The Big Diamond Fiasco: A Girls Dream Comes True?

The Big Diamond Fiasco: A Girls Dream Comes True?

For as long as I can remember I have always picked up anything that looks shiny off the ground. I have turned around and gone back to spots where I thought that I might have seen something sparkle. I have stopped mid-sentence to reach down just in case it might be some long lost treasure. But alas in all cases what I come up with is glass or a piece of mica or better yet sequins that were found after a friend had a yard sale. It’s funny how after years of false hopes I have continued this ritual of sparkle hunting. It may stem from watching my dad pick up every penny he sees on the ground. He then follows up by saying, out loud, “rebate!” A slogan and ritual I have brought with me into my adult life.

A few weeks ago Dude and I were outside of the car waiting for Trey to catch up to us with the truck camper. I pulled Dude’s collapsible water bowl from the car and placed it on the ground and proceeded to see something shiny next to it, so naturally I dug my fingers into the gravel and pulled a perfectly cut diamond from out of the rubble. I blinked my eyes a million times and couldn’t believe what I saw! I became very excited and couldn’t wait to tell Trey that all my searching had finally paid off! After he arrived I showed it to him but he was a little bit skeptical of my find.

Once Dude and I were back in the car and driving again I thought surely Google could help me to determine if in fact what I found was a bonafide diamond. So at the next red light I reached for my phone and typed “how can you tell if a diamond is real” and clicked on “Top 5 Ways To Determine If Your Diamond Is Real”. The first thing I read was to try and fog up the diamond with your breath. The light turned green, I Velcroed the phone back on its Velcro spot, and began to drive. I reached for the diamond and just like that the damn thing flipped out of my fingers. I thought, well that sucks, but at least I know that it’s in the car somewhere.

48hours passed, all trash was out of the car, everything had been picked through and I couldn’t find the dog gang thing anywhere! After a couple days of searching and re-searching, I was sitting in the driver’s seat feeling busted, when I noticed a small hole where the brake lever is perched and my stomach sank. I knew that the elusive diamond had fallen down that small abyss. I begged a few guys and even Trey to dismantle my entire center console. No takers.

Finally, yesterday I knew that if I was going to find this thing that I would need to boob up and pull out a screwdriver. I watched a few “how to” videos on youtube. It took some time and frustration to pass before I could stick my hand underneath the plastic near the floorboard, only to feel the metal frame with more holes and worse the carpet was loose and ended just under the plastic console. I had yet another sinking feeling. I even told Trey that I thought it might be a lost cause. Trey said, why don’t you use a flashlight and see if you can see it. So, I managed to pop the whole center console up, but I was still in an awkward position where I really couldn’t see much at all. I stuck a knife between the metal frame and the carpet to peal it apart from each other, when I heard a very distinct sound. The sound was of something very small, sliding even deeper down into the abyss. 

HAHA! Alas! I had it cornered! So this next part was a bit intrusive, but had to be done. I grabbed a carpet blade and cut open the carpet at the base of the floorboard and began to feel around. A few tries went by before my finger finally landed on something small. I was able to drag it back and into my clutches. To my delight, I pulled out a very precious stone! I can’t believe that I found it! What are the chances that it would have fallen perfectly down into that tiny hole? And I had to dismantle my center console AND I had to put it all back together again. The good news is that I can vacuum out my car now. My car has been on lock down for a few weeks.

Now, after all that, if it turns out to be cubic zirconia I might cry.

Bavarian Bike & Brew

I love when everything comes together! Trey and I were headed north from Bend- Oregon to Olympia-Washington for just a one-night stay, when we found-out that a large ‘Oly’ contingent would be at the Bavarian Bike & Brew in Leavenworth WA that same weekend! This turned out to be a great ‘2-for-1’ deal for us because we were already headed to Stevens Pass Bike Park, which is just northwest of Leavenworth by only 35 miles. Truth is, we have always wanted to attend the Bavarian Bike & Brew ever since we left ‘Oly’ over 4 years ago.  

Nick and Rachel

Our desire stemmed from seeing photos of all our friends having such an awesome time riding bikes and camping in the forest. Initially, we were going to stay at the base of Stevens Pass and camp up there. But, we wanted to be where we could point our fingers and ring our cowbell at riders flying down Freund Canyon trails! Luck would have it that we found a spot to camp right next to a 20ft gap jump! The jumps were optional for the XC racers…but mandatory-fun for us. Some of the bigger gaps were blocked-off with caution tape. But that didn’t stop Trey from hitting up everything else that was around there. Stevens Pass was my first time back on my big bike since knee surgery in January 2015 (write-up for another day). So, I have been in reserve-mode for quite some time and giddy to get back to another season of riding bike parks. (If you want to read more about our time at Stevens Pass Bike Park go here)

Oh Odin

Getting to the Bavarian Bike & Brew was a bit of a fiasco. First off, we missed the turn into the forest and ended up on someone else’s farm. You have to imagine our monster rig pulling onto your property. It’s plastered in gigantic WorldBikeParks.com stickers and has another hundred or so other smaller stickers from every place that we have been to. Our rig screams “It’s Party Time”. We both parked and rolled down our windows to assess the possibility that perhaps we were the first ones to arrive. When a little red tuck pulled up next to us. A woman opened her door and asked, “can I help you?” 

The beautiful Kerry

So, needless to say we were not first to arrive but actually lost. Fortunately, we were not all that turned around and we were able to get back on course fairly quickly. As soon as we got on the right dirt road, we saw 3 of our friends walking their dogs!! And we knew that we had arrived! 

The Gibb's Organic Guys and Nick

Lee & Erin (Dude & Odin)

The problem now was that we were on a narrow dirt road, where if someone wanted to pass us, it was not going to happen! I absolutely hate when this happens. It makes me extremely nervous. So, once we hit a fork in the road Trey pulled off to the side and I took the left fork to scope out possibilities to camp or turn around. 

I got to the end of the road and there was no place for Trey and the road conditions were only getting worse. I made a U-turn and drove over a piece of rebar sticking out of the ground. It was blending into the background and just looked like a stick. The rebar jammed up into my fan and now my car was stuck and making a hideous loud screeching sound. In a panic, I jumped out of the car, just as a group of riders came by and three guys were able to help me maneuver my car back and forth. They managed to pull the rebar out of the ground, one of the men seemed like he knew something about cars. He checked my fan and said that I was pretty lucky! 

Kerry and Nick being cute

I caught up to Trey who was walking around, he found a group of our FOCF friends just down the road to the right of the fork. So we only drove a little bit further and snuggled in next to a crossing for the racers and a bunch of dirt-jumps, perfect! It was an awesome weekend filled with friends, riding, and laugher oh and a tear (you know who you are) We are always so grateful when we come through Washington, our friends are always up to some kind of party and ready to take us in at the beats notices (and you know who you are too) We rallied up at Stevens and rode there for three days, coming back to camp with friends every night…

Erin getting ready race day

Dude's Heartworm Triumph: Ever heard of "Slow Kill" treatment?

Some of you may remember Trey and I adopting a dog named Dude from Sedona’s Humane Society a couple of years ago. I want to give you a little history on him and also share with you his health struggles and triumph. He was picked up in Rimrock Arizona and taken to a high-kill shelter in Verde Valley. Although, he was fortunate in that the Sedona Humane Society was willing to take him in. There were a lot of dogs habiting there that had been calling that place home, for quite a long time, some up to 6 months. Dude had already been there two months when our lives came together. Trey and I first saw him on-line. Out of all the dogs we visited, he was the one dog that we wanted to meet the most. We met a lot of dogs that day who would have made great companions. But when we told the handlers at the Humane Society that we lived in truck camper full-time, they said “Dude, is the largest dog we will allow you to adopt.” Lucky for him, he was our first choice. The only dogs smaller than him were three crazy little Chihuahuas. Dude is actually quite big (45lbs) but has stubby legs, so he comes across as a smaller dog. (We think he is a Blue Heeler and Bull Terrier mix-ish)

 Here is a little history and catch-up on him. He is, to our surprise, still coming out of his shell. He has gone from being a dog that could not even look me in the eyes, to not being able to leave my side, to approaching everyone to say hello. He was around 5 years old when we adopted him and he knew nothing! He was a total train and he was a tough train. But I can tell you that old dogs can learn new tricks. He gets along with most dogs. Every once and a while, he will have issues with other dogs, but that has become less and less with continued proper socialization. We had to stop taking him to dog parks because he just couldn’t handle it and would become overwhelmed and start taking things way too seriously. We started calling him Officer Dude.

Unfortunately, after having him for about 6 months he had a horrible allergic reaction to soap, from getting bathed, at a pet care center. We took him to the vet and decided to run a gamut of tests on him, just to make sure that he had a clean bill of health. But what we learned was that he had heartworms! At the time Trey and I were traveling full time for work, so Dude got to visit many different vets and we got a ton of different opinions. We had decided to walk down the road of killing the heartworms with a two-month arsenic treatment. Starting that day with a month of antibiotics. The heartworm treatment would start a month later. I read a million different articles and felt horrible about the whole situation. Mainly, how do you explain to your dog, which you just adopted, that they wouldn’t be allowed to do anything for about three months! And still potentially die.

The 30 days of antibiotics were up. We took him in to see yet another vet, this time in Saint George Utah. The vet asked if we had done an ultrasound to see what sort of damage was in the heart or to see how many worms were in there. We had not done the ultrasound because the cost was around $600. The vet explained that in Saint George they never had the opportunity to see heartworms because of the low incidence of them in the region. He was willing to forego the cost just for the experience for his staff and himself. How could we say no to that! Dude had an ultra-sound! Absolutely no heartworms could be seen. Although, we did see a small heart anomaly present, not a single worm showed up for the viewing. The vet explained that, it didn’t mean there were no heartworms, it just meant that they were not in that part of the heart, that was best viewed. So, Trey and I made the decision not to treat the heartworms. Dude had started a monthly chewable, that monthly chewable would kill any baby worms from forming and Dude would just live with the pesky thing(s) until they died on their own. Heartworms have a 7-year life span and there is no way to know how long he had been living with them.

About 6 months later, Dude got into something and wasn’t feeling well. We took him in to see, yet another, different vet. We explained his heartworm situation and this vet kept using the term “slow kill”. After she said it, for the third time, I stopped her and asked what she meant by “slow kill”. Because none of the other vets Dude had seen had ever used that term. She explained, that she was once a vet in Missouri, where the prevalence of heartworm is extremely high. She said that “never had [she] ever seen a dog, who after a year of taking the monthly chewable, still have heartworms.” Well, this was news to us! He was 6 months in to this “slow kill” and we had no idea that there was still a possibility of a cure for him!

About three months later we were at a friends house when Dude stood up and started walking like he was drunk. Trey and I shot up and got him outside. He basically passed out in the back yard for a brief couple of seconds and also began pooping. We thought he was dying from the heartworms! But then he got up and was still very unstable. So back to yet another vet we went!  We found out that he had pneumonia. I asked the vet “what are the chances that Dude had passed the worms into his lungs?” The vet wasn’t sure. He explained that he had only ever treated three dogs with heartworms in his past and had never heard about the “slow kill” treatment.

Trey and I had our fingers crossed that Dude’s worms were dying off. We waited another 6 months and continued to give him the monthly chewable. Last fall we took him in to see the same vet who he had the pneumonia with to be tested for heartworms again. It took about 24-48hr but the vet called us and said, “I can’t believe this, but your dog is heartworm free!” So, he asked us all kinds of questions. He couldn’t believe that he had never heard of “slow kill” treatment before.

We are incredibly delighted that Dude now has a clean bill of health. He is a very lucky dog. 

Dude's mini me.

Dude learning to share.

Another stubby buddy

Just a fun little game of keep-away

Kiss

Not Just Another Day On Hwy 70

Trey and I have always had very interesting luck. Our lives have always been very extreme, whether we are rock climbing, DH mountain biking, running from tornados or simply having a life experience that most would think is totally unbelievable. It’s funny when we talk to people and tell them stories from being on the road and they look at us like we are full of bologna.  Well, at least we have each other and Dude as witnesses. Sometimes we get to share cool experiences with others, like this little ditty that I am about to tell you now.

Dude and I jamming out in the car!

Last fall, Trey and I picked up my car from Olympia WA. It has been there since we got on the road in 2011. Our plan, in the beginning, was to travel for only one year. Therefore, it only made sense to keep the car and have it for when our travels were finished. But, enough time had passed, that it had become kind of ridiculous not to be using it. We are still figuring out exactly what our plan will be with the car and how exactly we will tow it behind our camper. Thus far, I have been driving it while Trey has been driving the Camper. I must admit, it has been kind of nice to be able to drive ahead and check for things like road conditions for Trey. I’ve picked up the cell phone a bunch of times to alert him to what lane he should be getting into because of an up coming pothole or dip in the road. Also, driving to the store or going out eat is much easier without having to take our beast-of-a-truck with us everywhere we go. And lastly and most importantly, I can unabashedly jam out to tunes on Pandora. Dude never complains, he is my biggest fan!

Ghost Rock...this is not our photo found it on Trip Advisor 

Now back to my original story. I was driving west on Interstate 70, somewhere between Green River UT, and Salinas UT, when I got a text message from our friends Angela and Gordon from Truck Camper Magazine. The message read, “You just passed us!” But, as soon as I went to respond, I lost my signal! So, I drove a little bit further, to higher ground, “Ghost Rock”, to be exact. My signal was back and I was able to tell them where I stopped. Then, I texted Trey and told him to stop too. There we were in the middle of nowhere Southwestern USA, literally hanging out with our friends from Pennsylvania! It was a little bit surreal and, I am sure we all had drive- brain   that’s when you have been driving for so long that your brain gets mushy and you forget how to function properly. We hung-out long enough to catch up on a few things: like Gordon and Angela’s cat named “Harley” and our furry 4-legged friend “Dude’s” recent antics, LED lighting and Solar/Battery setup, and our mutual plans for the summer. We also managed to snap this shot below, which I made Trey take twice because I thought I had blinked   only after photo inspection did Trey point out that I was wearing my sunglasses! (drive-brain)

Gordon and Angela!!