Blogging hiatus and Eva the Airstream

With the rise of social media and the 144 character sound bite, the blogosphere has taken a hit, but we still need to blog...

When I started this blog it was a way to stay in touch with my friends and family back in England as I moved to the USA, once I got my life up and running the need for the blog slowly slipped away.

However, everything has changed and I am ready to breathe new life into this blog :)

It has been a lifelong dream of mine to own an Airstream and spend the winters up near the snow and the summers on the coast.  Well, last week the first step of that dream was realized, we closed on Eva!

Who or what is Eva you may ask... Allow me...

Eva is our 2015 Airstream Flying Cloud, 25ft rear bedroom, we picked her up on Friday afternoon and literally dragged her home.

Fitting Eva through the driveway gates was tricky, it turns out that while Airstream say she is 8ft 5.5inches wide, this does not seem to take into account the lights not he side that protrude over an inch each side.  With the help of some friends we squeezed her in and she is resting up before her first trip.

The plan is to spend long weekends, initially at least once a month, away from the house at various campsites and RV parks around Oregon and eventually the rest of the country.  While we are getting used to the concept of towing our part time home behind us we will stay in full service RV parks, but eventually we will graduate to staying at sites with no electrical or water hook ups and fully independent!

I have already spent a couple of days working from the new mobile office, Luka the wife and I approve of the new digs!

The first trip will be just after my birthday, we will not venture far, just up to Mt Hood and start this journey :)

We look forward to updating you on our progress and plans.

This has been a great snow season, lots of snow, some sun (in Jan at least), great people to play in the snow with.

It is a shame that the season is winding down, there is still 14ft of snow at meadows!  but the people, the people stop going :(

There is plenty of footage for another 10-15min video this year, I just need to make sure I get all the footage from the various bodies!

We probably have a couple of weekends left now, then we will turn our attention to golf and bikes.  In fact we have had our first golf outing, much fun in the rain!

It's been a long time coming but finally the 2010/11 winter season is here! So far we have made 3 days up at the hill and it is not even December yet! The first night riding is just around the corner! So with a little luck the knee will hold up and we will top the 40 day marker :)

A few things have changed this season, we traded our trusted Escape (Ernie) for an Expedition (Eddie). With the addition of a hitch mounted ski rack and a roof box we can ride 6 up with all our gear in limo comfort :) There is even a DVD player to keep the kids in teh back quiet!

We also revamped our out-ware with new Oakley and Northface gear, and I finally replaced that dented helmet..... well overdue!

The dear wife bought me an early Christmas present, a nice Ride DH :) I had the DH2 last year, but a rocker board is not for me....

We have a new camera for on hill video and it looks like there will be a team effort for a video this year! I should really media-fire the one I put together from the previous years footage....

We have condo up the hill booked for Smurf's 30th Birthday and we are even importing friends for the occasion!

I will post some pics later of Eddie and the early season snow.

I have managed to go an entire season without blogging. I think the reason is simple, the journey to Tahoe and back is a killer. Average of 4.5hours each way. But we managed 34 days riding with some amazing powder days, awesome tree runs and we got to ride the best Tahoe has to offer.

We had season passes for Heavenly/Northstar and Sierra. We also rode at Squaw a few times but did not get to Alpine or Kirkwood this season.

Mrs M got some great piccies this year, some will find their way on here - when she has finished the editing :)

The last few days have been fun. I have been out on the mountain bike for 4 of the last 5 days. Today was particularly gratifying, I'll explain!

The ride I tend to do can be broken down as follows:

1. 1.5 mile on the road then a brief stop to cross the road

2. 0.5 mile to the entry of the fire road at Waterdog Lake park, rest in prep of the main climb.

3. 1.7 mile climb up the fire road - then rest!

4. 0.25 mile of a short but steep decent and then a short but steep ascent!

5. Take in the view and turn around and head back!

Total ride is just shy of 8 miles and take just under 1 hour. If I am riding with someone else then the ride is a bit longer and takes on some nice single track, but from 1-5 is where you earn your stripes as it is all climbing!!!

Today, for the first time I got to the end of point 3 - with no rest! More importantly I made it up the steep ascent at the end of point 4 AND on the way back I made it up the other steep ascent taking you back to point 3!

This is the first time ever I have managed those climbs. It is not just the gradient that gets you but the surface is really dry and loose, so if you loose traction it is really tough to get going again...

Here are some snapshots for you. I should get some to lay out the points above, but I only really thought about the points tonight...

This is taken from the highest part of point 4. The trail on the left is the fire road up to point 3, you can see from point 3 to point 4 is quite an increase in altitude...

This is the view from the highest point at the end of point 4, you can see across the bay into the east bay here. The trail off to the right is the single track that I ride, from time to time!

I am hoping to get out again tomorrow and then Wednesday is the weekly ride, but my legs are in a bit of pain tonight so we shall see...

With the ever changing world and the evolving mediums we use to communicate with people it is amazing how closely you have to keep an eye on content... With that said, I am reviving my blog and in the foreseeable future will go back to having my own domain...mwahahaha!

Originally I set this blog up to stay in contact with friends, family and my now wife! It was very successful in allowing that and it would appear it's time has come again!

This has been an interesting couple of weeks, some business travel with a colleague I have a great rapor with, some good discussions, meetings and meals.... which really leads to my current issue.

Weight.

Or more particularly:

Mass.

Body mass.

And a somewhat of an excess.

Each summer, or as I like to call it - the off season, I put a good few pounds on! With that said my mountain bike has been rebuilt and survived its shake down (as did I!) and should be getting more use out of it for the next few weekends while Kate is at college. The business travel is over for a while so the food intake should normalise and I have every intention of, oh dear how can I say, going to the gym. At least once a week..... So I get my minimum of 3 good exercise stints a week...

That last part is an admission to the gravity of the situation. As you all know, mass times gravity equals weight...

Last weekend we made it up to lake Tahoe for the weekend.  There is no fecking snow though!!!  One small run was open at Boreal, so we played there for a bit.  Lots of rails and jibs out, so naturally I took a nasty couple of spills, including one to the nogging.  Apparently it could knock some sense in to me!

We spent the night in a little hotel in South Lake Tahoe.  It was cheap and clean!  We also found a dive bar and a couple of randoms who we drank the night away with.  Much fun!

We decided not to ride on the Sunday, due to hang overs and not much snow.... instead we mooched about the shops and stuff.  Was a very pleasant day!  The drive back was 3.5 hours and we were tucked up in bed by 9:30pm.

I think Smurf still has pain in her abductors....  Personally I have a pain in the neck! (bad pun, but true!)

It is 50/50 as to whether there will be good snow at the weekend, but we will still go up for our 2 night stay, it is a nice place to hang out and we have plenty to do there.

It is here! We have snow. Well, there is a light dusting of stuff around and about....Tomorrow we are off to Boreal to ride the park in the sunshine, nothing wrong with riding a rainbow rail in a hoody. We are taking the new video camera, so we should have youtube foot-age a plenty!

Sunday we will trek over to ride Mt Rose, again mainly parky thingys out :) Then we have a timeshare thingy, we just want the free night they promised us..... Expect a full review on that session.

We are all packed up in our new bags with our new trousers and jackets and gloves and goggles and cannot wait to get up their.

Piccies and video to follow next week(ish).

Just in case - Happy Thanksgiving :)