Kevin & Spring: June 2008

Got some slalom skiing and wakeboarding in this past weekend, it was only the second time I'd ever tried wakeboarding. I grew up skiing but if we ever own a boat again I think I'll convert to wakeboarding. We've got a sweet mtb weekend planned in Albuquerque for the 4 day weekend coming up, can't wait, they're supposed to have some good singletrack. Fox warrantied my RLC80 fork with a brand new 09 model. Less than 4 weeks left!

Monsoon, Cooling things off in Tucson!

Finally the rain is here, the past week has been awesome with the evenings overcast and cooling things off so the mornings are absolutely perfect. It was only about a month of brutal heat and then relief came. I ran in the rain this evening, it is nice, everyone stays home because they are scared they will get washed away and you have all the roads to yourself. I climbed all the way up to Ski Valley yesterday on my road bike, I have never added those two miles at the end, it really was not too bad. I am looking forward to 4th of July weekend with Kevin and then I have almost a whole month off work between RAGBRAI (ride across Iowa) and vacation with Kevin the first two weeks in Aug, we decided on a road trip along the CA, OR, WA Coast and then across WA to ID to visit my family and hang out on our land in Sandpoint.

More favorites for Ben and Lisa's album!

I finally made it over to Austin this past weekend, I definitely had it on my to do list before I left San Angelo and what better excuse to go than a Pro Crit in downtown Austin. I rolled out with my buddies Christian and Clint on Friday evening after class. We let Clint handle the hotel reservations and he didn't disappoint, we where two blocks from the Crit and a mile or so from the group ride. We where a few minutes late for the group ride and ended up missing it, at first we where bummed but we ended up riding with the Toyota United team which was pretty cool. Our story is we wore them out on the ride since Henk Vogels, Hilton Clarke and the Cuban missile could only pull a 2nd, 3rd and 4th despite easily controlling the end of the race. Austin is by far the coolest city in Texas, it has rivers, lakes, hills, trees, good restaurants and lots of fit people. If I had to live in Texas I'd pick Austin.

Start of men's race

View of city from hotel room

Finally rode all the way up to Summer Haven this weekend with some friends. I was worried at first if I was going to make it because I have been running more and cutting back on my calories, to try to get even more fine tuned for racing next season. I felt pretty good, it was fun riding with a group of cool people. Next week all the way up to Ski valley. You have to get out before the sun or wait until the sun drops to even do anything right now in Tucson, getting up to around 110 degrees during the day. I am worthless in the heat, so I hybernate and take lots of naps during that time. Jill Grasky took this picture we were the only girls, and Brian Grasky is kicking butt back from his injury, I think he smiled the whole time.

Mountain Biking Fantasy Island with people from work.

Life is Good

We met in Cloudcroft, NM again this weekend, we love that place. It is such a small little place we almost know everyone by name. After riding almost 50 miles on Sat we realized that we both needed a little R&R and could not wait to get done riding to play frisbee. With a good dinner and a few beers to celebrate us staying in Tucson and me not going to Korea we were finally relaxed. We got really good at frisbee the more beer we drank, well we thought. We ran about 30 min on Sun with some Yoga and then relaxed some more. It's nice not having any races to focus on for a while. Bring on 4th of July weekend, we are hoping to get some rain to Mt bike next time.

Celebrating More!

Breakfast with two of my best friends Kim and Maria with her boy Jackson and her mom.

My buddy Clint and I headed down to Camp Eagle this past weekend, its about 2.5 hrs south of San Angelo. We're not sure how it got in Texas but we like, it's the best place we've been so far in this wonderful state. It's got 14 miles of sweet singletrack, fishing, swimming and rock climbing. We'll be back at least one more time. Less than 6 weeks left in the beautiful San Angelo!!! Back up to the mountains to meet Spring this weekend, we'll be celebrating here new job she goes to in January just down the street from where she works now. The big news is she doesn't have to go to Korea for a year, that will leave us in Tucson for at least 2.5 more yrs!!!!

We kept playing with the camera to see how much, what Clint would call, photographic "artistry" we could achieve, this is best we could do. Jesse S, you would have been proud!

Clint and I getting ready for breakfast

Bass

Crusin Time!

I finished out the season with my first Cat 2 State Championship race, I didn't get last, but remind me not to move up to the Pro 1,2 category at the end of the season when all the roadies are peaking. Ouch!!! I got a campus bike on Craig's list for $50 and I love it! It is as solid as and older bike gets, with old Shimano parts, it is very fun riding to yoga with my yoga mat sticking out of the basket, I smile the whole time. I have been alternating run/yoga, and biking every day I already feel stronger. I meet up with Kevin again this weekend in Cloudcroft, the forest isn't open yet, but we are hoping for the 4th it will be. That is are new home away from home until Kevin gets done end of July. We will post more dorky movies when we get back from our weekend. Oh...I almost forgot, I got good news today, I don't have to go to Korea, I am moving down the street and staying in Tucson for two more years. Yeah, we are so lucky half my service has been here in Tucson. I will only have 4 more years left until retirement after this two year stent. I am counting down.........

Ben & Lisa's Wedding in Tucson

Ben and Lisa finally tied the not this last weekend, it was the most amazing wedding, everything was perfect and they looked so great I couldn't stop taking pictures of them. It made me really miss Kevin and our huge wedding:) Here are some of my favorite pics, I wish I could of spent more time with them, they were only here for a short time and I had to work almost everyday.

Yet another kick ass weekend in the books. Spring and I where having a high altitude withdraw so we decide to meet in Cloudcroft NM, it was just about 6hrs for both of us. We both rolled into town within 5mins of each other. We got a sweet campsite and set up for two days, the weather was perfect at 9000ft. Saturday we decided to ride from Cloudcroft to Ruidoso, 70 miles. We got to Ruidoso around noon and had an awesome lunch, the ride back was alot harder because there was alot more climbing and we where stuffed with pizza. Spring is officially a beast!!!! She's by far the strongest she's ever been. We got back to camp just before 5pm in time for a shower and lots of relaxing. Sunday we rode to Sunspot Observatory about 35 miles round trip, we where worked from the day before but felt better as the day went on. The original plan was to mountain bike but luckily we called the bike shop in town before we went because they told us that the forest was closed due to lack of rain, they had it locked down like a prison. We had so much fun we think we're going to spend the four day July 4th holiday back in Cloudcroft. The forest should be open by then so we'll be mtbing, there's a few trails up there that are magazine worthy we hear. We can't decide if we like the ocean or the forest better? Everytime we go camping in places like Cloudcroft we want to quit our jobs and live in the woods, it's gonna happen just not quite yet.

Lunch in Ruidoso

Looking west from Cloudcroft you can see White Sands NM.

Sunspot Observatory

Spring at the campsite

Here's a pic I got from Jesse of us in the pool, he said things are still going good but it's getting harder. Keep the hammer down man, before you know it you'll see San Antonio in the rear view mirror!!!