On May 1st, 2013, I set off on a solo 2-week bike trip to visit Moab, UT where I was born. Hard to believe that was 12 years ago. At the time, I rode Zuki (2003 Suzuki 800), my second bike.

I traveled from my little town in Arkansas to Kansas City, staying with a friend for 2 nights because a freak snow storm had blown across Kansas – forcing me to travel south through Oklahoma… where I learned how to ride with 20mph side winds. Then, I went to Albequerque, NM where some distant relatives were to visit them for a spell, ending up in some hotel in the middle of nowhere, unable to travel further. So close, and yet so far, from Utah.

I finally made it to my hostel in Moab and met Tad and Sam, 2 really great dudes that I spent time tooling around with, in search of my old home up on the La Sal Mountains. It was too snowy and cold to ride up on my bike, so they took me up and we had a pretty great time just hiking a bit and finding my old place – which was far different than what I remember, of course… 30 years will do that.

I turned 31 while I was there, visiting an old friend of my mom’s – Kao [kay-oh] – nearby in Castle Valley on my birthday – May 7th. I looked her up in the local phone book and called. She was shocked, to say the least. I asked if I could come see her, she said yes, and I spent the entire day there, just laughing and talking, reminiscing and sharing the ins and outs of life since the last time I’d seen her in Arkansas during a visit. (She has since passed, 2 years prior to my visit there with The Boyfriend last year)

As shown in the featured picture, I found the old hospital where I was born, by sheer happenstance while I was out riding around Moab taking pictures. I’d been told previously that it didn’t exist any more… which was mostly true, given the dilapidated state it was in.

I ran out of money and had to call my mom for gas money to get back home (lmao). On the return trip, I stayed in Alamosa – intermittently freezing and burning up in my sleeping bag at a KOA. Visited the Sand Dunes while I was there, as well, as this was a place in my memories from visiting with my maternal grandparents. It wasn’t nearly as cool as when I was a kid, but it had charm.

The best view of my trip was traveling over Wolf Creek Pass. There was a nice valley in the mountains and omg was it the most gorgeous thing I’d seen besides Castle Valley. One being desert with some greenery, the other a lush haven tucked in the mountains.

I returned home on May 14th, having crossed the entire state of Kansas in a tube top and my special biker pants (lots of holes for air conditioning)… a stark contrast to what it had been 2 weeks prior. And that was one of my most memorable trips to date.

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In today’s news: My mom has a heart ablation surgery in a week and I’m scared. I know it’s best to have hope and not expect the worst, but… she’s my mom. I don’t want to lose her and it would be utterly devastating if that happened. It’s prominent at this moment because she texted me the date/time details yesterday evening while The Boyfriend and I were playing Magic the Gathering. It came quicker than I expected, after having just gone with her to her appointment for heart tests to make sure it could handle the surgery.

So yeah… I’m worried. I do hope it goes on without a single hitch.