Cabins & Highways

Deb and Sam did a great job of arranging everything for our trip. All I had to do was show up and be ready to ride! It's not easy organizing a dozen people for a four-day outing across state lines, but everything went smoothly with only a few minor hickups. We staged out of two cabins at a campground in Custer, SD. Paul, the owner, was super-friendly and didn't mind having 9 rumbling bikes on his property. As you can see, the cabins and grounds were beautiful and more than adequate. They were equipped with linen and kitchen supplies, all we had to do was grocery shop. We actually got three grocery carts full of groceries into the bags of half a dozen bikes!

Before heading out each morning, we made breakfast at the cabins. On the second morning, Kelly made the best biscuits and gravy I think I've ever eaten! Needless to say, I was off-duty as a nutritionist for the weekend!! One evening we BBQed and the other we made spaghetti and garlic bread. We defintely didn't go hungry on this trip!

With temps in the 90s and 100s, we stopped pretty often on the journey home. This was my first large group ride for an extended time. Everyone in our group rides together back in the Springs, so we were all pretty comfortable with each others' riding styles and levels. I'm happy to report that over the course of 1300 miles, there were no dropped bikes, crashes, run-ins or speeding tickets! There were the occasional inattentive and rude motorists who would cut one of us off in our formation, but other than that, no real hazardous situations!

Now that I know my residency in Colorado has an end date, I'm trying to enjoy as much of the Western territory as I can before I make the move to southern California. There's lots of good riding up here and I'm trying to fit in as much as I can before relocating. I've reconciled myself with my poorly manicured and mostly dead lawn by deciding that I won't remember a perfectly landscaped lawn 10 years from now, but I will remember the rides and friends I spend time with on the road. There's nothing like the feel of the wind in your hair and the sight of friends on bikes in front of you and in your rearview mirror!

I'm not sure what adventures await me next, but I'll be sure to post anything exciting, and maybe even not so exciting, that happens over the next few weeks.

Sturgis!

OK, so we were over a month too early for the bike rally, but we made the pilgrimage to Sturgis anyway! A few folks in our group have been to the Sturgis bike rally in the past and agreed that the riding is much better when there aren't thousands of bikers in town! Sturgis itself is a sleepy little town without much going on. Other than a few biker bars and leather shops, it was pretty much a nondescript town. Since I was the only one out of the obligatory all-black riding outfit (I'm the one in pink!), I bought a t-shirt (or two) at the Sturgis Harley Davidson shop!

Before riding up to Sturgis, we rode a really cool stretch of road called Needles Highway. If you click on the map, you'll get a larger version so you can see where we rode. Needles Hwy is just above the lightly shaded area of Custer State Park at the bottom center of the map. This map is from one of the Black Hills Harley shops and rates each ride by level of difficulty (Black Hills & Badlands maps). Needles lived up to its difficulty rating of 5 with lots of hairpin turns on roads without guardrails and one lane tunnels. It was hard to pay enough attention to the road with such beautiful scenery all around. I thought the road was named Needles because of all the pine trees. After lots of laughter at my expense, I was informed that it's name came from all the needle-looking rock formations along the route. Hey, if you can't laugh at yourself. . . !

The road through Custer State Park called the Wildlife Loop afforded us lots of opportunities to see animals in their native surroundings. This picture is of a heard of buffalo right off the side of the road. You can see some buffalo dung in the road which Kerby plowed through later down the road while he was busy checking out other wildlife! We also got up-close and personal with a rattlesnake in the road. I was thankful for the thick boots I was wearing as I passed within a foot of the reptile slithering across the road.

Much to the dismay of my friends, the temps stayed well into the 90s and low 100s most of the trip. The only reprieve from the smoldering temperature was when we hit a rain shower while riding in Spearfish Canyon. It's amazing how cold rain is out west! I tried not to gloat, but I was ecstatic over the hot temps. Finally, after being cold and shivering while riding for the majority of the year, I was comfortable on the bike. I think my friends finally understood how I felt riding in winter after riding in temps they found very uncomfortable. Even I will admit, 102 degrees on a motorcycle is hot, but I was only slightly uncomfortable while everyone else was wilting. I'm happy to report, however that we still thoroughly enjoyed riding the Black Hills even if it was a little warmer than most of the group would've preferred.

I'll do one more post tomorrow summing up the trip. Stay tuned. . .

Mount Rushmore & Crazy Horse

My vacation started Friday morning at 5:00 a.m. when a group of us met up for the journey through three states to Custer, South Dakota. After months of planning, twelve of us rode our Harelys about 10 hours where we spent the next few days riding the famed Black Hills. Actually, 10 of us rode and two drove a truck pulling a trailer with extra gear and space for any broken down bikes! The sightseeing ride the day after we arrived took us to Mount Rushmore.

It took about 400 men 14 years to sculpt the 60 foot busts of Presidents Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt & Lincoln. This picture of me in front of Mount Rushmore should give you some perspective of how massive this thing is. Each head is six stories tall and each nose is 20 feet long. If the heads were actually attached to bodies, they would stand 465 feet tall!

Since work started on the monument in 1927, a lot of the modern day conveniences were not around yet. I read that the workmen had to climb over 500 steps everyday to work on the liknesses of the four presidents meant to represent the first 150 years of U.S. history.

This group shot was taken at the foot of Mount Rushmore. Standing are Sam, Deb, Kerby, Suzanne, David, Nate, Kim & Don. Kneeling in the front is me, Jerry, Kelly, and Tiffany. I don't know what everyone in this picture does for a living because when your knees are in the wind, riding experience carries a whole lot more weight than income potential! But just to give you a flavor of the diversity of this riding group, in this picture you will find a salesman, a mechanic, a couple with 8 kids, a soldier, a childcare provider and the 2007 Mrs. Colorado! You have to guess who's who!

Not far from Mount Rushmore is another impressive mountain sculpture- Crazy Horse. In 1948, a memorial to honor the traditions and culture of native Americans was started. It was decided that the likness of the legendary Lakota leader Crazy Horse would be a fitting tribute to the living heritage of North American Indians. The completed Crazy Horse sculpture will depict the Chief riding on a horse and will be 651 feet long and 563 feet high. The only thing completed thus far is Crazy Horse's head which stands 87 feet high (27 feet taller than the presidential busts at Mount Rushmore). We found it more than slightly ironic that the federally funded Mount Rushmore did not give military discounts to Armed Forces members, but the non-profit, donation funded Crazy Horse Memorial did.

So, what does a rowdy gang of bikers do at the end of a long day of hard riding? Have some ice cream and play Putt-putt golf!!! Unbelievably, a member of our group had never played putt-putt (Don't worry, I won't mention any names Kelly!). We had a blast up until the 15th hole, but by then we were all so tired, we just wanted to finish the game and fall into our beds. We got back to the cabins somewhere around mid-night and started another full day of touring the next morning. I'll keep yall in suspense until tomorrow on where we went!

Curling in Milwaukee

Last weekend, I went to Milwaukee with a group of colleagues to work with curling. For most of my friends and family reading this, I'm sure you have no idea what the sport of curling is about. That's because it's a winter sport and involves being in an ice rink!!! Check out this very thorough description of curling on wikipedia. This group picture is of USOC and Curling staff in the Petit National Ice Center in Milwaukee.

In a nutshell, curling involves "throwing" a 40 pound stone down a 146 foot sheet of ice. Throwing styles have changed over the years so that it's less of a throw and more of a slide. The ice isn't like ice you skate on. Water dropplets are sprayed over the ice to produce pebbles once they are frozen. The pebbles cause the rock to "curl" in one direction or another as it approaches the "house". The direction and speed of the curl can be controlled by sweeping the ice in front of the stone as it travels toward the house. The house is comprised of 12 foot concentric rings similar to a bulls eye. The two black spots on the ice in the picture is called the hack. The hack provides traction for the curler to push off of in order to throw the stone. It doesn't take a really hard throw to get the stone down to the house, but it does take a hard throw to get the stone down to the house to knock one or two 40 pound stones out of play.

This picture is of an elite curler throwing a stone with excellent form. After pushing off from the hack, the curler slides down the ice for a ways with the stone before releasing the stone to continue its journey down to the house. To the uninitiated, this isn't the easiest position to get into, especially while trying to balance yourself as you slide while concentrating on giving the stone just the right amount of speed and ensuring it's heading in the right direction.

As you can see from my miserable form, I don't have a chance of making the National Curling Team!!! The "bunny slope" of curling is to get pulled across the ice while trying to maintain correct throwing form. Compare my form to that of the elite curler in the previous picture and it becomes painfully obvious that my balance and coordination are not exactly at the elite level!! I got a pretty good basic understanding of the game during the 3 days we were there, but to truly grasp the tactics, strategy and nuances of curling would take a year.

Usually on these business trips, I try to stay an extra day to check out the city in which I'm working, especially if I haven't been there before or if I have friends in the area. I had been traveling so much lately that I didn't think about staying an extra day until after the tickets were booked. As it turns out, Milwaukee isn't so far from Chicago where Jim & Karla are stationed. Now you know you've got good friends when they are willing to drive an hour to have dinner with you during a two hour break in work! I hadn't seen them since Dave's retirement in Oklahoma back in January, so it was great to get to spend a little time at dinner with them.

So, with my winter weekend behind me, I'm preparing for a mini vacation this weekend. Friday morning, me and 10 friends on bikes will meet at 5:00 a.m. to start our ride up to Custer, South Dakota. We have a cabin rented and will be riding around Custer National Park, Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse, Devil's Tower and the town of Sturgis. It's a little over 400 miles from here and will be the longest ride yet for me. I'm with a group of very experienced riders though (and a couple of bike mechanics), so I'm much more excited than nervous about the ride! I won't have access to a computer while on this trip, but I'll post some pics upon our return. Thanks for checking in!

Back on the bayou

The day before I left, a couple of friends and colleagues accompanied me to Houma to see something of Louisiana other than just New Orleans. I'm so lucky to have a family that enjoys introducing "outsiders" to our way of living. My dad and brother boiled over 100 pounds of crawfish, crabs and shrimp for Nanna and April to sample! They were both great sports and dug right in. Peelings flying and juice dripping down your arms to the elbows- now that's eatin!

Along with eating boiled seafood, April and Nanna got to see a couple of gators in our back bayou. They didn't understand why I took them in a truck and on a four-wheeler instead of walking until April encountered a big fat snake on the ride back to the front! I think all was forgiven once they got to experience "visiting" Southern style!

I picked up a magazine titled Louisiana Life at the airport that had a cool article about the history of crawfish. I know, I know, I'm such a foodie geek! I love learning about the origins of different foods and some of the history surrounding them. Anyway, I learned that it wasn't until the mid-20th century before crawfish were elevated from a striclty peasant-food only consumed in times of food scarcity to the icon of Cajun food that it is today. This picture was taken along the front bayou at my parents' house and is of a crawfish hole. Here's an excerpt from the article that explains this interesting architecture:

Crawfish are aquatic crustaceans with gills that allow them to live outside water for exteded periods, so long as their gills remain moist. In order to survive [rising and falling water levels], crawfish burrow into the ground in search of moisture and to escape predators. As crawfish excavate their burrows, they bring balls of mud to the surface and build chimneys to protect and seal their homes. Crawfish mate in open water before entering their burrows to wait out the dry season, but females lay their eggs in the burrows and many are hatched there.

Wow, now I feel really bad about kicking over all those chimneys when I was a kid! I hope you enjoyed this food lesson and the other posts on my Louisiana trip. My next scheduled travel is to Milwaukee in a couple of weeks. I don't think there will be time for much besides work, but I'll try to find something interesting from the trip to post about!!!

New Orleans

The sport science conference was at the convention center right next to the New Orleans River Walk on the Mississippi River. I actually didn't go out and about too much while I was in New Orleans because I preferred to spend my free time back home with my family. Luckily, there's a satellite site of Cafe du Monde right in the River Walk, so I managed to get my beignet fix a few times without having to go all the way to the French Quarter!

Of course, a visit to New Orleans just isn't complete without a walk down Bourbon Street! The last night of the conference, a few colleagues and I went to a great restaurant recommended by my Uncle Doug who lives in the city. We ate at GW Finn's right off Bourbon Street where we had some scrumptious seafood dishes for supper. It was more of an upscale restaurant so I refrained from pulling my camera out and taking pictures of the food like I usually do. OK, actually I was too into the food to stop and take a picture of it!

Not exactly fine dining, but Lucky Dogs have been on Bourbon Street for as long as I can remember. Since I was frequenting Bourbon Street well before my 18th birthday (18 was the drinking age back then), it's been at least 20 years! The joke back then was that you'd better like the looks of the Lucky Dog because chances are you were going to see it again before the night was over! I don't remember how many of these Lucky Dogs came back up over the years, but quite a few of them went down before I became a Dietitian!

Our stroll down Bourbon Street inevitably ended at Pat O'Brien's! For those of you who haven't been to New Orleans, Pat O'Brien's is a famous bar that serves a drink called a hurricane. This flame is part of the outdoor patio that connects St. Peter and Bourbon Streets. The picture of me, April and Jay T was taken in the piano bar of Pat O's. The bar of the dueling pianos is great fun! You write down a song, ANY song, on a napkin and pass it up with a couple of bucks to the pianists and they will play and sing your request. People request everything from Neil Diamond to Guns and Roses!

Part of the entertainment in the piano bar is the "thimble man." I don't know what he's really called, but that's what I've always called him. Back when I used to frequent Bourbon Street often, there was an elderly African-American man who we called the "thimble man." He was tall and skinny and wore dark glasses and stood between the two pianos and did his thing. He wore thimbles on all his fingers on which he balanced a metal tray with coins on it. He would strum and tap his fingers under the tray and make the coins bounce in rhythm to the music. He always had a grin from ear to ear and was quite entertaining. I heard that the original thimble man didn't survive hurricane Katrina. The guy in the picture between the pianos is the "new" thimble man and he was just as entertaining!

Unlike most nights I've known on Bourbon Street, the night ended fairly early and with very little alcohol. Hey, things change as you get older, what can I say?!

Family

One of the great past-times while I'm at home is sitting on the swing and visiting. The definition of visiting by ole Mr. Webster "to pay a call on as an act of friendship or courtesy" just doesn't capture the ease in which we converse and laugh while sitting on a swing in the shade! Family news relayed, stories told, recent happenings discussed, memories relived, future dreams shared- now that is the true definition of "visiting". The characters in this visit on the swing is my nephew Andy and his girlfriend Lauren with me and my niece Julia.

Sometimes the swing is too arduous and we're forced to recline in the hammock while visiting! In this picture are my nephews Gavin and Philip hanging out with Philip's girlfriend Jessica. My brother, sister & I gave this hammock to my dad as a father's day gift a while back, but I think he has to fight for time in it!

Every summer, my mom allows a section of grass in her yard to be sacrificed for the kids' pool. I think this is the biggest one my brother has brought home yet! It took two days to fill it with the hose pipe (yeah, we call a "garden hose" a "hose pipe" down here!). The kids swam in it quite a bit, but it never got warm enough for us adults (and I use that term loosly!) to go for a dip.

OK, so you're probably wondering if I actually attended the conference or if I just hung out at my parents' house for the week! I commuted back and forth from Houma to New Orleans during the conference. I'll make the next post about New Orleans just for proof!

Muddy Waters

Last week, the USOC saw fit to send me to a national sport science conference in New Orleans!!! As soon as I stepped out the airport with my parents, the glorious heat and humidity of south Louisiana enveloped me in a blanket of southern familiarity. The dry and chill of my Colorado residence started to escape from my pores and was replaced by the moisture and warmth of the Gulf Coast. This first picture is of a magnolia flower (picked from the tree in my Momma's front yard) and has always represented the easy, sweet way of life my home state is known for.

The second day I was there, I spent the afternoon on my brother's Harley-Davidson Road King with our friend Eric. We logged over 200 miles throughout the afternoon. It was amazing to ride in short sleeves for a change and be perfectly comfortable! We cruised along the Mississippi River on what's known as River Road. This corridor hugs the levees of the Mississippi for about 70 miles between New Orleans and Baton Rouge. Interspersed along the River Road are some beautiful old sugar plantation homes set on the greenest lawns you've ever seen (yards to us Southerners!) and surrounded by Live Oak trees dripping with Spanish moss. This picture is of a patio behind Madewood Plantation. Notice the screened in porch behind the sugar cane syrup kettle fountain.

From there, we rode to Killian and the Tickfaw River. The Tickfaw River is a popular place in the summer. As you can see from this picture, there are houses and camps along the river with lots of people in boats and on jetskis. There's a landin (AKA "boat launch" to you Yankees!) with a bar and dance hall that's on warfs over the River called Tin Lizzy's. I had never been there before, but it was quite the hoppin place! This last picture shows that Cajun's have a great self-depreciating sense of humor (and apparently a lot of money)!

I tried to spend as little time on the computer and as much time with my family as I could while I was at home, so I'll be posting about my trip to Louisiana now that I'm back at my house in Colorado. Stand by for a few more posts!