bike update

Well yesterday I went and bought some cheapo tires and some tubes and went to fix my bike. I spent the better part of the afternoon removing the grime and gunk that had built up around the sprockets and derailleurs. The bike cleaned up really well and I didn't see any serious damage or wear considering how old the bike actually is. Getting the tires on was a complete girly struggle for me. I don't know if it was because I am a little sick, or just because I haven't repaired a tire in a long time, but it took me forever. I guess I'm just dumb. With the tires on, and the chain on a gear, I went up and down my street really easy, and the bike didn't make any crunching sounds or weird noises. The derailleurs need some serious adjustment, and the brakes need to be tightened. I'm still going to replace the handlebars to make it more of a touring/commuting bike monstrosity, but that will have to wait until later because I'm going to have to order the parts. I'll post a picture later.

bike

My first bike was a huffy mountain bike that my mom ran over with her van. I'm sure I should have fixed it, but Nintendo was more important than exercise at the time. Yesterday I saw some guy riding a bike, you know, one of those racer guys with nothing better to do on a weekday than race around town like he's doping on steroids. I first thought that guy must have a sweet/no job to let him do that during the work day, and second, I wanted to be out there on a bicycle instead of wasting gas inside my car, stuck at a red light. Honestly. Why do I drive around anyway?

My brother just got a new bike and left behind a semi-usable bike for me to work on. After salvaging some bike parts from my parent's house, it looks like I've got a bike now. It just need some new tires, a little cleaning up, and then I have the ultimate two wheeled commuting machine. I don't see myself clutching a yellow jersey anytime soon, but I'd like to get back on two wheels. I'd theoretically like to ride to work, but it may be too hot to do that right now. I think after work I'll just hit the bike path up the road and ride to my parent's house and back. Thinking about riding around in heavy traffic makes me kinda nervous. But hey, I used to do that all the time when I lived in Puerto Rico. And I'm sure it surprised my wife last night when she went into the kitchen and saw a bike sitting there. I like working on bikes anyway, and piecing together a worthy road machine is great when the bike itself is free. That's initiative my friend. That's super power.

vacation 1

A report of our trip to California.

My wife and I drove down to California last week to visit Disneyland and go to the beach. It was my first real vacation since our honeymoon trip to Denver last year, and probably my first real vacation in 3 years. I thought the trip down would give my wife and I time to shoot the breeze and enjoy the ride. Along the way I made some careful observations:

1. Even while driving the speed limit I should slow down.
2. My wife points out every police car she sees and then looks at me like I'm a criminal. I tell her, "Just act casual dang-it!!!"
3. I saw like 15-20 people with blow outs... it made me question the structural integrity of my tires. Then I imagined one of our tires exploding and our car flipping like 7 times...
4. Gas is cheaper in Vegas.
5. Driving through the Mojave desert is really boring. It was lame until my wife dumped an entire bag of melty Reese's throughout the car (accidentally she says).
6. Gas is cheaper in Anaheim.
7. That stupid van with the roof rack is NOT going to beat me this time!
8. I am a wuss when it comes to hot weather.
9. Not having a bubble tea place where we live = total suckfest.

I'd say that the trip down and back was pretty uneventful. We stopped at some outlet malls and didn't really get anything. For as cool as outlet malls are, all the crap they sell is just the same as anything else. The same polo shirts, the same cargo pants. All that walking around just made me realize that I can get any of this crap online. For as lame as Vegas is sometimes, there are some cool things to see there. There's more to talk about, but I'll get to that later.

weekend

Memorial Day weekend. While most people are out boating, camping, enjoying one another's company, or memorializing the dead, I was underneath my SUV trying to restore functionality to my transmission. Irony is when you realize that you drained your transmission fluid instead of the oil. My vehicle is brilliantly made I found out, and the only way to replace the fluid is from an overflow underneath the vehicle. So lying on my back pumping red fluid into a vehicle is how I spent my Memorial day. Everything seems to be running better than it was before.

On a side note: my wife is freakishly good at mini golf.

another site

I found a cool site. Its a collection of stories and photos of abandoned buildings throughout the US. I'd say the main focus is on abandoned structures along the East Coast, but there are a few ghost townish places.

http://www.abandonedbutnotforgotten.com

Some of the mental facilities and hospitals would scare the crap out of me. Some of the pictures show old hospital records and documents that would be really interesting to look at.

ghosts

As I've been looking for things to do this summer (besides our trip to Disneyland in June) I've thought of some interesting hikes and adventures around my town. Looking up on the internet I've located some old ghost towns within 50 miles of where I live and with the help of Google Maps have located them. I like going into old mines and towns looking for cool things long forgotten. I like to learn about the history behind the towns and what made people abandon them. Since Utah has been inhabited by pesky Mormons for over 100 years, there are plenty of old boom towns that once saw great activity and then saw decline for one reason or another.

I've been to a few towns and ruins before, but its been a long time, and I didn't do any research beforehand to know what I was looking at. All of this started when I was younger and went hiking up in Millcreek canyon by my family's cabin. There was an old silver mine that had last seen activity in the 70's and early 80's. When I was younger, the doors to the mine had always been locked. That didn't stop us from hiking there, and one time the door had been opened and allowed us to explore inside the mine about 100 yards. Graffiti dating back to the late 1800's and names of the miners dotted the walls. An old Mining car, and other tools were there, the remains of an old refrigerator and a tractor that someone had rigged to pull mine carts still remained in the shed. Sadly an avalanche had destroyed what remained of the shed and its tools a year later, and the last time i went to go to the mine the Forest Service had foamed the mouth of the entrance shut.

There was another mine that we hiked to in the Millcreek area called Baker's mine. I was told that a fire had burned down the mining operation there. Evidently there was a hotel there at one time way up in the mountains. The only way to get there was a serious day hike and even when I went, it was really hard to find. Here's a link to information and some old pictures of the area: http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/ut/bakermine.html.
The entrance to the mine looks like it had been covered a few times. I'm sure bushes and over growth make finding the entrance near impossible today. But telltale signs of mining can give it away: slag runoff, and jagged rock pieces. When I went back 10 years ago there was a small opening I had to crawl through. The mine itself goes into the mountain about 50 yards in two directions, both leading to cave ins. Really muddy, and the old wooden supports looked questionable. Not much else remains of this old iron mine.

So what am I going to do? I'm going to buy a metal detector and revisit some ghost towns and mining areas to see if I can find some relics of the past, indicators of how these people lived and what their lives might have been like. There are some areas that I've wanted to explore that are only accessible in the summer once the snow has melted. It'll be fun, and I'll take pictures of everything. From what I've seen already, people have been able to dig up all sorts of interesting things that show what these mining communities were like over 100 years ago. The towns and sites I'm going to explore probably don't see very many visitors, so there's a good chance at finding something interesting.

poster

I'm way ahead of my time.

For the record: I believe that my sister-in-law won her senior class president election because of a robot poster I made. I don't care what she thinks or says, I single-handedly took her lame ideas and made her a winner. I don't think anyone really cared or knew who she was until the robot poster.

Thank you very much.

rain

Rainy day today.

I guess I can look forward to higher gas prices and indigestion.

I want a burrito.