January 09

Well, what can I say? The fall and early winter have ticked off like the final seconds on the game clock and we are now getting ready to slash off our first month of 2009. It seems like the new year just happened and yet it is almost 1/12th of the way over.

Jessica and I spent the last day of 2008 and first two weeks of 09' in Mexico playing in the water and just enjoying a simplified version of everyday life. No bars, clubs, or stores on this beach, just a few established places to stay, the normal handful of 500,000 to 1 million homes just down the beach, and a few no-name small palapa shaded places to eat. Sleeping to the sounds of waves is quite possibly one the most soothing things in my opinion. Add the pre-dawn rooster crows and their snooze buttons that go until mid morning and you have a pretty nice setting that is easy to become accustomed too and difficult to transition away from.


The view of the break from our room. The blue tent in the middle of the pic was actually the "office" of writer, surfer, adventurer, Allen Weisbecker who had just arrived a month earlier for what he said was "at least a year" living in that spot. A true ex-pat who has been surfing since the early 60's and seems to know half the world. It sounds like he has been living in central america on and off for 30+ yrs. After a chat with him about everything from the construction of his palapa that had just started that day, to the issues with food production in the world, he personalized a copy of In Search of Captain Zero which I was stoked about. It was really interesting to meet Allen. I came away thinking few people live life like this guy and I enjoyed reading his book a 100 yds from his camp.

fresh langosta was cheap if you knew where to find the local fishermen

Mexico is full of stray dogs and these two lived in our little area/parking lot and ate from the restaurant. The one cleaning his beans was named Palomo which in itself is note worthy because he was the only stray that had actually earned a name and his sidekick (a female) I named Tippy. Palomo may not look like much at first glance but he was a silent warrior and owned the beach. I saw many a scars on the heads of other dogs who tried to take a crack at being number one only to succumb to his signature no mercy head bite. He never growled at his opponents during pre-fight posturing which actually proved quite effective at preventing a skirmish altogether. Needless to say, from the looks of things, many still caught the raw end of this dog. He was a good guy and Tippy was sweet. Because they live such short hard lives, I'll honor them here.



the caretakers old taxi that they took us to Los Llanos in. it had a nice tiburon decal on the back window which was a little ominous given the fact that 3 surfers were attacked and 2 killed in separate incidents last May a few miles south of where we were.



sunset from the board

it happened on the 5th even though I thought I was going to have a break down days earlier. After averting an early midlife crisis, I made it to forty... the door behind me in the photo belonged to our temporary neighbors who we overlapped with for about 2/3 of our trip. they were a really cool couple from AK and we were lucky to share many a fresh seafood dinners and evening chats over beers with them on our balcony. John and Rona, thanks and see you down there next time!

the cycle of life

Since I was not quick enough to start Zappos or savvy enough to invest in Google in 2004, we had to return to our lives in CO to get back to life and earning a living. Luckily, we were greeted with a January warm spell that took the sting out of returning to the cold weather and I was able to score a few rides to get the new year rolling right!

Short sleeves on the fixed gear commuter for two days straight proved quite fun and a great way to ease back into things. I found myself riding the entire weekend around town running errands, taking the long way to my destinations, stopping at the Mtn Sun, riding to Shawn's house in Louisville, etc. Riding until my ass hurt basically.
I was able to get a spin or two in during the week as well and yesterday actually took out the phoenix fixed gear 96er that had recently risen from the ashes of my 1x1 late last week.



apparently there was quite a brush fire in the area while we were gone that scorched a sizable stretch along 36


Even though it was inevitable that my course home would collide with this storm, I had to stop and snap a couple pics of the darkness barreling down on my position. I was lucky enough to only catch a little bit of freezing rain right at the end of the ride and I was plenty warm from pedaling to ward off a chill by that point.

I will save detailed ride impressions until I can hit a more worthy trail but I will say that the 29er front tire makes the ride a helluva lot smoother as one would guess. I can see why people like this setup, it retains the nimble handling of a 26in bike but the 29in front wheel irons out the trail and makes riding fixed rigid offroad, that much more enjoyable.

more soon