A couple of weekends at home....

You saw 2 weeks ago that the leaves are turning on our motorcycle ride.... this weekend I was invited to go 4-wheeling with some friends.  I ended up attending without my own off-road vehicle and gladly took the passenger seat in Jake's Cherokee!  (With Xander and Maya in the backseat). 

We headed up Storm Mountain which is just to the west of Loveland.  Not a long trail and not a difficult one so seemed like a good, short activity.

Once we turned off the main roads there were signs EVERYWHERE saying that there was no motor vehicle access of the public lands we were going to go try and drive motor vehicles on!  yikes!  We went on as there wasn't a backup plan and we've all seen this by homeowners before that don't like the traffic and noise that the weekend 4X4ers can cause.

Glad we kept going because it was open and was a great time!

 Our friend Matt was visiting from the East Coast so we brought him along - didn't  have to twist his arm very hard though :)

Here we all are at the top!

We even got mud on the roof of the Jeep!

300 mile lunch

Pilots know about the $100 hamburger.  (the price has gone up by now) Sometimes you need to figure out a good excuse to go flying...  So why not take a Flight someplace only to get lunch?

Today we got in our 300 mile lunch.  Which you can also dub the color tour of Colorado 2012...

We headed out about 10 am; not without issue, Karyn's battery was dead on her bike.  Roll starting didn't work, so I drove the car to the bottom of the ally to jump it.  Then missing ear buds, but I had an extra pair.  Off we went.  Quick stop for fuel, and up the busy highway.

Kenosha pass was exceptionally busy with the hikers and the color, see below where we got some pix on the way back.

We only put our feet down at the traffic light in Fairplay between Denver and Salida.

One tank down 141m according to google.  (That is a stretch for the VTR.)  Karyn had a salad and soup, and I had a sandwich...

On the way back we were stopped at the same light in Fariplay... go figure.
The traffic was a bit heavier on the way home, but as you can see the colors were great to look at. Here is a pic at the top of Kenosha.

When we got home Karyn pointed out that my new rear rack bracket was broken, a weld failed.  Glad I found this out today instead of next week 1/2 way to California...

IMWI 2012

Back at Iron man this year!

We had a great visit with Kurt and his new GF Arina.

They also hosted us on the visit, rides to/fro the airport, loaner bicycle, (belt drive internal hub for me) Karyn got a rental.

Kurt fixed up the toilet with Duct tape!

 An early look at the IMWI finishline!!!

We headed downtown for the night before IMWI gathering with the old team.  Before they showed I got a pic of the beer menu at the Great Dane

The team back together!!!  Well last year's athletes that are not competing this year!

The day started out early as we rode with Kurt and Arina down to the swim start.  We got there at 6:30, the race started at 7am!

We spectated at the swim start.  As usual a crazy swim start...

Just look at all those heads!

Some not very quick breakfast we met a nice spectator that lives in Madison.  He talked to us a bit while we waited for the restaurant to open and serve us...  The food was good, but they took their time!

Back to the swim finish, we missed Becky and Jake, but saw Karen out of the water.  Then we hightailed it out to Verona for spectating the bike course, we went to the red barn, and it was a little crazy out there.

 Yes she did have clothes on...

We saw all our athletes on the first lap, then headed back in.  Some other interesting things are the grill and the signs at the bike course...

We saw Karen make the bike transition (only a few miles further than she made it last year)!

Off to the run course.   We did see all the athletes on the run as well, I watched Jake finish, then Becky finished about the time Karen came to round the first loop.

Becky at the finish!

We got some quality time with Karen on the run, as well as plenty of other strong looking athletes.

Jake finished ahead of his time Great work! Becky finished a few minutes shy of her target, Karen?  Well I frankly don't know what she was targeting, but she finished!

All in all 87 miles for the weekend, and ~70 on the Ironman day.  Very fun!

Fun to see the craziness on the square...

AK fishing - 2012

Fishing?  Didn't quite go as planned....  The first day Tucker and I caught a couple of fish.... 

 (i don't like them - but it got my watch band... barely)

 

We 'celebrated' with some dinner on the river with a terrible view.....

The following day the cousins arrived and we fished with them!

The next day we all headed down to the Kenai....

 The following day we stopped in Whittier to look around. No fishing but lots of fun! And the weather was JUST FINE!!! UGH!!!!  We camped and played in the rain and then Whittier was 'barely' bad.  We drove through the tunnel.....

This used to be a great gravel, unknown parking spot and now there is a parking lot and bathrooms.  (and trash cans)  sigh.