May 15, 2009 - Moab, Utah

One place that we used to visit a lot in the 1990's was Moab, Utah. We used to go there to mountain bike, and always found ourselves captivated by the beauty there, especially once you got out and away from town a little ways. Linc wanted to bike there on his birthday, so we drove over and car camped on a weeknite, to avoid some of the crowds. Moab has gotten a lot more popular in the last 10 years, but the area around town is still really inspiring and nourishing, even if it has a slightly overused feel to it on some days. The first day, we rode the Slickrock Bike Trail. These four pictures are from that. The trail is an adrenaline pumping adventure course, with technical climbs and descents that challenge even the most hard core bikers. We were really feeling the effects of the winter, but pushed through and managed to ride all of the parts that we'd learned how to ride in the past, although at a little slower pace than we might have otherwise. Somehow biking it this time felt a little juvenile (OK, we are almost 50 years old), and almost a little sacreligeous too. There is so much rare beauty out there on those petrified dunes, with islands of life where the waters drain into potholes in the rocks. Sego Lilies, Evening Primrose and both Prickly Pear and Barrel Cactii were all flowering, along with wild mustards and plants and shrubs that we still want to get to know. The birds were singing up a storm, each sparrow and warbler identifying his own little island of life in the rock dunes as his own, and singing call and response duets with his neighbors around him. Biking felt like an intrusion, and even though we weren't leaving as much black rubber on the rocks as the jeeps, ATV's and dirt bikes, the ride didn't have as much meaning to us as it used to years ago. It's still probably a great way to introduce people to the outdoors, by challenging them in a physical way, especially the younger folks. It's the way we got drawn in, throughout the 1980's and 1990's.

I can't believe we've gone beyond mountain biking. I'm sure we haven't completely. But we might be more apt to use the bikes to meet basic transportation needs now than before, and less just to get an adrenaline rush.

OK, maybe just once in awhile!

We drove as far out away from the crowds to car camp as we could, up by Porcupine Rim, but still managed to have someone camp close enough to wake us up shooting fireworks over our heads in the middle of the night.

We woke with the feeling that our bodies really wanted another day off after pushing through the winter to make some money to support our addiction to sustainability, but we tried one more ride just to see....gave up two miles into it, and drove home, eager to start packing for the move back to the yurt.

I know what I said in the above paragraph makes no sense. How are you living a sustainable life if you have to go off somewhere else to make money to support your "sustainable" lifestyle? Good question! We're figuring this one out as we go. One thing that might have to go will be health insurance. Our present coverage has a $10000 deductible per person, and the coverage costs have been increasing at the rate of between 7 and 25% per year.

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, health insurance premiums have increased an average of 78% in the last six years (and that's despite the last four years having unusually low increases!) From what we've read and heard, when you do need the coverage, the insurance companies fight tooth and nail to avoid paying and find ways to avoid covering a substantial portion of the bill. So why encourage them by supporting them? In 2006, when we lived on the minimum we could for the year, our health insurance costs were nearly one third of our gross income. At the rate that the coverage is increasing, in 10 years we would have to work so much just to pay for the insurance that the work alone would make us sick, necessitating more coverage, which would require more work, then more sickness... Not really all that sustainable.

We are thinking about starting our own personal health insurance company - just put what we'd normally spend on premiums in a dedicated account each year, increase the contribution each year at the rate that Blue Cross does, invest the money in a green fund of some sort, and hopefully in 10 years we'll have saved enough to pay for our own health care should we need it. Plus, we'll have a health maintenance program, involving regular areobic exercise, healthy homegrown organic foods, low stress lifestyle involving less working to make money to buy health insurance...

Sorry about all of the philosophical rants and complaining about things that are wrong with our civilization. I'll probably be too busy in a few days to rant anymore. The best way to change the world is to change your own life. Wasn't it Ghandi that said something about "be the change you want to see in the world"? Time to start being and doing!