Congratulations, Chris!

Thank you to everyone who visited the Transplantable Rose during the blog tour and entered the drawing for a copy of Nightshade, the sixteenth mystery in the China Bayles series by Susan Albert.

Congratulations to the lucky winner - Chris Quinones of Massachusetts!

How to mesmerize a cat

I'm not sure if it's the groovy screensaver, the Grateful Dead, or the combo.

Elaine does things which would have shocked her mother

Part II of Hijacked at Florence Airport

George and I were delighted to finally arrived at Gatwick, albeit 4 hours late..

so it was 2am by the time we arrived at Kings Cross Main Line Station;the place was deserted, dark, and locked. Metal gates barred our way, we wouldn't be going anywhere quickly.





We were treated to barely disguised sniggers and told there was nothing availablewhen we tried to book into a nearby hotel for a couple of hours...I am a bit slow on the uptake, but it dawned upon me that they thought we wanted the room for just a couple of hours of fun. At first I was cross - but then I had to laugh.





We laughed all the way back to the station entrance where we found a couple of other people waiting for the station to open its doors; westill had the best part of 3 hours to wait!





Grateful to have a patch of concrete to sit on and hoping that the patrolling police wouldn't move us on, we settled down. Suddenly the place filled up with lots of noisy people wearing strange black clothing, white makeup, weird hair-do's, lots of uncomfortable looking piercings ... Goths!

Borrowed image

They looked weird, they looked dangerous and my anxiety levels were high as they plonked themselves down on the ground with us but they turned out to be extremely friendly young people and we had a fantastic time chatting with them.





They had been to a Goth concert and were all beautifully turned out in full regalia.





Yet again I had been guilty of judging a book by its cover.

borrowed image

I was tired and all I wanted to do was sleep - but my head was teeming with the things that had happened in the last 12 hours - what amounted to a hijack at the airport, the debacle at the hotel, sitting out on the streets of London through the night - or sleeping rough as I prefer to think of it!





Finally the gates clanked open and we hobbled in to begin the four hour journey home.





Home Sweet Home.





I suppose I have led a very sheltered life, but I quite enjoyed that night - retrospectively.





It makes me think that I have lived a little!!

Races and a Ride

Saturday was Maskenthine XC Classic mountain bike races. It was a long day. About 130 miles one way, a stop for breakfast, the races, and drive back home. Left the house before 6am, got home after 5pm.
The last Psycowpath race I shot was back on May 1st. And, it showed. I am not pleased with the quality of the photos I shot Saturday. I did get some good shots, but just too many with improper exposure and/or out of focus.
I will do some touch-up before sending files to purchasers. For my customers, if you wish to look at a touched-up proof copies before purchase, I will provide them.
The hosting company for my photos is updating servers. That has been delaying me publishing the photos. They are saying server should be back up to full speed Tuesday.
My legs were really tired by the time I got home. But, I got up for a Sunday ride. Surprisingly, I felt great, ready for a ride Sunday morning.
I rode the Sunday Breakfast Ride with Denny D. Was just the two of us. The ride started from the Wabash Trace Trailhead. We rode around Council Bluffs on the bicycle paths, stopping at Hy-Vee on N. 16th for breakfast.
From there, on city streets through Council Bluffs. That was the real "tour" de Bluffs took place. Exited downtown to the South and rode Harry Langdon to the Mall. Back on the bicycle path to the trailhead.
When I got home, I just undressed and climbed into bed. Too tired to do much the rest of the day.

A Trifecta?

The weather started cooperating again this week. Little windy for Tuesday Ride - I was the only one for the slower ride. I rode Valley View trail up to IWCC.
Yesterday was a little better. Went to Trail Center to ride (not sure if Indian Creek trail would be open). Rode Riverfrom trail to Northway and back. Would have ridden more, but it was cloudy and getting cool.
Today, was a really nice day. By noon, it was light wind and 55 degrees. My mountain bike was not shifting right, so stopped by Xtreme Wheels to have it checked out. From the shop, I rode over to Lake Manawa on the paved bike trail. There, I wanted to look at the condition of the mountain bike trail.
Out from the parking lot, the trail looked good to ride. Rode West Sidewinder, frequently the driest trail. Most of the trail was dry, with a couple of slightly soft spots. Coming out of the trail, I hit something that bent the de-railer. Did some work to getting the bike ridable to get back to the shop.
After the second repairs of the day, the wind had been picking up. Decided to ride over the the Wabash Trace. Rode about 2 miles up the Trace to check out the trail conditions. The trail is mostly dry and firm. Some places are a little soft. As usual, the surface has been damaged by earlier riding under wet conditions. There appears to be some horse hoofprints - not as bad as last year. Also, damage from motorized vehicle spinning wheels under wet conditions.
As Zack called it - a Trifecta -- riding on pavement, in the dirt, and on crushed limestone.

Don't Waste Your Life

I finally finished reading Don't Waste Your Life by John Piper. I really like his convicting, hard-hitting style.
Here are some portions from the last chapter entitled My Prayer-Let None Say in the End, "I've Wasted It". And now shall we who treasure Christ and know your love is better far than life lay up, like all the world, our treasures on this earth? Would not we hear you say, as you once said, "Fool, will not this same night your soul be taken back? And then whose will these barns of bounty be?" Forbid, O Lord, that while the world is filled with need we would sit down and say, "Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry." A terrible reversal waits such lovelessness. "Woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation."
Oh God, such riches are a wasted life. Protect us, Lord. Grant us to hear and heed another call: "Lay up your treasure not on earth, but in the place where moth and thief will never come. Make treasures for yourself that cannot fail."
The answer is that in this life we may begin to treasure Christ, and here gain an aptitude for joy in him. It is delighting in his fellowship beyond all family and friends. It is embracing all his promises that there will be more pleasure in his presence than from all the lying promises of sin. It is a gladness in the present taste of glory and the hope of future fullness when we see him face to face. It is a quiet peace along the path he chooses for us with its pain. It is being satisfied that nothing comes to us in vain.
He calls us now to use our riches for the poor and to join him in this final task of frontier missions. Is not this, then, the way we lay up treasure in your house-to give our money and ourselves to make as many rich with God forever as we can? Grant that we move toward need and not toward ease.
As God lives, and is all I ever need, I will not waste my life...through Jesus Christ, AMEN.

Stinson track, Christmas Creek

The day after this ride, and continuing on this seemingly endless quest to bring this blog up to date, the day after the adventurous night ride saw one of the most incredible walking experiences of the year to date. The initial objective was the 6km ride to the start of the track. It was actually quite a bit hillier than I'd expected, and thus took a little longer to cover. I was in no hurry, as the group I was walking with weren't arriving until 9am, meaning that I'd had time to sleep in, then amble across the pretty ride at a snail's pace.

There were 13 of us in the group, following the track first to the grave of James Westray, a crash survivor (more on that later), and then on to Larapinta Falls. The early part of the walk set the tone, with the track criss-crossing the creek several times (the creek now swollen with the previous evening's storm), with some rather interesting footwork required at times. Whatever we had to go through, the surroundings made it worthwhile.




Several decades ago, a mail plane attempting a flight from Brisbane to Sydney had crashed in the middle of this wilderness. Of the seven people on board, three had been killed instantly. Of the four survivors, one (James Westray) had some hiking experience in the UK, and decided to attempt to tramp his way through the forest to a local farm for help. He would never be seen alive again.

In the meantime, the official search by whichever organisation was responsible at the time was called off. A local farmer, a member of the O'Reilly family (after whom a nearby mountain resort was named) decided to do his own search. It's believed that he stood atop a mountain, and noticed a fallen branch on a tree several kilometres away, and calculated that this was caused by the plane falling from the sky. Incredible as it might seem, he went to the location and found the three remaining survivors.
As they made their way out of the forest (now with an experienced navigator leading the way), they found the body of James Westray. Evidently he'd fallen down a waterfall, but still continued until he reached a place alongside Christmas Creek. It's believed that he stopped for a cigarette, and died while smoking it (I said it was a health hazard). His grave marks the spot. I don't know if it was any consolation at the time, but he did spend his final moments in some incredible surroundings.

Our intrepid group continued upstream, the track disappearing after the grave site. We were left rockhopping creek crossings, and surveying the ground to find the smoothest passage. It's possible that a few mistakes were made, but most of those were apparently corrected on the return by the same route. Along the way I found a new way to deal with a leech. When I took off a shoe to check for leeches, I found a dead one inside. There's probably a certain element of bad blood between myself and the leech population of the world, but this was taking things a bit far, even for me.



Several waterfalls were passed, en route to the big one, the famous Larapinta falls. The final part of the trek became considerably rougher, and our "official" leader decided she wouldn't make the final push. It was rather difficult, but pleasant all the same. I managed to twist an ankle, but not enough to compromise my ride home the next day. Whatever happened along the way, the final result was worth it.

The walk back, being downhill along a route that we "knew" (sort of) was considerably quicker and less eventful than the climb had been. The most notable event was the local leech population attempting revenge on my right foot for the earlier death of their comrade -- I counted ten of them. Now it was time to say goodbye to the rainforest (until my next visit at least), and while the remainder of the group headed for the Beaudesert pub, I opted for a leisurely ride back to the Stinson Park campground, and another evening by the campfire. This time I'd use it to get my shoes dry (which had been drenched on some of the creek crossings). A pleasant way to end yet another amazing day. This is what living is all about.