7-31-11

Martin: Finally got a photo of the four cousins together at the birthday gathering.

Me: April and I at the Mississippi River giving our names to the photographer of the Des Moines Register. Here is a link to the photo he took...

http://ragbrai.com/galleries/ragbrai-2011-on-saturday/?pid=3630 

7-30-11

Martin: Daniel took this pic of a rainbow through the car window as we were driving back from the mountains today.

Me: Woo hoo! April and I biked across IOWA! Here we are at the finish after dipping our bike tires in the Mississippi River (RAGBRAI tradition).

Proud of April for doing such a great job! 453 miles in a week is no small undertaking and she was a trooper through the long days of heat and hills. Everything went smoothly too: no flat tires and much time spent with family along our route. Our Arizona crew (11 of us) was a good mix of personalities making the adventure even more fun. 

7-29-11

Martin: Flowering time for the wattles.

Me: TANG concert!

RAGRBAI host town tonight last night was Grinnell which is where my cousin, Karen lives. Her husband, Jon and his band from college reunited to play at the main stage for the RAGBRAI festivities. They were fantastic! 80's music and really fun. Jon is the drummer.

7-28-11

Martin: Discovered someone's house had been blown out of a tree this morning.

Me: Free watermelon stop!

Was really great that my brother, Curt biked 30 of the 57 mile ride with us today!

Photo: Todd, Rich, Heather, Curt, April, Me

7-27-11

Martin: Took the boys into the city and we met up with Ruth for a coffee at the Lindt cafe. The cakes have not arrived yet and Adrian couldn't leave his sushi till later. Another wet day.  

Me: A sample of the thousands of bikers. So crowded that you have to walk your bikes through the towns. Fun chaos and vendors everywhere. We had the BEST rhubard pie with ice cream in this town! It was a Iowa State Fair Blue Ribbon recipe.

7-26-11

Martin: Visited the city today - wet and windy.

Me: This was the start of our day!

7-25-11

Martin: Adrian absailing.

Me: April and I biked 65 miles today of this: HILLS!

A great day with lovely scenery & charming small towns!

7-24-11

Martin: Countryside taken on a drive north of Sydney.

Me: RAGBRAI: Day 1. Woo hoo...we made it! It's been a whirlwind! I want to write all about it but must get to bed 'cause we're getting up at 5am to do it all over all. In short, we biked 63 miles today through corn fields, farms, cattle and barns. We ate ice cream, Iowa sweet corn, Hoegh steaks and a variety of incredible homemade desserts. My brother Rod biked the whole day with us, and my other brother Brent plus his daughter, Lisa and her husband Mitch biked the last 15 miles of the route with us. So fun! Mom came out to see us along the way with my sister-in-law, Nancy. We had an enthusiastic greeting from my other brother Monte, sister-in-law, Emily, Mom and nephews Jerome and Nathan once we reached our overnight destination of Atlantic. April was a super star...she did fantastastic!

7-23-11

Martin: Watching the surfers up at Dee Why Beach.

Me: Sunrise walk with Harley & Bob. Now I'm off to Iowa.

7-22-11

Martin: Daniel had a friend sleep over last night and they stayed up till three in the morning playing the x-box. Having breakfast at 11am.

Me: Garden Juice: kale, spinach, celery, carrots, beets, ginger, and lemon. Bob and I discovered this quaint organic food cafe with a variety of interesting items on their menu. This will be one of the last healthy items I'll have for a while because Sunday April and I will start eating (I mean biking) our way across Iowa. There are a lot of pie shops in Iowa! :-)

7-21-11

Martin: Cat's asleep - again. Spends 90% of it's life in this state.

Me: We have been watching the Tour de France coverage these days so I'm posting a photo of when we were there in 2004. Here we are cheering on the Postal Team on top of Col du Madeleine.

7-20-11

Martin: Adrian's 17th birthday party at our place.

Me: Dogsitting Lily (Janna & Andrew's pet). As you can maybe tell, Harley's not thoroughly thrilled about it.

7-19-11

Martin: Surfing down at Cronulla Beach. Nice winter's day.

Me: Still dreaming of our Tahoe days. Paddle boarding on Angora Lake.

PS: Martin sent some photos! The last 7 to 8 posts have pics from Australia. 

7-18-11

Martin: Sun through a leaf in the back garden.

Me: Around 111 here today - makes me miss Tahoe.

Photo taken of Hope Valley when biking up Old Luther Pass Road.

7-17-11

Martin: Walk in the park on a winter's day.

Me: Our usual weekend road ride included a surprise run in with Lynnie! She lives in Van Couver now but was biking South Mountain when we were this morning. Nice to catch up. We miss her here in Phoenix!

7-16-11

Martin: Drive up to Narrabeen Beach. One of the many beaches on the norther side of Sydney.

Me: This morning Bob and I went mountain biking with James (a.k.a. Chief Running Bear). Here we found a shady spot to have a snack.

7-15-11

Martin: Fin warming up in the mower grass catcher on a cold day.

Me: Me coming down Carson Pass during the Death Ride.

I downloaded my Garmin GPS yesterday which gives details of my race including total miles, ride time, elevation gain, heart rate and maximum miles per hour. I was shocked to see that I hit a max speed of 52 miles per hour during the Death Ride! That's the fastest I've ever gone and I reached that coming down from Carson Pass. I probably won't go that fast ever again. 

7-14-11

Martin: Visited the Sydney fish markets to buy some fresh fish - what else? Had some take-away seafood for lunch while we were there.

Me: We're back home. I have few things to do today. :-)

7-13-11

Martin: Anzac Bridge from Blackwattle Bay taken on a trip to that part of the city.

Me: With the help of a couple Tahoe locals, Bob and I discovered a new bike route. From the cabin we rode Luther Pass and then out to Blue Lakes (beautiful area - we had never been there before). After 40 miles we stopped at Hope Valley Cafe for honestly the best homemade pie around (we had marionberry-blackberry with ice cream)! Then it was back on our bikes to head up old Luther Pass road, down highway 50 and back to the cabin. 4 hours - an easy bike outing compared to the Death Ride. :-)

7-12-11

Martin: Another range day.

Me: We walked down to this little beach cove to hang out. Tahoe is gorgeous!

7-11-11

Me: Angora Lake

Bob and I took a hike to this beautiful mountain lake where we enjoyed fresh squeezed lemonade and paddle boarding.

7-10-11

Me: Relaxing soak at Grover Hot Springs felt good after the Death Ride!

Everyone except Bob and I left Tahoe today. We're going to hang out a couple more days in the cool mountain air.

7-9-11

Me: We all survived the Death Ride!!...and it was a good time!

Bill and Wendy both unfortunately had mechanical issues (Bill had 8 flat tires!) but they still completed 3 mountain passes! Bob was thrilled with his day bettering last year's performance and finishing at 10 hours and 4 minutes! Way to go, Bob! Anna rocked the Death Ride! She's a little machine and finished at 8 hours and 25 minutes making her the FIRST female finisher! Woo hoo! I was super happy with my Death Ride day finishing at 8 hours and 45 minutes and was the 2nd female finisher! Big day, we had trained hard and it was a success. A huge thank you to Bob and Pat for coming out to cheer us on at mile 96. What a great support they were and fun to have them in Tahoe with us for the weekend!

Photo: Bob, Me, Bill, Anna, Wendy before joining 3,000 other riders.

7-8-11

Me: Bill, Wendy plus Bob's folks arrived today! We did a little sight seeing to Emerald Bay (see photo) and then headed out to Markleeville to camp. Death Ride is tomorrow! 129 miles and 15,000 feet of climbing here we come. We're all excited!

7-7-11

Me: Bob arrived last night and my friend, Anna got in this morning! The three of us took a spin on the bikes this afternoon and this evening we had oysters and salmon at our favorite Tahoe restaurant, The Beacon. We're loving this perfect mountain weather.