Cyclist in the Making

Yesterday Jacques and I went out and bought some mountain bikes for the both of us.  He'd been thinking of getting a new one for awhile now and we decided now was the right time.  He used to be really into cycling all the time and I think it's great that he wants to get back into it.  We both wanted to find some way of getting some exercise every day and we were settling with taking the dogs on a walk around the neighborhood every night when he got home from work.  But it just wasn't enough.  So now our nightly walks are going to turn into nightly rides on a trail located conveniently near the entrance to our neighborhood!  We took an early morning ride today to get familiar with the trail and see how far we could go and it was amazing!  I hadn't been on a bike in such a long time and I'd totally forgotten how fun and refreshing it is to feel the wind blasting in my face, cruising along to the beautiful scenery.

We plan on taking bike trips out to wine country, San Francisco, the Redwood forest in Oakland, among other places we find along the way.  We've both fallen a bit out of shape, spending entirely too much time just sitting on the computer, or watching TV and it feels so great to get out of the house without relying on the car, where we're once again just sitting.  

I can't wait to see where this new adventure in cycling will take us, literally and physically!

Indecisiveness & Another Redesign

So after a few weeks with the dark side, I felt it was time to return to the light once again. This time, even brighter than before. (though I hope it's not too bright) The dark just wasn't working for me and I was hating the way the whole site looked, even with some minor modifications I was making every now and then. I've always known that I'm incredibly indecisive and can't seem to stick with just one thing for too long at a time... but having a website (err, -cough-THREEofthem-cough-) doesn't necessarily help this problem. I find myself constantly wanting to change things. Though a complete redesign isn't usually one of the things I like changing. In that respect, I'm pleasantly decisive. It's just the little things that I can't seem to hold on to.

With this redesign, I've also decided to implement the "jump break" feature, because as I was looking through my previous posts with LOTS of photos, they are just too lengthy to scroll through on the main page. I didn't want to use this feature at first because it hides the rest of the photos, but after thinking about it, I think it'll make the blog look a bit more organized.

So anyway.  There's not a whole lot else going on right now.  We're still in the process of figuring out the car issue so that I can go back to work and finally finish college, this time with a degree.  I wish there was some way that we could speed up the process, but unfortunately, there's not... unless we win the lottery... and with my luck, we don't even have a fighting chance.  It'd be nice though. :]

I'll end this post with a very fitting macro of an orange lily from the bouquet of flowers Jacques brought home for me one night this week:

On the Road Again...

Well, the huge road trip is now over and done with and we are STILL exhausted from the super long drives.  The drive seemed much shorter on the way back, but it was also much more difficult, since we hadn't fully recovered from the first drive out.  I'm telling you, it takes alot more out of a person than it seems.  If we ever have to make this trip again, we are definitely stopping for the night, rather than driving straight through.

We hit a few road blocks (no pun intended) along the way, like having to change up the whole plan of getting the U-haul truck, since they'd booked us for a 17-foot truck instead of the 14-foot truck like we'd ordered and not even letting us know until we were in New Mexico on Friday afternoon.  AND we were told that it only got 8 miles to the gallon, which would have been almost $1,000 in gas alone.  So we had to do some serious rethinking before even getting to our destination.  But everything ended up working out and the only downside is that instead of instantly having my stuff here, I have to wait around 10 days.  (We ended up still using U-haul, but their U-Box service instead)

ANYWAY, on to the photos!  First, from the drive from CA to OK:

Random stop we made in Arizona for gas... I liked the look of this old building across from the Roadkill Cafe in Seligman, which reminded me of a ghost town.

Catching a view of the mountain in Flagstaff, AZ.

More of the city life captured in Flagstaff, AZ.