Well, okay, I'm writing this on a Sunday so it's not the total of my weekend but I had to get out of the house and do something.  For those who don't know, I live in the desert and am a virtual hermit - it takes an acto fo congress to get me out with people!

I've said before I've recently gotten my Amateur Radio License and our local club put out a call for volunteers for a BikeFest up at Ft Davis (about 125 miles away from home).  Much of our area in this part of Texas doesn't have cell phone service so we hams get called on for a lot of different things, some emergency work, some volunteer work.

Yesterday the Permian Basin Bicycle club had a fun ride - the length of the ride was from a short 20 miles to 75 miles - and I'm glad I wasn't riding, I'd be dead now!

I got up at 04:00 so I could get out of here by 05:00; that got me to Alpine a little after 06:00 - coffee, gas, eats - and then got me into Ft Davis early by 07:00 (we were supposed to meet at 07:30).  Fine, a couple of others showed up early too and one of them had donuts!

I was 'on station' when the event started at 08:00 and had a thoroughly enjoyable day waiting for a need for my service - and hoping that they weren't need since that would mean someone needed help.  The water station, with water, energy drink and snacks was run by two ladies from the Lions Club and we were the first of five water stations around the loop..  This is a bad photo but one of the small groups of riders looked like this:

I've yet to figure out why this camera will take some excellent photos and sometimes they come out like this.

I was favourably impressed by my pups, most of the time they looked like this:
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with Sasha staying on the far side of the Jeep and Avalanche being the one who came out to meet and greet the riders who stopped to say Hi! (the porta potty was behind me, so we had a lot of greeting as the riders wandered from the potty stop to the snack stop).
What really impressed me about Avalanche is that he's an overly friendly, exuberant, outgoing dog and he was nicely laid back.  He didn't make a nuisance of himself, if someone stopped to talk about dogs and pet him he was glad to take all the attention they had to offer; otherwise he was just as willing to set in the drivers seat and watch the people go by.  Sasha, on the other hand, couldn't be bothered, she spent most of her time 'chilling' - still watching the people but just not interested.

13:00 (1:00 PM for you who don't do military time) we wrapped up our part of the loop - the further stations were open till as late as 16:00 - and I wandered off to get a free hamburger, my payment for the day.  Finally got us all back home about 18:00 and we all crashed for a couple of hours.

I want a Jeep!!!!!!!!! LOL

Looks like a fun time! I bet Avalanche and Sasha were glad to get a way for a bit. It wasn't hot? Lucky you!!! I'm baking over here

Looks like fun, Al and Avalanche is a handsome boy!

Question - in your jeep: Can you put 2 people in front, dog in back and still pack 2 tents, a camp stove, 2 Coleman lanterns, duffel for 2 packed for 4 days, cooler, assorted cookware, and other miscellany for camping with dog? If we can't find FJ Cruiser in good condition I also have a hankering for a pumpkin colored Jeep...

Artic_Wind wrote:

I want a Jeep!!!!!!!!! LOL

Looks like a fun time! I bet Avalanche and Sasha were glad to get a way for a bit.  It wasn't hot? Lucky you!!! I'm baking over here

Actually, Ft Davis is about 15 cooler than we are down in the desert. Ft Davis is at 4900 ft while we're at about 3200; it's also about 120 miles north of us so "down" is appropriate in both cases.
I got there in a T-shirt and 'froze' until it warmed up a little about 10:00 - I still don't think it got out of the 80's all day long.  Beautiful for the riders, not so much for those of us just standing around.

amymeme wrote:

Looks like fun, Al and Avalanche is a handsome boy!

Question - in your jeep:  Can you put 2 people in front, dog in back and still pack 2 tents, a camp stove, 2 Coleman lanterns, duffel for 2 packed for 4 days, cooler, assorted cookware,  and other miscellany for camping with dog?  If we can't find FJ Cruiser in good condition I also have a hankering for a pumpkin colored Jeep...

Avalanche says "Thank you, ma'am!" (and he knows it too!)

To answer your question in a word, No.  I have a standard two door Jeep and the first thing I did was to take the back seat out, I seldom have another human in the Jeep so the back seat was excess and a bother with the dogs.  However, the newer four door Jeeps, the Wrangler Unlimited or the Wrangle Rubicon Unlimited should come a lot closer.
My load distribution is:
Passenger compartment front: Me and daily necessities (food, drink, radios).
Passenger compartment rear: Dogs, their necessities (food, water, leashes); tools for emergencies / cables (mostly for others);
Cargo carrier: if you can see that tiny picture, holds my camping box (a commercial outdoor storage box) which contains Coleman lantern & stove; dry foods;  cooking gear (coffee pot/cast iron skillet/plates/cups/sliverware/etc); the carrier also contains a Coleman cooler and may have a small propane tank depending.  If the carrier is unloaded you can open the tailgate, but obviously not if you have anything on it - hence my guys get to get in and out through the front door (thankfully they've learned to wait for me to tell them which door to use.)  The cargo box is held on with some trucker bungee cords (rubber not elastic stretchy) and my tent/tarp etc are strapped onto the top of it.  The Coleman cooler is held on with regular bungee cords since I may be getting into the cooler during the day and they're easier to get on and off and the cooler isn't as heavy as the cargo box.

Ah! That looks like a lot of..work! But also sounds like a good time, lol. The doggies look so chill, too!

Al sounds like y'all had fun. Avalanche is so handsome. Of course he was a polite gentleman, that's what all perpetual puppies do, lol. He does certainly have similar structure to Miya, very sleek, long legs, love him. Miya does the same thing, sits on the driver's side and watches the world go by. Sasha, lol, what a girly girl, haha, she just wanted to be comfy, lol.

Aye we had a good time after it warmed up a little.  Ft Davis, I think I said, is typically about 15-20 degrees cooler than it is at home - and I wasn't prepared for a 70° morning.  
The only problem we ran into was a bunch of stickers in the grass.  We all had to keep pulling them out of our feet (I typically wear sandals) and I've managed to find a few in the rug since we've gotten home - figure Sasha brought them home in her long fur.

In between a low setting off the Mexican coast and a high setting over the Rio Grand valley east of us, we've gotten a nice cold front through here - I woke up to about 65° this morning, which is a bit cool for me especially this time of year.  Depending on which way that low goes, we may get some of the rain that the southwest has been getting - though I hope not quite as much, they've gotten some bad storms in the Arizona/Utah border area.

S'okay though, it'll warm up to the low 90's before too long.  Now if the sun would just clear so my batteries would charge up!!!