Sometimes, this says it all.

Me likey!!!!

Time to check in.

I can't believe that it is already the middle of June. If you have a clue on where the time went, I am all ears.

Last weekend I did something totally original. I went camping. :) We started by going over to visit a place just east of Zion. One of my friends has friends that manage a dude ranch. It was really a nice area. We broke out the 4 wheelers and took them around to tour the place. At one point I had a race with my friend's dog. We got up to 30-40 MPH and she kept up. I was impressed. After that we started to climb a hill. I had a girl on with me and I climbed up the hill at a good safe pace. We only went about half way because we had assumed that there would be water for the dog. There wasn't. We turned around and started heading down. The girl wanted to drive so I was more than happy to let her. My mistake. This girl freaking gunned the machine down hill and it was all I could do to stay on the back of the machine. It was a tad bit insane and if I ever ride with her again, it will be to soon.
After that we headed up on Cedar Mountain to a little secret camping spot. It was gorgeous if not a bit cold. We woke up to a very chilly morning. It was a great way to get the blood flowing.
Of coarse we are back in town and it is getting warm. Tomorrow is supposed to be 106. Welcome to summer.
On to other news, my weight loss is going well. I started out at 270. Went up to 273. Now I am at 264. I am very pleased with that loss. Slow but steady. I am still drinking at least 64 oz of water. That makes for a miserable road trip when you constantly have to pull over to take a leak.
I am mixing in different activities for exercise. I am walking for an hour and now throwing in some jogging as I feel the urge. I also go over to a friends house and we use is "Dance, Dance Revolution" for a 30 minute workout. That really gets you going. I just have to keep it up.

The way to kick off summer.

To kick of the weekend, Eric and I decided to take off and camp up on Beaver Mtn. He had a delivery that he had to make in Beaver and we were just going to play off the cuff after that. We start climbing up the mountain in his truck and we found out how cold it was going to be. We decided to wimp out and stay at my Grandparents condo. It was nice for an overnighter. And in the morning, we went up on top of the mountains and got some sweet pictures of the area. I am still waiting on the email to get them. I'll post them as soon as I get them.
Anyway we came back down to St. George Saturday afternoon and I decided I needed to bum around town and do a whole lot of nothing.

Sunday comes and me and Eric decided to go up to Enterprise Reservoir. We invited a couple a friends and headed out to camp and fish. The fishing was excellent. I caught a healthy 2 lb rainbow. I was proud of that considering the dog that came with us wanted to swim wherever the line was and we have a fun time trying to control her. The best part was there was a girl with us that was helping with the fish as we caught them. Once we got them of our line and put them on a line to keep, she went to throw out the line but didn't keep hold of the end. We saw these beautiful fish flying out into the lake. Bummer. I had sandals on so I was volunteered to go out and get them. I was lucky, I got them back.

We got back up to the camp ground and started to clean the fish. One of the girls, a city girl, wanted to help gut and clean them. She said she was OK because she had dissected a fish before. That didn't last too long and we took over the duties of getting them cleaned. We decided to do an experiment, we took the fish and poked a stick right through them and cooked them over a fire. It actually came out tasty. We had some tomato and basil wheat thins and use the cracker with the fish. That was really tasty. We started to set up camp but it got windy and we wimped out(again)and headed home around midnight.

Today we went up to hike on the Pine Valley Mtns. The trail we took was called Mill Flat. It was a fun trail but long. On the way up, I apparently crossed a rattle snake. I even had a dog with me and neither of us saw it. Eric got into a battle with it after being surprised by it. I am a little shocked because it could have easily bit me or the dog once I saw where it was. Then about 1/2 mile further up. I was scared when a water snake blew past me. My nerves where frayed. We hiked about 8 miles round trip and I was TIRED on the way back down. I made the mistake of trying to cross a stream by stepping on rocks. I took a wrong step and went into the stream. The worse was to come. I ended up stretching my calf muscle funny and I ended up with a Charlie Horse. That was painful and I still had over 3 miles to go. I stretched out the best I could and hobbled down.

I made into town but even now I am stiff and extremely sore.
I came to this conclusion, the trouble I had today were in large part to my weight. I weigh just to damn much. Eric is going through a weight lost center that is also changing his eating habits. I need to change mine to make this work but I am resolved to shed off the pounds.
My goal is to get down to about 220 lbs, I am at 270. I have some work ahead of me but I am going to go over and get on the same program and see what I need to do to change. Wish me luck.

Back from Surreality.

Yup...I felt like I was in the twilight zone pretty much all weekend.
I did my job as a roadie for Eric and the band. The destination? California City, Ca.

According to the locals, Cal city is the third largest city in Ca. How is it you may have never heard of such a large city? Easy, because it is third largest in square miles, and there are a lot of empty miles in there. The actual population is about 8,300. It was strange, you would leave the "downtown" section. You would go out into the desert and there would be intersections that would just go off into nowhere. The city has roads planned but obviously no need to put those roads in. You could go about 5 miles and see a grouping of houses then nothing again.

We said about 10 miles from *ahem* city center at a place called the Silver Saddle resort. It was a nice place with greenery all around. You had pools, a mini golf course, shooting range and horse rides. The guitarist for the band said that it was supposed to be from the "wild west." My response was that we know there was many a time that there was a dispute settled on a put-put course. :)

Anyway we had to put on the show Saturday. It was a pleasant evening but it cooled off quickly there. I was caught without a jacket but survived. The show was fun but things got a little crazy with everybody crowding the stage. I think they may want to hire someone to keep the audience back just a bit.

Anyway I am back at home and relaxing before work hits me upside the head tomorrow.

While I have writer's block.

Happy Birthday Grandma.

We had the luck of being able to celebrate my Grandmother's Birthday. She had her 81st in the hospital. It is still a bumpy ride considering that a couple of weeks ago she had to be revived with the paddles. (Yea, that caused a lot of tears among the family)
I had an uncle come in from Beaumont, TX on his Harley to be here.
The hospital staff was very accommodating considering the gang that was there. Grandma was all smiles talking with everybody. Last year she was really not happy with anybody cause she didn't want to celebrate. This year was the best for her.
Now she in back in a rehab clinic to get her back up to speed. We are all pulling for her she is in my prayers.

I like outdoor stuff.

The weather has turned really nice since a couple of weeks ago. It is constantly in the 70's and I am loving it. No really. I am loving it.
Yesterday I had a friend call and asked me what I was wanting to do. I really wanted to go fishing. He wanted to go camping. The answer? Both. :) We took off from St. George to fish/camp up at Enterprise reservoir. We took along a girl that wanted to camp. She was interested because she had never been in that area. We took back roads and she was impressed with the scenery. It is always fun to play tour guide.
Anyway we get to Enterprise and guess what? It isn't really springtime up there. It was cold and windy. Heavy emphasis on the windy part. We ate a local fast food place and decided the camping was out but we'd still fish.
We get up to the reservoir and it was really windy. We still went fishing and had some success. The first fish on my line got away because of a snag. I said all the apropriate words you needed and proceeded to get my line rigged again. My friend caught one in the meantime and let it go. I brought in a nice fish and decided to keep it for dinner. I love the taste of fish. My friend caught another and kept it but gave it do me as he just felt that it was to much hassle to cook. We went down to St. George and rented a movie and hung out.
Today it was another nice day. We took my friends dog out to hike up Coal Pits wash in Zion's. It was amazing. We had a secondary goal. To teach the young pup to swim. She wasn't wanting to but we made a game out of it having her fetch a stick. We found some deep pools in the small stream and she got up to speed quickly. I hiked about 4 miles and I am plenty burnt now but it was worth everything.
Here is a picture after the hike. The dog doesn't look all that happy but it was because she had to get back in the truck and head for home. I can relate to that.