Wisconsin

I headed up to Wisconsin a couple of weeks ago for the primary reason of getting the fields planted. I got in late Friday night and lucked out with an awesome day of weather on Saturday so I got the fields all worked and, with a little help, got all the corn planted. This is a good thing, meaning, I had a whole week to do whatever I wanted, AWESOME!!

Sunday was Mothers' Day and on the way into town to see mom I ran into my good friend Ryan who loaned me a sweet bike and then plans of some sweet rides in the hills came about. After chatting with Mom for a while I headed on home, went out on a short ride and then headed down to Grandma's for a good ole cookout! Food was amazing and it was great to see the family and all the little kids I hadn't seen in a while. The rest of the evening was nice and calm, perfect.

Monday I didn't do a whole heck of a lot, went for a good long trail run and then just relaxed a bit. I went over to catch up with Ryan and Lisa and have a couple beers until pretty late, good times.

Tuesday, my buddy Dan came down to visit and not long after he got there we headed out on a sweet ride. We headed down to Hwy C then up Orchard Rd. to Ruff Rd. then down the big Denzer hill. That was the best part of the ride, then we headed in to town via Swiss Valley Rd. to go see my Mom and visit the winery.

I noticed they got a new painted cow at the winery so I thought I'd take a picture with it:

Then the cow attacked me:

The Dan and I headed out to pick some morels:

Delicious!! The night finished with a good campfire and beers, Good Times!!

I'm pretty sure...

I've never heard it thunder for as long as I am hearing right now. I'm pretty sure it's been going at it for about 50 minutes straight. Guess I'll go for that run a bit later tonight.

I finished up with training on Friday after three long weeks of 8 hour lectures. The class was pretty good, we learned how to drill wells and evaluate formations. I learned a lot and my team won the final well-planning exercise. We got a "sweet" clock for winning, now I can tell what time it is. I wish it were time to go running but the continuous thunder is up to 53 minutes.

Lauren and I had a pretty good weekend. I went up to CS to see her on Saturday and we went to one of her classmates' house for a Slip N' Slide party. Lot's of fun but the Slip N' Slide was a little rough. We also saw a huge spider which was apparently an orb spider. It was huge, we threw some grasshoppers into it's web too, pretty sweet.

Sunday we got up and went riding at Lake Bryan for a couple of hours, good times, it was dang hot though. After eating some lunch and taking a good nap Lauren and I went and got some frozen yogurt. It was delicious. We were going to ride the horses but when we went to get yogurt the thermometer on the truck said 121 degrees, it only went down to 107 on the way to the yogurt shop so we scrapped riding the horses for going out and just brushing them.

Lauren started Veterinary school today, sweet.

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.

Piece #2

I was very unmotivated to ride today but I did. The weather is nice so the ride was good once I actually got out there. I was kind of just meandering around through the route I normally do and I did a couple of laps at Memorial. I was surprised because several cars actually gave me the right of way which is nice because typically they wait awkwardly and then I go and they go at the same time and they almost run me over. Some lady on a bike also told me I looked "profesh" so she let me by, I think she mistook me for someone fast. Other than the ride it's a pretty lazy day. Lauren is watching some stupid show about models or something on Lifetime, lame.

Yesterday was a good mountain bike ride and I discovered some crazy trails at Memorial, borderline unrideable but I tried anyways. Maybe it would be a good paydirt effort to get them into shape. While I was out riding Lauren chopped 9 inches of her hair off and she's gonna donate it to Locks of Love.

I'm not sure what else I was going to write, I while ago Lauren and I saw this snail crossing the sidewalk so I took a picture:

and we took a picture of the inside of Seu's mouth: and we volunteered at an animal rescue (Friends for life)and we ended up feeding ferrets, odd little animals: