Doggy Video :)

After yesterdays post about the animal cruelty I thought I'd share a lighter note today by finally uploading a video of our dogs. I promised family a while ago that I'd post this video of the dogs eating corn on the cob. We had a few BBQs this Summer and I LOVE LOVE LOVE BBQ corn on the cob!!! As do the dogs apparently! They were sniffing around mine one day so I figured next time I'd cut one in half and we'd cook them their own to eat. Hope you enjoy it!

I thought we'd recorded the main eating with Sky but it seems there was a technical hitch as the camera didn't record :( I think you get the idea though = DOG LOVE CORN ON THE COB!!!

Also uploaded a video I did during another of our BBQs over the Summer. We've had some work done on the back garden so apologies for the messy garden. Cute doggy alert too!

Hopefully uploading more vid's and vlogs soon! Charging the camcorder as I type :) I need to find some vid editing software too! Any recommendations?

Di

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Dirtbiking in the desert - mini break

As a couple Bob and I have a lot of hobbies, I love fitness and exercise but also enjoy crafts like scrapbooking and cardmaking and Bob is more technically minded with electronics and his video game & pinball restoration but one hobby we love doing as a couple is dirtbiking! Bob has been riding bikes for quite some time now, and I am a recent convert to the dirt only been riding for 3 1/2 years. I got my first bike in December 1996 and have been hooked since. I still scare myself silly on occasion but I think that’s a good thing right?

Anyway we decided a few weeks ago that we needed a dirtbike break and so scheduled some time off work, loaded up the RV, rented a trailer and headed out Wednesday to the desert. We planned on going to Adelanto, specifically El Mirage the dry lake bed with some sand/dirt desert trails. We’d been there in November over thanksgiving with friends and loved it :) We packed up everything including the dogs and headed out mid afternoon.

The dogs travel pretty well in the RV, and slept most of the way there. It takes around 2 1/2 hours so it’s lucky for them that they can sleep. I took them out for a 20 minute walk before we headed off though so I am sure that helped! When we arrived at El Mirage, we got our weeks pass and headed to our usual camping spot on the lake bed. That’s when we really noticed the wind! Wow it was sure windy! No pics the first day cos we basically stayed in the RV!!! I walked the dogs reluctantly and about got blown away, gusts of 50+ mph!!! When it’s just desert with nothing to really break it up that wind got FIERCE! We didn’t even have the slide-out out on the RV cos the wind was so bad!

The second day was better! By lunch the wind had dropped considerably and we decided to try the bikes out. After a little run around on the flat lake bed we decided to hit the trails! Most of the trails around here are naturally sandy as it’s desert. Did I mention I hate riding in the sand? I have found that if you stand up though it’s much better! You still slip around and fish tail out, but it doesn’t feel as bad as sitting. We headed out eastwards towards the Shadow mountains. So beautiful!

When we got to the end of the trail we were on, I had a problem turning the bike around. I slip on sand, lost my footing and dropped the bike. Being as I workout with weights I can lift the bike now (220lbs!) but I had a problem getting it into neutral to move it so Bob came to help me that’s when he noticed that he’d lost the end of his exhaust! Somewhere along the trail his tail end of his exhaust and the spark arrestor had fallen off!!! We double backed along the trail we’d traveled on and luckily found the exhaust parts, but not the screws that held it in place!

The brush around here is so dry, it’s desert afterall, and there are strict laws for riding which includes mandatory spark arrestors to reduce the risk of fires. No spark arrestor = no ride. So Bobs ride for the week was over. We decided to call it a day but knew we’d have to cut our trip short, I don’t ride that well yet so going on trails alone is NOT an option, plus the whole reason for the trip was to ride together, ah well! We decided to stay the night so we decided to break out the beer and relax

then we fired up the BBQ

The dogs were enjoying themselves anyway

We’d decided to sit around the “wrong” side of the RV, as it wasn’t so windy this side. The wind had dropped considerably but we still had gusts.

The sunset was beautiful!

Friday morning I was up early as usual and took the dogs for their morning walk. When we’re out in the desert I set my iPhone timer for 10-15 mins then when it goes off we turn around and head back to the RV. Gives them a good walk and I really enjoy the scenery

When I got back to the RV, we had breakfast then I got geared up and headed out for a ride on the lake bed. I wouldn’t go on a trail on my own, but riding around on the lake bed is pretty safe. I got some riding experience in, practicing turns, stopping and pulling off etc. Still not as quick on the gears as I’d like but the more we ride the more comfortable I feel :)

Whilst I was out riding, Bob packed up mos the RV things. I came back, changed then walked the dogs and we packed up and headed home! Just the two rides I’d done had an impact and my shoulders were pretty sore all day Friday and into Saturday. Other than Riding and walking the dogs I didn’t workout. Definitely a change of pace. Looking forward to the next trip!

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Birthday play by play

So yesterday was my birthday and for a while now I've been wanting to do a "day in the life" kinda photo day but not had the thought to do it as working from home my life is pretty boring on the average day. But a birthday has to be different right? So I decided to document the day with a photo montage throughout the day.

This also checks off another goal in my 101 in 1001 project #26: Document a day in my life through photographs. Hurrah! I should update my list soon, and update my album with new pages of completed projects.

So the day started off the same as everyday does, I got up around 6.30am (despite me turning the alarm off so I could lie in, damn internal body clock!). After a quick bathroom break I grab my sweater and it's off for the morning mile. That's my morning walk with the dogs. We walk for about a mile every morning which can take anywhere from 20-30 mins depending on the amount of pee breaks they have.

When we got back from walks I fed the dogs then set about making my own breakfast. Again same as it is every morning: glass of orange & cranberry juice, with a bowl of cereal ( oatmeal, flax flakes, ground flaxseed, 1/2 banana with soy milk).

After breakfast I opened my cards and chatted to my parents on the phone. During this time Bob woke up and after his breakfast we set about getting ready to out for the day ahead :) Last year on my birthday we went snowboarding, and whilst I enjoy the snowboarding I don't enjoy the cold, so this year I opted for my other favorite hobby Dirtbiking! Now that Rowher Flats is open again, after burning down a couple of years ago in the Southern Californian wildfires, we will be going a lot more too! It does take a while to get the gear ready but by 10am we were fully loaded and ready to roll!

Bob recently bought a new bike, a KTM 450 so he was really eager to get out and try that baby out on the dirt! Rowher Flats is our closest off-road area but is still about a 45 minute drive. Thankfully the roads were clear and by setting off later we'd avoided rush hour traffic. When we got to the parking lot there weren't many people there, just a few other trucks, and everyone was already out riding. Plus we had clear skies and great weather, the forcast was for a high of 69 degrees, plus with the recent rains we'd had the riding surface should be good too!

Boy was the riding good! After a wobbly start (I always take a while to warm up) we sped off to parking area 2 & 3 just to warm up. I could see that the rains had really packed the dirt better, and it was soft dirt, lovely for riding on. The rain had also left some pretty big ruts in the dirt too, and I tend to be a rut magnet and end up stuck in them (that and big rocks) so I had to have my wits about me! After the warm up we headed back then decided to do the fireroad up to the top of the mountain. We set off with me leading, and that's when I knew we were going to have fun! I've ridden on dry lake beds, up mountains, over rocks, pebbles and sand but yesterday I had something new.... PUDDLES! After riding through a couple of smaller puddles and thinking it was fun, I can across a HUGE puddle which I noticed too late, not knowing about how to ride through puddles I did my usual and went into a panic and ended up riding straight through the middle of it!!! Yep, splosh. It was like the parting of the red sea :) Water came up the sides in a wave, but I knew enough to keep the power on and keep going!!! With a grin on my face, and muddy water all over me and the bike we kept on riding until we reached the mountain trail of the fire road and headed up the twisty trail. This was one of the first riding experiences I had at Rowher, so I love the fire road up the mountain. It's a pretty wide trail but with some tight bends, and lots of braking so it's always good practice for any trail we do after. At the top of the mountain is a look out point where we usually stop and decide which trail to do after. When we got to the top me and my bike looked like this...

Incase you can't see well that's me with mud from the knee down. The bike is cut off in the photo but trust me it was the same! Bob said he was behind me when I went through the puddle and thought it was awesome, lol! He went through it but managed not to get covered in mud, unlike me. I should mention too that I was wearing my new dirtbike pants and jersey, which were predominantely white! Well no more!

Bob took this photo, then took a similar one with his phone and uploaded it to facebook with my new moniker: Di "mud magnet" Hickman, lol! I think this photo shows better the mud don't you? Guess I have a laundry load in my future.

One of the things I like about lookout point, is you ride ride ride, all the twisty turny riding then you get to the top and see this beautiful view. Oh and it's sooooo quiet! Well until more dirtbikers come, but you get the idea.

We always stop here, even with friends. It's just good to get up the mountain and rest your hands from the ride up. And stretch your legs. Good point to regroup if there are a few of you in your riding group too. Always good to make sure you're all present and correct. Bob - check, Di - check

After look out point, we rode along to red gate then down to the other side. We did veer off a little on a side trail up a steep hill and some bumpier terrain. In all a 15-20 mile ride. We stopped for a break then headed back :) By this time it was lunch and we were famished so brief stop at Red Gate then again and look out point (again both good regrouping stops ) and we headed back down the mountains, and back through the puddles to the truck. When we got back we had lunch which I'd prepared earlier that morning. I had a Sun-dried tofurkey sausage sandwich with lettuce and alfalfa sprouts. Packed with carbs and high in protein (one sausage is like 29g of protein I think).

I think I pretty much inhaled this sandwich I was so hungry. Riding for 30-40 miles, and out for 3 hours! Online calculators say that Motorbike riding burns 15o cals an hour for my weight so minimum I probably burned 45o cals in that 3 hours as dirtbiking is much harder than regular motorbike riding.

After lunch was scoffed we decided to call it a day and loaded the truck back up. But not before I managed to snap this pic of my bike before we put it on the truck. Yeah I think something needs a wash when we get home!

When we got home we unloaded the truck, and Bob hosed off the bikes. Then we sat down and relaxed before showering and getting ready for dinner. We had lots of options for dinner, but we were both already flagging from the 3 hour dirtbike ride, and hour journey home that we decided to stay local and as we're going for Indian on Friday we decided on burgers and beer at Red Robin. For those not in the know you can get a free burger on your birthday if you to their site and sign up for their e-club. We like Red Robin as it's pretty much the only place that does proper chips (fries) and malt vinegar! Mmmmmmmmm. Of course the meal started off with a couple of tall glasses of Fat Tire ale! Yum!

Then we had burgers with chips, ranch, ketchup and malt vinegar. We both had extra chips too, which is another benefit of Red Robin, bottomless chips! As much as you can eat with your meal! As I was finishing off my meal and we'd got the bill (yep used the birthday coupon they emailed us) I was then thoroughly embarrassed when the staff came out with a birthday dessert and sang happy birthday to me! Um yeah, you can opt out on this so just let them know beforehand. Anyway I figured the dessert was here now so why not eat it? Right? Afterall I am all about saving the earth, and not wasting food etc. Plus is WAS my birthday! So NOT a P90X meal but so good! lol!

The evening consisted of another dog walk, a couple more beers at home and some TV watching. In all a good birthday. I am so tired and aching today though, that I am switching my scheduled 'legs & back' workout to a stretch workout instead. That should loosen up my shoulders a little.

On the dirtbiking front I had a GREAT ride, really felt like I meshed with the bike and began to understand it's power finally. I enjoyed it so much that I dreamt about dirtbike riding pretty much all night! lol!

364 days till the next birthday, but not that long till the next ride :)

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RV: El Mirage

Since we got the RV back in October we had decided to keep it a secret, only telling immediate family. This was so we could surprise friends at the Thanksgiving dirtbiking meet up :) It was tough keeping it a secret and not posting anything on my blog or on facebook, but we figured it would be worth it in the end.

Anyway we also needed a lot of other things for the trip and so set about with planning for the Thanksgiving vacation. Other than regular RV vacation stuff we needed to hire a trailer for the bikes and all the gubbins that goes with it (tow hitch etc). Eventually we plan on purchasing a trailer of our own, but again we're in no rush for now a rental is just fine. We eventually got everything packed, stored and hitched up, loaded up the bikes, locked up the house and headed off to the desert. We left around 7.30 pm and hit a ton of Holiday traffic on the 405 and the 5 freeways. That part alone took us about an hour, during this time we realized that we'd forgotten the laptop back at home. :( After a little GPS detour in Palmdale we arrived at El Mirage at 11pm (it's 100 miles away from Simi). The another 15 minutes to get a camping pass and then the drive onto the lakebed to the camping spot and we were set. We did the jacks and slide and waited for our friends Janry, Meilani & William. A quick hug from them as we'd all safely arrived then off to bed for us.

Our friends had camped here for Thanksgiving before and told us it was cold at night, and we believed them but didn't really get just how cold till we were there ourselves! Wow! Freezing temperatures overnight!!! Thankfully Bob had the foresight to order a great double sleeping bag for very cold temps and we snuggled into that with the comforter ontop. The dogs had their dog beds and a sleeping bag on top of them, but man it sure was cold at night!!!

Cold foggy morning at El Mirage

Thursday was obviously Thanksgiving :) After walking the dogs I got back and started breakfast, only to find we had forgotten the Tea Bags. Yikes! Freezing cold and no morning cuppa! Ah well. Bob set about fixing his bike and I had a quick ride round on the dry lakebed. In the afternoon we went for a ride with Janry. As it turned out I also had some bike problems, seems my clutch was slipping and my gears were shifting when I didn't want them to causing me issues. Grrrr. Anyway we got back to the RV and I grabbed a shower and started dinner.

It was my first time cooking properly in the galley kitchen in the RV. We have 3 burner stove, oven and a convection oven/microwave. Turns out the bottom shelf in the oven is HOT right directly above the burner and probably not a shelf at all as it burns stuff. Thankfully just one side of the tofurkey burnt and the rest of the dinner cooked just lovely :)

Tofurkey Roast, mashed & roast potatoes, yorkshires, veggies and gravy.

We ate this with some delicious Frey white wine, mint sauce and red cabbage, Traditional English fare! Mmmm, Which was well received by both the cook and the RV driver :)

There were some teething troubles in cooking in the RV, like the tin opener not working (thank heavens for neighbors!), not having a long carving knife and basically having to make do with what we had on hand, but it all worked out fine :)

In the evening after sunset we sat around the campfire chatting, drinking and generally just enjoying the company of friends. Till it got too cold when we came in and watched some TV, lol.

Janry & Meilani's Rig, Sunset at El Mirage

The sunsets and really all the scenery is really beautiful here, you can see for miles on a clear day. It was very cold though. On the Friday we knew more campers were coming so Bob took the opportunity to take lots of pics of the beautiful sunset in the cold desert.

Sunset at El Mirage, Adelanto, CA

Friday, stuffed from dinner we waited for the other campers/riders to make an appearance. Including our friends who didn't know about the RV. They were pretty shocked, especially as it's a HUGE sucker! In the end there were 3 RV's and a trailer, and about 12 bikes! Bob fixed his bike Friday and we went out for a ride in the afternoon. Later we chilled in the RV watching movies and having dinner.

Me and the dogs in the RV just relaxing

Again another campfire was made after sunset and everyone grabbed some alcohol (if they hadn't already) and we talked and drank and had a great time. Obviously there were more people, which meant more conversation and more alcohol, so we stayed out later Friday, despite the temperature, but we also had a bigger fire :)

Orn & Gwen @ El Mirage

Saturday the weather was horrible with some showers and VERY cold temperatures in the day. We'd already decided to leave on Saturday and beat the holiday traffic returning home, and in the end we decided to pack up after lunch and head home. All that didn't take as long as we though and we were on the road by 2pm. Honestly the bigger pain was the unloading of the RV when we got home, returning the trailer and all that. Total pain in the butt but it has to be done. Then I had mountains of laundry to do as all the clothes we'd worn smelled of smoke from the campfire, dirtbike gear to wash and towels etc...

The one lesson I learned from all this is that Sky is NOT allowed to drink when she gets home/to location as each time she drinks and pukes, so not fun! We learned a lot this trip boondocking in the desert. Long list of things to get for next time, including tea bags (though thanks to Eliza we had tea for Friday/Saturday yay!) lol. We're now buying upgrades to the RV and making plans for our next trip! Maybe somewhere a bit warmer though ;)

Di

ps I did take a little video footage which I hope to upload soon!

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Born to Ride!

Regular readers of my blog will know that I'm not you're ordinary scrapbooker, heck I'm not a normal girl either! One of my other hobbies besides scrapbooking, cardmaking, digital, and working out is... dirtbiking. Now I haven't been doing it all that long, maybe 3 years now? But I REALLY enjoy it! I started out with my Yamaha TTR 125cc and I had that a year before I outgrew it. So I upgraded to a Honda 230 CRF, back in January 2008. Unfortunately our nearest area to ride, Rowher Flats burned to a crisp back in fall 2007 when some kid decided that playing with matches in the tinderbox hills of Southern California sounded like a good idea! Idiots! Long story short I've ridden this bike twice since I bought it, until today!

This was me today on my third outing and it's at my old haunt, Rowher Flats, cos after over 2 years of closures for revegetative growth, regrading etc due to the fires it's open again! This is the first week and it's GREAT! We love this place as it's so much closer to our house (30-40 min drive) and totally doable for a morning ride like today. Plus it's where I learned to ride so it's always kinda special for me to go there, be biking along going "I fell off there, and there, and there" lol.

Anyway the bike was great, sooooo great to be able to get out on trails without sand (urgh). And this is pretty much a new riding since I last time I used it as Bob bought some gizmo's to lower the height of it. Because of that I only had problems with it twice today. Once when I just lost it for no reason (not sure what happened) and another time, when I basically got stuck ontop of a hill with a big crater on one side. I hate being shorter than the rest of the group! Also the good thing is that on solid ground I can now know I CAN lift the bike back up when I get into trouble and drop it. Yay! I had no end of trouble picking it up on sand as my feet just slid and I had no leverage. Plus I am lighter now than I used to be! Good side effect of that is that I can fit into my original bike pants from 3 years ago and they are rooomier than they used to be :)

Feeling nice and chilled today from a great ride!


Di

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