, but in places is was moving swiftly. As luck would have it Kadizzle fell on his back with his feet upstream.  This worked perfectly to channel a massive flow of water over his head which was wedged between two rocks.  As water rushed in his nose and choked him Kadizzle thought how strange to be in such a fix in six inches of water.  After a brief struggle Kadizzle was free, but soaking wet.  Such is life

Attacked by Kangaroos

Yesterday started as a great adventure. The Commander was going to take a little hike, and Kadizzle was going to do some motorcycle exploring.  As The Commander pulled into the mountain parking lot to meet Kadizzle she informed him the truck was malfunctioning.  The symptoms were familiar.  About five years ago the Kangaroo rats attacked our other Tundra and it cost us over $600.  So one more time we had to have the wires replaced.  We now have $1,200 invested in the war against the Kangaroos.

Kadizzle set up the mother of all Kangaroo defense systems yesterday.  Under the truck the ground has been treated with mothballs, and ammonia.  Under the hood are more mothballs.  On the ground under the truck is a motion activated light, and a small solar light is on all night in the engine compartment. Supposedly Kangaroo rats do not like light.

All of a sudden Kadizzle got an additional brainstorm for the rat war.  Why not give them a dose of bear spray.  Kadizzled figured if some of the bear spray stuck in the area they liked it would make them think twice.  With a fellow camper standing nearby Kadizzle disarmed the bear spray.  Never before has it been used, so it was a new experience.  The nasty yellow liquid shot out in a massive torrent and filled the air. Kadizzle and the other camper quickly found out how potent the stuff is.  Just the small accidental amount that drifted our way gave us a very bad breathing problem.  Kadizzle is convinced the spray would kill a person with asthma.  Kadizzle felt like a bit of an idiot after the experiment.  It is clear when you use the stuff you are in as much danger as a bear.   Kadizzle has a much more enlightened view of the police spraying people in the face with the stuff.

Who Knows?

Well as the sun came up we awakened in our new spot.  The Commander is full of pickle juice and wants to get going.  The morning coffee has been brewed and the Kadizzles are getting up to date on the laptops.  The NEW YORKER has an insane article about how the Republicans are saying our current good economic situation is some sort of trick by Obama.  If Obama brought Jesus back it would be a trick.

The Commander wants to go up and hike at Peter Bigfoots compound.  Kadizzle would prefer an exploratory motorcycle ride.  So the immediate problem is designing an adventure for today.  Hopefully they will either turn up the heat in the solar shower or the day will be hot enough to make it a little better.  Otherwise we will shower in the Earth Module.

Who is on first, or life among the crazy people.

In the last two days Kadizzle has had conversations with a couple of the hard core residents of our campground.  Briefly Bloody Mary had a conversation with Kadizzle two days ago.  Bloody Mary the only female bum in the gang made it a point to inform Kadizzle Duane was a mental case. Today during an encounter with Duane he pointed out that Bloody Mary was a mental case.  So we live in a neighborhood were most of us think the rest of us are crazy.  Gary who is the most professional bum is helping Bloody Mary pack so she can spend some time with her son.  Bloody Mary told Kadizzle another woman screamed when she walked in the shower the other day. The showering woman thought Bloody Mary might have been the "Pervert".  According to Bloody Mary "The Pervert" walked into the women's shower.   This story seems kind of like a spinner or urban legend, but such is life among the crazy.  Duane recounted overhearing PTSD ranting to Gordon the Camp Host.  Of course PTSD had to go rant to Gordon about Kadizzle taking the handicap site.  Duane said PTSD was lucky he did not come around him. Duane is a gun nut and of course he would love to blow someones head off.  Duane said he never goes outside his tent at night without the 44.   So here we sit among the 8 to eighty blind, crippled or crazy.  The Commander just said for Kadizzle to get off his ass and grill dinner.  Here we go.

The Rest of the Story

As the camp host drove by The Commander told Kadizzle to get his arse out there and talk to him.  The hot water in the solar shower needs to be turned up.  Also Kaddizzle had to give him an update on PTSD.  The host said he had already been visited by psycho.  Kadizzle agreed that we should move to keep to keep peace among the mentally ill.  PTSD is gone, but we have to move for diplomatic relations. No big deal. It is a shame to see such a nice site sitting empty.  The host commented that it was strange for a disabled person to engage in tent camping.  Kadizzle noted that the man had no sign whatsoever of being disabled. He did not even have a handicapped sticker in his car.  His main disability seemed to be in getting the amount of beer he needed.  Kadizzle respects the disabled, and veterans, but guys like PTSD give the whole thing a bad name.