Contents: Update, Ranting and raving about California Highway Inspection Stations, Good news about David.


This week’s training for the Iron Horse Race started slowly and ended with a completely unplanned training effort of a 15 mile ride and a 15 mile walk/run. I am doing double Monavie and Advil tonight!

The first part of the week in Durango was, as most April days are, completely unpredictable. One day the wind blew branches off of trees, the next day was beautiful and the next day saw snow. You just never know. I never understood that whole thing about people who like spring because April in Durango is just not fun. Better to go straight to summer if you could somehow cast a spell and do that!

Iron Horse training was limited to one afternoon riding a stationary bike at the rec center and two days of 500 leg presses on the Bowflex. Definitely not enough, but I knew that I was leaving town and would be able to train on the road.

I left Saturday on a trip to pick up things from people who want us to sell them this summer. Some of these consigned collections are really great! I drove to St. George, Utah Saturday to do an appraisal and then had dinner with John Rick, owner of Jacob Lake Inn on the North Rim. What a great guy and fellow lover of Navajo weaving! I planned to drive to Las Vegas that night where you can usually get a deal on hotel rooms, but checked on the net and, duh, It was Saturday night and there were no rooms under $200. I decided to stay in St. George.

I thought that being in St. George would be a good thing. I have my mountain bike with me as I thought I might be able to more easily train with it and it's an old bike so I wasn't worried about taking it on a rack on a long trip. I got out at 7:30, planning to take an hour or so ride up into this recreational area on paved roads. I'd forgotten my helmet, but thought about it and decided that I never fell off of a bike when I was a kid so I was probably ok. The first part was great. In St. George, there are no people out on Sunday. So I had this road all to myself for about 15 miles, then I saw a mountain bike trail, The T-Bone trail, that went off the side of the main road. I decided that I should try it. It was fine for about a mile, then it got steep and I decided that I really needed a helmet if I was to do that, so I went back to the road.

Somewhere in there, I poked a hole in the side of a tire and ended up with a flat. Ever prepared, I took the tire off, replaced the inner tube and found I had forgotten my tire pump. So I had a new inner tube with no way to put air in it! Duh! So I put the tire back on and held the handlebars while I ran a mile, then walked a mile, then ran a mile, then walked a mile until I got back to town and my motel! Made it by 11:30!

Now I was running late to drive to Santa Barbara where I hoped to meet up with my nephew Jeff and see another family about a collection to sell. I took off and everything was fine until I got south of Vegas where the traffic slowed to a crawl on the interstate. Everyone that had one of those rooms the night before was headed home! I have no idea why it slows the traffic that much, but I suspect it is because the state of California stops every car to ask if you have any "fruits, vegetables or firewood." Honest to goodness, they do that. And they do it at every highway that goes into California! No wonder the state is broke, hundreds of people looking for fruits and vegetables and firewood? They already have lots of their own fruits and vegetables. I don't know about firewood, but they pay all of these people to stop every car and ask the question. Once in a while you will see a potted plant sitting on the curb next to one of these guys (or gals) just as a warning about what can happen. You could lose your plants! And don't even think about questioning them about the value of their jobs or they will have you get out, open you trunk and search your car just in case you have an orange tucked away.

Wow, that must have hit a nerve with me. Sorry!

Anyway, I'm stuck in traffic and after two hours, a quarter tank of gas (at $4.299 a gallon), and most of my patience, I'd gone about thirty miles. I pulled off at Primm, Nevada, and after working on my computer in a parking lot for about 2 hours decided to just get a room (Sunday nights are cheap in Prim!) and get up early to drive on to California.

Great room, internet connection and I successfully avoided the casino so all is good. And, since I almost killed myself training today, tomorrow is going to be limited to driving and listening to Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville channel on my Sirius Radio!

Back at it on Tuesday! Thanks to all for the donations to the Livestrong Foundation! I appreciate it and believe me, even if it doesn’t seem like much, a lot of $10 checks can turn into real help for someone who needs it.

To Donate: http://ride.livestrong.org/teamls2011/jacksonclark
Or mail your check Made out to Livestrong Foundation, % Jackson Clark
P.O. Box 2168, Durango, Colorado 81302

And, an update on cousin David who was scheduled to have his femur replaced last week. I asked you all to send good thoughts and prayers and they must have gotten there. After months of the bone is his leg showing no growth and basically dying, the doctors did one more MRI the day before the exam and found that, inexplicably, there was new cell growth in the bone! David is pushing hard at the exercises they are giving him to do and, with lots of work and lots of good thoughts, he might not need that operation! The world is full of mysterious things, yes?