A Family Affair

Astra and Alex.

Another great weekend has passed and life is good. My sister Robin and her husband Bruno came to Utah from Texas to celebrate my nieces 16th birthday. Astra was surprised to see a new bright yellow VW bug in the garage Thursday when she was summoned home by Jamie, my sister. Astra was all smiles from ear to ear and couldn't wait to "take er for a spin!" I'm not supposed to say anything, but, when she backed out of the driveway she was surprised at how hard it was to steer. Well, she had the stereo on so loud she didn't realize the car was not on. Mom came to her rescue, turned on the key and off she went, red face and all!

Robin the tourista.

Jamie just loves the creativity of the Artisit...

Jane, Bruno and yours truly.

Jane and I spent the the weekend in Park City with my two sisters and their kiddies and did the traditional Arts Festival routine. You know, food, drink, looking at interesting people, food... We did the Apline Slide and that new chair ride and topped the weekend off with a chair lift ride up the Town Lift. That was very relaxing, but slow. It doesn't run at ski lift speed so it felt like I could have run up the hill faster. For the weekend the weather was very cooperative with overcast skys and moderate temperatures. Actually it was perfect, the best I've seen it in years. It was fun being with my sisters and just hanging out. The only sad part was my daughter was not with us because she was tending kids in Layton. We all missed her smiling face and quick wit.

Saturday was the last ICUP race held at Evanston Wyoming. My good friend and competetor Bob Dawson won the 50+ Open points title for 2007 by a mere 3 points over Mark Enders. Ed Chauner said it was the tightest points race for the top three positions ever (only a 10 point spread!). I finished somewhere around 7th or 8th, a few hundred points back. Those guys are good and luckily I'm moving up in category and won't have to face them much anymore. Now I just have to worry about Bill Dark, Dwight Hibdon and Jim Westenskow. Those are 3 fast dudes!

This coming Saturday is the Leadville 100. I'm getting stoked and feel good. I rode for 3 hours on Sunday and had a very strong ride on the Rail Trail. I did a couple of 20 minute intervals and played around on Lost Prospector a little before heading back to the condo. My legs are feeling like they have recovered from the E-100 12 hour race and now I'm working on my head. Dawson said to go for 9 hours so I need to rearrange my brain cells around what that will take. What the hell, I'm not getting any younger and nobody knows who I am anyway, so I'm going to go for it. I've got the 9 hour split time for my stem so now I just need to go out and "git er done". This time next week I'll either be praising or cursing Dawson!

That's it for now.