The 4th is over

Well the holiday weekend has come and gone, and its back to the daily grind. Baloo survived the amateur pyrotechnics displays by sitting under my computer desk while I played really loud music to keep him from hearing the explosions. Molly of course was unfazed by the whole ordeal. Jill tried to sleep through my constant blaring of music, but I'm not sure how successful that really was. All in all, it was considerably better than last year where it seemed like the fireworks went for 4 or 5 days until all hours of the night.


My cousin Anne and her daughter Jenna drove in for the weekend, so we spent a lot of the weekend doing activities with them. We hit Rocky Mountain National Park, driving up Fall River Road and back on Trail Ridge in the middle of a storm (see pic on right). We got in another day of rafting on Clear Creek, which was good although about 1/2 the flow from early June when we last hit it. Of course we had some good food including The Walnut in Boulder, Tommy Knockers in Idaho Springs and Maggiano's in downtown Denver. Its a good thing I'm riding 150+ miles in the heat this coming weekend, as I have really pigged out in the last 5 days.

Of course any visit from Anne wouldn't be complete without some great Anne-isms including :

1. Anne asking Sarah about the signage on the roads in Colorado.

"We saw signs warning about elk and deer running out into the roads, but there were also signs that had bicycles on them. Does that mean the cyclist are going to run out in front of us on the roads?"

2. Another Anne cycling moment...

Setup - We were rafting on Clear Creek between Dumont & Idaho Springs. The river sits slightly below I-70 and at times you can see the traffic on I-70 from the river.

Curtis (a Kansas guy who was in our raft) looks surprised and announces: "I swear I just saw a bicycle flying down the road with nobody on it". Anne takes in his statement, starts to make fun of him then looks and says in amazement "I just saw it too!"

Of course we had a big laugh when Sarah & I realized they were seeing bicycles on roof racks of cars speeding down I-70...

3. On High School Fame

Anne - "I was voted most popular in my high school class. But for some reason I didn't win the 'Most Likely to Succeed' vote."

Jenna - "Yeah because you were pregnant."

Anne - "Well not when we voted!"

4. Graceful Entrances and Exits

Anne still has a few things to learn on her next trip to Colorado about entering/exiting the white water rafts. These you just had to be there to see....


Good times....Anne & Jenna were as entertaining as ever, glad to get to see them again. So now its back to work for a couple days while I rest my legs in preparation for the MS150 this weekend. After the MS150, its high time to start doing some big, high country rides like Kenosha Pass and the like so stay tuned for that.