Well... The Annual "Bike to Work Day" is the third Friday in May. Looks like I may be riding with at least one other guy to work... Dunno how it'll go.

Finally caught the biking bug...

I've mentioned before an inclination to bike around town... But recently found my lead filled (ok not really) Huffy Cranbrook Cruiser insufficient to the task of going any sort of distance.

So a few months ago, I found a TREK 7100 MST at a decent price at a local pawn shop, and have found that Oklahoma City has some pretty decent trails - around both lakes, and a paved path connecting them. I've found that spending an hour biking around a lake is MUCH preferrable to spending same said hour playing video games inside. It's surprisingly easy from my location in town to take a number of paths, several of which don't even require me loading up my bike on the car and toting it somewhere just to ride it.

I'm finding that I forgot how fun riding a bike can be!

Mountain Time!!!

Well - we've tromped all over this beautiful country the past few days...

Monday



We visited Santa's workshop in Manitou Springs. It's a neat little amusement park based on a Santa/North Pole theme. My kids are almost too old for this, but nostalgia took over, since both Kelly and I had visited this magical place as kids in the early 80's. It was a neat place to share stories with Brianna and Skyler about when we were kids.

Tuesday



We again visited Manitou Springs, strolling through the neat downtown area and visiting a couple of parks. We bought tickets to take a Cog Railway up to the summit of Pike's Peak... This was well worth the ride and money, as we saw a variety of landscape, some fantastic scenery, and lots of wildlife. Speaking of wildlife, it seems that chipmunks are everywhere... I'm sure they are a nuisance for the folks who live here, but they're pretty cute to the visitors.

Wednesday

We decided to visit Cripple Creek, an old historic mining town. After a short drive, we were greeted by a neat museum at the city limits, and we decded to stop. It turns out they were offering rides on an old mining train out to some of the old mines. We decided to take the trip. Some of the history revealed on the hour long train ride was very interesting indeed. We visited a couple of shops, and the museum, then headed to downtown to hopeflly see some Colorado history. Alas, we were a bit disappointed. Most of the town's historic buildings and businesses have been preempted by a significant gambling establishment. This was one thing that hadn't changed for the better in the 20 years since we had been here before.



After that it was on to Canon City, with it's star attraction, the Royal Gorge. I'm not sure whether Pike's Peak or Royal Gorge was more beautiful... Kelly and Brianna immediately wanted to take the arial tram across the gorge (Basically a tram suspended by cables that is pulled across the gorge). And I found that I could not bring myself to go - I'm not normally scared of heights, but even walking across the bridge made me a little nervous. Skyler and I met them on the other side after we crossed the bridge on foot. We then took the incline railway to the bottom of the gorge, a short 5 minute ride almost straight down the cliff... Not nearly as nerve racking.

Today, we check out of Christ Haven, the place we've been staying, which, I'll mention, has been excellent. The proprietors here have made us feel like family. We are the only guests this week, at either the lodge or the cabins, so we've kind of had the run of the place, and it's been great.

We're off to stay in Colorado Springs today and tonight. We plan on visiting the Garden of the Gods, tour some of the places we remember, schools, churches, places we lived. Then Friday, it's off to Oklahoma...

Rocky Mountain High

I watched the sun rise over the Rocky Mountains this morning. For vacation this year, we booked a cabin in Florissant, Colorado, at the base of Pike's Peak. It's a place that my family and I stayed at when I was a kid, when Dad was attending nazarene Bible Collee in Colorado Springs. Nostalgia was the order of the day yesterday. Places only fondly remembered in vague, blurry memories were cast in much starker detail as I rediscovered places and views I hadn't seen in over 20 years.

This place is truly God's country... Along with, of course, almost any place that has hills and trees of sufficient size to obscure immediate view of the surrounding vista. We're "playing it by ear", not really making any hard and fast plans, slowing down, and taking it easy. I could certainly adjust to this slower pace of life.

More on our adventure as it unfolds.

Not-so-famous Quote from Gandhi...

"When the symbol (of any given religion) is made into a fetish and an instrument of proving the superiority of one's religion over others, it is fit only to be discarded."

Coffee Nirvana...

After several attempts to find a mechanism to produce consistently good coffee at work, I think I've found it.

Attempt #1 - Form a collective of folks to buy good coffee beans, grind them fresh, and use the community coffee maker. This ultimately failed as the community coffee pot and carafes are eternally filthy and we got tired of being the only ones to clean them up.

Attempt #2 - Smaller group, but we bought a french press and used it to make a couple of cups at a time. This failed when I had to move offices and am now away from the sink and break room. Also, the french press coffee seemed to always upset my stomach - too acidic and the grounds that always come through the press seem to make it worse. The coffee is good, but not worth the pain.

Attempt #3 - Aeropress. This thing makes delicious coffee. More like it makes espressos without a big machine. I make a couple shots of this and add hot water for a delicious Americano. You really can't imegine how good this stuff is from such a simple mechanism. Logistically, it's a success because I keep my own coffee stock, and can make a cup at a time of grounds-free, smooth coffee (unlike the french press). Cleanup is also easy.

Try it!

AeroPress Page

Old Man Logan

For those of you who haven't heard of this Marvel mini-series, I highly recommend you check it out. It's set 50 years in the future, and Logan is tilling the dirt on a sustinence farm in California. It is revealed that 50 years prior, the super villians finally managed to work together and they either killed or maimed irreparably all but the most insignificant of the heroes.

Due to his nigh-invulnerability, Logan still lives, but is a broken man. We're not given immediate access to the reasons why he has become a pacifist, but are immediately introduced to the primary plot device - he's behind on the rent on his place, and the landlords (the mouth breathing, wife-beater wearing grandchildren of the Incredible Hulk) come a' knockin to collect.

He receives a mysterious visitor in Hawkeye, former Avenger, who asks Logan to accompany him on a cross country run to deliver some "goods" to the east coast, their transport being a "Spider Mobile" previously owned by Peter Parker, your friendly neighborhood Spider Man. Reluctantly, Logan agrees.

What ensues is a cross country "Bucket List" meets "Stand By Me" road trip narrative, where slowly we learn what happened 50 years ago through flashbacks and fireside conversation between Hawkeye and Logan.

The landscape painted for us by Millar and crew is a dystopian wasteland ruled by the progeny of the bad guys we know and hate, from Hulkland on the west coast, through the southwest ruled by the Kingpin, all the way to the east coast, through areas controlled by Dr. Doom and the Red Skull.

The entire series pays homage to numerous current and past Marvel universe heroes and events, from the strangely named Giant Man Falls, to the bridge troll kid named Dwight, wearing what seems to be Ant Man's helmet... All in all, a well done series that's not even finished yet. Can't wait for the next issue!