Been riding a bunch (both road, gravel, and mtb's) and enjoying every day of it. Dale and I are logging the miles when he's in town (work travel has him out and about often) while Ira is off in Colorado finishing up clinicals. Wish he would stop texting me pics of his rides... Weather has been crazy good this late winter/early spring and I am trying to take full advantage of it.
Jumped down to SGF the past four weekends and ridden with the Mercy-Kuat boys, a few of the OCC gang, and B Huff here and there. I love my Bolivar crew, don't get me wrong, but group rides have been a thing of the past (8 years since San Antonio) and I greatly miss them.
Couple Sunday mornings at Fellows Lake for some non-racing races that turned out just the right mix of intensity and efforts. That loop has a little bit of it all when your at the limit (in my case mostly over all during the sessions).
Most recently (this past Saturday) I met up with JB, Skip, CMac, JimmySTL, and Hogan for some Sac Trail fun for a couple of hours. Fun mix of pace as one second we would all be chatting and cruising then the next it was 'game on' for 7-8 minutes, then back to cruising. Fun morning.
This weekend I am heading to Bone Bender at Clinton State Park in Lawrence (same location as last year). Running the SS bike/class again this year and have no expectation of defending my 3hr SS win from last year - no idea how that happened). Feel pretty decent, but the goal is to have a blast riding on a pretty cool (and tough) course. Chris Locke and crew always do a great job with their events.
After that it's local SGF OMBA race at Sac Trails then who knows. Thinking about Joe Martin stage race, but I'm on the fence.
Family life is so much fun as we are huge 'outside' folks and it's been so nice every evening that we hate going back in as the sun heads down.
Over the boy's Spring break we took a quick run to STL hitting the zoo, the Arch, City Museum, little chow for Jake's b-day (he is now 19), and the big boys & Deb catching Hunger Games on opening night (they have all read it). So much fun taking the little guy to new stuff and having the big boys giving him so much attention.
Jake is cruising through his first year of college and is doing well. 18hrs this semester is keeping his pretty busy. He got a new longboard (48" Loaded) for his birthday and he kindly handed me down his 40" Bustin. He and I have hit the Bolivar streets after hours a handful of times and I am loving it. Jake's pretty sweet with his footwork and abilities; fun to watch and do. A couple Sunday's ago my day pretty much consisted of riding all morning, baseball with Ian and the little guy in the yard all afternoon, then after 11pm Jake and I hit the streets on the longboards; as a kid I would have never thought of doing this at age of 44.
Ian is playing with a new basketball team at The Courts and I'm coaching it. It's a composite team (3 from Bolivar, 2 from Stockton, and 2 from Ozark) with quality players so it's mostly a 'play only' team with no practicing; 2-0 so far and it's going to be fun. Ian's skipping baseball this year as he wanted to focus a little more on the basketball.
The little guy is doing so good and every week it's apparent he is feeling more and more secure in our family. We can tell he is still trying to figure out exactly where he belongs, but it's getting better. Speaking of which it's still in limbo as our next court date isn't until mid-May and who knows when they will start moving toward adoption. Even though we are frustrated with the system, we fully believe it's doing a fair and decent job (considering there are over 21K kids in the Missouri system alone). D is playing soccer and absolutely loves it. Hard to believe he's been with us 10 months (as of Saturday)...
Deb is Deb and always awesome. Love watching her playing and taking care of our boys and spending each day with her. She and I have snuck out on the tandem lately which we both enjoy a ton.
Been doing tons of yard/garden work this spring and the place is looking great. As much as being on the bike is my therapy it's even more working in the yard for me. My new cherry tree had tons of blooms, growing well, and hopefully there will be some this summer for snacking (along with the blackberries and raspberries).
This past Sunday our family, along with Deb's dad and mom, joined the Jones side of the family for a great Easter service followed with a sunny afternoon of play at my folk's casa. Super good day.
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