Mount Pleasant Bubba Cross

Thanks Cindi Inman for a great photo!

In an event that may never repeat itself, I raced two cross races this weekend.  After finishing yesterday's race at Concordia Seminary, I was spent.  I had decided not to race today at Mount Pleasant Winery in Augusta. 

But, the huge all-day rains never materialized and it was 70 degrees this morning at 9am.  Even the fatigue in my legs couldn't hold back the desire to hit this race for the 5th year in a row.

40mph gusts of wind notwithstanding, I am certainly glad I went.  After 8 (or was it 9?) laps of the hardest Mount Pleasant course ever (and that's saying something, because it's NEVER an easy course), I had conjured a 5th place.  That's my best finish there.  Yay, me.  I would say the cheers of the crowd helped quite a bit, although my home-based cheering squad did not come today which is always a bummer.

Now that I have consumed everything in sight for the last 5 hours, I think I might be OK.  Now I know why I don't race two days back to back.

Concordia Bubba Cross

Last year, I thought I was on the way to winning the A race at the Concordia Seminary Bubba Cross event.  It's a rough little course, and it suits me just fine.  On the last lap last year, Josh Johnson put an end to my frivolous ideas and I got second.

Imagine my delight today when I realized that Josh had not made the trip to Concordia.  Surely I could win this year?  No.  Even the though the course was even rougher this year, not only did I not win, I couldn't even muster second place.  Good ol' Pete Henry smoked by me in the first 60 seconds of the race and that was that.  And Scott Ogilvie made sure that I didn't get too comfortable in second place, either. 

Anyway, I still really like Concordia, and third place will just have to suffice.  Great race, just beat the rain, what more can I ask for?

Photos from Bubba Cross at Buder

 There was this cool gravel mound on the backside of the course at Buder park Sunday.  This first photo was pretty cool.  Right click and open the photo in a new window and you can see every detail, as it's a BIG photo.  The coolest thing is that my front wheel is actually not touching the ground.

This is obviously NOT a good photo of me, but I think it's hilarious.  Scott Ogilvie is the rider in front here, and he looks like an elf in front of the big, bad TK.  Although he is smaller than me, we are not THAT different in size.  It does illustrate how badly I sit up in the wind on my mountain bike, though.  Sort of looks like David and Goliath.  True to that tale, Scott (David) smoked me (Goliath).

Bubba Cross at Buder

Before today's race at Buder Park, a friend and I were talking about the course.  It didn't really suit my, ahem, "strengths".  I was comparing it to Faust Park in Chesterfield, where I have never done anything except suck (and complain about it).

However, it didn't turn out so badly today.  I was hurting the whole time, and I lost contact with two guys on the last lap.  That aside, I got 8th place and it seemed like I was actually doing some racing rather than just hanging on for the beatings.  No doubt, the long straights killed me, and no doubt Butthead was 1/3 of a lap ahead by the time we were done.  But it could have been worse!

Onward and upward.

My first CD player

The year was 1994.  I bought my first CD player from Circuit City, and my first CD was Stone Temple Pilots.  My second CD was Sinister Dane.  I still use this old thing sometimes in the basement when I'm riding the trainer.  Works like a champ.  Wish modern electronics could last 20 years.  Hell...how about 2 years??

Skate Park Horror Stories

 We took another trip to the little skate park adjacent to the Webster Groves community center.  Hanna wanted to try skateboarding on an ancient little board.  She did a lot of this.  But she's getting better and she has Vans on, so it's all good.

 Eli loves the skate park.  He's the one that gets us all jazzed about going.  He is very good on a bike for 7 years old.  Here, he sits on the box next to the quarter pipe.  It's about 4 feet, maybe 4 1/2 feet tall.

This is where the horror part comes in.  This is a photo of my Redline, sitting on the other side of that quarter pipe box.  Tyson rode the Redline up the quarter, onto the top of the box (which you can plainly see here above my bike) and fell head first off and landed on the ground right where my bike is sitting.  Hanna, Eli, and I watched this from the OTHER side so we just watched Tyson disappear over the edge.  One Mississippi, two Mississippi...Tyson jumps up from behind the box and gives us two huge thumbs up.  That was the longest two seconds I can remember.  He was perfectly fine.  The Redline might need new grips.

Car Watching: 1968 Mustang California Special

Last Sunday I had the pleasure of getting a good look at a pretty special vintage Mustang.  The 1968 California Special was a really just an appearance package, but it was something different from the every day Mustang and now it's highly collectable.  This one may or may not have been an actual GT/CS, but it's pretty convincing despite it's dusty condition.  This one was pretty nice.  I was happy about it the rest of the day!

Eli as Harry Potter again

Just had to share another Harry Potter photo of Eli. 

Car Watching: Viper GTS

A little bit ago, we saw a drop top Viper.  Well, this Viper is the good looking one in the family, the hard top GTS.  This thing is as mean looking as a car can get.  Right click on the photos, as they are bigger that way.