Use or Loose trip - The Conclusion

I've said this before, I'll say it again....crashing sucks!
Dealing with insurance isn't much fun either. We finally got the official word that the car is totaled. So we went out and picked up another car. Another VW GTI but with four doors and and blue. Iggy, salesman at Emich, went out of his way to find the exact car we wanted. It's nice to have a car. Even though I kind of enjoyed carpooling for a couple of weeks, I don't think Danelle was all that excited about getting up at 4:40 and leaving early for work.

I was finally able to get a bike ride in yesterday. IT WAS COLD! 34 degrees. I also found that during the crash my shift lever was broken off. So 400 dollars later and a few hours of work, I now have the quietest and smoothest shifting bike I have ever had. I have learned how to tune the shifting and it makes a world of difference.

All right lets get ready for christmas.

BANG! Pt 2

I finally got a rental car, drove back up to Tuba City and picked up Danelle and Sydney, and headed 70 miles down the road. We stopped at the accident scene, then went and found the Tow lot that had the car. They did a nice job of securing all of the stuff we had loaded into a storage bay, and took special care of the bikes. Turns out the tow lot owner pedals too and knew what needed to be done.
I decided that after only two hours of sleep since Thursday morning, we would spend the night here in Kayenta. (leaned how to spell that pretty good after spelling it out to the insurance people all day).
We are going to try and make it home tomorrow. I think i'll be picking glass out of my skin for a few days.

Where it happened

What Hit me

Hit hard enough to buckle the roof

Very solid, well built German car! I will buy another one. Don't know how well I would have done in the Fit or another small car.

Does your face Hurt?

Mine Does.

BANG!

Or more like CRUNCH, BANG! Last night, four miles east of Kayenta AZ at 11:30 or so we were hit by an oncoming car who lost control and crossed over into our lane. I saw it unfold and new that there was nothing I could do to avoid getting hit. I tried to mitigate some of the hit by aiming for the shoulder of the road. This prevented a head on collision, and caused the car to hit us at the drivers side door. Airbags went off, glass went flying, but Danelle and Sydney were ok. I got beat up and a ride on a backboard to the hospital. Spent a few hours there getting checked out and had glass cleaned out of my eyes.
So now I'm on my way to Flagstaff to pickup a rental car and hopefully finish out this trip.
Pictures and more to follow.
Stay tuned.

Use or Loose trip Update 2

Palm Springs, Ca.
It's Wednesday evening. We are sitting in a artsy looking Travelodge, and are beat. We decided to leave a day early so that I can visit the grandparents in Phoenix.
To backtrack, Yesterday was another nice day, weather was a little cooler, but still in the 70's. Woke up to  big waves so went surfing first. Caught the biggest wave ever, and it didn't pummel me on the bottom of the ocean. Went for a challenging bike ride up one of the canyons heading towards Esconditio. It was pretty, but had a few steep climbs. When I got back the surf was still big and I went out and caught a couple more big waves. It was a blast to ride a longboard on those waves.
So today we climbed out of the tent to clear skies, but fog in the distance. Went for a long bike ride down to San Diego and back. Nice but som e of the roads are really rough and you take a beating. After a 32 mile ride, I headed out to catch on last surfing session. It was good, but the weather was moving in. I caught on last wave and called it good. As we were walking off the beach, the sun went behind the clouds and the sky turned very grey.
So we loaded up the car and are now in Palm Springs.
Tired.

Use or Loose Trip Update 1

Meant to post yesterday, but time got away from me. Lets see, weather has been great mid 70's, surfing has been great, and I got in a couple of nice bike rides. One up north on 101 to Oceanside, and today I headed south to Scripps Oceanography center. Today's ride included 1200 feet of climbing. Who says its flat on the coast. I rode in the morning hoping that it would be cooler, but it still got pretty warm when you are used to colder Colorado. Once again we are at San Elias State Beach near Encinitas Ca.

Photo from today's ride, notice the green grass in November.

View from yesterday's ride

Gotta love California, you can have a campfire, but don't smoke???

Use or Loose Trip Start.

I have over 50 hours of leave that I needed to use by the end of the year. So we packed up the bags and headed to California for a week. We left friday evening and by 9 am we were standing on the beach in Encinitas  Ca. It was a perfect day, sunny temp in the 70s nice long-boarding waves, and a dog beach so that Sydney can play.
We played for a while then decided to go get cleaned up and eat something. I was so tired I fell asleep at 8pm.

Adding a short video to update the blog