Lag

We’re starting to wrap up the beta and hopefully will be due for a full release soon. Many of the new features are very exciting.

In the meantime I have wrapped up school and had family visit. Backtracking…

5/7/03 – Last day of classes. They will be mailing my MS degree this summer. But I am far from done here at the University. Timmy C. and I gave our presentation on finding trails. I’m starting to get more comfortable giving talks. I only spent a couple hours on the slides and almost no time rehearsing it.

5/8/03 – Parents and sister have arrived. Yipee! We went for a short walk at the Finger Rock trailhead.

5/9/03 – Hiked out at Saguaro NP west while my Mom and Sister visited the Desert Museum. Check out the slush inside this newly fallen barrel cactus. It got a bit warm and we only made it to the saddle beside Wasson, but it was still great to get out.

5/10/03 – Today was my dad’s first ride in Tucson: Charouleau Gap. How many >50 year olds can climb Charouleau Gap on the drop of a hat? He’s just getting out of winter but he had no problem besting the climb. It was a beautiful morning–unseasonably cool. Surprisingly my knee held up. There was some pain, but in a slightly new place, and it doesn’t seem to be getting worse with more riding. As usual, I play the wait-and-see game.

We stopped for apples and rice krispie treats at the top. Soon we heard the blast of a motor cycle engine approach. The guy got a few feet of air off the cattle guard, turned around and stopped his bike next to us. What followed qualifies as the strangest greeting I have yet to receive out on the trail:

“Are you guys high speed internet people?”

We just stood there, baffled by his first words. Eventually we found that he runs a web site dirtbiketv.com that streams exciting motor-bike video. He offered to set us up with helmet-cams and broadcast our rides.

5/11/03 – Hottie’s birthday–pretty much a stinker. She was set to race in Mexico, but plans canceled and she wasn’t able to attend. Nothing would have made her day more than a race. Then, she went for a long run on the rivertrail and ran into a scumbag dog owner. This guy had multiple dogs running without leash. She called for him to control his dogs and he just sat there. She ended up hopping the fence to escape. Then, instead of following the only decent course of action (apologizing) he yelled at her. He claimed that since it was after sunset she “wasn’t supposed to be out here.” So, he should be able to break the leash rule since no one is supposed to be out there–I see.

We took my parents out to see Hottie’s school: the A.L.L. Part of the tour included the trail that I built last summer. It’s in good shape except for the fact that someone has been riding it on a horse. The spots where he has ridden are turning into sand. Sammy says he is going to repair the hole in the fence where the horse(s) are getting
in. If that doesn’t happen soon I will post a sign.

5/13/03 – My sister has decided to stay in Tucson longer–woo hoo! We had a nice lunch out in the park and I went for a half suburban assault ride at dusk. Knee still feels ok.

5/14/03 – Things are heating up, so we headed to the forest. My sister wanted to see Mt. Lemmon so we drove up and enjoyed the cool air. I rode up Turkey Run Rd, then did a quick out and back on Meadow trail (excellent climb!) before heading back by Aspen Draw. Short and sweet. Riding up Turkey Run reminds me of home and the canyons. I love summer–even in Arizona.

I typically get horrible GPS reception on Aspen Draw. I brought the Vista and Sportrak to try the Magellan’s supposed excellent canopy reception. It did fairly well, but so did the Vista–so I have still yet to find a reason to use Magellan over Garmin.