Moab

As I mentioned earlier in my posts I have finally earned my passage to travel with the family to Moab. They have gone the past few years to ride dirtbikes on the slick rock and because of school and my minimal skills I got left behind, but not this year. We had a blast! This trip brought lots of adventures. It started out with a new bike. My dad decided it was time for me to graduate from my 100XR up to a 200XR. So he spend weeks before getting it all cleaned up and set up so I could ride it, thanks dad! The main thing about the bigger bike is… it’s bigger. It has bigger tires, which are better for riding up big boulders and it’s taller (not good for my legs) and it weighs more (not good for my girlie muscles). All in all I loved riding my new bike, it only presented a problem when I got in a spot I couldn’t touch or when I tipped over. Sadly to report when I crashed with the bike on top of me I couldn’t lift it off so I just have to wait for one of the boys to come pick me back up. They were pretty good about keeping an eye on me and taking care of me though.




So I rode better than I think anyone thought I would, even myself. My skill consisted of point it uphill and give it some gas and hold on. I didn’t fall too much, but when I did, I made it count. I came home with bruises everywhere! One of my favorite parts was riding on the slick rock. It’s neat because they have white dashes painted on the rock to show you the trail. After a while of riding my dad stopped me and informed me, “Molly, you don’t have to touch every single white line with the front of your tire, you can go off a little bit or take a wider turn if you need it!” ha ha. I think following the path with exactness gave me a confidence that if I just pointed it where I was supposed to go, my bike would go there.



I wore my pink riding shirt to alert others of my riding level, and as Bryan pointed out to me, “cause then you look more professional in the pictures.” Turns out it also has more useful reasons. I got to one difficult part to ride up and my dad wasn’t there to show me where to go up and there were people all around waiting and watching so I just gassed it up these rock steps and I didn’t crash, but I didn’t make it all the way up either but before I knew it 4 boys ran to my rescue in order to rescue the pink shirt motorcycle chic. They pushed my bike the rest of the way up… no problem. Another thanks to the pink shirt! Although, after a hard day of riding my dad informed me that I had graduated to a whole new level and that I deserved a red shirt now, like the rest of my family! ha ha.

So I have to take a minute to brag on my Mothey. Sorry to all of you, I don’t mean to cause offense but, I have the coolest mom ever. A few stories to illustrate my point. The first was my mom got thrown off her bike riding on a tough part. She got thrown headfirst into a large pile of sand. Not everyone gets to witness their mom thrown from a dirt bike. (Don’t worry she wasn’t injured) She rolled over and her helmet was filled with red sand, she couldn’t even see out of it. Her body was shaking she was laughing so hard at herself. Classic.

She always keeps up with us in all the adventures we take and to be frankly honest she kicks butt at motorcycling. Probably my favorite part of the trip happened on the hard part I mentioned earlier. A bunch of boys from another group came riding over it and they were barely making it up and out of control (one almost hit me). My dad sent Bryan back to offer to ride my mom’s bike through. She declined cause she thought she could do it, and she was right. She and rode up it like it was no big deal. Surpassing all these grown men with her motorcycle skills. I couldn’t help but let out a loud cheer yelling, “Yeah! Go MOM!” That’s right boys… my mom just kicked your trash. Pretty much she’s amazing.

Bryan posing silly

One of my falls (thanks for getting a pic mom!), after James pulled my bike off me, I was stuck between my bike and the rock ledge to my left.

We rode one day in the rain... all day long! So here we are in a beautiful canyon that we found in our rain ponchos!

The famous mural depicting the "Poison Spider" trail that I rode.

To get this picture was quite a feat. One of us would have to set the camera up on a ledge and then press the auto timer and run across a crevice and around to the rest of us and sit without looking too silly! All in all the vacation was fabulous and very much needed!