After a difficult time of getting to sleep the night before I awoke at 4:30 am Friday morning. My body was still on eastern standard time. I lay in bed and tried to go back to sleep but to no avail, I was wide awake. I did stay in bed until 6 am at which time I got up made coffee and then walked up to the Safeway grocery store. At the store I purchased breakfast items that included eggs, Canadian bacon, jelly, bagels and my favorite..milk. I made my way back to the house and commenced cooking breakfast. While cooking Diana and I planned a day trip to the town of Hood River.
After breakfast and cleanup we hopped in the car and made our to historic highway 17? . Along the way we stopped at all the waterfalls and did several short hikes (all the touristy stuff). The drive itself was beautiful, with leaves still at their peak. We arrived at Hood River and walked around the town and had lunch at the Full Sail brewery overlooking the Columbia River. After lunch it was back in the car and onto I 84 for the drive back to Portland.
While driving back I got a call from Cara saying she could not get into the house and the phone # that I gave her was incorrect. This was the start of several of my blunders. I gave her the correct code and walah the garage door opened and she was no longer out in the cold and rain. Diana and I arrived home a short time later and we contacted Murray and made plans to meet for dinner. We met Molly and Murray at their house and then it was off to The HUB for a wonderful dinner. After dinner it was back to Molly's and Murray's to drop them off and a quick tour of their awesome house and then back to our house.
Once back,we set up the Futon and it was lights out, little did we know what lay ahead!!!
More tomorrow!!
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Saturday, November 14, 2009
THE BIG ADVENTURE PART 1
This is the first in a 3 part blog series about "THE BIG ADVENTURE". The adventure actually started a few months ago when a certain friend mentioned something about the single speed world cyclocross championships in Portland Oregon. I had always wanted to do the SS Worlds but the stars had never aligned and therefore no SS worlds, honestly I had not given it a lot of thought and then I checked the cost on airline tickets and thought wow that is cheap. When I think something is cheap you better believe it is cheap.
I immediately called Diana and asked if she could get off work.I already knew she would be up for going as she has been on several of my adventures and is always up for travel to new places. She put a lot of effort into getting off work, which I really appreciate and it was off to Portland we went.
The actual trip started at 2 am Thursday morning November 5. We woke up threw our luggage in the car and made our way to the Charlotte airport. We arrived at CLT parked the car and caught the shuttle to the airport. Once at the airport we went through the part I find most stressful....checking in, checking bags, going through security. Once this was done we made our way to the correct terminal grabbed a bite to eat and waited to board the plane. From Charlotte we flew to Atlanta and from Atlanta on to Portland. The flights were uneventful,time spent sleeping,watching movies and reading the airline shopping magazine.
We arrived at Portland and proceeded to get our bags and to get a rental car.I had originally got a compact car through Budget. Some guy from Dollar rental car told us the Budget car pickup was not at the airport and for a few extra dollars we could upgrade to a Subaru Forester. We gave this some thought and decided it would make it more convenient to drop the car off at the terminal and the larger size would make transporting the bikes easier. We took the keys to the Subaru and went off to explore Portland and find our rental unit.
The first thing we decided to do was to satisfy our rumbling tummies. We went downtown and ate at Jakes Crawfish house. The food was delicious. Once our stomachs were satisfied we went off to find the rental unit;using the Garmin GPS we located the unit without a glitch. We talked briefly with Ruppert the landlord and then unpacked. I called Murray to let him know we were in town and asked if he could bring the bikes over. Murray is a friend that moved to Portland ~ 6years ago. A great guy and a fellow cyclist. Murray brought the bikes over and did a quick tour of our accommodations for the weekend. We also made dinner plans with Murray and his wife Molly and then Murray was on his way.
Diana and I had a light dinner Thursday, made plans for our Friday day trip and went to bed.
This concludes Part 1 of " The Great Adventure".
I immediately called Diana and asked if she could get off work.I already knew she would be up for going as she has been on several of my adventures and is always up for travel to new places. She put a lot of effort into getting off work, which I really appreciate and it was off to Portland we went.
The actual trip started at 2 am Thursday morning November 5. We woke up threw our luggage in the car and made our way to the Charlotte airport. We arrived at CLT parked the car and caught the shuttle to the airport. Once at the airport we went through the part I find most stressful....checking in, checking bags, going through security. Once this was done we made our way to the correct terminal grabbed a bite to eat and waited to board the plane. From Charlotte we flew to Atlanta and from Atlanta on to Portland. The flights were uneventful,time spent sleeping,watching movies and reading the airline shopping magazine.
We arrived at Portland and proceeded to get our bags and to get a rental car.I had originally got a compact car through Budget. Some guy from Dollar rental car told us the Budget car pickup was not at the airport and for a few extra dollars we could upgrade to a Subaru Forester. We gave this some thought and decided it would make it more convenient to drop the car off at the terminal and the larger size would make transporting the bikes easier. We took the keys to the Subaru and went off to explore Portland and find our rental unit.
The first thing we decided to do was to satisfy our rumbling tummies. We went downtown and ate at Jakes Crawfish house. The food was delicious. Once our stomachs were satisfied we went off to find the rental unit;using the Garmin GPS we located the unit without a glitch. We talked briefly with Ruppert the landlord and then unpacked. I called Murray to let him know we were in town and asked if he could bring the bikes over. Murray is a friend that moved to Portland ~ 6years ago. A great guy and a fellow cyclist. Murray brought the bikes over and did a quick tour of our accommodations for the weekend. We also made dinner plans with Murray and his wife Molly and then Murray was on his way.
Diana and I had a light dinner Thursday, made plans for our Friday day trip and went to bed.
This concludes Part 1 of " The Great Adventure".
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Catch up
Wow it has been forever since I have posted! Where should i begin? Ok this is a no brainer. THE WEDDING
My daughter Amber was married October 18, 2009 to a wonderful person Joseph Taylor. The wedding was awesome and was held at Blackberry Cove which is located and the end of Reems Creek Rd. Amber looked awesome, the wedding went super. i did not cry and i did a pretty good job at dancing(that is my humble opinion). I will post pictures later.
Next...Nathan and Abby announced their engagement, again awesome news.
Next...Tennessee MSG cross series has begun. I made my way to Kingsport on October (?) for a Saturday and Sunday race. I shared a room with Andy, Nate and Abby.Andy brought an air mattress and slept on the floor, I told him he could share a bed with me but i beleive he was a little concerned after i told him i slept in the buff and opted for the air mattress in the floor.
We had a great time racing, watching goofy tv and...well just being bike racers.
My races went really well. I came away with 2 first place finishes. This is the first time i have ever pulled a double, double win that is.Saturday the gun sounded and we were off. Greg Casteel went to the front and i got on his wheel. we went neck and neck the first two laps. I dropped Greg on the 3rd lap, not with an attack but just steady riding. Sunday was a carbon copy of Saturday. My concern on Sunday was Gerard Remery. I have never beaten Gerard in an official cross race and was a little concerned since he did not race on Saturday and hsd fresh legs. Again Greg and I went to the front and put the hammer down. Greg went to the front I got on his wheel and as soon as I felt the pace slow I went around and put in a hard effort. With this effort Greg was dropped. I was still concerned that Gerard would bridge up so i kept the pace high and took no recovery time.With 2 laps to go I begin to think i could win. Then one to go and all I had to do was keep the pace high and no mistakes. Finally the race was over and I had won. an awesome weekend spent with some awesome friends.
My daughter Amber was married October 18, 2009 to a wonderful person Joseph Taylor. The wedding was awesome and was held at Blackberry Cove which is located and the end of Reems Creek Rd. Amber looked awesome, the wedding went super. i did not cry and i did a pretty good job at dancing(that is my humble opinion). I will post pictures later.
Next...Nathan and Abby announced their engagement, again awesome news.
Next...Tennessee MSG cross series has begun. I made my way to Kingsport on October (?) for a Saturday and Sunday race. I shared a room with Andy, Nate and Abby.Andy brought an air mattress and slept on the floor, I told him he could share a bed with me but i beleive he was a little concerned after i told him i slept in the buff and opted for the air mattress in the floor.
We had a great time racing, watching goofy tv and...well just being bike racers.
My races went really well. I came away with 2 first place finishes. This is the first time i have ever pulled a double, double win that is.Saturday the gun sounded and we were off. Greg Casteel went to the front and i got on his wheel. we went neck and neck the first two laps. I dropped Greg on the 3rd lap, not with an attack but just steady riding. Sunday was a carbon copy of Saturday. My concern on Sunday was Gerard Remery. I have never beaten Gerard in an official cross race and was a little concerned since he did not race on Saturday and hsd fresh legs. Again Greg and I went to the front and put the hammer down. Greg went to the front I got on his wheel and as soon as I felt the pace slow I went around and put in a hard effort. With this effort Greg was dropped. I was still concerned that Gerard would bridge up so i kept the pace high and took no recovery time.With 2 laps to go I begin to think i could win. Then one to go and all I had to do was keep the pace high and no mistakes. Finally the race was over and I had won. an awesome weekend spent with some awesome friends.
Monday, September 28, 2009
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