motogobi

…and, she’s DONE! May 9th, 2008 marked Anna’s commencement ceremony. My mom was in town, and we all met up with Mary, Bob, Jessie and Zondra to watch Anna don her cap and gown and join the ranks of the CU Boulder alumni.

To allow more family to join us in celebration, we had the full-on grad party the following day, Saturday.

More pics in the galleries…

Just to be clear about how this strip started - it was supposed to be an overnight trip from Erie, CO to Raton, NM to camp overnight in Sugarite Canyon State Park. I just wanted to start understanding what camping on a bike would entail, just to cut my teeth on a short trip.

When I called Anna the next morning about heading back up to Denver, she told me all about the snow that was heading into the Front Range. So, with one change of clothes and no idea where to stay, I headed south to Santa Fe. Then to Flagstaff. Then up through Monument Valley to Moab. Finally, 6 days later, I made it home. 1500 miles of road trip, all of in the beautiful American southwest.

Pictures with comments are up in my Public Galleries…

…and imagine finding it pop up on Toolmonger!

Some Toolmongers can open a bottle with practically anything: this Appalachian Trail pocket knife, for instance, or the edge of a bar. For myself, the choice of tool is critical — so I opt for a pope bottle opener, which makes a great conversation piece as well as a functional answer to my need for refreshment. If you want a popener for yourself or for your favorite beer drinker, you can find at least one online.

Our friend Justin brought me back one from Rome in 2002 or so. Since then, it’s become indispensible around the house, holding it’s own little place in our silverware drawer.

For a long time now, I’ve wanted to move away from the planetbantz.com domain name. At the time, it was almost a joke - something incredibly ego-tastic and very DotBubble (as I was working for, at the time, a company that would ride that bubble for a while until it laid me off).

So was on the road for a while last week…

View Larger MapClick for map of 1500 mile road trip

…and had a bunch of time to think about things. Where I’m going with my career. What kind of work I’d like to do (I get tired of tech tech tech all the time…). How to save money for things like a house with a yard for our dog. And one of the things that popped into my head was the combination of a nickname I’ve got, “Gobi” and my love of things powered by motors - thus, motogobi.

Probably more than you needed to know. Just change yer email address and your bookmarks for me.