Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Cruising for Labor Day


When you have little to no vacation time left for the year, 3 day weekends are a God send! For the last, I dont know, 10 years I've tried to save all my vaction time for Mom and from last summer thru this spring all my time, and FMLA time went to taking care of her. So it was a cram fest to try to get stuff done this weekend!
Sunday, Dottie dragged me out the door to tackle my infamous Hadensville Hill Ride. I haven't been able to do this since my surgery, except for once, which took me off the bike for weeks. So it was with a little worry that I headed out. I shouldnt have worried as the Dotmaster slayed the hills one after the other. It's incredible what taking 2 lbs off a bike will do for your hill climbing abilities! Now if I can only take a few (20) lbs off my frame! Hadensville is hill after hill of the long, steep variety on the way to Charlottesville.
Saturday night Cliff and I picked up branches until we were sick of it. The thunderstorm that killed Trixie caused all kinds of trees to fall, and Cliff will certainly have enough fire wood to last several years. I think its going to take several years to get the trails back to snuff! Now if I could just teach the boys how to clean trails. Dallas ought to be able to do that job!
Monday, Cliff decided to do the RABA Labor Day ride, which starts a few miles from my house, so of course we just rode there. Its been a long time since I got to see my friends at RABA, so in the few minutes we had before the start I had a lot of cramming to do! Then we were off, and the attrition started. There were probably 200 at the start, a fast group of about 20 went off the front, and within a few miles we were down to about 12. A few miles later, 10. It didnt take long until that was 8, and after a series of tough hills, about 6. It felt awsome to hang thru the hills, especially after doing Hadensville the day before.
So look out world, next year is going to be my year!

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