The Goodrums

September was a difficult month.

We at least began on a good note with a Labor Day camping trip with friends, though it was the first camping we’d done all year… The central focus of the camping trip was about a 32 mile mountain bike ride from Waterton Canyon in Denver Metro out to Buffalo Creek near Deckers, CO. Four of the guys elected to make the ride, some in preparation for the 24 hours of Moab in October.

I went in thinking, “I’ve ridden Waterton dozens of times and that singletrack ascent to the Colorado Trail should be some of the more challenging climbing of the ride.” What that really meant is I was thinking, “I got this.” Well, it turned out to be a much bigger challenge than anticipated, especially the fact that we had to hike significantly more sections of the trail than expected. In the end it was probably a 20 mile ride and a 12 mile hike where you happened to be pushing about 20 lbs. of metal, plastic, and rubber around for fun.

I think the best part was when we stopped for a snack after cresting a pretty worthwhile ascent at something no faster than probably 6 mph with most people slightly out of breath. As we were sitting there we heard people talking. The talking got louder quickly and it was a woman’s voice. Then this dude and this chic, looking all professional and legit, rode by at oh, like 10 mph, said hi, and the chic just kept talking no problem the whole way. For those of you who don’t know, that’s pretty much what defeat feels like. I think the only way it could have been more insulting would have been if they were on fixed gear bikes; or if they were a gang of clowns on tricycles.

We made it back to camp though, with one short pit stop for water where the lady must have thought we were a bunch of incompetent guys who didn’t know what we were doing and had gotten in over our heads. She may have been at least partially right.

Then came the best part. After the long ride, Jennifer drove three of us guys to a nearby lake. We paid $9 each for the best bath ever. Three tired, dirty, and sweaty guys in cycling shorts, a bottle of biodegradable camp soap, a lake with a terribly rocky beach, and some guy and his wife trying to peacefully launch their fishing boat at a secluded “beach” make an excellent combination.

Michael atop the rock formations at Buffalo Creek

The other interesting aspect of the ride/trip was the sunroof of one of the guys’ trucks exploding while he drove us out to the trailhead for the ride. Ford must have picked some bad glass. We did some exploring of the area, and bushwacked our way to and from some pretty cool rock formations.

Following the camping trip, Jennifer contracted Hand, Foot and Mouth disease from some of the kids on the trip. Hand, Foot and Mouth disease is only supposed to affect children under the age of 4 (is this saying something about my mental or emotional state?? says Jennifer). Jennifer developed a lot of sympathy for the kids that get the illness, as it is incredibly painful.

In September, I was assigned to a new and unexpected project that had me traveling three weeks out of four after what had already been a very busy summer of work travel. The upside was that I was in Washington, D.C. and got to hang out with my parents while on travel.

While on D.C. travel, we received the sad news that Jennifer’s paternal Grandmother passed away, less than two months prior to her 90th birthday. We both traveled to Indianapolis for the funeral, along with all of Jennifer’s immediate family. I do have to say that Grandma Brashares’ memorial service was what you hope a memorial service can be – much more a celebration of her life and who she was than mourning that she was gone. That’s not to say we weren’t sad to see her go, but it was really awesome to see countless pictures and hear countless stories about what a tremendous woman she was.


C. Brashares family before Gramma Brashares' services

In our effort to take advantage of the crazy awesome places in our figurative backyard, and in conjunction with our making full use of Groupon (see October), we sandwiched a weekend trip to La Veta, CO in between my travel to Washington. I have driven past the turnoff for La Veta countless times on the way to and from Los Alamos, NM. This is the namesake for La Veta pass, which is near the base of Blanca Peak. La Veta is nestled in the Spanish Peaks wilderness, which we discovered to be another of the myriad of gorgeous places in Colorado.

However, we really went for another reason: Great Sand Dunes National Park. We stayed at the historic La Veta Inn and had some wonderfully good food at the hotel restaurant. During dinner, unbeknownst to us, another couple in the restaurant paid for our wine, which was an especially meaningful gesture to us at that point in time.

Sweet Brashares family visit to the sand dunes in the early 90s

We went the next day to the dunes. I have seen these dunes in the distance while driving around in Southern Colorado and always wanted to go but had never been. Jennifer’s family went when she was a kid. They will tell you about the sand dunes. About wind and blowing sand and sand in your food and in your hair and, well in everything for weeks. They grew up in suburban Houston. They hated it. They laughed in slight disbelief when we told them we were going to the Great Sand Dunes.

I grew up in the desert in the Southwestern U.S. I have been to hundreds of sand dunes. I have been in Jeeps, on four-wheelers, on dirt bikes, on foot. I have been to Little Sahara and to White Sands to name a few. I have been to the small bit of sand dunes on the west mesa in Albuquerque millions of times. I have been in sun and in wind and in rain (thunderstorms in sand dunes are the best – as long as you are not in a wash basin and in danger of flash flooding). I have eaten countless sandblasted hot dogs or sandwiches and had sand in eyes and hair and underpants. I love sand dunes. The sand dunes are just like the beach but WAY better. You don’t have undertow in the sand dunes. You don’t drown in the sand dunes. There are no sharks or jellyfish lurking in the sand dunes (I will admit though, the ocean definitely has Orcas going for it. And Walruses. And Penguins. And Polar Bears. And Manta rays.) Basically, sand dunes = bliss. SO, Great Sand Dunes = EXTRA bliss.


Atop the Star Dune



Sangre de Cristos

Coke ovens in Cokedale, CO

The drive ended in Trinidad, CO and back to Denver, a very worthwhile Colorado weekend adventure.

After the trip to the Spanish Peaks area, Jennifer ended up having a minor surgical procedure due to some abnormal observances in her health. The procedure revealed and removed a polyp from her uterus and her doctor was pleased we had done the procedure. I rearranged flights to be in town for the procedure, but had to leave for Washington, D.C. immediately after the procedure.

After I finally completed my travel stint to D.C., Jennifer traveled down to Pueblo, CO for a work event that offers dental care to those who cannot afford it. During her time in Pueblo, Jennifer’s doctor shared the results of the biopsy of the uterine polyp. We were shocked to learn that the biopsy revealed that Jennifer has a precursor to or early stage uterine cancer.

We met with Jennifer’s doctor early the following week with a host of questions and then followed up with a visit to an oncologist the next week. Jennifer’s diagnosis was very unusual for her age, as the condition almost always occurs during menopause. We were told that the normal treatment would be to perform a hysterectomy, but for women of child bearing age, an alternate approach is to undergo a high-dose hormone treatment for three months to either halt, or hopefully reverse, the observed condition. At the end of three to six months, another biopsy is performed to see the response to the treatment. The goal is to have health return to normal and allow the opportunity for having a family before going ahead with performing a hysterectomy (which will be the ultimate endpoint of this diagnosis regardless of the outcome of the short term therapy).

The good news is that uterine cancer is a very non-aggressive and treatable cancer, especially when found early, should the condition ultimately turn out to be that. The biggest impact of the diagnosis at this point is on the prospect of having a family. Our hope is that the treatment would be effective and that we would be afforded the opportunity to have children, but for now we are in the oft difficult time of waiting. We know God is able and we are thankful that her condition was identified early and that there are options for treatment, but it is still scary and shocking news to receive. I still am not sure we have fully processed it all yet, and may not until after the second biopsy in January. But, it would not be faith if you already had the answer, nor do you hope for an outcome you already received.