New Job, New Rides, New Hair, New Scrapes, & New Glasses

I finally decided to help Sara out and write one of these things.

It was a pretty good week. I got to go and chaperone a field to trip for the 7th graders to Sunset Crater in Flagstaff. It was pretty cool. It is where all of the dormant volcanos are in Flagstaff. It is in a national park that has a bunch of areas with really cool volcanic rock formations. The weather and Flagstaff were gorgeous. Unfortunately I did not get any pictures cause I forgot to take a camera. The roads were great in the park and there were tons of roadies out hitting the climbs. I was jealous!

I have been commuting to work everyday on my bike.
I finally think I have my route down. I had been riding a different way everyday for a couple weeks. There are a lot of different options. My route involves a little singletrack, some doubletrack, bike paths, a frontage road, and plenty of climbing. It is about a 40 min commute that I can tack on some extra in the evening if daylight permits. This week I had to put on some extra clothes in the mornings. Temps in the upper 30s. Sara is going to post a few pictures she took from last weekend when we rode a section of it.

Sara started working this week. She started subbing as a aide in the Prescott School District. She worked 4 days this week. She really liked it. Most of her time this week was spent at a preschool working one-on-one with a student. On Friday she finished out the week at a middle school. She didn't have as much fun there. It seems there are a lot of changes going on in that school due to growth and the students are really feeling the stress. To make the day a little more challenging she was assisting a substitute teacher.

Sara went on a group ride without me Wednesday night. I didn't get home from work in time. She rode with a Debbie and Billy, a couple of people we had met on some prior rides. They rode the 305. Sara almost had a collision with a deer. We've got to watch out for those things.

Thursday I went on my first full on night ride since we have been out here. Sara stayed home cause we didn't know the caliber of the ride. She would have been able to hang but it was tough. There were five people that I had ridden with before. We went out for about 2 hours. We climbed, climbed, climbed, hiked, and then climbed some more. It was all worth it once we stared decending. I have been doing pretty good with the climbing out here but still can't seem to keep up with the locals on the decents. The BMC is a great bike with more than enough travel for what we are riding but decending like these guys do on the really rocky singletrack and then flying down the winding jeep roads still freaks me out a little.

Friday Sara worked and I was off. We decided that Sara is not going to work Fridays so we can be on the same schedule. Four day weeks are nice! I rode the 305 by myself. I took it pretty easy cause my legs were a little smoked from the night before.
It was a beautiful day and I just cruised along listening to all of the new tunes Jam provided before we moved. The new Editors album rules! Sara and I met at home after her trying day at the middle school. We enjoyed the deck with a couple of Fat Tires.

We headed out on a goup ride on Saturday with a big group. There were 13 people in the goup total. There were a lot of people we had not met before. There was a pretty wide range of abilities on this ride. You know when you head out with that many people there is bound to be some stories. Robert planned out the ride. He wanted to show us some trails that we had never ridden. The trails were awsome. There was a lot of breaks so that we could regroup. Most of the ride was led by three other guys and myself and with Sara close behind. Sara made her presence known early in the ride when all of us up front had to dismount on a rocky climb with Sara blasting through all of us walking still on her bike and a big smile on her face. She should have been yelling "Expert Women Coming Through!" She just rode past and kept climbing. A few minutes later Sara made her presence known again but in a little different way. After a decent a few of us were waiting at the bottom waiting for the rest of the group. Here comes Sara looking a little out of control. It was one of those crashes you can just see coming. Her bike was washing out from side to side until she finally went down on her old stand by right side. She always crashes and lands on the right side. All of the scar tissue that makes up her third butt cheek must pull her to that side. She poped right up laughing as she does most of the time. Everyone made sure she was OK. She was OK except for new scapes in the standard spots (Elbow, Butt, Thigh). The ride continued on as planned. There were more stops to regroup and a few minor mechanicals. All and all the ride was going great until one of the last decents. I was riding second behind a guy named Steve. Steve is 57 years old and is a super strong rider. Steve is one of the guys I have probably ridden with the most since I have been out here. Anyway he was flying down a this rocky decent when a rock kicked him a little to the right towards a tree that was dangerously close to the trail especially on a steep decent. He bumped the tree with his bars and it sent him flying. Once he stopped rolling, he stood up with a confused look on his face. He pulled the neck of his jersey aside and there was no mistaking that the collar bone was broke. It was pretty bad and looked like it was pretty close to coming through the skin. Just like anytime something like this happens the confusion started. OK who is going for the car? What is the fastest way to walk to a road? Who is going with him? Luckily we had cell phones and were able to get a hold of his girlfriend to pick him up at the nearest road to the trail. It was a good ride except for the crashes. I always hate seeing things like that happen.

Along with the riding we did this week, Sara got a new haircut, and I got some new glasses.


I amost forgot the highpoint of the week. After Saturday's ride Sara and I stopped for gas at the AM/PM Station. I went inside to look at some potential snacks. I had my eye on a jalepeno cheddar corndog when I noticed that the guy behind the counter was throwing away all of the cheesburgers that had been sitting under the warmer for too long. Without even thinking I dove behind the counter and had one hand into the garbage can before the guy noticed me. I told him the burgers looked pretty good. He seemed to be in shock and told me that he would notify the women at the counter not to charge me for the burgers. Sara and I did go with the corndogs along with the garbage burgers. The burgers were good but I don't know if they were as good as the garbage donuts from Casey's in Minooka.