Dawn til Dusk

Per Ginna’s request and since I she’s out of town and I miss her (& the boys): a report on my weekend, Dawn til Dusk.

This weekend was supposed to be about the first endurance mountain bike race of the season, a chance to work out all the kinks in the gear. Last fall we bought an old Airstream trailer and this was the first weekend trip using it. The biggest challenge turned out to be that I waited until the last minute to get the Airstream ready. The biggest problems were that I had never had or even used an RV, not to mention tow something that big.

I ended up working on it all night everyday of the week. With some help from several friend who came by, by Friday I had the lights, plumbing, water heater, stove and range working. The only major thing I didn’t get worked out was the heater. And the forecast was calling for rain and possibly snow.

In case the previously picture didn’t give a good idea of how long the airstream is, here’s another.

I took this picture at the church, where I parked it Friday until I could finish work and leave.

I got the airstream out to Gallup, NM to the High Desert Trail System, where the race was to be held. The weather was decent. Windy, but not too cold.

The airstream was basically designed to sleep parents and kids. There is one bedroom and a pull out bed, certainly designed to sleep kids.

My friends Trent and Sean were there with me and they sure snuggled up on the bed.

In order to create some heat in the morning, I decided to bake up some biscuits for breakfast and use the oven.

We started racing at 7, but were late to the start and had to catch up. The first 13 mile lap was fun. The weather was cold and windy, but dry. I checked on Sultan at the end of lap one and all was well, so I started off on my second lap.

About half was through the second lap, the snow started, then the wind picked up and it felt like blowing ice. Soon, I had a flat tire and after several attempts to reinflate, I slowly rode into camp to the the bullhorn announcing that the race would be cancelled due to weather.

The other guys were cheerful enough, even though we had to stop racing.

Here I am inside talking to Ginna, of course.

Sultan was relaxing. He was happy to have not been left home.

The parking area was just a field and the road in was a very rough dirt road. We remembered from last year, when it was also cut short due to snow, that many cars and rvs got stuck on the way out, therefore we decided to wait until the storm blew over to try to drive out.

We decided to drive into Gallup and get some dominos so we the guys could teach me how to play Mexican Train.

The desert dries up nice and quick; soon we were packing up and driving out.