Out of the saddle fun

Just got back from a week and a half in beautiful Utah and Arizona. Started out by learning to repel. That was fun enough all by itself. That is me repelling down the side of a rock.
Then we put our new found skills to work in some slot canyons in and around Zion National Park. First we just did a couple of simple repels down into a canyon and walked out. Then we went for the real deal. A 10 hour hike down into a slot canyon that has something called the "Subway". We carried all of our gear which included dry suits as we would be repelling down into pools of water in the slot canyon. It was not particularly difficult but it was very interesting. We had never done anything like this before. The scenery was pretty spectacular. The Subway is an area that has been carved out by water and rock leaving beautiful pools and geologic formations of all kinds.
Here I am repelling down into the lower part of the Subway. The yellow and black bumblebee suits are our dry suits. They came in very handy going in and out of the 50+ degree water. Don't know if I would ever do it again, the Subway that is, but at least I have seen it up close and personal. As for repelling, I would do that any time. Repelling is a lot of fun. The problem is what goes down must walk back up most of the time. If I could just find a spot where I could repel off cliffs all day and then take the elevator back up.
More to follow...

What just happened???

Two weeks ago I am sitting around thinking about my next bike, my next ride and how much fun it is to be able to live like this and next thing I know I'm watching a bunch of bureaucrats spend my life savings bailing out people who should not have borrowed or lent money. Thank God I didn't sell the GS yet.
OK, I got that off my chest. At least I can still go riding. Now back to the task at hand. I am so inexplicably drawn to the Ducati superbike series. The 848 is all the bike I could ever want or need but the 1098R is just too cool to not be considered.

Since I haven't sold the GS I can wait until it sells and then see what Ducati has in mind for 2009. I am hoping for traction control on the 848. That would make the Ducati decision a little easier.
As for the touring bike I think that the 2009 Harley Ultra Classic has the hands down nod. That new frame is suppose to make this bike a real pleasure to ride. Several other improvements have been made and I think that they have the ABS system worked out now. A couple of chrome options and pipes of course and it will be ready for prime time. One of these two bikes has to wait for one of my hair brained investments to pay off though.
Since my next big planned ride is not until Sept09 I have a little time to get things in order.
Maybe I can talk Washington out of some bail out money. They won't miss $40 or $50k out of the $700B they are wringing their hands over.
Time to end this post as it keeps coming back to those idiots in Washington.

More to follow...