The Pam and Jerry Fields' Blog Page

Month: July 2011

Interlude

Well, the rallies are behind me, and I’ve recovered from the stomach flu. Time to catch up on things and take stock of what we have planned for the rest of the year.

The Colorado Dream land hunt continues. Last Saturday we looked at some properties in an area we had not visited before. This area is south of Lake George, Colorado. Lots are smaller, mostly in the 1.25 to 2.5 acre size, but the prices are more reasonable per acre as a result. There are some nice views from some of the lots. Pike’s Peak is to the east, and South Park and the Collegiate Range is to the west. We were very taken with the area, and plan a return visit in a week or two to look at more properties.

We are looking for a  lot that is relatively flat and has a mix of pine and aspen trees on it. A mountain view would be a real plus. We saw some lots,  not for sale, that meet all these criteria. We think that if we keep a close eye on the listings something will come up that we could get serious about.

We’ve kind of given up the idea of using the land in a dual-purpose mode, for both full-time living and commuting to work. The closer in places are just more than our budget can handle. So, the land we choose will be pretty much recreational use only, not full-time living unless we win the lottery.

We would, most likely, put a small garage with an apartment built-in on the lot. Pam insists on running water and a bathroom, I don’t know why. 🙂  So, the lot would have some developement (well and septic) and we would run off a portable generator for a while. Doing some research, we can expect to pay about $10k each for a well and septic system.  We would need to fence part of the lot, at least, so the dogs could run a bit.  The search for our dream land continues.

The rest of the summer looks to be a little less hectic than it has been since May. A trip back to Wisconsin will be in the works for early fall, as I still need to get Dad’s tractor home, and there will be a memorial service for Pam’s Aunt Angela in Merril, Wisconsin, in the early fall that Pam would like to attend. With Pam’s permission I recently bought a used snowmobile which sucked some money out of our savings. That will curtail some of our travel plans for the year. We had discussed a trip to Prince Edward Island (North-east of Maine) but that will probably not happen this fall.

In other news, our son Toby is now employed full-time instead of working temp jobs, and that is good news. He  is even getting some overtime, so he can pay off  of his credit card debt and put some money aside. Felicity is interviewing for a 2nd part-time job this comming week, and if she gets it, the income between the two will cover her living expenses while the jobs she picks up re-doing web pages and writing newsletters provides some discretionary income. We hope she gets the job.

My thanks to Tabitha, Larry, Becky, and a few others who  take the time to read these posts and respond. I do appreciate it!

Thats it for now. Thanks for looking in!

Jerry’s Durango Rally

Man. So much has gone on in the last couple weeks. Today’s topic: Another motorcycle rally, this time one I co-sponsored. Location was in Durango, and the rally was held over the 4h of July weekend.

I’ve never gone to 2 rallies in one year, so this was a first. What does a rally organizer do? Well, a couple of things.

First, arrange for a “command central” where everyone meets and stages for rides. This year my co-sponsor suggested a campground whose owners he knows. A few calls, and we had group discounts, dates, and location confirmed.

Another duty that fell to me was planning the group ride. Most rallies have one major ride planned, and a few smaller, often shorter, rides planned for the 2nd  day of the event. In this case, I planned to have a group ride over the San Juan Scenic Byway, with next-day rides to Wolf Creek Pass and Valicito Lake.

Some of the XS11 models our club members ride have a range of about 100 miles due to small fuel tanks. Ride planning has to include fuel stops, as well as plan for meals and photo stops. Having been on this route before, I had a pretty good idea of where we could stop for these various requirements, but planned to arrive a day early to pre-run the course and confirm my memories. The pre-run resulted in a few minor changes and options related to the number of motorcycles we would have in the group.

And, of course, co-sponsors historically provided adult beverages for the socializing that takes place in the evenings after the day’s ride is over. I left that part to my co-sponsor. His wife actually took care of it, and did a good job.

Then there is the question of the rally T-shirt, no small issue. One of our members offered to come up with a design and pass along the shirts for $15.00 each, not bad for a limited-run production.

Rally T-shirt

13 bikes and 15 people showed up, not a bad turn out for one of these events. Aside from some minor mechanical problems the rally came off well. Scenery and weather were excellent, members enjoyed the ride and company, and food and arrangements worked like clockwork. Except for one thing.

I got stomach flu during the first day’s ride.

By the time I headed for home, I had to stop once or twice every hour to stretch out my abdomen. As a result, it took me about 5.5 hours to ride the 195 miles home. I missed 2 days of work and didn’t eat much in the way of solid foods (do crackers count?) for about 3 days. This is very odd for me, as this is the 2nd time I’ve had this happen, both times this year.

The rally was a success. I met some old friends and made some new friends, saw some great scenery, and introduced some people to the scenery of South-west Colorado. Here is a slide show of the main group ride.

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Larger photos, with captions, can be seen on my Colorado Rally Page.

Thats it for now. Thanks for looking in!

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