Happy Halloween To Everyone

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Added 11/1/06: If you like this costume please head over to The Pink Diary and vote for me. I’ve entered the “Best Adult Costume” category. Voting is Nov 1st - 3rd and the winners will be announced Nov 4th.

Blogging Chicks has asked us to share a favorite autumn memory, tradition, sport, etc. One of my all-time favorite pasttimes is to ride my motorcycle and during the autumn season it is breathtaking. I love all the colors that blend together that truely make this season many peoples favorite. God's autumn pallet of golds, many shades of yellow, orange, red, purple, and browns is spectacular to behold. It's a time of fun and fantasy (holloween) and a time of fellowship with family and friends (Thanksgiving). Many feelings and sensations are felt at this time of year.

While I love driving the streets on my motorcycle, I have found a new tradition to keep going at this time of year. Motorcycling does give us some exercise, but not a really good workout. So another favorite pasttime of mine is hiking. With the changing of the season my family wanted to get up in the mountains and hike one of our favorite trails, Waldo Canyon. It's located in Pikes Peak National Forest. It's rated moderate and is about 7 miles. It has a 2,000 ft elevation during the hike. We invited another family from church that we really enjoy doing things with and on Oct 1st we all stopped at Subway to get some yummy subs and drove up to the trail head.



In the above photo is my husband at the trailhead. We were very excited to get going and see the changes that autumn has brought into the mountains. It was slightly overcast and perfect weather, not too hot and not too cold.

Above is the one of the many, many spectacular views about 3 miles in on the trail. This trail is not for the faint of heart as there is a significant elevation increase.

Above is our group of intrepid hikers still gaining elevation. We aren't even at the halfway mark yet. We have made a few stops already to catch our breath and drink lots of water along the way.


Above is my husband and son strutting the trail, lol. We are just over halfway done. Now while my husband and I love this trail for the views and exercise, our son has many times informed us how he's not really fond of this trail. We have taken him on this four times now this summer and each time he does so much better. He love Subway subs, so we bribe him with those to get him on the trail, lol.
We are on the downslope now and on the home stretch (about 3 miles to go and mostly downhill), lol. Here we see the spectacular colors of autumn the best. This picture doesn't do the brilliant yellow colors justice.


We see more autumn colors past the halfway mark then at the beginning. My husband is telling me to quit taking pictures and get the lead out, lol. I'm just drinking in all the colors and loving the views all around.

It is so tricky to try and catch the brilliant colors of autumn in the mountains. We almost missed it this year. The colors were starting to fade, but at least we caught part of it. We have decided that, weather permitting, we hope to be able to do this trail every fall. The weekends before and after we went rained hard. So we felt very lucky to go the weekend we did. The hike took us about 4 hours to complete and we had lots of fun and fellowship along the way. What more can a person ask for?

I kept wanting to ride my motorcycle up into the mountains, but either it was too cold or my husband couldn't get the time off. I wanted very much to share this adventure with him. So hiking was the next best thing. I was so glad we were able to do it.

So when weather permits, get out there and exercise!! Enjoy the different seasons of the year. You will feel good. I, myself, hope to soon be hitting the ski slops in a few months, Yahooo!!

Wishing you many outdoor adventures, Betty :)

Saturday's Scavenger Hunt

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This Saturday's Theme is "Safe"

When motorcycling, I do feel safer when I wear all my protective gear. I never drive my motorcycle without my helmet with visor, motorcycle jacket with armor, leather pants (what I'm wearing in this photo) or leather chaps, hightop leather boots and leather gloves. My fellow riding companions can vouch to the fact that even in the summer heat I do wear all this.

Motorcycling is a very fun way to get around. If you have never tried it, you must sometime. I did take the Motorcycle Safety Foundation (MSF) Beginners course before buying my motorcycle. I think it's the best way to see if this sport is for you. This course helps you to understand how a motorcycle works and how to safely ride it. It helps you to buy the right kind of safety gear and what to look for in buying a motorcycle. I can't say enough great things about this course.

Wishing you adventurous travels in your part of the world, Betty :)

Thanks Blizzard !! - No Motorcycling for a few days, hmff!!

Here's what I woke up to this morning thanks to what they are calling the Blizzard of '06. So, it looks like I won't get to ride my motorcycle for at least a few days, lol. Even though I haven't posted recently, I have been out riding. Mainly I've been just riding around town doing my errands. But what better way? Then on my motorcycle, Yah!!!

Just this last week my husband told me that I put more miles this last year on my motorcycle then the van I usually drive. He's been doing oil changes on our vehicles. During the summer it was nice to only have to gas up the van once a month (and sometimes longer). It could have been longer, but I can't figure out how to do the family grocery shopping and bring home all those groceries on my motorcycle, lol.

Here's my son and a friend having a blast. They are meetings friends and going sledding. My son didn't actually miss school today. Today and tomorrow he didn't have school, as they are doing teacher conferences. I don't know about you, but I remember when teacher conferences were done at night and I still had school to go to, sigh. Kids now a days have it sooooo easy!! So my son is upset that this didn't happen on an actual school day, lol. My husband has been teasing him about that.

As soon as the roads have dried and the sand has been picked up, I will be back to my errands on my motorcycle. So my V-Star 650 is not put away for the winter, Yah!!!! I'm just very careful when and where I go during the winter. And it depends on how hard we get hit with bad weather during the winter.

Sadly, I don't get up into the mountains during the winter. Often times the roads do allow it, but it's just too cold. I'm not yet set up for very cold driving. Some of you out there have the heated hand grips and heated vests to help, but I won't be able to get any of that for probably a few winters at least. I'm still trying to find decent winter gloves. Some of you have heard me gripe about my present gloves. They aren't women's gloves and the fingers are too long. I had bought a size men's small. It's hard to find women's gloves, as the motorcycle stores here mainly carry the men's sizes. I didn't realize the problem when I first bought them. When I drive with these gloves they catch on the clutch and sometimes I end up popping the clutch and killing the engine. I look like (and feel like) I'm just learning to drive a motorcycle again. I'm very disappointed as these gloves were not cheap, sigh. I can say that my hands do stay very warm with them. So the search is on for a decent pair of winter gloves that fit well and keep my hands warm.

So I will close with the beautiful sunset we had today.

Safe Travels In Your Part of the World, Betty :)

Saturday's Scavenger Hunt

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This Saturday's Theme is "Lost"

I once was lost,
but now I've found...
To use my map
is much more sound!!!

by Biker Betty :)