ATV Jamboree 2009

2007 Jamboree

Opening ceremonies and breakfasts were held indoors,

These are some of the people and displays

GPS Explorer ride challenges abilities with a GPS,

Did you know that some maps used different datums?

With only two weeks to go before the jamboree, it is time to get serious about it. There are four tires that have to be mounted, meals planned, dutch oven of course, weather checked, bikes to prep, I wonder when Paul will find the time to do this, sweaters to be packed,( it will get cold Dusty ).

Paul has to be ahead on his school work so that he is not behind when he returns. This year Paul will get to make his first trip to the jamboree, along with Dusty and Rachael who will be up for the last couple of days and two rides. John and I are the seasoned veterans, John's eighth year and Mike's ninth. We are looking forward to the cooler weather from the low 40's to the mid 80's Ahhh. We will probably have a laptop to try to keep up to date with the rides, fun, and friends.

Who knew that trees came in colors other than green and dead.

(remember we are from Phoenix, those are our choices)

Mom/Daughter teaching moment

Today Julia went and helped me check my turn by turn list for the substitute bus driver. Only one RT instead of LFT now corrected.
I thought she deserved a treat.It's only 110 plus out, who knows what it was on the bus and she rode the whole hour and fourty-five minutes. We stopped at QT and purchased a slushy and 2 packs of hostess cup cakes.
Now for the teaching moment. How do you eat a hostess cupcake? Frosting side down of course, so the best part is right on your taste buds. Also 2 hostess cupcakes and a large pepsi will give you just enough energy to throw almost 1,000 new papers, before heading home for a nap.

Saturday, we moved all of Cristal's stuff to Thatcher to her new room. It was a little on the rainy side but over all the ride went well. We stopped in Globe for Mexican food, yummy!!! Michael must have had a little too much. He handed me the keys and took a short nap.
We arrived in Thatcher to find that Cristal's room is larger than our master bedroom and she doesn't have to share with anyone. It looked like she had more room than she really needed, but I'm sure she'll fill it up and make use of it. I already told her when she comes home plan on renting a storage unit. She did show me the pantry and that she had bought some food, even fresh bananas.
You can tell what we are most interested in by the pictures that we take. This is just a small sample of the 10 or more engines we saw on our drive. Sadly they keep all the cute ones in cages.

New addition to the fleet, 95 Suzuki Sidekick

As we didn't have enough cars in the driveway, we had to add another one to the fleet,a 95 Suzuki Sidekick. Currently not running, Paul and Ben pushed it home from down the street, where we bought it from. By the time I got home they had it pretty clean, but did not have the hood open, they couldn't find the hood release, after about 20 minutes of looking, after I got home, I finally found it in the glove box. We checked the oil and is was ok and not milky with water. the radiator was nearly empty, so we jumped it and it started and ran pretty well till we added the water, it started to sputter and push the water out of the radiator, indication of a head gasket. As of 9 this evening the head is off and will be on its way to the machine shop for a check up. Hopefully it will be ok. stay tuned for the further adventures of Mikieg and his sidekick, robin, no Tonto, no Kato, no es skeletor, no hmmm wonder what the name should be?

So today off to my Doctor's appointment at 7:30 am. Great news. Passed and she said that even though the last doctor put heart disease on my form that if I will just find out which valve is not working properly that I can just put that on my form. Yeah, disease sounds so serious. So back to driving the bus Monday. I guess I'm not ready for change yet.

Monday was d-day for the bus routes. For six weeks I have been calling parents, chatting with bus drivers, setting up and driving routes and trying to collect all the paperwork to keep us with in the law.
I must say it didn't go off with out a hitch, but it could have been a lot worse. Only one miss placed student out of 300, and one irate mom who couldn't understand why I just couldn't make the buses cover her neighborhood, even though she is well off the path. The one miss placed student was at the school. After years of being told "do not talk to strangers", you hand your child to a teacher he or she barely knows, who then hands you off to a bus driver that they've never seen. Then we expect them to tell us their names or raise their hand when we call their names, and oh, even though it's 110 degrees outside and the bus is very warm, don't fall asleep because we cannot see you. We are very careful that everyone is fingerprinted and background checked who is handing off students but we are human and we don't just give other people's children away. That was the jest of it. Thank goodness it was my bus that it happened on. I just let it roll off because we just do our best, and that's all anyone can ask and no, we are not perfect.
By Tuesday all of that had calmed down and we got a little faster and they got a little braver about speaking up. We did have to sic the other students on sleeping students to keep them awake, we can only do so much while driving a 40 foot bus.
Today's Friday and yesterday's stuff happened on the Queen Creek run but they're handling it. All four of my bus runs are getting pretty full, but the students sit and just chat. It is a much better year than last year all ready. I'm already revising the bus forms so we can count and load the right students on the right buses. Hopefully by next year it will run smoother, even if I'm not the one doing it.
By the way I go to take my CDL physical again tomorrow. I guess they only let you go 2 years instead of three when they smack the phrase heart disease on the form. I only have till September 17, before they revoke my license. I hope I don't have to make an appointment with the cardiologist, he took forever to get me in the first time and I must say I was the healthiest person in his waiting room and I took the stairs not the elevator. We'll see, you never know I might have a change coming, but I don't think so.
Such is the soap opera of bus drivers.

Well, in our house, this is the only August birthday. There are others family birthdays that I'm sure will be posted soon. The birthday girl had only one wish this year, a cake to put her face in after blowing out the candles. Emilee rescued me and baked all three, then she and Kathy picked up the house so we could have a few guests. As you can see she had chocolate icing all in her hair and in her eyes. It was the best. Emilee did help to make sure her face was fully in the cake.

Magic Mountain

July 21, 2009 Pauls 18th birthday, and as with tradition, Paul and Dad get to go to California and visit an unsuspecting amusement park, this year Magic Mountain. At the front gate you get to have your picture taken, the photographer said hold your hands like this, we looked at him funny and said that we aren't that way, and that is what made Paul laugh.

This is a traditional birthday turn around trip, we leave Saturday morning about 3 a.m. drive to the park and spend the day, until about 5 or 6 p.m. and head back for home. This time Paul has a drivers permit and is able to drive when accompanied by a licensed adult driver. Paul did well as I am able to type and am still alive.

Oh no its the Joker, look out Paul, Joker has done away with Batman and is after you now.

Marvin the Martian was there and when Paul took his hand, Paul would not let go of it.

This is Fabiola da Silva, From the Matt Hoffman stunt show, she is from Sao Paulo Brazil and an inline skate X games champion, she thought Paul was hot and wanted to get her picture with him.

Look close between the columns and you will see a flame that roasts your legs as you ride on X2, by the way it is a fantastic ride, is was by far the favorite one at the park and Paul and I really enjoyed it, even if the brace on my seat loosened on the first drop!