Dawn of a New Day

January 2 pre-sunrise over The Mogollon Rim is reminiscent of Georgia O'Keeffe

( Dateline: 2456659 ) Good Morning, Rimrock! Today's the very first day of our new online paradigm. Here's how it works.  We're gonna get up each day and enjoy our morning reading.  As you know, we roam far and wide through various blogs, newspaper, articles, websites and whatever else we can find.  We love morning reading and we are grateful for the time and freedom to pursue whatever topics strike our fancy.

Then we're going to make a few notes about yesterday and today and then we're going to create a digest of the interesting stuff we found during our morning reading.  And then we're turning this machine OFF and getting out into The Real World as soon as possible each day.  The goal is to reduce the time we spend sitting here in front of this laptop.

Yesterday was a very fun New Year's Day.  On New Year's Eve we couldn't start the Big Truck so we drove over to Jodi and Dexter's Place in the little truck.  This meant we couldn't spend the night as planned.  We stayed a few hours and were back home by 9 pm.  This year, Jodi & Dexter had a huge party with all kinds of adults, kids, dogs and more food than an army could eat.  We enjoyed talking with a lot of our Dear Friends.

It was great to wake up in our own home New Year's Day.  It would be have been fun to wake up in Jodi and Dexter's driveway, too, but you know how it goes.  Most of New Year's Day morning was spent messing with the blog and pontificating about how we are going to eschew Facebook and get back to basics here on Da Blog.  For those few who trudged dutifully through such self-serving writing, THANK YOU!  Also a special Thanks to Maggie for her many supportive emails yesterday.  Thanks to Sue Malone, Brad, Terry and Sweetie Susun for their kind and supportive comments.  We're gonna make it happen one day at a time.

After hours on the blog gig, we headed over to Cottonwood for some serious grocery shopping.  The first Wednesday of the month mean 10% off for us of the Senior Persuasion.  Typically, we can easily pay for the gas cost for the 50 mile round trip simply with the 10% savings.  In addition to the 10% bonus, we managed to save over 50% on everything we bought, as usual.  So far, in our first two months here we have managed to save well 50% on ALL of our grocery shopping.

Back at home we enjoyed a 65 degree afternoon and tinkered with this and that.  The evening was spent trying to learn GIMP and you know how that went.

Today we're planning on going somewhere.  There's been talk of Loy Canyon.  It's a long haul to Loy.  There was talk of heading to Williams today but neither of us is in the mood for that much work.  Not sure where we will go but it will be somewhere.

OK, on to the morning reading...

First, the blogs:

Sue Malone writes a great blog even when she's at her Oregon Home.  However, it's obvious Sue really Shines when she's on the road again.  Her New Year's Day blog is great and fun to read.  We enjoy Sue's writing style and look forward to the posts she's going to put up during her three month trip ahead.

Click here for Sue's Blog:
http://mohotravels.blogspot.com

Nanette South Clark is an excellent blogger.  Today she put up one of her fictional self-help magazine covers.  Nanette has a wide-ranging sense of humor that finds its way into her writing, various cartoons, quips, quotes and, yes, fictional magazine covers, too.

Click here for Nanette's blog:
http://anengineersaspect.blogspot.com/

Dear Friend Kirsty has some incredible bouts with depression.  Kirsty is also incredibly upfront and public about her struggles with depression.  Her latest blog post is a true testimony to Kirsty's incredible spirit.

Click here for Kirsty's blog:
http://www.momedysketch.com

Wayne Ranney's blog was recently honored by being included in a list of 105 top geology blogs and websites.  Wayne's blog was listed #16 of 105 blogs and websites.  Way to go, Wayne.  The latest post on Wayne's blog is about an epic highway slump we will discuss farther down in today's post.

Click here for Wayne's Blog:
http://earthly-musings.blogspot.com

We mentioned earlier today's sunrise reminds us of Georgia O'Keeffe.  Well, the famed artist's work is on display at the Heard Museum until March 3rd and it's a HIGH priority to get there to see it.  O'Keeffe is easily one of Sweetie Susun's all-time FAVE artists.  Here's the Heard website on the exhibit:

http://www.heard.org/okeeffe/

OK, moving along to the news of the morning.  Thanks to Wayne Ranney for alerting us to the humongous highway slump 56 miles below the US Border south of San Diego.  YIKES!  Anyone who has followed the US 89 highway slump south of Page, Arizona, will howl with laughter at this silly comment from a Mexican official.

"Frontera reports that Rosa María Castañeda, regional director of the Federal Roads and Bridges agency responsible for the highway, has said that it might only take a week until the road reopens."

Yeah, maybe it will open to burros and donkeys and foot traffic but it ain't opening to vehicle traffic unless they are monster Bubba Trucks!

There's stuff on Wayne's blog about it and that's where we found the link to this article.  Thanks, Wayne!

http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/dec/28/tijuana-ensenada-road-collapse/

OK, up in Idaho Falls, renowned Outdoor Sports Writer and Author Jerry Painter did a great article today on fat bikes.  Early mountain bikes were known as fat tire bikes.  Well, apparently, those tires weren't fat enough and now we have REALLY FAT bikes!  Here's a couple of photos to help you get the drift, so to speak.

And here's Jerry's article in today's Post-Register.

By Jerry Painter, Copyright 2014 "The Post-Register"

The first thing I learned about riding a fat bike was that the consistency of the snow makes a big difference.

Scott Hurst, the manager of the Outdoor Recreation Center at Brigham Young University-Idaho, offered to loan me and a couple of friends fat bikes that his center recently acquired.

Fat bikes are similar to mountain bikes but have the geometry to allow them to use 4- to 5-inch wide, light, knobby tires. These wide tires allow riders to go over soft surfaces such as snow or sand. They look like motorcycle tires on a bicycle.

We gathered at the Teton Canyon Road winter parking area to start our ride on Saturday. Other groups -- Teton Valley Trails and Pathways, Fitzgeralds Bicycles of Victor and Peaked Sports and Yostmark in Driggs -- were also there demonstrating skate skiing and fat bikes. The trails organization oversees the grooming of Teton Canyon Road and other local trails.

The first mile of the road is open to the sun, causing the snow to be packed a bit harder. We found ourselves cruising along and enjoying the ride. When the road passed into the forest, the snow became softer and our tires sunk in. I found my rear wheel fishtailing and my pedaling more labored. When the road passed through another open area more exposed to the sun, the pedaling became easier again. After a few miles, Hurst let some air out of my rear tire. I noticed the difference immediately. The flatter tire, with more surface area, floated on the snow better.

"It's a lot like mountain biking," said Craig Stoddard of Rigby who joined us with his wife, Shelli. "Except you don't get the payoff at the end when you come back down."

Only two body parts seemed to get chilled: My finger tips and toe tips. The rest of my body wanted to sweat. With a few adjustments, both problems can be solved.

Fat bikes used to be only built by smaller specialty bike companies, but in recent months, major players such as Trek and Specialized have entered the market with new models. Snow rider races -- generally long endurance affairs -- are cropping up around the country. The Island Park area will be the site of the Backyard Fat Pursuit race March 1. Sponsored by Fitzgeralds Bicycles and famed Teton Valley biker Jay Petervary, the race will follow snowmobile trails over a 60k and 200k course.

"When I first showed up at one of the snowmobile meetings, they were wondering what I was doing there," Petervary said Saturday, "But after we contributed to their grooming fund and told them what we wanted to do, they've warmed up to the idea and are behind it."

Petervary said he doesn't expect too big a crowd for the first race -- maybe a dozen for the 200k and 30 to 40 for the 60k -- but he does expect it to grow in the coming years.

"It has the potential of becoming a big deal," he said. "I've done the races in Alaska, and there's no reason we can't do them here."

Finally, how about the megaload?  Well, it made a 123-trip earlier this week and then stopped east of Arco to await today's next leg.  The famous "Howe Corner" lies just up the road from the truck's resting place.  Sometime in the next day or two or three, the 376-foot load will be going through Salmon, Idaho and that's when it's going to get "very interesting," as Arte Johnson would say on the old Laugh-In TV show.

Okie, dokie, Smokey, this concludes our first edition of the New Online Paradigm here at the Edge of The Flat Earth in The Rimrock Megapolis.  Have a great day and Many Happy January Cheers!