AtomJohnson Blog

Yesterday Ronnie and I installed the carpet on the bed for the Red Dragon.  There is a carpet warehouse across the street from my neighborhood who donated a 5 by 10 roll of excess commercial-grade carpet to the cause.

Being that this is Boulder, I was not able to get a clear shot of Ronnie working on the carpet without Anne doing yoga in the foreground.  I waited for an hour to see if the yoga situation would clear up for an unobstructed view of the carpeting action, but it just got worse.

After purchasing all of the wood and metal components last week to build the raised bed in the Red Dragon, Ronnie and I proceeded to assemble the bed last night.  The mini-SUV to mini-RV conversion is almost done.  All that is left to do now is carpet the top, add a door hinge for the bed extender, and hookup the hardware that connects the bed to the tie downs in the Element.

Ronnie…again…I can’t thank you enough for all the time you’ve put into helping me design and assemble this contraption.  You’re welcome to borrow the Red Dragon whenever you feel the urge to take an upscale car camping trip.

Ronnie’s architectural sketches

OK…not really

19 Volts of insane drilling power

Ronnie in his garage…I promise I helped (a little)

Testing out the new bed

The bed extender transforms into a gate to keep Sadie from occupying my seat

For all you soccer fans who are hesitant to spend a weekend at the Mirkwood Cottage, don’t worry, they have Fox Soccer Channel.  Hersch (Chelsea fan…misguided) and I (Manchester United fan) got up this morning at the break of dawn to watch the Manchester United vs Chelsea match.  The game ended in a tie, leaving us nothing to hold over the other person’s head during today’s ride.

At 9am when the game ended, we were still the only people awake.  The smell of coffee and bacon finally brought everyone out of their slumber.  After a huge breakfast, we drove down into Salida to get some advice on local trails.  After some long, drawn out deliberation, we opted for the Rainbow Creek trail at the base of the Monarch Crest trail.  Its always an option at the conclusion of the Monarch Crest, but both times I’ve been way too tired by that point to choose this option.

I am so happy we chose it today though.  It is easily one of the best trails I’ve done so far in Colorado.  Its a bit scary in that the very narrow single track is barely carved out of a very steep hillside that winds through woods and mountainside prairies.  There are several creek crossings with huge, steep, rocky climbs out of the creekbed.  These horrendous climbs are always rewarded with a break in the trees that offer huge sweeping vistas of treeless mountaintops sitting atop forests on fire with gold and orange Aspen groves.

At the conclusion of the ride, we celebrated the weekend with a giant toast and I finally got to break in the tailgate of the Red Dragon with a few trail-tortured butts.  Scott’s pet pony even got to share a bit in the festivities.

After yearning for so long to do the Monarch Crest Trail, I have now had the opportunity to do it twice in a single month.  Last time we rode the trail, we met an incredibly nice guy from Salida who offered us use of his cottage in Garfield if we ever wanted to come down.  He just asked that we spread the word about the place.  After staying at the Mirkwood Cottage for a weekend, I can honestly recommend it to anyone as a very nice basecamp for biking, skiing, hunting, kayaking, or any one of the other countless recreational opportunities available in that area.

The cabin was 6 miles from the trailhead, so we started the ride on Saturday morning with a 6 mile bike up the mountain to the top of Monarch Crest.  It was a hell of a warmup for an already 30-something mile bike ride.  The Aspens on the ride up were stunning.  If you’ve never seen the Aspens turn gold in the fall, you’re missing out.  The contrast of the golds, reds, and light greens against the dark green of the evergreens is so pretty that you’ll find yourself wanting to take a picture….I know I did.

The ride itself was just as gorgeous as before, but is never without a few mishaps.  Unfortunately, they are always a little bit expensive.  I learned my lesson last time about riding and taking video at the same time.  If you do it, you can’t complain when you destroy your camera.  This time it was another crash that destroyed my camera.  Towards the end of ride, I pulled out my new camera to take a photo and noticed the whole LCD screen was cracked and no longer working.  It definitely put a damper on the ride, but after about an hour, I was enjoying myself again.

After the ride, we took ourselves (sweat, stink and all) down to Salida for some pizza.  Eight of us packed away three large pizzas, two dozen wings, breadsticks, and several pitchers of margarhitas.  I followed that up with a hot tub and shower and was soon completely passed out on the living room floor…

“Clark, that there is an RV.  Don’t you go falling in love with it though…its going with us when we leave here next month”
- Cousin Eddie, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation

Ever since that movie, I’ve had my own dream of one day owning an RV and emptying the sh**ter into a municipal drainage system somewhere in the midwest.  For now, the Element will have to do as I just don’t have the cash or parking room for the full deal.

Ronnie has really stepped it up as a neighbor and done what any self-respecting neighbor would/should do….he has sacrificed several of his weekday evening to help me design and build a raised bed for the back of the Red Dragon…

“Yeah, thanks. Took the restrictor plate off to give the Red Dragon a little more juice. But it’s not exactly street legal, so keep it on the down low.”
- Frank The Tank, Old School

For real though Ronnie, there is no way I could build anything with any sort of structural soundness without your help.  Thanks so much for taking the time to help me design, shop for parts, and build this bed for the Red Dragon.  In addition to the amazing Karma you’re building up, I’ll be sure to find a way to repay your kindness.

Ronnie arrives to help me spend/save money

Galvanized Nipples…a major upgrade

What? What? What?

Does my dismemberment insurance cover something like this?

My buddy David was asked by his girlfriend what he wanted to do this Thursday when he is in San Francisco visiting. Here is how he answered her….

Every once in a while we have the opportunity to witness something that makes us realize we have no right to complain.  There are people out there that have it sooo much worse than we do, yet they persevere.

This Saturday I volunteered to help out with the Adaptive Mountain Biking clinic that was sponsored by the EXPAND program that Jess worked for this summer.  Its mission is to provide recreational opportunities for individuals with disabilities.  All I knew going into Saturday is that I would be helping to tow the participants up hills with my own mountain bike.  There is nothing that sounded easy about towing another person up a hill on my mountain bike.  But while I’m fully able bodied, I figured I’d do what I could to help out someone brave enough to fly face first down some chamois-staining scary terrain.

The thing that struck me most about the participants is how well they have accepted their injuries and how they have decided not to let it slow them down.  One of the guys is paralyzed from the chest down, yet he skied 130 days last year!  That is far more than anybody else I know.  He also rock climbs, waterskiis, and mountain bikes.  He works for the Boulder Parks and Rec and when he saw a guy and his dog violating our off leash laws, he took after the guy on his adapted mountain bike.  The guy heard him and lost him on the uphill.  We going to have to let karma take care of this one for us.

The bikes themselves are incredible.  The model called the “One Off” is a three-wheeled, hand-pedaled bike that you lean over and steer with a pad on your chest.  The downhill bikes do not have any sort of pedaling capabilities and are purely designed for bombing down hills.  The 8 inches of travel ensure that you can go down just about anything.  In fact, these guys were going down dropoffs that I was real hesitant to attempt on my own bike.  I finally tried the same drop that they were doing and I’m pretty sure I was just lucky to survive.  So, as I left there on the most gorgeous day I’ve seen this year in Colorado, I counted my very many blessings and gave thanks that there are people out there with the courage to keep living large no matter what their circumstances.

If Osama Bin Laden were hiding out in a cave outside Boulder, Colorado, there is a good chance we could finally capture him this weekend at the Semi-Annual GoLite Warehouse Sale.  Seriously, I don’t care how high you are on the FBI’s most wanted list, you cannot miss this sale.

I arrived this morning at 7am to a very soggy line of early risers.  The weather could not have cooperated more with a company trying to move some Gortex out of their inventory.  Having arrived an hour before the doors openend, I was probably 75 yards from the entrance.  Unfortunately, I had just missed the staff handing out pancakes.  This explains why the guy in front of me was holding a bowl half full of syrup.  My buddy Hersch arrived shortly thereafter with a delicous breakfast bagel, so all was again right with the world.

This was the line about 10 minutes before opening

So…that is why they call it a mummy bag!

The goal this year was to come away with some down accoutrements.  After briefly borrowing some puffy down jackets last winter, I realized why everyone in Colorado covets theirs.  You can go outside in a t-shirt and a down puffy and be completely comfortable in zero degrees…it borders on miraculous.  So, I walked away with a down puffy, lightweight down jackets for Jess and I, a down sleeping bag and just to balance out the warm with the waterproof, I got a pair of fullzip Gortex pants.  All in all I spent a hell of alot of money, but lets instead focus on how much I “saved”.

This is the tag collection from my newly acquired gear

You don’t have to spend much time around Jess to figure out that she LOVES to dance.  Her kindergarten class figured this out very quickly and paid homage to this with a drawing.  In the illustration below, one student has cleverly broken dance down into three very simple steps.  We have posted the illustration on the refrigerator for a quick reference when practicing the basic 1 - 2 - 3.

Tonight, after a meeting at State Farm to insure the Element, Jess and I went for dinner at Murphy’s Grill, a long time Boulder institution here in North Boulder.  Murphy’s has the cozy feel of an old neighborhood bar that serves good, honest food with cold beer and little pretense.  While eating, I noticed a man doing magic tricks for some kids at a nearby table.  I asked the waitress about this who informed us that he has been coming to Murphy’s every Thursday to perform magic for the last 20 years.  He must be close to 60 years old and has been practicing magic since the age of 4.  We requested that he show us some tricks.  I was fully prepared to feign amazement as I observed his “illusions” carefully and noticed every slight of hand trick that he tried to pull past us.  I watched as carefully as I could and for the life of me, I cannot believe what he was doing.  I think it can only be explained as “magic”.

The craziest trick he performed was to have me pull a card out of a deck and sign it with a green Sharpie.  He then placed the card into the deck several times and each time he pulled it straight off the top of the deck.  Finally he placed it face down on the table and had me cover it with my hand.  He then suffled the deck, had me move my hand to reveal that the card under my hand was no longer my card.  Then, instead of pulling it from the deck, he pulled a billfold from his jacket, took off two rubber bands holding it together, pulled out a sealed envelope, and tore open the envelope to reveal my card with my name written in my handwriting.  Magic…