Another warm sunny weekend in JANUARY!

This weekend was 67 degrees and sunny in GA!  And it's only getting warmer this week, with a high of 70!  Ah, what a great time to play outside. 

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Shey chose a marathon race in TX to add some new trail to his base training.   This is a 54 mile race with two laps on two loops.  Nice!  Who wants to ride the same short loop 15 times.....

http://tmbra.org/results/marathon_12/comf/opem1.html

 He loved the trail, but was surprised as the guys jumped at the start like it was the middle of race season....well, it was for the marathon race series in TX.  This is a series that runs from November through January this is one of the last races for them (or possibly the last one), so Shey had to concentrate on his zone 1-2 ride.  He sounded like he really, really liked the course and you just can't beat yummy fajitas after!

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At home, Everett stayed at KSU to study and Jansen worked on some more blacksmithing projects.   Movie night on the trainer for Sat., then I gave Jansen my old que sheet with vague directions to Yargo and I drove over there to meet Elizabeth.

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Jansen called once to make sure he was going in the right direction.  I think he hopped on the highway early, but I will have to do some recon work to find the name of the road we are supposed to take at that junction......so, in 3+ hours he made it to Yargo and then road 1+laps.  Elizabeth and I rode two laps, then hiked for a bit.  Snickers were added in there to make it a perfect day!

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We met Carla Swartz's dad, Deon and two of his friends.  Deon reconized the helmet that Elizabeth was wearing from Fulton Flyers and said he had Carla's at home.  He was very excited to visit with Elizabeth and ask about her Louis Garneau factory team for 2012.  Carla was an amazing athlete and the only cyclist to win all four U.S. collegiate cycling titles: road, track, mountain, and cyclocross in 2008.  And that was just a drop in the bucket!  Fulton Flyers has seen many strong athletes come out of their program and the loss of Carla, who had such a bright future, was quite a blow.


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Elizabeth and Deon

After a great ride, we all hit Ruby Tuesday for some yummy recovery food.

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2011 Review from Georgia to Germany and in between

2011 Went Down Like This:
 (minus the normal weekend races)


Jan:  Cold Snow here = escape to Florida and FATS for warm base miles



Feb:  Everett and I spend a long weekend camping and riding the Tanasi trails.



March:   The boys and I fly to NYC for the day.  We take the subway to the Metropolitan Museum, China Town, gaze at the statue of liberty and eat NYC pizza for lunch, yum!
              Banff Film Festival
              Jansen heads to FL to race
              Everett races IHP   Shey does both!
              Jansen builds a trebuchet.

April:  Shey and Jansen head out to CA for Sea Otter

            Cory comes to visit and work at the shop (april fools day has me decorating his car)
            Jansen has a 4 hour birthday ride


May:  Everett Graduates!!
           Mom and Dad come to visit
           We all head to TX and Shey and Jansen race the Mellow Johnny's XC race
           Jansen has a big crash at Tanasi, bruised ribs will keep him off the bike and a branch went through his cheek.
          














June:  Jansen pulls a large piece of wood out of his face.  (post Tanasi crash)
           Everett has orientation at Kennesaw State University
           Jansen heads off on a road trip with friends to a big race in Wisconsin
           Everett and I fly to Europe and visit the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany and Switzerland.  We get to visit with my brother and nephews.  Lots of fun!








July:  Everett and I return from Europe, pick up Jansen and some warm weather clothes, then fly on to Texas to visit with family.
          
August:  I have a great road trip to Pisgah, with tons of riding.
               Everett moves into KSU.
               We drive up to spend Everett's birthday with him at KSU
               Jansen and I spend a lot of time riding around KSU with Everett
               We actually enter a road race around Covington!
               Shey has a birthday and is getting closer to 40.....
               Cyclocross practice begins.

September:  Interbike in Las Vegas and Ride for Reading.  Lots of fun, lots of work.

                The boys and I ride into Atl to watch the Dragon Con parade
                Cyclocross practices
                Shey rides part of the TransGA as his vacation, but stops when the rain hits.
                 Georgia Single Speed State Championships are held by Faster Mustache and are a blast!!!

October:  24 hours of GA race.  Shey and Jansen are on teams and I ride solo.  Great course!
               Everett races collegiate at IHP
               Fried Green Tomato 50 mile gravel road ride was amazing!
               Cycle Youth puts on a cyclocross race
 






November:  Everett and I head to Chattanooga for a weekend.
                     Lots of ride time at the Pinhotis.

 

December:  Shey and Jansen win cyclocross state championships
                    We head to Chattanooga again for some long fun rides and stay at the Crash Pad hostel.
                    Everett makes foam swords and we have fun sword fights.
                    Jansen is building rockets.

              

 

 There is no doubt we are extremely fortunate to have these amazing years together and none of us take it for granted.  We wouldn't trade our time together for anything in the world.  Looking forward to 2012 with our awesome family and friends!!!!!!!!!!!!

Florida Sunshine!!!

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It turned quite cold in GA, which means it's time to head to Florida to warm-up a bit.  3 days of riding flat, warm trails.   Croom, Santos, San Felasco.   I even thought I revived my tan-line, but alas, it was only dirt.......

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We had planned to leave on Friday morning, but illness and a death in the family set us back a day and we left early Saturday morning.    There is a ride in Florida that we had wanted to attend, but a smart phone is required and none of us have one of those fancy pants things....yet.....so Shey found an alternate day of riding at the Croom trails in the Withlacoochee State Forest.

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There is a 40+ mile paved path for pedestrians and cyclists, so we rode that for about 5 miles to the trail head of the Croom trail system. 

There was approx. 50 miles of trail and it was flat, but fun. No time to rest, just pedal, pedal, pedal. 

The Pisgah Pits were interesting...... 5 hours of fun and we were ready to eat! We drove on to the Santos campground and pitched the tents in the dark. 

I just got this in from Barnes and Noble.

Shey is blowing through this book, so it must be a good read.

We would not leave home without out staple items.......Progold lube and Stan's NoTubes sealant!

Jansen and I slept in late, while Shey headed out for coffee and breakfast.  Then we started our ride out to the lands bridge.  The temperature was around 75-77 and it was sunny and PERFECT!  The guys came across the Woodalls and rode with them for a while.  We are excited that Reagan has opened a bike shop in Ocala and hope to get a chance to stop by on our next trip down there.  Can't quite get used to Ryan's mustache......

Another good day of riding and a lovely campfire, thanks to our friendly neighbor campers, who left us their left-over firewood.  It was hard to sleep with the full moon, but we managed. 

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Next it was off to San Felasco.

Again, the weather was perfect and there was enough trail to ride for a good while.

I came across this bobcat and nabbed a picture.  At these times, I wish we had a better camera, but when its crappy and raining or I fall on the camera, I'm really glad it's a cheap one.

Our friendly gnome is getting a bit faded.

Good rides, good food and lots of time laughing and catching up with each other.  Love it!!

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Happy New Year Ride!!! Union Point Trails.

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Shey heard there was some new trail at Union Point, GA and we all wanted to head over to check it out.  We needed 4 to 5 hours of ride time, so Shey mapped out a route from Heritage Park over to these new trails.  The road portion would be 30 miles of amazing scenery.

Everett was sick, so he stayed home in bed and it was Shey, Jafer, Jansen, Elizabeth and me.  We got to Heritage and heated up quickly on those trails.  Lots of fun!  Then Elizabeth burped a tire and it was soooo tight I couldn't get the bead back up to add CO2.  We called Jafer and he got it for us, then I rode out to the car to get more CO2 and we were off again.  In the meantime, Shey and Jansen hit the road to the new trail.  J, E and I rode on at Heritage, then jumped in the car to drive the 30 miles to Union Point. 

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Pic at Heritage.  Look, it's a NINER RAINBOW!  Love 'em!

The Union Point trail head is very easy to get to and is like one mile outside of the town of Union Point.  The drive was amazing and I wished I was on a bike.  Rolling green scenery with amazing farm land everywhere.  Plus, we passed some very promising BBQ places.

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We pulled into the parking lot and there was no one there, but smoke was rising from a fire pit.  Shey and Jansen rolled in about 10 minutes behind us.  Perfect!  We explored the trail head a bit and found hot showers, a fridge, BBQ pit, tables for cook-outs, T.V. and more!  WOW!  What a set-up!  Someone really loves to be outside and wants their riders to love it here.

Elizabeth and I took off after the guys and were rolling along having a good time, when there was a horrible sound from her bike.  Man!  Broken derailleur hanger and derailleur hung up in the spokes.  We pulled it out, pulled out the cable and took the quicklink out to remove the chain, so she could roll the bike back to the car.  We were bummed the ride ended early, but happy we wouldn't have  to carry the bike out.  I was going to ride back with Elizabeth, then get the rest of my ride in, but we met the builder of these trails when we got to the car and he told us all about how he built the trails and how much he loves to ride bikes with his friends.  VERY cool guy!

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The trail was well maintained.  Jimmy blows it off once a week with a blower that he has fastened to the front of a Kawasaki dirt bike.  (cool!)  Lots of twists, turns and roots, like Heritage,  with subtle elevation change. I think he had 12 miles of trail and then there is another 8 miles of trail right down the road.  We will certainly be back!

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Elizabeth and our new friend, Jimmy. 

This is the foundation of an old house that was moved to Highlands and reconstructed.  Jimmy said three widows lived together here.

Hot shower, fridge, t.v., fire and Jimmy said to let us know when we were coming back and he would cook for us!!  AWESOME!

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