A week home

Ryan's bike is sweet so I got out and rode as much as I could to take advantage of the elevation in Wisconsin. A couple of good hill climbing days was definitely good.

While I was home I also went arrowhead hunting a couple of times. The first time I went I didn't really find anything but the second time I went was much more spectacular. At the undisclosed location I went to I first found a Durst style point, pretty characteristic of the area. Then I decided to look one other place quick and found the best point I have ever found. The point I found is a Clovis point, one of the oldest styles of arrowhead in the US. Mine wasn't quite as big as the one in the photo and was made out of chert. There are no visible imperfections on the point I found and I'll likely never find anything that nice again. Phillipe, the local artifact expert, was pretty excited about the point and I thank him for the display case!! Check out Wollersheim Winery if you are in the South-Central Wisconsin.

It was a great early Birthday present since my birthday was the next day!!

Since my Dad and I and a good friend of ours all have the same birthday we decided to go out for dinner since we all were home for once. It was a great time, I got to see a bunch of friends and family so it was definitely a good trip home.

During this time Lauren was out in Colorado for her Brother's (Buddy) graduation.

I am definitely planning a trip back home for sometime this summer to escape the intense heat of Houston during the summer.

Last week or so

In preparation for the Rocky Hill race Lauren and I went out to Rocky Hill a couple of weeks ago. I was excited just to get out to Rocky Hill. I love that place!! We met up with Alan and Kathy and Scott and Paul and Chris and went out to pre-ride the loop. It was nice to be able to ride nice and easy with some good friends. Unfortunately I forgot to wear my sweatband and I was stuck in my glasses due to an eye infection. The ride was great though. I learned stuff too:

Alan is really good at rocketing off jumps in downhill sections

Alan tends to pick pretty good lines through technical sections

I can keep up with Alan better than I think I used to would have been able to

Alan occasionally picks really bad lines around things

I had a lot of fun riding with them and look forward to more riding in the near future. After the ride we headed into Smithville for some good food at a restaurant with a name that I can't remember right now. Sure was good. Then Lauren and I went and rode the horses for a while.

I didn't actually end up racing Rocky Hill because my Dad has some health issues going on so I went home to spend some time with him and help him get some stuff done. It was a cold and rainy first two and a half days in Wisconsin. Some good thunderstorms rolled through the second night I was home successfully taking out the phones. I also didn't get any cell phone reception so the contact information I left for my co-workers wasn't too useful. Eventually the weather turned nice around Thursday (May 13th for reference) and I met up with Ryan for a pre-race ride. I was on his extra, sweet mountain bike so I tried my best to keep up with him. The wind definitely was a bitch too.

I'll write more later, time to finish weed whackin' the yard.

Solavaca Part Deux

So we sat around on Saturday waiting for the race course to open up and finally about 2:30, as I recall, the course was finally opened to preriding. The course was sweet, I went out with Lauren and Jen and then we met up with Claire. We were taking a pretty easy pace and about 8 miles later we were back. Packed up our crap and then headed in to town to shower before dinner. Mmmm Italian with some BYOW (Bring Your Own Wine).

The race was Sunday morning and we were the first group off behind the Pros starting at 8:30. I wasn't sure how it would go since I hadn't raced in about a month and a half but I was feeling pretty strong. The first lap was rough, I think I went out a little hard and didn't get into a rhythm for a while. The second lap was feeling pretty good and I started feeling better and about 6 miles into the second lap I saw someone in my race. "Sweet, I can catch him," I thought. So I rode the third lap with what I thought was better technique but I couldn't catch the guy in front of me. I finished fourth, out of four. It was a tough race, I need to race more often.

Couple o' pics:

Solavaca Part One

The second to the last race I did was two weekends ago in Glen Rose, TX. It was a pretty good drive so we headed up Friday after work. Besides the water smelling like sulfur and the pancake batter being bad on Saturday the hotel was great. Saturday I got up early and cleaned up the bike a little before going out to preride, a nice relaxing morning was good.

We got out to the race course and found out that it had rained and the course wouldn't be open until 1 0'clock. Bummer, so we did what all cool people do, we went garage saling. We headed to a couple that were back towards town a ways and Lauren got a pair of shoes, the only sweet score of the day. On the way back to the ranch (race course) we took a little detour down a little back road only to find out there was water crossing the road in pretty serious fashion.

The first water crossing was pretty wide but also pretty shallow and after a short examination of the local geology we forded the river. We did not caulk the wagon and float it across and we lost no oxen. A ways up the road there was a little more serious water crossing. Serious to the point the road was closed. After wandering around a bit and deciding it was about time to go I walked over a little bank only to see a 3.5 foot copperhead swimming in the water. It caught me by surprise and Lauren too, even after I was like, "Lauren check out this bitchin' snake!!".

Pictures:

Water Crossing #1


Water Crossing #2


Copperhead, Lauren would not pose with the snake so I had no scale. It was about 3.5 feet long.