Things sence last blog 2012

 So I'm back . I have gotten a spot busy in the last 2 months, hence the blog vapor. Seems to me time is in vapor mode especially when I am back at work .
 When I first got back the center of the universe I spent a fair amount time catching up with family and friends then it was off to work while trying to keep some biker fitness and actually big change this year so far I have had more drive, fresher legs, a bigger will to ride hard and fast and the way of getting past the pain some better which if I new how that worked and could always repeat it , I don't know that I would share the knowledge.
 I have already raced 5 times this year with a few good results some which being on the roll and some to moving down to the B masters in some races cause I can and the 58 in my age with 40 year old in the A's doesn't come out in my favor much anymore.
 I 've done the Rubias  which is a bumpy gravel and pavement Corce then off to Bear mouth road race a couple weeks later , this is a great road ride and race. Then I tried my hand at the scratch gravel mountain bike race in Helena . It went well , the racing in the two's is tuff and lots of numbers , they were cool enough to make a saporet masters 40 plus category so guys like Schultz who had been moved to cat one's so he was in with 11 others.next up was the Heroin Park mountain bike race in Kalispel and that coarse was stellar hard with a crap load of climbing and as much descending with out a spot of rest. Gonna give this race an extreme Zap buster mark , it had it all. Made me wanna wine and complain. So for the most recent race during memorial weekend I cruised over to Spokane with my team of nine and half legs to do the 24 hour round the clock race at Riverside Park.
 A good venue to just watch the festive time , bring family and friends. The soilders on this team are Mark the spark Rinesel, Bill 1.5 Simmel, Bill stiches Shultz, Pat Scharfeinater and ur blog man .Longy.We had this same group last year with the same good results so don't fix what aint broke right.
 This year we started with a tumble on preride the day before the event, with our main man Schultzie going down with up close to mother earth and needing 8 stitches after. Then during race day at night on The Devils Drop again Stitches had a bite on mother earth and a mouth full of Trek Super Fly , fattening a lip and scuff in the face. he defiantly gets vowler awards for keep en the rubber side down and up.
 We rode from 6 min. behind at one time to hovering around 8 an 10 min ahead then in the end even with pat going for jump style points and com in down to bill's side of the earth and loosen about a min we
 still pulled off around a 20 min. win over our Washintonion nimis from last year and there this year excesses, nice fun and very competitive team to race against. Then there was Cosmic Miller and his flavor flav group also from Washington that had the win in flamboyancy and the Fabio wanna be vibe. So come next year to not miss a thing except the kick ass cold I got last year and again this year, poor me ,but really what THE ???

Well then 2012

I made the most of my time in one of my favorite places to hang and ride Tucson and mostly in the Oro valley area with about 4 trips either up Mount lemon or one time clock wise around the hole thing around 102 miles of epic pavement dirt and gravel and one hell of alot of climb in .

I hung out for some great rides with the cycling house up lemon around gates pass and up Madera Canyon. The dinners and company were great to share with them/

My last week in Tucson was good with Julie visiting and getting some great rides and hikes in. We visited the biosphere 2 which is a pretty neat of merchandise that the university of Arizona runs now.8 peeps lived in it surviving on what hey grew and harvested.

We got lots of lunge time in with the easy chairs reading and a gin an tonic or two. these things keep life balanced in my theory of thought.

I headed to Yuma from there and hung with my mom and Step Dad quite a bit with Mom having congestive hart faillier, pretty serious stuff so they threw a pacemaker and defibrillator in her so shes sort of race ready now just slow recovery.

Next I headed to Lake Mead and camped at Callville Bay Marina . Great place to rest with A beach a 20 min. hike to sand and water after a few long hauls on the bike. This worked for about 3 days then up the road to huricane with lots of tail wind from the valley of fire which has a totol moab feal. i hit the mountain bike trails just out of town that were s with The Jem trail loop, the Gould's rim and the hurricane rim trails oh there good. Today i trudged through the wind from hurricane to Zion canyon then up to the tunnels then back in mostly the 11 and 13 steady with killer push tail wind. Tomorrow the long road trip back to the zoo , see some of ye soon...

tucson alast the sunshine can make a smile

Ah from the rain forest back to Oregon taking on Montezuma Revenge head on for two days then loading up the red wagon and home on wheels from storage the not yet up to strenght me headed down the five with Tucson as the destination. I pretty much drove 1,400 miles in two days with one mis hap that being a blown trailer tire and not really felling or seeing it with the dark and all , a nice motorist came up and turned the dome light on and pointed back, at first I thought they were mes sen with me but then it all hit snapping me out of my sleep deprivation and figuring out things just weren't right with the towing. Thanks to my trusty black Diamond prim win I could see all the things to getter done and back on the road ariving at the Catalina State park and hook en up with Montana connection Jeff the shim Penrod and Don Juan Arhtur, I was promptly fed and mothered by Jeff in his sort of wine induced humorous preforming way.

So after way to much wine and maybe four hours of sleep we do tour the Oro Valley for tree hours , see alot of the valley and have mostly great bike path and bike lanes. Day two felling some what rested we tackle Mt. Lemon but get way too late a start especially after making a few wrong turns and not being in Lemon conquering shape we get our back sides handed to us. I may ed it to the Winter Haven spot and waited a while for my homeys then headed down meeting them down the mountain gearing up for the cold near the top, we were all suffering and cram pen but new we were running out of that glorious sunshine and light. No prepared for darkness stuff with us we got some Adrenalin pedal pumping in but still ended up ridding a hour in the dark with occasional car lights helping our journey, we are old enough to know better but did make the 120 mile with a lot of climbing a epic event for us out of shape over eatters and wine drinkers.

We also saw the happy faces and chatted a bit with the Schultz boys on the mountain, of coarse they had already slayed it and were in home ward mode.

We did a good hike the next day to try and work a wrinkle or two out then hit Gates Pass the next day meeting Lindsey C. Jen L. And Elliot the B man along the way, so we been good for Montana sightings.

Next day big changes even in Paradise with rain and snow so a no go on valentines day, my boys decided to catapult out of town towards Saint George and the promise of better weather on the way back to the center of the universe.

The next day was sorta big for me ridding two hour mt. bike then ridding roadie ten miles to meet Bill and Cindy Schultz and throwing in nice conversation pace on the bike paths around town and a great dinner with the Schultz family . I got another big three hours on the mt. bike next day doin a killer Charheouleoou Pass that I meant my stopper before I could crest the pass with no legs left and miles to go back I gave in. Day of rest now I might be ready for some more brutality to the body but life is good..

My Jungel Travels and the marvels of Peru

Just got back from a game changer in life trip to Peru, visiting Lima, Iquitos, and the great Amazon river and jungles.

Were to start well how about getting up at 4:30 am then off to the airport for the 6 o'clock flight to Houston then off to Peru. We did not land and get to hotel tell12:30 am so long day.

Right off I amassed and awed by all the peeps in Li ma very low and the high way of life and they in numbers go hard into the night.

the fist full day here we took a bus to the down town plaza with the many chapels and presidential palace. There was a big singing, dancing and posturing of different tribes for the I think 27 day celebration of the virgin.

The Catholic spirit is very high here, peeps wait in line for hours to get in some chapels to pray and be blessed.

After taking in the sights we headed back to the hotel for what started out to be one of many time being involved with the drinking of Pis co Sours. They are even celebrated on a certain day of the year which was during our visit. We then went to a Ocean Restraint for fab meal.

next day we are headed to Iquitos for our one and half hour drive to Nauta which is right on the river and our boat is waiting to take us on our adventure. We spent a few days walking in the Jungle learning about it and all it's inhabitants which are so many. Colorful birds were every where. We stayed a night right in the jungle, something i knew of ahead of time and had been in pucker mode, but I managed unscathed except for my ears getting over worked with the new sounds all night except maybe one or two hours of break and pretty peacefulness.

We as a group from peeps from William and Marry , Oregon State Alum's and a few just on the tour numbered some 14 moved through the jungle boarded the skiffs and ate many great meals cooked up by some great malty tasking peeps from various villages along the Amazon. They are for the expedition and stay on the in the jungle and on the river like the Cycling House is for bikers, they totally have it dialed and make the stay great.

We spent seven days on this adventure which was a memories and experience to last . It was good to see how simple people could live and survive and look happy and content with that, it also may ed me really appreciate so many of the things i take for granted. Got to say that the most the peeps on this trip not all were in their 60's and up but there was this one lady Doris with her daughter in law that was 92 and full of so much life. She could hang with all the hikes, all the conversations , she could bring the humor and she brought a sweetness that had me crush en on this young lady.

So we got back to the states Sunday in time for a dry sunny marvelous day for a two hour mountain bike ride then settled in to finish watching the super bowl with me being happy with which ever team won, it's so less stress full that way. Half hour after the game it's lights out with full on diarea, fever thing , chills and just plain go ahead and shoot me feelings that after two days are still lingering--ouch. Got to heal soon need to be in Tucson to meet and ride with peeps from Montana by Friday. So take care all...

The winter time paaen by

So been aol for some time . but many of us blogger type have been.

I've got in a ride here and there being the fair weather boy always, every once in while I hit the outside ridden in the cold crispy foggy stuff but not of free will. I actually got in with some of the Corvegan rider's last Sunday and in between 4 flats we got some fast paseline and ridden in which i am know way in shape for.

The mountain biking is stellar on most of the trail around town. it's been dryer her in Corvallis than normal winters and I dig that .

Have had a few good ski weekends up in Bend which so much like The Zoo. There are a number of trails up around Bachelor that groomed like Yellow Stone, a pleasure to ski on.

So proud to report the addition of one more Gran daughter, she is the third and from the looks it the last from my daughters Danyel and Angela,it's an all girl thing which is great. Grace was born 5 weeks early and had a ruff week like her mom Angela . After a week they are much better and home with the rest of the fam.

Yesterday i went Portland and stayed at the Crystal Hotel, it's a Micminniamin thing like some many buildings they have taken and reconstructed into hotel.bars, restaurants and pools, sometimes theaters. Everything in one and just stay and play,works for me especially last night when we ate at Jake's across the street,shop ed a little at buffalo exchange, hit the famous book store Powell's, like three stories of room after room of books. Then we were off to the bar in the Crystal Hotel that had a great 2 boy 2 girl band called Golden Boy, easy listening. Then off to the famous Crystal Ball room just up the block for 80's music on huge screens and a bouncy floor, which after 3 hours of none stop dancen it was a must. Then by one in the morning off to the hotel soaking pool which a few were still occupying, so by two a.m. it was crumbling time. but for fact i still got a little move and some late night in me, now recovery-recovery...

Miss summer but the beat goes on

So it's only been 4 months ,who's counting? I have enjoyed reading the other blogs ,face book and other ways of cathchen up.

I got sorta busy with work ,travel ,family,friends and some fitness try's and here is what I tried to do . After getting all sick and travelling to Honolulu for a week I trained a weekend with 4 days in a roll then raced at the Tour De Bozeman the week after then off to Sun Valley for mt. bike nats where I barley made the podium for 5th,dam the guys my and every other age are tuff at that level. Then it was serious training for around 6 weeks with one back pack trip mixed in for cross train and pain ,there was a little to much liquid spirits packed in so well good for training and pain control right? Off to road nats I went and did better in the crit and road race than i ever have finishing right in the front packs in both but not worthy of the podium. Road so far is my nemeses to get on the steps.

So in between and after this fitness and race escapade i scooter ed all over town for visits ,bbq, and just to much fun. the summer was fast but sweet.

Now with fall and that winter thing upon us I am tryin to adapt with out haven those lay outs in the spandex on the hill above Brennen's wave then maybe a beer where ever you can get a beer in spandex, I don't recommend so much shamie time.

I did the Butte cross at the beginning of Montana's season and did better than usual but then hit a 4 week hiatus before dabbling in Redmond,WA. with visits with Danyel and family and travelling to sea town with Julie staying like royalty at the silver cloud right next to the clink and safeco field and the pyramid brewery,now that's spoilt and i like it. So after the first cross race in a month after the cushy stay at the cloud and racing with some fast and furious 55 year olds for a bareley 2nd i traind some what more and hit the magnuson park croosy the next week around beautyfull lake washington,the corse rocked and I quit the mambie routine and got away at the end with some chippy passin and cornering and a little more gas in the tank than the wek before.Also got to see the Ivanaiter turn it loose on the cat 4 ladies,she's rocken this cross stuff. Bye for now all talk again in another 4 months.