Glory Days

And that is how a 3 day weekend is spent. I thought I was going to be car camping in Santa Cruz. Made a late decision to drive 4 hours farther to Santa Barbara and ended up at my friend's house on the hill. Mellow hurricane swell, bashed some holes in the board, went record shopping (didn't score), ate quality Mexican food, stopped by one of my favorite surf shops that doesn't exist anymore and it had nearly burnt own from a portable meth lab, and general hanging out drinking coffee and slapping high fives. Almost didn't come home. Why am I in Reno again?

Burning Man Special

Needs some minor TLC.
The roof, black, and grey water tanks leak.
Carpet is musty and smells like rotten cabbage (Think Kim Chee).
Engine needs a major tune. Barely fires up.
Entire exhaust system is screwed and rotted away.
Tires don't hold air and are completely dried out and cracked.
Electrical system is blown out.
All window either leak or are broken, and all seals leak.
Runs and drives great.
This ForeTravel (we call her 'ForePlay') is ready to roll. Will start right up and you can be on your way.
Comes with a free sundried tarp and tie down string.

need more adventure, STAT!

Sumatra 2012 from Brown Recluse on Vimeo.

I live in a desert

Damm it's hot, man. But it's a dry heat.



$99 Walmart A/C unit with $900 worth of Patagonia down jackets stuffed around it to create a nice, tight seal against the window.

Bad News Bears

It's time to get away from working on my camper and stretch the legs out in nature. My hip's been broken down pretty bad for a few weeks so I've been focused mostly on non-jock-like activities. That's no beuno for la cabeza. Every ride leads to crippling hip pain the second I get off the bike. But I just gotta get back in the game cuz I'm seriously going nuts and getting skinny fat. I'm dealing with ILIOPSOAS TENDONITIS from my new, larger than normal ceramic hip socket which is supposed to distribute the weight better and last longer. Google all that if it even matters. Basically, any lifting of the leg shoots pain and makes it impossible to effectively activate the muscles require to lift said leg. The only ting that helps is lots of couch time. Fuck that. I just need to bust through the pain barrier or collapse into a festering heap of shit trying. Time to spandex up and suffer up some grinding hills. So today I cruized a half hour away to Lake Tahoe to ride the legendary Flume Trail which hugs the mountains along the East Shore and ends near Diamond Peak Ski area. It's a fairly easy ride, except for the hills that lead up to Marlette Lake. About a mile past that lake is the trailhead to the Flume Trail which is basically flat until the last 3 mile downhill. I wasn't going to ride the whole trail, rather just a couple hill repeats to get the legs burning, ride along most of the Flume, then turn around before the downhill and head back to the car. About 28-30 miles roundtrip, mostly mellow big chainring stuff. Plans changed when I rounded a corner a couple miles short of the turnaround. After living in moose and elk country for so long, I have a habit of loudly coughing or clearing my throat in areas where there's deep brush, blind corners, or areas where it seem like big snarling hooved animals would hang out and get easily startled by some dude wearing bright synthetic skin tight clothing. 20 yeas ago in Idaho I rode around a blind corner while mountain biking and nearly stuffed it into the ass end of a gigantic elk. Well today I rounded a corner and I fucking scared the crap out of a very large bear about 25 feet away. He jammed into high gear and tore off downhill through bushes and breaking small trees. When it comes to sharks an bears, I am not one to hang out and see if everything is all right unless I'm surrounded by steel and have a gas pedal under my foot. Right then and there I decided I'd ridden far enough, let somebody else be bear food, turned the bike around, and made a mellow hasty retreat. All said and done, it was a gorgeous 24 miles.


Marlette Lake glass off

Start of Flume

Sand Harbor

Watertight and shipshape

And from this....

To this....

We're very near setting sail. Steady as she goes. The windows are in and the wiring is being handled...mostly by me so it's slow going. I'll still need to swab the poopdeck, then glue in the remaining wall covering before I re-install the cabinets, benches, and bed.

venting

From this....

To This....

Ditch Witch

Mountain biking along mostly flat Steamboat Ditch, I ran into some 80-ish year old grandma while I'm grunting & straining up some little hill that was maybe 400 vertical feet at best. Right as she stepped aside to let me pass, my lungs clamped shut, my head started spinning, and I lost what little traction & balance I had in the loose sandy dust. So I hopped off the bike so as to not break my last good hip. Granny says to me..."you can't let this little hill stop you", and shakes her head in disgust. "I know, I'm pathetic", I reply. Very pathetic.

Catchin up

When I got home from Paris, I sat at my desk for a few days then had an instant 5 day weekend. Why not haul ass to Santa Brabra. Late on the drive south I almost drove off the road taking this pic.




I camped in my buddies Airstream that he parks on the back of his estate. The guest house is rented out to a crazy Australian dude. The main house was being used for the Memorial Day weekend by some dude from Taylor Made who brought his friends and family up for the holiday. He threw a party and somehow we were hanging out with Fergie's husband, Goldie Hawn's son, a nude statue model chick, and the chef from the French Laundry. I drank a lot of their wine.




There was way too much shit going on all weekend. But I mostly surfed. Surf surf surf. Surf surf. Surf. I saw this awesome Surf Pacer on the way back from Rincon one afternoon. And I also ran across another like-minded camper down by Mira Mar beach. Uhaul rented and sold a small fiberglass RV for a few years. I also went to a super-stoney styly surf movie premier. Seems like hair is taking over. I looked like a narc amongst all my longhaired friends. I didn't snap any pics at the flick cuz EVERYBODY else was bloggering away about it. You should check out Almost Cut My Hair at www.rlovelace.com if you're into smooth riding and good vibes.




But then I needed to head back to good old Reno and finishing up the work on my trailer. As soon as I put this thing back together I'm free to go wherever I need. So I damm near glued my eye shut putting in the Reflectix insulation. It was a serious bitch, but it's done. I popped in a fiberglass patch over one vent hole and decided at the last moment to put a patch on another vent hole to clean up the visual. Too many vents on one side looks messy. So I screwed a chunk of plywood wrapped in wax paper to the inside. Then I took a thin patch of poly material and threw resin and loth over the outside. Lastly I screwed another waxpapered plywood to mash all that crap together. When it cures, I'll unscrew things and add another layer of cloth and resin.



Well, that's about it. Trailers, cars, and trailers.

Let's do this

My time in Reno may end in the near future with yet another glorious crash and burn. I'm getting a bit too mellow and not agro enough. After spending the last 5 days in Santa Barbara living the good life and surfing with friends, I know where I need to be....living out of my tiny trailer on an estate along the California coast and surfing. Change coming soon.

A Life Well Lived | Jim Whittaker & 50 Years of Everest from eric becker on Vimeo.

au revoir

Victory!

i'm lourving it