Up, Up and Away

The Coachella Valley is an arid rift valley in the Colorado Desert of Southern California. It is home to a number of wintertime resort cities and numerous winter events. The valley extends approximately forty five miles southeast from the San Gorgonio Pass in the west to the northern shore of the Salton Sea on the southeast. It’s approximately fifteen miles wide along most of its length. Surrounding the valley are the San Bernardino and Little San Bernardino Mountains on the northeast and the San Jacinto and Santa Rose Mountains on the southwest.

A couple of years ago for my birthday, the kids gave me an aerial tour of Palm Springs in a bi-plane. It was a wonderful way to see and photograph this fascinating place I call home half of the year. Palm Springs is located on the western most end of the Coachella Valley but its top-ography, geography and ambiance is representative of the entire Coachella Valley.

We started the tour by flying over downtown Palm Springs.

The downtown area is going through a metamorphosis with new hotels, retail establishments, art galleries and eateries. It’s become a mecca for our ever-growing tourist trade.

Then we swung south, skirting the San Jacinto Mountains where some of my favorite hiking trails are located.

To our left was the Indian Canyon neighborhood where Sharon and I have lived for over ten years.

Then it was down into the back canyons of the Indian lands.

These back canyons called Andreas, Murray and Palm Canyon, all had their climbing peaks and hidden oasis as a part of the San Jacinto Mountain chain.

Even on the ground, the country around here is a wonder to behold. Oswald Canyon offers winding hiking tours of the mountain base.

The Henderson and Garstin Trails offer up elevation for a different perspective of the surrounding terrain.

The wash at the base of the Henderson Trail offers up an entirely different perspective of desert life.

Beyond the borders of the Coachella Valley, the high desert offers up its own varied terrain and atmosphere.

Yucca Valley, the Morongo Valley, and Joshua Tree all offer up a cornucopia of visual experiences.

The Coachella Valley and its surrounding mountains offer up a fascinating variety of scenery all year round.

Five Years Younger and Twice as Old

Have you ever been to a dinner party or some similar event and met a couple and your first reaction is ‘How the hell did those two ever end up together?’ Yeah, me too.

Then there are other couples who seem, at least on the surface, to complement each other to a T; a perfect match made in heaven or on the Hallmark Channel. Yet both couples have found a commonality or connection that has withstood the test of time. Go figure?

On the surface, there are the visible correlations of compatibility, similar interests, like-minded pursuit of goals and the list goes on and on. It’s sometimes easy to see why two individuals were attracted to one another and have stayed together. But what about the phenomena of opposites attracting?  How is it that two individuals with different, diverse, divergent, divided interests can be not only attracted to one another but can make it work for nearly a half century? It gets even more interesting when one of the partners is an alpha female.

Sharon is five years younger than I am and twice as old in terms of maturity, social skills, and leadership abilities. She’s also an alpha female and Type A personality. Talk about opposites attracting!

Being married to an alpha female might seem a bit incongruous considering my upbringing. Yet nothing could be further from the truth. Upon reflection, I realize, down through the decades, I‘ve always been attracted to strong women with brains, beauty and brawn. In this case, I would define brawn as a personality that is focused, determined and in-charge.

The misconception of a type A personality or an alpha female is ripe with conjecture, misconception, and misunderstanding. Not surprisingly, a lot of folks think that partnering up to an alpha type personality reduces one’s own status to that of a eunuch. Nothing could be further from the truth. From that façade of contradictions come cohesiveness and compatibility. Sometimes, it’s just hard to see that at first glance.

Alpha females aren’t new, but they were rarer back in the day. Back then, they were typically women who didn’t follow conventional paths. They became writers, politicians, scientists or doctors. In my wife’s case, Sharon started out as a teacher and pretty quickly morphed into an administrator and then Vice President of a college.

A lot of psychologists believe that every relationship needs balance for it to survive. In the case of the happily married alpha female, it is a balance between masculine and feminine energy. While seemingly miscued in favor of the alpha side, closer observation would reveal that while the alpha side is predominant that dominance is totally dependent on the willful acceptance of the beta side. One doesn’t function without the other.

              

That balance between our two personalities, while often invisible to most outside eyes, is the fulcrum upon which our relationship balances and without it, there would be no relationship. It is truly the ying and yang, up and down, right and left and good and bad of any relationship. One side does not, cannot, exist without the complete willing acceptance of the other.

Obvious differences aside, there is more commonality between Sharon and myself than that which lies on the surface. We were both born into lower-middle class families; Sharon from a small farming family and me by a single parent. There was limited interest in education among our parents, relatives and extended family. Advanced educational studies were not seen as playing a prominent role in our respective futures. That changed for both of us in high school.

Fast forward to July of 1971 and the similarities begin to appear and coalesce. Neither Sharon nor I care much for status symbols or flashy objects. The prominent commonalities we both share are a hunger for self-improvement, the importance of education for our families and not being afraid of hard work.

Initially the differences made all the difference. Then the commonalities solidified beneath those rolling waves of personality mix-ups and ultimately formed the bond seen vapid and loose by most. But much like the raindrop that becomes the puddle that becomes the stream that becomes the river that becomes the rapids, our relationship is like a current that can’t be stopped.

Real relationships are funny that way. Whence they came from nobody knows and where they’re going we know even less.

What can I say: it works for us.

All American Bike Tour

Europeans have been doing it for years. When I lived in Copenhagen, it was one of the primary means of transportation. Now Amsterdam and other European cities vie for prominence with their own focus on two-wheel transportation.

One of the unexpected but welcomed results of the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent stay at home orders has been a surge in bicycle sales across the country. People are rediscovering the joys and benefits of bike riding, touring, exploring, and commuting. It’s almost as if a whole new generation has stumbled across this safe alternative to public transportation, easy way to exercise and great way to explore one’s neighborhood and community.

Now that biking has gotten very popular once again, there is a shortage of new and used bikes for sale. Inventory is slim at bike shops and retail stores. It seems that everyone wants to get out and return to their youthful memories of bike riding.

Magazines and web sites that cater to the biking crowd have gotten very popular recently. Web sites like Cycle Chic, Copenhaganize, Citylab and Planetzien are among the many that frequently carry biking-related articles. Bike sharing outlets like Minnesota’s own ‘Nice Ride’ are expanding their outreach efforts. Electric bikes are now the latest craze to hit that market. Bicycle riding has been rediscovered all over again.

Heck, I knew that a lifetime ago. I got my first bicycle in fifth grade and I’ve been riding all my life.

My first bicycle was a 100-pound land cruiser called a Huffy. It had carried more metal than a Sherman Tank and Iron Maiden combined. In the end, I think riding that dead weight gave me the strength and endurance to run marathons later in life. While all the other kids were darting around town in their lightweight Schwinn bicycles, I was running over and crushing fixed objects in the way of my mobile steamroller.

Fast forward ten-to-fifteen years and my first serious bicycle was a French-built Peugeot. It was a ten speed racing bike that, in fact, had a total of 15 different sprocket settings. After settling into my first job as a writer at the Minnesota Department of Health, I paid $115.00 for my new Peugeot at a bike shop in the East Village near the University of Minnesota.

Later that year, I rode my first Century on my Peugeot. In cycling lingo, a Century is a one hundred mile bike ride completed in one day. There were selected water stops along the way but it was still an out and back route that encompasses urban, suburban, and rural roads.

Then I did the TRAM twice, the second time with Brian.

The TRAM stands for ‘The Ride Across Minnesota.’ It is a five day ride from one side of the state to the other, usually encompassing four hundred plus miles. Daily lengths vary but usually average between 70 and 80 miles per day.

Both the Twin Cities and the Coachella Valley have wonderful biking routes that allow one to meander the neighborhoods.

I’m still peddling after all these years. As long as I can keep my balance and the old legs and back don’t give out, I intend to keep pushing along and enjoying the scenery along the way. Just like when I was a kid.