It goes by so quick. It seems like just yesterday we were headed back to WI for the summer. This past week we made our pilgrimage back to SoCal. We had some great stops along the way, enjoying warm summer nights with a full moon rising. We'll miss everyone back in WI but we are looking forward to meeting our new students and catching up with returning students. Over the years I've really grown to love the changing of our seasons. It feels so good to get off the hill and back to my roots for the holidays and summers. But it also is good to come back to a place of our own.

Enough reflection, let's talk bikes. I wrapped up the summer with a long ride. I met Brad early in the morning, each of us with about 20 mile in. We then tacked on another 45 before we met up with Rachel. From there we rode all over Kettle and up into Delefield, hitting the Lapham climb twice (Rachel's idea, ouch). Yesterday I got out for my fist road ride ever in Idyllwild. The altitude and grade were apparent. In 35 mile I climbed 4,000'. Today I'll get a short ride in as well as a long over due hike with Gary and Cool Hand. I'm looking forward to my usual Saturday morning hike with Finn and the girls, a tradition I just love.

Ride on!

You gotta love summer, we had another great weekend. Bonnie and I flew out to Colorado for a wedding on Friday. This is the first trip we've taken without dogs or Finn since he was born. The celebration took place in Evergreen, which is just west of Denver. The wedding was a lot of fun and it was good to see friends from back in CA, as well as folks we haven't seen in years. We also got the chance to have breakfast with a current student of ours. All in all it was a great weekend. We missed Finn and the girls but it was good to have sometime to ourselves. Thanks for taking care of the family while we were out of town Grandma.

Here is a shot of the view outside of the cabin we stayed at. We were at an elevation of nearly 9,000' and it felt like it when I went of runs.

We spent Saturday morning exploring Mt. Evans. Its the highest paved road in the U.S. just over 14,200'. We could really feel the elevation here. There was a lot of cyclists making their way up the mountain. I'm pretty sure this is something I have to try, both cycling and running...maybe in the same day.

We got back late Monday night so I didn't get back on the bike until yesterday. Just a couple of hours around the area. Today I hope to get out for a bit longer. Friday it looks like Brad and I are going to put in a long day, I hope I can hang with him.

Ride on!

Good news is from what I can tell Sean did great at 24/9, bad news, as you might have guessed, we weren't there to witness it. Carpenter family has been spreading the flu bug around. So far I've been able to miss it but Bonnie and Finn have not had such luck. I guess that what happens when you get a bunch of people together with new germs.

We came back from the lake, (the Carpenter family summer get away) Monday morning. The plan was for me to ride back up Tuesday and back down on Wednesday. Feeling good Tuesday morning I headed out at about 3:00 a.m. The ride was nice and rather uneventful with the exception of almost being T-boned by a deer. I was in the aero position when out of the corner of my eye I see this deer bolting across a soy bean field. Quickly I sit up and hit the brakes, just missing out on a collision. This was the closest I've ever been to a deer. I got up to the lake in about 11 hours and started the r.r. as I wasn't sure how I would feel he next morning and I had to do it all over again. Wednesday morning I was up at about 1:30 and out the door about a half hour later. Once again all things when pretty smooth. The only time I felt really uncomfortable was when I was in a casino at 3:15 in the morning looking for a bubbler to fill my bottles. Can you believe there are folks up at that hours gambling? I guess they were saying some type of things about me. I got back to Waukesha around 1:30. Overall the rides went well. I just had one mechanical in 400 mile and it was the saddle bag, the bike was fine the entire way.

I think this is the biggest mileage week I had since riding back to Wisconsin, from California a few years ago. It is nice to get some big miles in before we fly to Colorado for the weekend, where I won't be cycling at all, however I am packing running shoes.

On a final note...Way to go Sean, sorry we couldn't be there.

Ride on!