Taking our Bikes for a Walk

In our years of planning before we hit the road we read every blog we could find on this lifestyle. We had no idea what to expect, what it would cost and what we would need? Although in the past three years we have answered many of those questions there are still a few we have yet to get all the answers. Mainly in the "What to expect" category. We have learned to expect the unexpected.....like a window falling out!

We were most proactive in the "What do we need category" buying many of the more expensive items while we were still working. As we look back on it now two of these purchases might not have made the cut if we had to do it all over again. First was our induction plate. Blog after blog stated how much they use their induction plate to do cooking and save propane. I don't think we used ours once in two years before we finally gave it away.

The second items were our bikes. We researched, test rode numerous bikes before we finally found the right bikes for us. And no, they could not be the sub $100 bikes you buy at Walmart, we had to get the best bikes we could afford because we were going to be riding them all the time right? In the past three years I can think of four times we have had them off the bike rack. One time was to get the bike rack welded because it bounced around so much and developed stress cracks and two other times we actually got out on rides but got flat tires both times. Since then we have "thorn shields" installed in our tires AND filled them with Slime.

So here we are in Tucson with hundreds of miles in bike trails and several areas designated as mountain bike trails. Last week we hiked one of these mountain bike trails (Camero Trail) and said to each other that we should get our bikes out. So that is just what we did earlier this week, got our bikes off the rack and headed for the trails!

Ready to conquer the trails!

We learned two things very quickly; 1) You use a totally different muscle group mountain biking versus hiking. 2) Never and I mean never, try to bike a trail called Boulder Trail.....it has a lot of boulders. We ended up walking our bikes for better than 1/2 of the trail and we both decided that we would stick to the hard pack gravel or asphalt in the future.

Barb walking her bike up one of the steeper sections

Downtown Tucson off in the distance

We were able to ride on the flat areas and downhill

But walked them up many of the hills

The big event this week in Tucson was the fact that the rodeo in town. Rather than going to the main rodeo performance we opted for watching slack. Many rodeos have more contestants than they can show in the main performance so they run what is called slack where competitors perform without all the hoopla and the crowds.

We prefer slack for a couple of reasons. One is that there is no one else there so you can sit pretty much wherever you want. Parking is free and getting in the gate is only $5. Over the course of 4 hours we watched barrel racing, tie-down calf roping, team roping and steer wrestling.

As many of you know, Barb used to run barrels competitively for a number of years so getting to see some of the top NFR participants run was the highlight for her.

Speaking of highlights, you can see a couple of Barb’s runs from a few years ago in these short videos below (each are less than a minute long).

Giving up her horse Scout was the hardest thing she had to do when we started full-timing. Although he is now 17, Scout is still out there burning up barrels.

Tie-down roping

Back when we had a bunch of horses and cattle we used to rope and wrestle them on occasion but never competitively. I once got the hankering to wrestle and a friend of mine who did it said the easiest way to find out what it was like was to ride on the running board of a truck going 25 miles per hour and tackle the first mailbox you see. After that description I decided to just stick to riding and gave up on the wrestling.

Steer Wrestling

A couple days later they had the rodeo parade which Barb, Forrest, Lily and I attended. We got there about an hour early so we could get a front row seat. Parades sure have changed over the years. They had “parade marshalls” lining the street to make sure you did not step off the curb and there was no candy throwing at all.

Lots of sponsored floats and marching bands. After a couple hours you could see the effects of the parade and rising temperatures taking its toll on some of the marchers.

Look who shaved off his beard!

   With only a week left here in Tucson (if our window arrives) we still have lots of things on our "to do" list, it is going to be a busy week!!!!!