Living Life the Larsen Way: August 2009

So, this year school started off a little bitter sweet. I got up earlier than normal just so I could

get myself ready as well. I've always walked them to school the first day. It's a tradition. But this year was different.
I got them fed and ready. I put extra gel in their spiky hair. I made sure their nails were all clipped. I was so proud of the growth that they had made during the summer. It was bliss...but then they started off without me!! I had to grab their hands to get them to stop so I could at least get a picture of them before they left.

As soon as the camera flashed, Kaden was on his way, with Mckay running close behind, trying desperately to not only catch up with him, but pass him and win!! I myself couldn't even keep up, but who can keep up with a lanky 10 year old and a really fast 7 year old on the first day of school!!??
I started to quicken my pace, trying to at least drop Mckay off to his new classroom, his new teacher, and his new friends. There was a comment made that they were gone..."good luck catching them now!" I started to cry. Not tears of happiness by any means, but tears of sadness. They are getting older. They are getting more independent. They don't need me around as much anymore. This sucks!!!
Then, alas, Mckay stopped, turned around, and headed straight to me. My heart did a little jump for joy. At least HE still needed me!! I heard him call my name. With hopes of the chance to still be able to pass him on to his new class, I hurried toward him. "Mom" I heard him say. "What sweetheart" I called out, speeding up even more to catch up. "Um, don't forget to pack me my kind of spaghetti for lunch today!" and he was off again. My heart broke a little, but I had to laugh anyway. It's so funny that we can all be gullible enough to think the inevitable wouldn't happen for a couple more years.
So, when I finally reached his classroom to give his teacher "his kind" of snacks, he was sitting patiently at his desk, hands folded in front of him, asking his teacher, "what are we supposed to do now?" I cried again. Ready this time to let the little guy finally grow up. No more little one, no more "mom, I need you". They are finally grown up and responsible for their own actions.
Kaden even said that he was glad that he's in the class he's in now, because finally, in his fifth year of elementary school he said he has a ton of friends!! How glad I am of transferring him from the "cool kids" that were always mean to him class, to the "little dorky" future leaders class. Yeah for a new Principal that will actually listen to the parent request instead of the former Principal that overrode the parent request for his own request! We're so glad "little Timmy", the class bully of his era, was "demoted" this year! Things are finally looking up. My second grader and my fifth grader are finally starting to "let go". Now...If I could just do the same!!

Well, I did it!! I rode the 1,721 miles to and from Sturgis, SD without towing once!! I even rode through the rain storm outside of Rock Springs, WY! I still can't believe I did it! I'm so glad to be home though!!
I guess I'm getting a little ahead of myself!! So, I'll start at the beginning!
Tuesday morning Jason and I left my mom's house in Bear River City and started the ride to Yellowsto

ne National Park. It was fun until we got there and discovered that it would cost us a whopping $40.00 just to enter the park. The even bigger kicker is that the first 60 miles was road construction...yeah, road construction!! We had to pay to ride on dirt roads and gravel!! Fun, right!! The only animal that we even came close to see was a bear down by the water!! It was pandemonium!

Chaos, as all the "people" stopped to snap a picture!! Stopping in the middle of the road just so they could get a photo of a bear!! It was crazy!!
The last half of our Yellowstone "experience" was mostly in the dark!! 40 miles was spent chasing Jason down after forgetting to

notice the big turn off sign that read Cody, WY this way...not that way!! The rest of the night was spent in darkness until we made it to a little campground/cafe that didn't have any lodging left and they absolutely couldn't allow tents in the park. They were kind enough though to re-open their establishment so that we could at least thaw and get warm so that we could travel the next hour and a half to Cody.
When we got to Cody, at 12:30a.m. we were told on several occasions that everything was full and the next chance that we had to find lodging for the night was about 2 hours away! So as Jason and I used our Joseph/Mary mentality to find "room in the inn" we rode past a Wal-mart with r.v.'s and camping trailers all over their 24 hour parking lot!! I.D.E.A.!!

I'm so not above pitching a tent on the lawn at wal-mart at 1:00a.m.! The sleep was peaceful until 4 a.m. when it started "raining" on our tent!! I looked out and the sprinklers just kicked on and we were getting "watered"! It lasted until 4:55a.m.!! And to make matters worse, the giant, loud street sweeper started up and down the motor homes and campers and lasted until 5:15 a.m.! Tell you what, I won't try that again!!

That morning we ate at a really good hometown restaurant!! The portions were huge and the prices were cheep!! We went to the Buffalo Bill museum before we ventured forward!! There were tons of guns!! We even saw one donated by Dick Cheney!! I guess he gave up guns after his little "incident"!! We laughed a little about that one too!!
After we left Cody we rode until 2:30 when we stopped for an ice

cream and water. Then we pushed through until 10:30p.m. when we finally got to Sturgis!! I don't know who was more excited, me or Doug!! I think he was glad that we, uh I, made it safe and without incident!!
We finally got to "set up camp" for a couple of days, where they totally soaked those participating in the whole "sturgis experience" by charging each person $30.00 to stay there!

We had a little tent and it cost us $60.00 a night! And more so, you had to pay for everything! Showers were .25 cents for 15 minutes!! I felt like I was at girls camp again!! I guess it was all worth it though because I did get to join in on the teasing of Justin, Doug's friend!! I tried to tease Randy, but he would just stand there and shrug his shoulders and laugh. Justin would fight back! The first thing that I said to him was that "he finally got his bike out of the trailer"! I think I must have shocked him because he didn't even have a response! The rest of the trip was just about the same! He would make it so easy to tease him! That's what Jason says about me...all...the...time!! Now I know what he

means!!
The next day we ventured to downtown Sturgis. I couldn't believe all the bikes! They were lined as far as you could see on both sides! It was cool. The whole thing was vendors trying to sell their t-shirts. It really was over-rated!!

We decided to go to the fights that night because Jason and the boys wanted to go and I couldn't be the "who brought the girl" girl, so I went along even though I was really zapped from the "no food" day before! The first fight I cringed, turned white, almost passed out and had to sit down for a while because I got so sick! How could they break someone else's nose and be o.k. with it!? Then around half way I started figuring out that I wanted the cocky guy or girl to go down by the "underdog", so I started looking, cheering, then sitting back down in case it got bad! By the end of the fights, I was screaming for the S.D. state high school champ to go home and for the Utah underdog to "get him"! I couldn't believe how into it I was getting. I could totally see, at that point in my journey, how fighting at someone else's expense could be entertaining. I could see for a brief moment at the excitement that the people in the 1950's would feel while watching the "fights" for their only form of entertainment. Then someone bled, and it was over!! I couldn't handle it anymore, so I made up an excuse to go across the street to get some "snacks" at the grocery store! It worked! By the time I got back, it was over, and we got to go and sleep!! Awesome!!
The next day as we were leaving, Jason and I looked at each other and said that we needed to

make sure and say a prayer before we left. That is a tradition with my mom and dad that we start each trip and day off with a prayer. We just didn't know if we dared to in front of everybody else. But we did, and we are so grateful that we did!! We rode

around Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse monument, Custer state park, devil's tower, and into Deadwood before we noticed the dark clouds all around us, water gushing on the side of the road, and hail varying from the size of a quarter to the size of a softball surrounding us on the side of the road! As we walked into our dinner reservations there was a severe storm

warning blaring on the t.v. warning everyone to take cover and be prepared because two tornadoes were about to touch down in the area!! We got a call from Doug telling us to

find refuge because they were getting pounded and everyone's tents were either smashed, or filled with water!! He said that he would dry our sleeping bags for us so we had something to sleep in that night, and that we were in charge of cleaning up the rest!! So of course, $15.00 worth of quarters later we were able to wash and dry all our clothes!! The other funny thing about that day, is that while we were waiting for our table I took one dollar and gave one to Jason and we played the quarter slot. I won $15.00 and .25 cents!! Just enough to cover the wash and a 15 minute shower!! Nice, right!! So, as I was saying, because of starting our day with prayer, we were able to ride all day, untouched to the storm that surrounded us!! How blessed we truly are for being protected!! Jason still comments on how we were able to miss all that and make it back unharmed! It was a true testament builder!!
So, on the way home, we ate when Justin would buy us a breakfast burrito, because he was "stuck" in the truck with Nate the whole way home (that's another story!!), and we would stop for gas when everyone else did.
We rode through the storm to get to Rock Springs where we could finally sleep in a real bed and not have to worry about our leaky tent!! It was awesome, and a little weird, but that's another story!!

We then rode the 189 miles for home the next day, which was a piece of cake, considering what we'd already been through that trip. It was beautiful, it was windy, it was rainy and it was a

blast!!! I'm glad that I can say that I rode the whole way on my own bike and returned to tell about it!! It was awesome and I made some really good friends that I would rather have with me than against me!!