Eastern Arizona

Driving from Santa Fe to Flagstaff today. Already did 362 miles today and another 100 to go. Taking advantage of flat terrain to memorize cloud types.

Drove past a "dinosaur museum" complete with female manequins in mini-skirts standing by the highway waving. Being a trucker might get lonely.....I'm glad there are others keeping them in mind.

World Class Truck Stop

We are on the road again. We stopped at a truck stop in Grants, New Mexico for some diesel and a driver change.

The truck stop had everything a trucker needs including a wall of CB equiptment, every energy drink known to man, and lots of hot dogs and air freshiner. You could get your prayer on at the drive-up chapel trailer.

Next step.... Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Street Legal...In Arizona

For sale at used car dealership ...street legal sandrail.Low miles I think since it doesn't have any guages (or a dashboard for that matter). It doesn't have a windshield (or any type of sheetmetal) on the front end and no headlights (who needs them anyways). It's registered as a motorcycle and no smog checks in the state of Arizona! Brruuuupppp!!!

Dead Pump

A bearing in the water pump died. Two things happened at once. First, the shaft moved forwards and popped the front seal out (which caused the leak) and second, the fan was pushed into the housing...which scored it and made it hard to spin.

Dead.

Michelle and I watched a movie, went shopping at Home Depot, ate at a 50's diner and read a Navaho newspaper. Keeping busy in Flagstaff!

I Have To Pee...

...that's what caballo blanco (our truck) said as we were leaving Flagstaff. Looks like the water pump died. Michelle and I are chillin' in a movie theater while it gets fixed...

I Love Flagstaff

Michelle and I made it to Flagstaff today. This area is beautiful...if I had to go to college again I'd look at Northern Arizona University. Tonight we parked the camper in a meadow outside of Lake Mary. 20 minute drive from I-40 and its like we are in the middle of nowhere...very peaceful!

Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

Somehow Mark and I ended up on the subject of weird stuff you can listen to on a short wave radio. One of my favorites are "numbers stations". Below is an excerpt from a wikipedia article on the topic....

Numbers stations generally broadcast artificially generated voices reading streams of numbers, words, letters. They are in a wide variety of languages and the voices are usually female, although sometimes men's or children's voices are used. Evidence supports popular assumptions that the broadcasts are used to send messages to spies. This usage has not been publicly acknowledged by any government that may operate a numbers station,

Normally I would throw this into the "look out for black helicopters on the horizon" conspiracy theorist trash can....but about a year ago I actually heard a Spanish numbers station on my radio. I wouldn't have believed it unless I heard it myself. Is it really for spies? Who knows....but you have to admit its a little weird... Want to hear one for yourself? Click below for a Cold War era recording in German...

HINT: you need to be patient and let the "weird" music play through before you hear the voices.



Below is a recording of a different English station...



The Conet Project is a CD containing recordings of various numbers stations. The Wilco album "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" is named after a famous numbers recording. I couldn't find the complete version on YouTube but I did find a snipit at the beginning of the compilation recording below. You should recognize the voice from a song on the album.



I think the music and sounds are just as weird as the actual voices.

Break It Down...

A week ago last Monday I was practicing barspins at the skatepark. I crashed and twisted my left ankle. It was pretty painful for the first couple of days and I couldn't put any pressure on it. By Thursday I was able to hop around the house. By Friday I was feeling better. During the next few days I went shopping at Home Depot, rode my bike to the beach for a swim, put a couple of new screens in our kitchen windows, cleaned up the back yard, went to the mall with Michelle, helped my neighbor move furniture, and climbed around the backyard on a ladder hanging the lanterns.

I couldn't help but notice my foot was still painful. Yesterday I visited the doctor for an unrelated reason and told him about it. He x-rayed my ankle and guess what? I broke the end of a bone in my foot!

I visited a specialist today who told me there isn't much we can do for that bone. He recommended a "foot brace" which will help keep my foot straight and flat while I move around. He didn't want to put a cast on it so it looks like there isn't much to do besides sit around for a month or so and take it easy.

This is the first time I have broken a bone during my 40 years on this planet. There is always time for a first.

On another note, I recently learned how to do one handed 360's...that's a first too...and enough to make anyone smile!

Lights Up!

Earlier we mentioned we how we created some new lanterns for the backyard out of colanders. A couple days ago Michelle and I hung up the new lanterns. We like the way they look...especially at night. We'll post some night photos as soon as possible.

Mike Aitken

I found another video of my favorite rider....I know I already posted about him earlier this month but I really like his style, haven't seen this video before, and figured if I put it on my blog under his name then I could easily find (and watch) it again...which I know I'll do. I love this footage...


Mike Aitken from FITBIKECO. on Vimeo.


Oh yeah...here is another version of the same footage I posted on the blog entry referenced above....but higher quality. The site where I borrowed this from titled it "you don't need to do tailwhips".....that pretty much sums it up.


Mikey Dew Tour from FITBIKECO. on Vimeo.