A side-trail note

Due to another stormy weekend, we won't be ATVing, but wanted you to follow an exciting dream come true path we me. My novel, SALLEE'S SECRET is being published by traditional publishers, Safkhet, and will be ready for distribution during the summer of 2014. Man oh man, what a ride this is.  Come along with me.     www.safkhetpublishing.com/authors/bonnie_glee.htm and see my author page.

Where Are The Dandelions?

Great Friday evening set up beside a trickling stream where we BBQ'd traditional cheese burgers (but no cheesy fries in the mountains) and slept in our RV Summer Home with ease. Not a drop of forecast rain fell.

We awoke to NO POWER, again, and we only used one inside light, one outside light, and the water pump last night; go figure. So after morning brews, Joe, my Silver Helmet hubby, unloaded our portable generator and set it up. 

It ran while we fixed our lunch of ham, cheese, crackers, cokes, and fig newtons and packed up Ruffus for a ride. So many beautiful flowers on the hills. Had to have some for our 'coke-vase'.

 On the trail up Iron Mine Dugway the thunder brought us back off the high peaks. Then the sun returned, so we rode to scout out some future campsites and just had to explore this one . . . of course I was in the driver's seat and didn't react fast enough to get us through this sinkhole.

Then appeared three angels, one on his brand new red ATV that had a wench. He tried it out for US. What a dear threesome.

This was the camp trip to crown our RV with her name, BJ. What joy. Her namesake is our first BJ, our sailboat that we enjoyed for many years on the Great Salt Lake.

Time for the exciting day to come to a close without sight of a single dandelion. I wrote some Haiku and Joe sat by the fire . . .

Melodious hoot
of gray horned owl was lost in
neighbor's pop music

A church bench does not
necessarily determine
a man's character

The little Bird House

Wonderful ATV ride where the dirt-brown-gray trail turned to 1960s shag rug rust. The trail was lined with white,pink and yellow wild flowers. Of course they had to be picked for our coke bottle vase back at the RV.
Upon return from riding 084to 174 toward Wolf Creek and taking a 50" trail trying to find it, which we never did, we returned to our campsite for steak and salad. As I walked out our door I caught sight of a little bird house that someone had built, painted (the pink and blue paint very faded) and nailed to a tree that shaded us.

Our morning ride took us through big puddles where we could raise our feet and squeal "wee, wee', and as we rounded a bend toward camp, my favorite, a border of dandelions.

Cool Calf

Are you frustrated with the ATV exhaust burning your calf? So were we; so we designed a COOL CALF, check it out and let us make one for you ($12). It really helps. One size fits all. Just wrap around your calf and Velcro it tight. So cool, really!

Let the rides begin

Silver helmet, dandelion girl, and hubby are off for first ride of the 2013 season. We have a new guest following us---our RV called BJ II. She is a dandy cozy, hard-side pop up that hauls Ruffus, our ATV, with great elegance.

This maiden voyage takes us into the Wasatch National Forest along the Mirror Lake Byway toward Soapstone Basin. The beauty of spring is spellbinding.
Now, to set up BJ II and make sure we remember how everything works, wow running HOT water. Unload Ruffus, sip a coke and give each other a high-five for success. Yellow wildflowers wave for me to pluck them and  put them in the empty coke-bottle-vase to adorn our table.

We leave our new summer home,surrounded by glorious patches of dandelions, put on our silver helmets and ride Lambert Hollow, trail #304, scouting out new campsites for future outings. Snow lines the shady parts of the trail and we wear our shabby long sleeve plaid shirts to shut out the cool air.
What amazed my poet-thoughts the most was the white aspen beyond the meadow of flowers among the evergreens...

 Haiku

Winter white aspen
nestle naked beside bright evergreens
waiting dress of spring.

This Ride's for you, K.C.

We carried the spirit of recently deceased 23 year old nephew K.C. with us on this ATV trip along the Paiute Trail in the mountains above Greenwich, Utah. He had a new red-mean-machine; how he loved to ATV. This ride's for you, K.C.
Purple is my least favorite color in the whole world, but the fields of Lavender that lined a section of I-15 towards our vacation destination were SO PURPLE---so beautiful as they sashayed in the summer breeze.
We stopped in Salina for the best sea burgers and fries in the State and were pleasantly entertained by two giggly sisters doing 'fist pumps' at the mineral truck drivers going past, who in turn pulled their blow-horns and waved at them. The scene brought a memory to my heart as I flashed back to my own silly childhood when my cousin Vickey and I did cartwheels on her front lawn and waved at drivers of the big quarry trucks that drove past about every 12 minutes, hoping that they would honk and wave; which they did.

Soon we were setting up camp in a grove of protective pines, and watching a glorious full moon come up when I noticed one of my favorite ATV-ride gold earrings was missing, then I noticed I forgot to pack the Miracle whip. Joe discovered, on our ride the next day that he'd forgotten his tackle box as we stopped along the trail to fly fish at Manning Meadow Reservoir; and of course the fish were jumping everywhere.
 

 Pine needles strummed their song in the wind as we rode on loop 44. The smell and sight of domestic cows along such a lovely trail was disruptive and irritating to the serene senses, but soothed by the sight of a hillside covered with my dainty dandelions.   

I picked wildflowers for our coke-vase that would adorn our dinner table.

Our morning alarm clock was the loud chirp of mountain birds.

I know K.C., like us, would hate to leave these trails and hit paved roads again where seat belts had to be fastened and windows rolled up, and Silver Helmets tucked away once more.

Upon our return home we learned that our grandson, Matthew had purchased K.C. mean-red-machine.

It's late June and off we go into the Uinta National Forest for a day ride along a favorite trail in Current Creek area; Low Creek Pass.
As we ride we pat each other on the thigh and point out remembered camp sites, hiking trails, or lunch spots. Wind walks through the layers of pines, but our glorious aspen weren't even leafed out yet; the summit pass was covered with snow too deep to throttle our way through. So we did something way out of character...we went around on an off-the-trail-path outlined by other four-wheelers (we don't like to disturb mother nature). Even when we get to a spot and have to turn around, its back up go forward, back up go forward on the trail itself until we get turned around.
Spring like runoff spills from the hillsides into mountain gutter-like roadside streams. The air smells clean. Summer was late, not one dandelion was spotted along the way.