Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Corner to corner and then some...

Easter: Pack car with coffee, french press, oatmeal, bagels, peanutbutter and leave San Diego. 10 hours in car. 4 hour ride up to 8000 feet with shorts and jersey on. Drive. Camp at south rim of Grand Canyon.
Monday: Watch sun rise over canyon. Hike 4 hours. 3000' elevation gain. Drive 12 hours to Texas. Camp on side of road.
Tues: Drive 16 hours. Camp on side of road at state office building in Indiana. Finally give in and buy first food of trip for 6 dollars.
Weds: Drive. Make it home in time for the oval!
Thurs: First rainy day in 5 weeks. Do laundry and pack.
Fri: Leave early am for Vermont/Battenkill. Drive. Spinout / open up
Sat: Race Batenkill. Dropped at 70 miles or so? Maybe 75? Too much wind.
Sun: Spin out. Drive 9 hours home.
Mon: Scrape paint for 6 hours for my brother.
Tues: Officiate at the oval for the first time of the year
Weds: Pack/Laundry:
Tomorrow: Get to DC to Drive up to Battenkill with Haymarket guys.
Fri: Go to a school and talk to kids about bike racing or something near Battenkill.
Sat: Team stuff get it all together. Open up.
Sun: Batenkill / drive back to DC
Mon: Come back to Pittsburgh

Obviously there are a million stories from all this. Hitchhikers, earthquakes, dust storms, snow camping at 8000 feet without a rain fly, driving, driving, driving...

I would say the craziest of it all was that I just happened to be getting gas in Yuma, AZ as the 7.2 earthquake hit, with it's epicenter 30 miles away. I had been in the car for hours beforehand and the room started shaking. I guess it was a longer than normal quake, and for a split second I thought it was on my end. I was pretty sure that I was passing out from something or another. Freaking scary. Then I looked outside and saw the street lights oscillating.

4 comments:

michael said...

life's pretty crazy on the ring of fire!

Regan Bailey, PhD, MPH, RD said...

i find it heart warming that you had to make it back in time for the oval..

Anonymous said...

Good to see you up there dude. Sorry we couldn't catch up more. Now that you've had a warm-up lap I expect you to be killin it this weekend!

Sean

Spice said...

That earthquake was me and Mrs. throwing down.