Quick post...
This past weekend was pretty cool, Saturday I got back into my Saturday Morning group ride. Really fun to see the gang and do some extra miles in beautiful weather. Ended up hitting Dry Creek with a small group and then peeling off to do Veeder with Patrick. Crazy how much difference the higher temps make, still go in about 45 miles on a beautiful day.
Funny thing, Dry Creek to Veeder is my favorite local ride. So much so, that my identified "happy place" (as recognized with my therapist), the place where I have the most clear thoughts is out there. Anyway, I've been hitting the route up on Wednesday's with Curtis and some of the crew from Bicycle Works—usually end up descending in the dark (also fun)—to the tune of 25-35 additional miles in the middle of the week. Does a lot for my thinking and future. One benefit; it seems like I am getting a little stronger (or maybe it is more used to) the climbing out there. Whatever it is, I like it and will keep moving forward...as I have always believed, it's nice to ride with stronger people (almost everyone is over me)—helps elevate my game and keeps me breathing!
Sunday was big plans—Jake and I where gonna combine two things-a trip to Angwin to watch some of my friends race and to look for skinks. We were successful in both. Walking around the course, we were able to see everyone as they finished the race; Andrew, Curtis, Tom from Content Works, George Hope, Leslie, even Jiro from the old King days. While out on the course we were flipping rocks and logs and finally found it—the blue tailed skink! They're fast little guys and drop their tale (as this one did) in the blink of an eye. Jake was hooked and soon we had a sweet blue belly. We hiked up the super steep drop in and on the way up Jake showed his skills by catching a nice sized blue belly by himself on a fence post. Rock on! His enthusiasm and skills make me so proud!
From there we hung around the finish line chatting and watching the festivities. Jake was stoked to get a free ice cream sandwich from some real pro's from the Kona team—it paid off as we ended up waiting longer than expected before heading to lunch. Jake was just "one of the guys" at the Azteca market in St. Helena as we munched on burritos, orange rice and Boing! Peach drinks. He cracked us all up as he announced half-way through lunch that there weren't any girls! Just a simple observation of our all male-group, but funny as it also pertained to bike racing in general (although there are getting to be more ladies).
After lunch Jake and I headed to Dry Creek road to look for some more newts and skinks. We parked and hiked along the creek where we caught a bullfrog. Jake again surprised me when he caught another blue belly all by himself. His skills are incredible and he's very responsible (gentle and careful) with the animals.
Our last stop was for a Keva Juice smoothie as it was still really hot at 6PM. We headed home for a bath and dinner before hitting the couch to read a Choose Your Own Adventure. Awesome day.
As I have said before, our family situation is going to change sooner than (I) ever hoped, but it only gives me more energy and enthusiasm to channel toward this wonderful little person.
* Sorry no Angwin pics, I had the camera on the wrong setting accidentally and they're all jacked up...
