Day 26: Rest day in McCook

The weather report said severe weather (thunderstorms & hail) which we took as a good excuse to take a day off. I've been catching up on e-mail. This one was a big disappointment:

Additional information is required to continue processing of your Initial Application / Request. Necessary information includes:

REQUESTED FROM AGENCY: 1. Please provide the required documents to the OLCR fax at 623-873-5232: Agency Signature Page, Applicant Signature Page, Criminal Record Self-Disclosures, and Physicians' Statements. 2. The home study states that the applicants' Physicians' Statements are dated 11-2-07 and 10-3-07. Please be advised that these are out of date; they most be less than Six months old, and must be updated. 3. Please enter the date of the CPSCR clearance in the applicable section of the home study. Please contact LeslieIrvine@azdes.gov with any questions; you may notify me when these items have been completed. Thank you.

Please contact your agency specialist as soon as possible regarding this email. If it will take more than 60 days to furnish the requested information, please have your agency specialist contact OLCR so that your file will not be closed.

Thank You
Leslie A Irvine,OLCR Licensing Liaison

This relates to our foster/adopt certification in Arizona. After 3 months of classes last fall, it's been 7 months of jumping through hoops, waiting, jumping through more hoops, waiting, jumping - you get the picture. Before we left on this trip we met with our social worker to make sure that she had absolutely everything she needed from us. "Yes, yes. This is it. I PROMISE. While you're gone, you'll get the certification in the mail. No problem."

And here we are again - more road blocks. Last fall we had to see a family physician to get certified that we were healthy and not crazy. Evidently, this certification has now expired. It's unbelievably frustrating. The state makes it as difficult as possible to become a foster parent (finger printing, criminal background checks, hundreds of pages of paperwork, questionaires, essays, etc.) On the one hand, they want to make sure that they only get good people to do this. This I understand. On the other hand, what sane person would continue to bang their head against the wall of the Arizona foster system? It makes me want to cry.

In Flagstaff, there are so many kids that need fostering and/or adopting that they have to farm them out to Phoenix and Tucson because there aren't enough foster families. On the bike tomorrow I think I'll draft a letter to Janet (the gov) in my head. The system is so broken.

Day 25: Enders to McCook, NE

What a night! The wind blew like a major storm was about to hit. But it never did. We saw heat lightning all around us at the lake, but we stayed dry. Unfortunately we didn't sleep very well with the rain fly on the tent flapping all night.

We had some breakfast in Wauneta NE in the only cafe in town. There we got the scoop on the weather and the terrain for the day from a very nice truck driver. We also read the McCook newspaper while we had some coffee. The headline (below the fold, mind you) read, "Miss Nebraska tires of shopping". Seriously. I'd like to give her the benefit of the doubt and believe that she was being ironic, but I really don't think so. There was some real news - they have been having some terrific flooding over the last few days from the storms. While we complained about the wind, we are fortunate on two counts: 1) we haven't really gotten wet yet, and 2) it's no longer over 100 degrees in Nebraska (in fact it's a pleasant 85.)

We rode just 55 miles today, and we're getting caught up on laundry and sleep this evening in McCook. Lately it's been ride, eat, sleep, repeat. We need a bit of a break.

P.S. We were thrilled to enter the Central Time Zone...must mean we're getting central!

Day 24: Sterling to Enders State Recreation Area

Oh - this was supposed to be a nice easy day to Champion State Park. The morning started out great, but after lunch we swung out onto Rt. 6 to face a wicked headwind. Where did that come from? And when does the wind blow east to west?? 97 very long miles.

Day 23: Briggsdale to Sterling, CO

61 miles and flat - it felt like we were flying!

Day 22: Fort Collins to Briggsdale

We could barely tear ourselves away from Ft. Collins, but with many more miles to cover we headed out for an easy ride to Briggsdale - 1/2 way to Sterling. Unfortunately, our late start meant that we had some weather to contend with. Happily, Mike is not only a directional dynamo, he's also a meteorological marvel. He diverted us to Galeton to keep us out of the thunderstorm. We waited a bit and then followed just behind the storm as it moved east toward Briggsdale. A longer day than we hoped for, but we're both happy not to have gotten soaked in all the thunderstorms. 55 miles, 4-1/2 hours on the bike.

Day 21: Walden to Fort Collins

Here's the recipe for a perfect day on a bike:
1) Easy climb up to Cameron Pass - enjoy sense of accomplishment on our last pass - summit 10,246 feet!
2) Begin descent through Cache Le Poudre canyon - nearly 50 miles of continuous, twisty, downhill through a gorgeous canyon with everything from waterfalls to gently meandering water
3) Meet Dick and Mary in Fort Collins, who take us in and make us feel like royalty. They offer us cold beer, a warm shower, a beautiful bedroom overlooking the lake, a gourmet vegetarian meal whipped up by Chef Dick, and a meringue dessert with ice cream and strawberries. (We thought we died and went to heaven!)
4) Bonus doggie fix: two black labs (Moose and Lilly), and a rat terrier named Mario who captured our hearts.

Such an amazing day. (And a perfect 100 miles from Walden to Dick and Mary's house. How do you like that?)

Dick and Mary told us stories about their travels and shared photos from Dick's recent trip to India. All fascinating! And in the small world category, it turns out that Dick actually taught at Mansfield U. in PA where Mike attended for his undergraduate degree.