Hello all once again!  Just wanted to hit up the blog real quick.  I actually am on my way to work so I have limited time.  This past weekend turned out to be quite spectacular.  I headed out Lake Mary road just to see where I ended up.  I was hoping to lose some elevation so It would be warmer but the road turned out to be closed.  I thought for a minute to ride down it anyway but then a large piece of snow blowing equipment came around the corner. I took it as a sign not to go that way.  I headed out toward Mormon Village (where the detour went) and the roads were narrow with snow and at that time poor lighting.  So I turned around and ended up throwing my hammock up on the far side (from flagstaff) of Lake Mary. 

It was a very pleasant evening. I got a lot of reading done.  And a little exploring too...but not too much. I needed to keep my shoes dry.  Still quite a bit of snow there.  The sunset was amazing.  I kind of over did it on taking pictures of it. But wow!  I LOVE the Arizona sky.  Always has a surprise for ya. 

As the night went on...I had a small pack of coyotes enter camp...and do their howling dance less than 150 feet from my hammock.  Pretty cool but really creepy at the same time.  Then later I could hear them...or other packs all about in different locations...all through the night.
After staring at the dark night sky (the moon was just a small crescent) and watching shooting stars fly across the sky I finally fell asleep.  Only to be raised by a sound that from slumber I thought someone dropped a large metal object right next to me...then I was like no...maybe it was thunder...?

Turns out after listening for a couple minutes it was just the Ice on the lake re freezing.  It had been around 50 deg that day and at night it was still well down in to the teens or even single digits?  But the lake was cracking.  And if anyone reading this has ever heard this sound you know it is a weird loud sound that echoes of the banks...only to make it louder.  It was AWESOME!

Super trip...the only thing that bugged me was the layer of ice on my sleeping bag in the morning.  But...shoot...that isnt really anything bad...it is to be expected.

Anyway...thanks for following along.  Once again...sorry for all the landscape shots in the photo account.  Hope you all are having a great day!!! All right...back to work!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/biketour2009/sets/

        

Just noticed the links below aren't working properly. The sundara one does work but the music sites don't. So just google the names and you will be all good.

        

Why hello there all!  It's me...Lorin P. posting a blog on a night that my friend Molly decided to take me out on the town.  Have to say I'm a bit tipsy...but on with the blog entry. 

Hold on....gotta get this out...WOOT!  What a good day.

So...this past week I surrendered a 3 day weekend to a quite miserable cold? Sinus infection? Whatever. Down all three days...but alas I have made it through the work week post sick and tomorrow is technically friday!!!!!!!!!!  ( no, you can't put enough !!!!!!!!!! on that)

Today was the first day I allowed myself to do anything really since the whole kicker in the backyard fun  First off, after work I met up with a good friend of mine Alexis.  It is always pleasing to see good people still around.  Alexis has a store here in town that I absolutely LOVE called Sundara.  The web site to check out what the store sells is here sundara.biz/    I love stopping into the store because there is something different every time.  Also, the store is located in a location that used to be a music store and also a music venue.  People who used to play there include some people that you all know and love.  Google the location sometime and maybe you will get some answers...this is your assignment. 

Then, Molly (back to what I was saying earlier on  Molly making it happen) swooped me up and swung me into this other music venue I had no IDEA about here in town,  It's basically a little stage with a room with a couple tables and a bathroom.  But...Good....good music there.  When we showed up there was a solo woman doing a set. Her name is Chris Pureka.

(So, I obviously got distracted at that point and I am here a week later to finish this entry....(slacker))

Any hoo...Chris Pureka was pretty top notch.  Here is the address to her bands web page.  www.chrispureka.com/

She played pretty early on in the evening. So, after the show it was time to dance.  There was a band playing in the main venue called The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band.  Good ol' hillbilly knee slappin' can't help but doin' a little jig while your listening type of music.
You can find them here  www.bigdamnband.com/
I have to tell ya, I have NEVER seen anyone play the washboard like I saw it played that night.  Bad ass.

Anyway, since then I have not been doing too much.  I've been trying to pick up more shifts at work so I can afford a mountain bike as soon as spring hits.  It is essential to my survival on this planet.  And another excuse is....IT JUST KEEPS ON SNOWING.
At first it was fun. All the snow.  But, now I'm ready for some straight up sunshine.  I guess mostly it is because I was in Phoenix for a day to celebrate Jessie's birthday.  It was SUPER to see the J&J crew but darn the tease.  We sat most of the afternoon by a swimming pool sipping on beers.  What more can you ask for in February?   I also received a new project restoring a lowrider bicycle for Jamie which is starting today!  This will be the perfect thing to keep me busy during the snow today.  I guess I am getting bored with runs. Ready for cycling season. 

I must apologize though.  I have not added any new pictures due to my absent mindedness.  I left my camera in Molly's truck.  Soon though I will shoot up some pictures of the lowrider project and all other shananigans.

Hope everyone is having a good week!  And...GO SAINTS!  Nice work in the super bowl.

        

I just decided that I really like to say...Holy cow! I almost just started another entry with it.  Anyway...the snow kept falling and falling.  Snow bowl reported 82 inches of fresh snow this morning.  Today...how should I describe it...well...as Kelsey would say, it was a CF.  (Cluster F%#*)
Snow plows every where and everything was shut down on top of that. SO...what better thing to do?  THats right...build kickers in the back yard and consume some sort of alcoholic beverage.  What do you do when it snows straight up FEET in a couple days. I am going to attempt loading pictures...my internet is super slow right now...lets see what happens. Click the link in the post previous to this one to get more pictures...that is...if I can. But they will be up as soon as possible...



You know...its terrible that snow is all white and you cant really see how awesome this thing really is.....

much love everyone...

        

I think this link might be a more organized way to see photos.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/biketour2009/sets/

        

     Yeah, yeah. I know. I have been away for too long.  Between finishing up the tour, riding rollercoasters, road tripping, visiting, moving, finding jobs, places to live, and playing I havn't had too much time to actually  sit and do this up.  Well, now things are slowing down at least to a medium pace and I have dropped all my myfacecrackbook accounts so I can't get distracted any more.  Here is where it is. 
     So, all of this time has passed and I couldn't figure out where to start so I decided to just go with this week.  Its actually been a pretty exciting week.  I finished up getting settled into my new home here in Flagstaff and the snow started to fall.  Kind of weird knowing that only a couple days before it started I had hiked Mt. Eldon in a t-shirt and running shoes.  But now Flagstaff looks more like this...


    Quite the change from near 50 degree weather.  Monday it snowed like crazy. Tuesday I decided to take the skiis up to the dry lakes to check it out.  What a beautiful day.  I am posting pictures of these adventures on the fliker site.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/biketour2009/

I know its still not the bike tour but...its the name of the account...anyway....moving on...

    The snow at the dry lakes was deeper than my ski pole is long.  Hard to imagine what it might be like there now.  Since then we have had a whole other storm roll through...plus the one that is happening right now.  The picture above was taken around 9:30 this morning. We have received more than 2 feet on top of that, and now they are saying that the heavy part of the storm has not even hit yet.  I guess that comes tonight.  So what else is there to do other than ski...and well ski.  Town is pretty much shut down.  The interstates on all directions are closed due to one thing or another...so here we are...in Flagstaff.  I think this is one of the very few days of ever living here that I actually have to ski to town...instead of walk.  It is giving me strong flash backs of working in Yellowstone during the winter. 

Anyway...like I said...I will be posting pictures on the flicker site. If you have time cruise though them.  I'll probably keep putting photos up as the snow gets deeper.  And once again...thanks for being patient with the blog.  I have a big goal of keeping up on it regularly from now on.

Take care...and....as Raz would say...

Keep it frosty!