Cedar City, Utah…race week, we are setting up the race course and rock crawl for the weekend, so we’ve been on site at Three Peaks Recreation Area for a week. I love our life. The boys finished marking the race course today, so I was finally “allowed” out to walk the course. Up to this point, I’ve been relegated to walking the perimeter where there was a fence I could follow. Pretty smart, actually.
The course is well marked, Josh and Kyle did a great job, I walked 5.5 miles of it, it’s a little longer than that, I opted not to do the weaving within the county park area and beelined it to the trailer. My phone had died at mile 3 so I was a little bit bored, no music left. It was a great hike, but it sure seemed like it was uphill both ways, just like my dad used to claim when he walked to school.
There aren’t really very many animals at this park, we’ve seen a bunch of jackrabbits, some lizards, but not much else. Most parks there are some deer, and a number of times there have been rattlesnakes, I don’t miss those. What I did run in to today were two hawks that were pretty unhappy with me. There must be a nest nearby, they squawked and squawked. I love the sound of predator birds.
Getting back to the park, I found our friend Todd had showed up to do a little wheeling – getting ready for the weekend. When he offered me a ride in his Wildcat I was all for it. I climbed in through the window, no doors of course, strapped on my 5 point harness and tightened them down. I threw on my helmet and grabbed the “oh, sh**” handle, I was ready. Todd took off and put some speed on it, it rolled over the mounds, the rain started and was pelting us, made it a little painful, but not enough to make us stop. We finished the last section of the race course within the County park and came around for the road crossing jump. Todd hit the throttle and we jumped, it was awesome. I love that flying feeling.
Thanks, Todd, for giving me the opportunity to ride in a UTV, even after all the races we do, I almost never get to ride. It was fun to see it from a racer’s perspective
For years I have fancied myself an artist, I’m not, but I want to be. I can’t paint, I can’t draw, I don’t photograph well, but I can do a number of things well, just nothing that would count as an artist. I can cook a pretty good meal, every day of the week, on a Camp Chef. I can craft well, not my own ideas, but I’m pretty good at embellishing others. I love to make handmade cards, but my friends have to come up with the ideas first, I just know how to improve them. I can sew, kind of, I can crochet, kind of. I used to embroider and tole paint a lot, then I had kids. I can put together a room that looks good, I can decorate for an event, I can create party favors, but still, I’m not an artist, I am a crafter.
I am giddy with excitement, for years I was a Girl Scout leader, my favorite part was as a Junior leader when the girls were very focused on goals and earning their badges. Ok, maybe it was me that was focused on it, but I loved earning badges. By the end of my years as a Junior leader, my badge book was trashed it had been thumbed through so often. My girls were experts in many areas, we never cut corners, we always followed the plan all the way through so they actually learned something in the process.
Shiloh, almost six square miles in Tennessee that once housed families and farms, a peach orchard, a couple of ponds, smiles and laughter, over 70 buildings of one sort or another.. One hundred and fifty years ago, the Blue and the Gray clashed in a bloody battle, over 111,000 men met in this small space; over 7,000 died, more than 30,000 others were wounded. One of the first battles of the bloodiest war in the history of America in the War Between the States, took place in April 1862 at Shiloh.
Birmingham, Alabama – The Magic City, a city full of history, much of it tainted, but preserved just the same. Interesting to see a city embrace what was once wrong and expose it, no cover ups here, more pride in seeing things righted. They say that history is rewritten by the victors, it is unusual to see the history here not covered in sugar.
I am fortunate enough to be acquainted with some crazy people, you know the type, always calling attention to themselves, even when it’s unintentional. I live with a couple of those on the road, both Big and Josh could be described that way. I am the quiet one of the bunch, not to say I don’t have a good time, but I can’t manage to play quite like they do. When I left for California, I said, in my outside voice, “Ok, you have three days, a birthday, and a $1,000 spending limit – you need to behave.” But that was the only stipulation I put on them. They tend to tone down some when I’m around, I never know what kind of calls to expect when I’m gone.
A Life Unscripted 
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