a little to far

so, several years ago just as fire season was about to start i got a letter in the mail informing me that due to budget cutbacks they were not goin to bring me back for the upcoming season. they sent this letter to about a hundred people in the local area. every one was bummed, and several worried about there lack of cash flow. so to off set the general bad mood, several of us decided to go cliff diving/jumping. normally i go to a place called monkeys canyon, but this time it was decided that we would go to a different place, fish creek. i had never been there before and was excited at the possibility of a new place to go. we load up in my buddies car and head out there. after about a 40 min drive my buddy stops the car next to this bridge and says "were here!". i get out and look over the bridge only to find a dry riverbed... this isn’t looking promising, but he insists that there is water farther up the canyon, so we grab our stuff and go. immediately i realize there is no trail, as we begin bushwhacking our way in till we get down to the river bed and start to follow it up. after about half a mile a trail appears on the west bank of the riverbed (which is still dry), which we start to follow. after making it another half mile, the dry riverbed had now narrowed to a small stream/creek that has water barely trickling down, so of course we are all giving my buddy a hard time about there not bein any water, but he insists there is more towards the top. about another 1/4 mile in we finally see some water! there is a small pool that is about 10 feet deep, and about fifteen feet all the way around. my buddy (who has been here before) says this is the first jump. so we climb up to the jumping spot which is about 20five feet above the water. now this isn’t just any normal jump. the jumping spot is on a slope, so you have to clear about 10- fifteen feet distance or you wont make it to the water. being the veteran jumper for this spot that he is, he goes first, lands perfectly in the center of the pool, comes up and swims to the side. there is cheering and clapping from all! so i step up to the spot and look out over the slope trying to gauge how far to jump, step back and jump out into the open. as soon as i am air borne i hear several expletives bein shouted from the other guys, i look down to realize what they had immediately noticed..... i had jumped to far! i brace myself as best as i can. just past the water is a stone cliff wall, that slopes a little into the waters edge into a ledge. i landed on both feet on the ledge in shin deep water, my shouts being drowned out as i immediately fell backwards in to the pool. when i finally came up for air, i just sort of floated there in the water. my whole body hurt, especially my legs. at this time, everyone else had already run down to the edge of the water to offer assistance if needed. after a few moments i swam/floated over to the edge of the water and assured every one that i was ok, just in a lot of pain. they let me sit there in the cold water for several minutes while they kept retelling each other what they saw and how they knew i had over jumped from the beginning. they all kept asking if i was ok, as i sat there hoping the water would be cold enough to numb my legs. after about 10 min. of sitting there, i told them we should continue on up the trail to the next jumping spot. they all asked if i needed to go back to the car, or go to the hospital. i reassured them that i could go on, but i would prob not move so fast. so we continued on up the trail, passing several small waterfalls and streams. after about a mile we arrived at the main jumping place, which was filled with waterfalls and several large pools, with ropes tied up so people could climb to the various jumping spots. i opted to not jump any more, and just sat in a pool of freezing cold water hoping it would keep any swelling down that i might get. after about 30 min, i told them i was goin to head back, and since it was gonna take me a lot longer to get back then them, that they could prob stay for at least another half hour and still catch up to me on the way down. so i made the long journey back to the car on my own, with them catching up to me in the last 1/2 mile. the entire ride back to my buddies place (were my car was) was completely miserable. once we arrived i had the new and exciting task of trying to drive home. normally this wouldn’t be that big a deal, except that all my vehicles were stick shifts. once i got home i grabbed some ice and laid down on the couch. several hours later my step mom came home and inquired as to what i had done this time. after a mild explanation, she made me take several anti inflammatory and some pain killers ( i have a really high pain tolerance, and usually refuse to use any of that stuff). after several days of the pain not goin away, i decided that maybe i should go to the urgent care to have them take a look. once there i found out that i didn’t break anything (prob due to my 2 gallon a week milk habit) but that i had bruised both my heels, and torn all sorts of muscle tissue in my lower leg and knee. i spent the next 2 weeks on crutches and after that just sorta limped around for a while. 2 weeks later i received another letter in the mail informing me that they had changed their mind, and were going to bring me back this season after all and that i was to report for work in 2 more weeks! lets just say that it was a very painful season... lol.

rapids and tires

So, one saturday several years ago we had a quad stake river rafting trip. most of the people met at five in the morning to car pool the hundred plus miles to the river. since i live in between the meeting place and the river, it was decided that they would pic me up so that i wasnt backtracking. my buddie tom was driving the car that was assigned to pic me up. since he had to stop to get me, we were well behind the rest of the convoy. so like any car filled with some awesome drivers would, we sped up to try and catch the convoy. after we had been traveling for about 10 minutes, i got a phone call from one of the other vehicles. my step mom ( her and my dad are the adult corrospondants for the single adults in their stake) knowing me and my buddies driving habits, had some one in her vehicle call and let us know that highway patrol was all over the place, so that we could keep and eye out for them and not get a ticket. after about 40 minutes we finaly caught up with the caravan. as we come up on the caravan we notice that they are goin particularly slow, we figure this is so we can catch up to them. my dad was driving the lead vehicle. we decided to pass all the other cars and pull even with the lead vehicle, so that they can see that we have caught up and that it is now ok to pick up the pace. after about 20 minutes, we grew tired of goin slow so we passed the lead car and headed off on our own. we eventualy started down this winding canyon road. after we had been goin down for several minutes, my buddy asked why my dad was driving so slow. we were coasting down the road at about 43 miles an hour and were gradually pulling away, with all the other cars still behind my dad. so i pulled out my phone and tried to call him to see why he was doin 40 in a 60. of course there was no reception. i kept trying till i finaly got reception. when he answered, i asked him if he had some fascination with goin 40 miles an hour. his reply was that he thought that was the speed limit. after the call, he sped up a little bit. eventualy we reached the rafting place, and we all piled out or the cars.

as we were all grouping up and organizing ourselves, the other drivers kept coming up to us and asking why my dad was driving so slow. aparently several of them had tried calling him as well but couldnt get through. we found this to be extremely entertaining. after much waiting and organizing, we were finaly ready to break into groups and load into the buses that would take us up the river to our starting point. me and several of my buddies quickly formed our group of 7, to ensure that we went down the river with each other, instead of getting stuck in a raft with less capable individuals. as we unloaded off the bus and started grouping up to get our rafts, one of the wilder guides saw our group and immediately claimed us. so off we headed down to the river bank to load into our raft. our guide gave us some quick instruction and we ran through some basic practice moves. we waited for the other rafts to shove off, and then headed down stream. due to my rafts superior rafting skills, and also the fact that we weighed more than any of the other rafts, gave us an advantage when it came to speed. we came racing up behind some of the other rafts, splashed there occupants and sped away before they could react. when we got to the fast rapid sections, our raft worked well together and was able to go down several of them backwards and one of them spinning the whole way down. towards the end, there was a section where we were allowed to jump out of the raft and swim. so of course i bailed over the side of the raft and had a swim. after we had gotten to the end we unloaded and pulled the rafts out of the water, and our guide offered to take our raft down again at a discounted price if we wanted to try some more stuff, so of course most of us did. the second time down consisted of some more technical manuvers, but was still a lot of fun. after the rafting we headed over to the local park where everyone else was already gathered. we enjoyed a small lunch, and everyone sorta did their own thing. some played croquet others bacci ball while still others played basketball, volley ball, and some even played catch.

after several hours of fun, we decided it was time to begin the long drive back. many others had already left, and we were the last of our group to go. on our way back, we had been traveling for about 30 minutes. we had all the windows down and the radio up. i was sitting in the back passenger seat with my eyes closed enjoying the wind and the tunes when all of a sudden i heard this horrible grinding noise. i quickly opened up my eyes to see that we were only inches from the canyon wall. the car then quickly pulled back onto the road. several yards later when the shoulder of the road was wide enough, we pulled off to inspect the damage. we had popped both passenger side tires, and of course we were in the middle of the canyon where there was no cell phone reception. we had one spare tire, but that wasnt enough to get us out of the canyon. my buddy tom who was driving decided to take one of the other guys with us and hike back till they either got cell reception, or made it to a gas station, and they were goin to leave me and his younger brother tanner with the car to at least change one of the tires, and then afterwords hike to the top of the ridge line and attempt to get reception there. luckily, bein the dorks that we are, tom and i both have our ham radio liscences, and on this particular trip we had both brought our ham radios. so he grabbed his radio and off they went back down the road. after several minutes of trying to work the mysterious volkswagon jack, the jack started to tilt while we were attempting to jack up the car. once it started to tilt, we decided that the best course of action would be to just let the jack down, but due to the new angle of the jack, the handle kept hitting the ground so we had to start digging a whole in the ground so that the jack handle would have clearance to unwind. after we had dug several inches into the ground, the handle started to hit stone. so we tried to dig the stone out. this was very time consuming. due to the lack of proper tools, we started using the tire iron and a flat head screw driver to chisel out peices of the stone. after about 20 min of this, i let tanner keep digging while i started the hike up to the top of the canyon.

the side was really sandy, with large rocks scattered about. when i got to the top i followed the ridgeline for a while in an attempt to find reception. of course there was no reception to be found. as i was walking along the ridgeline, tom called me on the ham radio. he let me know that they were about ten miles away at a gas station, and had found a guy that could get us another tire and bring it out to us, but he needed the tire size first. so i started heading back down to the car to get the tire size. when i got to the bottom i relayed the tire size and then went back to helping digg the rock out of the ground so that we could unwind the jack. after about another 20 minutes, tom returned ( they had hitchhiked back) and told us that the guy with the tire wanted 200 dollars for it, and that that was to much money. he had tried calling triple A , but since he didnt have it but his brother did, his brother had to be there to talk to them on the phone. so we switched partners, and they got a ride back to the gas station. while they were gone we finished digging out several large rocks and eventually got the jack out form under the car. about 30 min later they returned bringing gifts of water, rootbeer and a bag of corn chips. we had a 40 minute wait till the tow truck driver would be there to tow us back. once the tow truck driver arrived he was suprised to see that there were 4 of us, especially since his tow truck only had 3 extra seats. once the car was on the truck, we all piled in. i ended up sitting on the floor for the 80+ mile ride back. we spent most of the ride talking to the driver, swapping stories about recent adventures, and good times. when we started getting close to town we told the driver about the musical road and asked if he had ever been on it. ( there are only 2 in the world). since he hadnt been on it, and we hadnt reached our 100 mile limit, we took the tow truck down the musical road. it was pretty entertaining. afterwards he dropped the car off at my house and was again on his way. what an awesome saturday!

buying miss daisy

So, one day I looked at my bank account and noticed that I had several thousand dollars more than I expected. So, like most folks I started looking for a good way to spend my surplus. It was at this time that I discovered craigslist. After searching through add after add, I remembered that I had always wanted a jeep. So I began the search. After much searching I was not having much luck finding a jeep that met my criteria, for those that know me that might come as a shock since it is somewhat normal for me to buy vehicles missing things like paint, windows, engines... well, you get the idea.. all of the ones that I found, were basically just overpriced piles of rust. Then one day (around the beginning of December) I found an add for a 1975 cj5 jeep with a v8, and claimed that there was hardly any rust. Now from my vast experience of buying vehicles, I have come to learn that most folks selling a vehicle will consider several fist size holes in the body as “hardly any rust”, so of course I was skeptical. I sent the owner an email asking for more pictures, and any other info he had on it. Over the next couple weeks or so we exchanged emails. On the 23^rd After being quite sure that this was the deal of the century, I told the owner that I was interested, and would like to set up a time to come by ( the owner lived in AZ) and check it out. He promptly told me that he would not hold it for anyone and that another fellow was interested and was flying out on the 27^th from Indiana to take a look at it, and possibly drive it home. It would be first come first serve. That night after giving it much thought, I called up my good buddy Tom, aka cynicalifornia to see what his plans for the next week were. I gave him a quick rundown of the situation and asked if he would be interested in taking a road trip to AZ with me to look at it. And him being tom, he was more than willing to go. He asked me when we were gonna leave, I asked him when would work for him. To which he quickly replied how about the 26^th?

So, the day after Christmas I show up to his house, we load our various tools and gear into his car, and head out on the road. It started off, just like most of our road trips do (we have been on several), us barreling down the highway at high speeds, him behind the wheel and me looking for cops. We were making great time and enjoying the drive and truck-stops along the way making great time (as usual). Shortly after crossing into AZ I became aware that I had forgotten to allow for the time difference when planning our trip. This meant that we would arrive much later than expected. I called the owner and let him know our ETA (2200) and asked him if that was still alright. He replied that it was, but it might be better to come in the daylight. Now due to the first come first serve race with the man on the plane, and that the place we had planned on staying for the night (tom's cousin, Matt Wallin's house) was at least an hour away, I opted to come check it out that night. The closer we got to the house, the more we realized how close we were to Mexico (about fifteen min north). We followed the owners directions to his place, down the road till the pavement ends, then follow the dirt till just before the train tracks and hang a right. If you get to the tracks you have gone to far. Follow the road another 3 and half miles and its the trailer on the left. Yep, there we driving out into the middle of the desert in the middle of the night..... sounds a lot like some of our other adventures. We show up to the house a little after ten to find several spot lights on and the jeep idling away with its loping purr. Tom and I jumped out of the car, stretched out a bit as we introduced ourselves. The man pointed to the jeep, said there she is. Tom and I immediately grabbed our flashlights and went to work combing over the vehicle. The man just stood there slightly amused at the two of us crawling around in the dirt with our lights in the middle of the night giving her a good once over. After a few min of inspection, I took it out for a quick drive down the trail and back. True to his word, there was very little rust. I told him I would take it. He started to give me some talk about how he was firm in the asking price, at this time I pulled out an envelope full of cash, his eyes got big, and he motioned us to his shop so that he could get the proper paper work drawn up and get the title. After that was taken care of, he asked me if I wanted the back seat with it, I said sure why not. So we walked out to the edge of his property and after a few min of rustling around in the dirt he came up with what was left of a seat and a few spare parts. We threw them in the back. He then said he was not sure how much fuel was in the tank, and we might not make it to town, so he went over and grabbed 2 jerry cans full of fuel and told me I could have those as well. By this time is was now around 2300 in the middle nowhere on DEC 26. at this time I discovered that I was not as prepared as I had previously thought. It was very cold, the jeep didn’t have doors or a top, and I was used to CA weather, so I put on a t-shirt, a long sleeve, and my sweatshirt, a couple pairs of socks and a beanie. I then hopped in the jeep and headed towards town with tom following close behind as a blocker. Now some of you are probably wondering why I would need a blocker, well the jeep had plates that were about 4 years expired, and it was missing a few lights and was squirly as all could be to drive. We pull into the first gas station we come to, I get out and fill up the jeep, buy some oil and the only pair of gloves the gas station offered. As I get back to the jeep, the first thing I see is a cop car parked in the parking lot not far from the gas pumps. I try to be as inconspicuous as possible as we pull out and get back on the road. It was a miserable drive. It took everything I had just to keep her on the road, every car looked like a cop coming to bust us and it was freezing cold. The only parts of my body I was able to keep warm were my feet resting on the warm floor boards, and my left hand that I would stick out the side (where there should be a door) to let the exhaust heat it up. After what seemed like an eternity, we pull off the freeway and begin making our way through neighborhoods on our way to Matt's house. Since its pretty late, I am trying to be quiet but the jeep is so loud that it sets off car alarms as I idle by. We find the house, park the cars and head to the door. After some introductions and a little small talk about the trip so far we are given a place to sleep and immediately pass out. The the next morning, we get up, have breakfast and are given the grand tour of the house. Shortly after, we pack up all our stuff, throw it in the vehicles and we all head over to check out Round Trip Bike Shop ( http://roundtripbikeshop.com/ ) that matt owns and operates (so if your ever in the area you should stop by and check it out). After a tour of the store we decide to get back on the road and begin the long trek home, only on the way back, tom will only be following me for a little while, then he will switch freeways and head up through Utah to Idaho to visit his parents new place. As we make our way down the road toward the freeway, I start noticing that the jeep wants to stall every time I let it idle. Of course I think no problem, just need to push on the gas a little to keep it going. We get to the freeway and after a little while tom sends me a text cause I cant hear the phone ring let alone someone talk over the sound of the jeep, informing me that I am now on my own as he is heading off on his own course. After about an hour of so of me bouncing back and forth like a ping pong ball between the lines struggling to keep the jeep on the road, I notice the gauges (only half of the gauges were working when I bought it) are starting to bounce around too, and the temp gauge is thru the roof saying the engine is way to hot. So I get off at the next exit, and am quite happy to see an auto-zone right there. I pull into the parking lot, I don’t have to turn her off, cause she stalls as soon as I come to a stop. I pop the hood, grab a rag and start making some basic checks to see how bad the damage, if any is. After letting it cool down for about a half hour and adding water from the jug I had in the back and topping off the oil which was a qt low I noticed that the temp gauge did not go down any. So I bought a couple jugs of coolant, 2 five qt jugs of oil and topped off my water jug and headed back out on the road. I decided that the gauges were just going bad. After about ten min on the road the speedometer stopped working, this confirmed my guess that the gauges were bad. My now only working gauge was an after market oil pressure gauge which I monitored religiously the rest of the way back. Since I had no speedometer and expired tags I decided to go pretty slow the rest of the way, barely keeping up with the speed of traffic. Since I didn’t have a working fuel gauge or odometer, I used the road signs to guess how far I had gone and when I should get gas. I used the 2 jerry cans several times when I rant out in the middle of nowhere cause there was not a station in sight. I checked my messages every time I stopped to add fuel and oil, and in doing so discovered that tom was stuck in a snow storm and the roads were a mess ( but thats his story so I will let him tell you about it). The weather was amazing the whole day, until the sun went down. I resorted back to my multiple layers of clothes and using the exhaust to warm my left hand while driving. Around 2100 I was coming over the pass near wrightwood where I had to stop at a red light. As I was sitting there at the light struggling to keep the jeep idling I looked around only to notice the ground was covered with snow. The people in the other vehicles on the road all just stared at me in disbelief. Made me laugh to myself the last 2 hours home.

enjoying the heat

So I have an iron stomach that is unmatched at this point. unfortunately it is on the inside(still working on the outside) pretty much anything that goes in my stomach isnt gonna come back out the same way it went in, and i love spicey food. a couple of years ago me and some friends decided to go down to sandiego for the weekend, and check out all the cool spots we could find. i ended up in this hot sauce shop in seaport villiage. This place had shelves covering all the wall, going all the way up to the ceiling. Each shelf was covered with hot sauce. There was well over a thousand different brands and flavors to choose from, like pappy's XXX (which came in a flask shaped bottle). The really cool thing about this store, was that you could sample all the hotsauce before you bought it. i was in there for 2 hours trying just about everything i could get my hands on. i tried the good tasting stuff, all the way up to the stuff that was just suppose to make you hurt. the store clerk was amazed at my tolerance for heat/punishment.after tasting the hotest stuff they had, i started to just try crazy soundin stuff. the one that finaly did me in was called "the sphincter shrinker", it was made from applesauce. after eating it i just wanted to throw up, but down side of the iron stomach, is i usually just get dry heaves even when i am trying to.after looking all over the place while partially doubled over i ended up in an ice cream store where i convinced the girl behind the counter to sell me a quart of milk. that fixed the problem. that was a fun day,. later that day when we were getting lunch, everyone was tryin to stretch their dollars, so they all got hamburgers form some stand that wasnt overpriced to much, then i came around the corner from a place i had found that sells food by the bucket. you should have seen their faces.