Triple Bypass

Yesterday started off with a 5:00 a.m. pickup by my friends Charlene and Brian. They were doing the Triple Bypass bike ride (that's bicycle for all my Harley riding friends out there!) and I was to drive sag wagon (support vehicle) for them. The Triple Bypass is a beast of a ride- the route is 120 miles from Evergreen to Avon, CO. It goes over three mountain passes: Squaw (11,140 ft.), Loveland (11,990 ft.), and Vail (10,560 ft.) and includes 10,000 ft of climbing.

Although competition juices are running, it's not really a race. Rider's can start anytime between 6:00 and 7:30 a.m., so the finish line isn't really a gauge of placing. The ride is capped at 3500 riders and I think they had a full roster by the number of people I saw out on the course! I had driven sag wagon for Charlene back in 2003 when I was an intern and she had done the ride with the USA Swimming intern at the time, Ryan. This was her husband Brian's first time doing this ride.


My job as "sag hag" was to be at every Aid Station along the way to refuel them and to help distribute their gear. According to spectators along the route I spoke with, the weather for last years' ride was so bad that half the riders who started didn't finish. In the mountains you never know what the weather will do and there is a constant change of temperatures, so there is a constant shuffle of warm and/or rain gear. Thankfully the weather was gorgeous the whole day, so Brian & Charlene never had to pull out the rain gear stuffed into the back of their jerseys.


After shooting this pic of them in Georgetown, I headed up to the Loveland ski area to catch them as they were making their way up Loveland Pass. The ski area was obviously shut down for the season (although you can still see snow on the peaks!), so it made a great staging area for entertainment, bike repairs and refueling for the riders. We chuckled on the way home later as Charlene commented on the fact that the majority of these riders baby their bikes all year. Most bikes are well within the $1000 and higher range, so they are usually never allowed to stay outside, rest or rub against anything and are kept meticulously clean and maintained. Take a look at all these bikes laying on the ground at the Aid Station!


As sag hag, my job wasn't just to facilitate fueling and gear exchanges, I was also the cheering squad. I would drive ahead to the next Aid Station, park the car, jump out and set up my lawn chair, get my camera ready and start cheering. In 2003, I wasn't so proficient and missed my riders at a few stops. This year the stars lined up and I miraculously made it to each Aid Station just ahead of Charlene and Brian! I even managed to find time for a photo safari! I took tons of pictures of the riders and scenery in between my sag wagon duties. I ended up taking over 70 pictures during the day!


One of the Aid Stations was at the Vail Pass rest area. The ride organizers had closed off the vehicle access to the restrooms at the rest area. I felt sorry for motorists as I watched them find a rare parking spot and look around wondering what the hell was going on! A group ride of Pikes Peak Harley Owner's Group (HOG) pulled into the rest area complete with their own sag wagon (much more advanced and bigger than ours!!). They didn't stay long as they gazed out over the hundred's of cyclists swarming the facilities of the rest area. I remember having that same pang of sympathy as I did the Gulf Coast Half-Ironman triathlon in Panama City a few years ago and cycled parallel to miles of cars stuck in traffic because of the race. Moral of this story, check to see if there are any scheduled road closures before taking off on a road trip!


I can only attach 5 pictures to each post, so I'll follow this one up with the rest of the day!

Triple Bypass (continued)

As you can see in this picture of Charlene and Brian at the finish line, they were pretty excited about finishing! I think they were shooting for 10 hours, but ended up finishing in just under 9 hours! I have to say that even with the quick pace, they looked great at each rest stop. Other folks would pull up and immediately flop on the ground or start complaining of cramping, but they just rolled up and would say something like "that was a tough climb, but great"! It was really nice being the "sag hag" for riders who were truly having a good time and accepted the day as it came. I'd hear some riders being snappy with their support crew as the day wore on and they got progressively tired and fatigued. As much as I hate to admit it, I'm a bit that way myself. Charlene & Brian were an inspiration to me not only in their athletic ability, but in their ability to keep a positive attitude and be in the moment (good or bad) the whole day!



After my arduous day of support (it wasn't arduous in the least, but don't tell them!), Charlene & Brian treated me to a meal at one of their favorite restaurants in Breckenridge- Rasta Pasta! The food was really good and the setting was so relaxing- a patio next to a flowing stream! You know I can never have a good meal without taking pictures of it! This dish is called the Tortellini Jamaica Mon! It was ricotta cheese tortellini, "secret" spices, bananas, pineapple, and grapes! It sounds like an awful combination, but was actually quite tasty! Not an earth-shatering experience, but quite nice. Our entertaining waiter recommended the Juju Ginger beer brewed by the Left Hand Brewing Company out of Longmont, CO. It was very smooth with just a hint of ginger that didn't leave a bitter aftertaste and went well with the subtle fruit flavors of the pasta dish.



While sitting around on the side of the road and walking around on my photo safari, I was wishing that I had a hat that would cover both my face and ears. I had brought a ball cap, but I'm not really a ball cap kind of girl. Right next door to the Jamaican restaurant in Breckenridge, we found a great little shop with lots of straw hats. Although I'm not really a cowgirl by any stretch of the imagination, I had seen my riding partner Suzanne wear her straw cowboy hat to keep the sun off her face (and to cover up her helmet head) after rides and I thought it looked great on her. So, I tried a few on and ended up getting a pretty cool straw pseudo-cowboy hat for myself. You'll have to wait until I wear it out and about for a pic though! We also couldn't resist taking each others' pictures in this Rasta man silhouette outside the restaurant!


From Breckenridge, we took the back roads home and went over Hoosier and Wilkerson Passes. These clouds were just amazing as the sun was setting. At the crossroads of Hwys 9 & 24, we stopped to check out these couple of buffalo hanging out by the fence. There's a little fenced in area with a bench to stop and admire them, so we pulled over so I could get a few pics. It's not often that they are this close to the road.


They are huge animals and are very intimidating. I took a few pictures from a distance to feel out their aggressiveness before I got closer to the flimsy fence holding these gigantic creatures in. Once I got closer I realized why the fence didn't need to be more hardy- it was electrified!

From there, it was an uneventful ride home. We were all pretty tired (Charlene & Brian justifiably so!) and chatted the whole way home about our great day. As my time in Colorado is drawing to a close, I'm glad I got to sight see the little mountain towns another time.

Towards the end of this week I'm back in southern California for a really quick business trip. I'll let yall know if anything fun happens while I'm gone!!

Adam's Mountain Cafe'

For Philip's last night here, we decided to go to Manitou Springs for dinner and for Philip to look for a dream catcher. We set out looking for a small cafe' at which I had eaten a few years ago called Adam's Mountain Cafe'. At first we couldn't find it and then I remembered hearing on the radio once that it had moved. Philip was purchasing his dream catcher as I asked the cashier about the new location for Adam's. As luck would have it, it was right behind the store and arcade!






I can't even begin to describe how great the food was here! This first picture is of our half-eaten appetizer, Crostini with figs and pears. It looked so good that we dug right in and forgot that I had my camera with me! This dish was house baked herb crackers (but they were soft, the way I like them!), accompanied by roasted figs (although I think they were actually dried figs), braised spinach, caramelized onions, Colorado goat cheese, candied pecans, fresh pears and grated Romano cheese.

For the main entree, Philip ordered smoked salmon fettuccine. This was the third time during his week stay at my house that Philip had salmon! I love salmon too, but I'm not crazy about anything smoked. Anyway, here's the description: house smoked salmon tossed with fresh fettuccine in a light dill and dry vermouth cream sauce finished with fresh thyme, capers and asiago cheese.



I had soup and salad. I know this implies that I was eating light, but don't be fooled! The soup was a cup of Cuban black bean soup with a dollop of sour cream on top. The salad (last pic) was a fresh pear and pecan salad: organic mixed greens tossed lightly with candied pecans, fresh pears, Colorado goat cheese and dressed with an apple brandy vinaigrette. This salad, the black bean soup and Philip's salmon fettuccine were served with sunflower wheat rolls.


This meal was great, but do you know what the best part of it was? I discovered that Philip is a foodie too!! He wasn't intimidated in the least by foods he had never eaten and was actually delighted with the strange new combinations of taste and texture. I'm so excited that he has an adventurous palate like me! I definitely see some food excursions in our future!


At noon today, Philip flew away from his last vacation here in Colorado (with me anyway!). He said good-bye to a naked Pikes Peak (no snow right now!) and to my VW Fox! My transfer date to our training center in Chula Vista, CA (just south of San Diego) has been set for November 1. Unfortunately, I'll still have to go through a couple of snow falls before I move on, but I won't have to go through another full-fledged winter!

Back to the Royal Gorge Bridge

I finally dropped off and picked up the pictures from the disposable camera I bought and used at the Royal Gorge Bridge when my batteries went dead in my digital camera. Wow, it seems so archaic now to have to drive somewhere to pick up pictures! Actually, I didn't get any prints made, I just got the film transferred to digital since I make digital books instead of putting pictures into a photo album these days.

If you you shoot digital and never seem to get the pictures off your computer after you download them or you are using a regular photo processing service to make your digital books, you HAVE to check out this site. It's called Blurb.com. I've done several books through this website and it is awesome! There are lots of different photo and text layouts to chose from. You can also design your own cover with pictures on it. I may have already mentioned this site in a previous post, but I'm too lazy to peruse my own blog site to check! Besides, even if I have, it's worth mentioning again!!

I won't say a whole lot about the Royal Gorge Bridge park since I do know that I did a post on it in last summer when my brother was here with my niece and nephew. Philip and I had walked across the bridge and checked it out from the other side. We stopped several times to look down at the Arkansas River more than 1000 feet below us between the wooden planks of the bridge. As you can see from this picture, the weather was closing in on us! We scurried back across the bridge and made this the last sightseeing stop of the day.

Vail

We ascended to a little over 8000 ft when we reached the town of Vail. It just so happened that there was a great farmer's market going on! We strolled along the main street and took in the art, crafts and of course, food!! The farmer's market runs from June until September and helps keep folks coming up to the mountains in the summer time. Vail is mostly known as a ski resort, but it's even more beautiful in the summer months (at least in my warm-weather loving opinion!).




I couldn't help but wish my mom were with us as we walked past all the plants and flowers along the street. These flowers dripping from this lamp post are just like the ones in my mom's flower bed along the side of their house. Vail is certainly a well-manicured town. Don't worry mom, I still like your yard better!

I think the farmer's market was half food/ half crafts vendors. Ironically, there were only 2 or 3 fresh produce stands, the rest were mostly prepared foods and wares. There was a selection of food to satisfy just about any taste- brats, pickles (even pickled okra!), cheeses (goat cheese, mmmmmm), wines, preserves, Alaskan salmon, Colorado meats, breads, oils, pesto and pasta. The pasta in this picture is an Italian Pesto Blend from the Pappardelle's pasta stand. It's a mixture of sun-dried tomato, garlic parsley, basil & cracked pepper pastas. Philip and I had some for dinner Monday night with just a little olive oil on it and it was pretty tasty! If I would've been prepared and had a cooler with some ice in it, I would've brought back some of the chocolate ravioli and goat cheeses!!


We made up for our inability to bring perishables back to the Springs with us by devouring a few sweet and savory crepes while we were there! This picture is of the one Robyn ate- brie cheese and strawberries! Philip had the Vermont which was a crepe folded into thirds and then maple syrup and whipped cream inserted into the middle with powdered sugar sprinkled all over! I went with something more hearty and on the savory side with the Country crepe. It had a HUGE slab of brie cheese, fresh spinach with sauteed onions and garlic. YUMMMMMMMY!



With our bellies full and having just caught the edge of a rain shower, we hopped in the car and headed back south towards the Springs. We opted for the less scenic interstate route for the return home thinking that it would be quicker. Not so much! We inched our way along the interstate for more than an hour before we could pick up speed and make progress home. We never could figure out where all the traffic was coming from or what the hold up was. We got home at a decent hour feeling pretty satisfied about our fun weekend of sightseeing together. Monday came and it was off to work. Philip has been a huge help to Robyn in the Performance Technology area this week. I can't believe Philip's vacation is almost over and he'll be heading back to Louisiana Friday.

On Saturday, I will be driving sag wagon for a couple of friends who will be doing the Triple Bypass; a bike ride over three mountain passes. I'll be sure to have fresh batteries this time as I follow the riders providing support. I love summer-time!!!!

Drive up to Vail

Let's just start off by saying that Sunday was a day of eatin'! We picked Robyn up at her house in our stylin', and rented, Chevy Cobalt (yes, it was fire-engine red!) and proceeded to the Omelet Parlor on Filmore. This meal would be the first of many food stops for the day. We made it a whole two hours down the road before we pulled over at Bongo Billy's in Buena Vista. What a fun little coffee shop! I have stopped here several times before, but it was never as crowded as it was on this trip. Unlike Philip and Robyn, I paced myself at the Omelet Parlor because I knew Bongo Billy's was on our route. OK, I didn't share that information with Philip or Robyn, so it's not their fault that they filled up on huge country breakfasts.

Neither Robyn or Philip are coffee-drinkers, which makes me wonder why I would take them on a road trip! Anyway, they were good sports and didn't mind me making the coffee stop. I'm not just saying this because I really like Paul and Heather, but I've yet to have a coffee better than the one Paul makes me at their coffee shop (Raven's Nest). The coffee was just so-so at Bongo Billy's, but the atmosphere is great. I tried to maintain moderation, but somehow a slice of chocolate ecstasy cake slid into my order of coffee. No worries, I'd have another 2 hours or so before the next food stop- just enough time to build back up an appetite!

As we cruised north, we drove along what's known as the collegiate range. The peaks of this mountain range are named after the Ivy League institutions of the east coast. Mt. Princeton (14,197 ft), Mt. Yale (14,194 ft), and Mt. Harvard (14,420 ft) loomed above us as we paralleled the Arkansas River. Lots of kayakers and rafters as well as fly-fishermen were out enjoying the beautiful day. Although it was in the 90s down in the Springs, Philip & Robyn were quite excited that it stayed in the 70s for most of our trip up the mountains.


As we twisted and curved our way up and down the mountain passes, Robyn was very happy that she had taken her Dramamine for car sickness. She doesn't do so well with continuous motion!! Just to make sure she was OK, we made a few scenic stops along the way. As we rounded a bend in the road, there were a few cars pulled over taking pictures. Not to be the ones to miss out on great photo ops, we pulled over to check it out. This bridge scene is what we saw.


In this environment, it's not hard to find great places to take pictures. Sometimes a rock right off the side of the road will do! You can see the twisting, winding road over our shoulders that we had just driven up. There were a few cars on the road, but not much traffic which is a great thing on a no-passing, two-laned road! We got the occasional slow Sunday driver and logging truck, but other than that it was smooth sailing until the trip home (more on that in the next post!).


Along the scenic route we took, Philip went above 10,000 ft at Tennessee Pass. Philip had never heard of the Continental Divide. Not surprisingly since it doesn't have much bearing on the Gulf Coast. The Continental Divide is the border from which rainwater will either flow towards rivers to the east or towards the Pacific Ocean to the west. Right next to this sign was a memorial to the soldiers of the 101st Mountain Division who had died in WWII. I have a lot of respect for men who were able to not only traverse mountain ranges, but to do it with full combat gear in the dead of winter. Thank goodness the liberation of Europe wasn't dependent on my ability to fight in winter climates!!!!

From here, we were just a hop, skip & a jump from the ski resort town of Vail. I will fill you in on what we saw and ate in Vail in the next post. Stay tuned!

Holy Cross Abbey Winery

After the bug museum, we followed Hwy 115 south to the junction of Hwy 50 to Canon City. On our way to the Royal Gorge bridge, we stopped at the place that produces one of my favorite local tasty beverages- the winery at Holy Cross Abbey. I'm sure I'll never live down the fact that I took my 15-year old nephew to a winery, but it was another one of those places I pass while part of a lengthy motorcycle procession and don't get the chance to stop and check out! I'm not sure how long the historic abbey has been there, but it has a wine making tradition dating back to around 1926.


As if marking the crossroads of the Sangre de Cristo and Rocky Mountain ranges, the church and vineyard provide a stark contrast to the arid environment by which it is surrounded. Although documents establish a history of wine making back in the 1920s, it was only as recent as a couple of years ago that the wine making tradition of the abbey was resurrected here. As a matter of fact, the winery if for sale if anyone is interested!

I always find it slightly amusing that some of the best alcoholic beverages in the world have been produced by religious institutions! At any rate, the wine tasting room was just a building over from the abbey itself. As you can see from this pic, the vineyard isn't very far from holy ground! The church is actually quite impressive. While touring the gardens, we witnessed an event that was happening all over the world on such a lucky day (7-7-07)- a wedding!


The winery produces several varieties of beverages. I've had their Chardonnay, Merlot and Riesling; all of which are quite nice. I don't profess to be a sommelier, I just drink what seems to enhance the flavor of whatever I happen to be eating. As a foodie, I certainly appreciate anything that brings out the sometimes limited flavor of the dishes I prepare (because I also don't profess to be a chef!). I guess my taste buds aren't too off track since these wines have won several awards:

2004 Merlot & Merlot Reserve
2004 Cabarnet Sauvignon & Cabarnet Sauvignon Reserve
2004 Chardonnay

Since I was already familiar with these wines, there wasn't much need for me to do much tasting! I mostly wanted to check the prices to see if I could get a better deal from the tasting room anyway!

For those of you who know my nephew Philip, you'll appreciate this picture of him standing next to the wooden bear outside the tasting room! I'm not sure what his affinity towards these creatures is, but he is certainly drawn to them!

From the abbey, we continued down Hwy 50 towards the Royal Gorge bridge. We detoured and I drove Philip over a road called Skyline Drive. We ride it every time we go through Canyon City on our Harleys, but it's not for those afraid of heights! The road is on a ridge line with sheer drop-offs on either side of the road. The views are spectacular, but it makes it hard to keep your eyes on the road! I'd love to show yall some pics of the Skyline drive and of the Royal Gorge bridge park, but my digital camera's batteries went dead and the spare rechargeables I brought were also dead! I bought a disposable at the park and snapped a few old-school film pics, but now I'll have to bring them in to get developed. It's hard to believe that in this day and age of instant gratification where we can print our digital pictures immediately that we used to consider 1-hour film processing lightening fast!!!