GA aquarium and i am finally back to "normal"

Sara's folks came to town for Turkey day. It was a nice visit. My folks took them to play golf Wednesday. (Sara and I don't do golf) Saturday morning we got up at 0 dark thirty and headed downtown to the GA aquarium. This place got all kinds of press 2 years ago when it opened. Now that we are living in GA we figured we should have a visit. We were very impressed. The walls of the tanks are made of acrylic so they can curve and bend anyway the designers wanted them to. Some of the areas had fish windows overhead as well as windows in the wall. Although the price was kind of steep, we had a good time, and will probably take our next visitors there too...if they want to go.

I spent the whole last week under the weather. After the race in Augusta, i was sick to my stomach and nauseaus all week. Not sure what i caught, but i finally had my appetite back on Sunday. Oh it feels good to be "normal" again. It was weird not exercising or riding my bike for a week. I wonder how bad the race will suck this weekend after my week off.

Georgia Cross Race 5, Augusta....I am the King of 8th place!!!

Wow, what a long drive it is from Jasper to Augusta. Apparently it wasn't quite far enough so sara and i added another 4 hours to Sumter, SC to see her cousin.


I felt like crap the morning of the race, maybe it was bad food the night before, maybe it was the people arguing in the courtyard of the hotel at 2 am, i'm sure i caught some sort of virus. I'm still not 100% on Wednesday, boy i sure hope i get my appetite back by tomorrow.





The race course was at the ASU sports complex, it was rolling grass with some pavement. I few steep short pitches that were rideable and two sets of barriers. I felt tired during my warm-up, so i didn't have high hopes for the race. The race started as normal, i fell back a ways in the group and then started to work my way back up. After three laps the front 7 were gone, and it was me and two other guys. They seemed content to just follow my wheel. I was a little concerned since i was feeling really tired, and i didn't want to do all the work. I let them go around on the tight grass section and they managed to pull a little bit of a gap. With 2 to go, i started to catch back up to them. I decided if i wanted to beat these guys, i would have to try to get a gap on them half way through the lap when we hit the pavement. Once we hit the pavement, they seemed to slow up a bit, I hit the gas and tried to get as far away as possible. When we came through the start/finish i had about 50 yards on the next guy. I managed to keep the gap and held my position. It just happened to be 8th. I was happy i didn't give up and let the two guys go. But i was done after the race, i let sara drive home, and once we got home, i just sat on the sofa. I'm hoping this is my one illness this winter. Knock on MDF. The next two races are close to home. Hopefully there will be lots of people i know at the races.

This is my office

Can you tell we make plaques?

One step forward, two steps back

9th place yesterday. Kind of disappointing. I felt okay before the race, we stayed in Macon Saturday night instead of driving 2-1/2 hours early sunday, so i was able to sleep till 7 get up eat and get to the race. I think i ate too much, too close to the start, since i was feeling a little full before the start. The fullness didn't bother me much once the race started, i pulled my usual anti-hole shot (need to work on that) and i started passing people to move up a few spots. The soil in this part of the south has a lot of sand in it, and it doesnn't take too many bikes going over it to start loosening up. Some of the tight turns became slick pretty quick. There was a long sandy beach run followed by some switchbacks up the embankment with a steep finish. I was surprised that i could ride the steep part each lap. I thought these old legs would have given up by lap 4. Next week we go to Augusta, it should be a fun weekend. We are hoping to see sara's cousin in Columbia on Saturday. i hope the legs are faster.

On the way home from the race we stopped off at the Summit Racing Equipment store. I was checking out some new headers for PAPA, trying to figure out a way to keep the truck from eating starters. I think Ceramic coated headers and a high torque starter (smaller) should do the trick. We will probably give the motor a thourough check to make sure it's all good....did someone say new cam....maybe... I need a truck that goes whump......whump.......whump.... at idle.

no pictures this weekend, i forgot the camera. Maybe i'll find some on the web again.

Busy Busy weekend, football, concert, family, party, bike race and b-day

Wow, what a weekend. Thank goodness we had an extra hour to squeeze it all in. Thursday night I watched my team SUCK!!!! Friday night we went to see They Might Be Giants in little five points. (Thanks for the tickets Lisa and Paul) Saturday afternoon we had a big family gathering with my moms side of the family. Saturday night we went to a party at a friends house. John and Veronica had a fun little shindig, Sara and I were a little disappointed that there wasn't any Spotted Dick though. Oh well.

Sunday i rolled out to Monroe, GA for the third race of the GA Cross series. Fun course, really flat though, lots of tight turns through the pine trees. (anyone know of a tread pattern that will hook up in pine straw?????) Even though i wanted to get a better start, i was still pretty far back right at the start, but i worked my way through the crowd and even passed my usual spot and finished 7th....WOO-HOOO!!!!

Sunday was also my dad's b-day, so after walking the dog, we went to my parents house to cook them dinner and help celebrate. 66....yikes!