Hey now, you're an all star...

Congratulations to hubby on getting his first singlespeed win in Moab this weekend. You rode with an elite group of cyclists and held your own to turn in the first ride that you could call a win. You've always been an all star to me, I'm just glad you finally got a chance to realize it yourself.

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I have a bone to pick with whoever declared Moab a "desert". Some dictionary says a desert is "any area in which few forms of life can exist because of lack of water, permanent frost, or absence of soil." Whatever. I've been two Moab twice in the past year and each time there has been crazy rain that causes the roads to turn to rivers and the dry sand to messy mud. I don't believe it and I will no longer refer to Moab as a desert. It will now be referred to as a vast wetland.

We loaded up the car Friday afternoon to leave for the vast wetland that is Utah. It had been a very long day that involved a situation that needed Social Service's serious attention. Needless to say, I was ready for a little vacation. Chris drove Alan, Turbo, and me to Glenwood Springs and I took over from there. I drove through some of my least favorite conditions, including rain that made the ground so shiny that I had convinced my tired self that I was driving on clear glass and there was an upside down highway underneath me. The boys snored away and I chugged through to Moab. The hotel was a welcome break from the lonely road.

In the morning, I gave in to my sleepy bones and ditched breakfast at Denny's to sleep a few more minutes. The boys swung back by to pick me up after breakfast. When we got to the parking lot I met many people that I have heard of but never met. I also ran into Monica, a wife who I had been pit-neighbors with in Park City. She brought her little girl and dogs and she told me about some fun they were planning for the day and invited me along. I got excited at the idea of not hanging out by myself all day but retardedly forgot to get a phone number or time/plan from her. DOH! Soon I was swept up in Chris's light debacle and was sending him on his way.

Turbo and I headed sleepily back to the hotel, flipped through a million different informercials, and went back to sleep. When I woke up, I realized I had missed the free continental breakfast (which I remember to be delicious from when we stayed there in the last rainy mess of a trip) so I loaded dog up to drive to City Market to buy some doughnuts and something for lunch. When I stepped outside I saw the rain that had drenched the "desert" and I hoped Chris wasn't miserable. Luckily, I ran into Monica in the parking lot as they were packing up to head out for a hike. I went along and we had a great time hiking in the drissle with the dogs and her 4 year old daughter. Turbo loved romping through the creek and ended up swimming in a little pond with one of the other dogs. It was probably the greatest day of his whole life. He was so happy, so dirty, and quite stinky by the time we got back to the car.


After the hike we drove and had a delicious lunch at the Moab Diner -- their grilled ham and cheese is YUM! At one point I looked out the window and said "hey! At least it stopped raining, now maybe the boys are a little less miserable!" to which Monica pointed out that that was still raining, I was just seeing wrong. When we went to walk around and do a little shopping after, Monica's husband called saying that he was cold and miserable and was dropping out. She, being a wife herself, was nice enough to ask him if he knew where Chris was. He told her that Chris was up ahead and chugging along, so I got a little relief from that. I had chosen not to drive up to see Chris at the road crossings where I would get to see that he was still moving along ok because I was afraid he would be too tempted to drop out and get in the warm car. I wanted him to keep going and experience a race well raced without an option to bail.

Turbo and I headed back to the hotel and again took another nap. We woke up, I ate some tasty candy, and around 5:00 I headed to the finish line VERY pleased that I hadn't heard Chris at this point. If he hadn't called yet, he was on his way to the finish. WOHOOO! When I got to the finish, I sat around with some riders that had dropped as well as Monica and little Brooke. Chris hadn't expected to finish before 6:00 so I wasn't going to start worrying until sunset. Around 6:15, I was sitting around talking when someone yelled "there's some finishers!" I looked up and YAY!!!!! I couldn't believe it was him! It's a rare occasion when Chris shows up before I expect him to. He didn't look wiped, he didn't look like he was ready to crawl in a dry hole and sleep -- he actually looked fresh. The guy is crazy. He was so happy to have ridden with a fellow singlespeeder for the last few miles, he was happy to finish, and he was happy to have done so well. It's a great feeling to see someone work so hard for something and have the hard work pay off.

Pretty soon we headed back to the hotel and I forced giddy Chris to take a shower so we could go eat. Dave C stopped by for a shower and we all headed off for some Mexican. The food was only ok -- however the chips and salsa that we ate for an hour before getting seated was pretty tasty! We headed back to the hotel and got a little sleep before Alan came knocking at the door, finally finished wit his race after 18 hours. He was psyched to finish and Chris and I were both relieved to see him before it got too late. The next morning we were sad to see the Diner closed on Sundays so we ate at the Pancake Haus. It was also only so-so, and some very not-shy 5th grader decided that I looked like a teacher at his school and after that he wouldn't leave me alone. I love kids. I really do. But I was tired. You know how that goes.

The ride home was good minus the hours spent in ski traffic and the fact that once we hit Vail, my ears and throat started to hurt and I could tell I was getting sick. I don't know what it is about my body lately, but it gets sick quickly and the symptoms hit suddenly. There's no grace period any more. Maybe it's turning a quarter-century old ... As a result, I was home sick today, sleeping 90% of the time, and hopefully kicking whatever this is before a group ride planned on my birthday this wednesday and definetely before VEGAS! next week with the girls for spring break.

That's it. In conclusion, Chris rocks, Moab's not a desert, and my body is annoying. The rest of the story was kinda borring, sorry for putting you through it. The pictures are good though!