Tyson and the Masi

Even though Tyson is a very good mountain biker, he seems to have a thing for road bikes.  After he rode his first Junior Criterium, he's been wanting one.  Not in the budget, but with a generous gesture from friends Tyson is riding a very storied bike.  Thank you, he loves it.

Eli at the skate park

Eli has been bugging us to take he and his bike to the little skate park at the Webster Community Center since he saw kids riding there on the 4th of July.  So today, being an absolutely stellar day, was the day.  He was zooming around on the metal structures and he really liked it.  I was sweating it a bit, but he never fell and he did pretty good.  There is another skate park at Silvan Springs that I want to take him to next time.

Don't know why the photos turned out so crazy weird. 

Vans - What's Old is New

Apparently, Vans shoes are a hot item again.  I'm always taken back to 1980 when I got my first pair for bmx racing.  There were so many crazy designs to choose from, but I usually chose basic black.  Today, there are exponentially more choices, some of which have Marvel characters on them as well as Hello Kitty.  Today we were shopping for Hanna a new pair....thirty five years later.  Who would have thought?

Car Watching Again

Again, Chesterfield Valley comes through with a great oldie.  This time, the second generation Ford Ranchero caught my eye.  This is the most tidy of the Ranchero body styles, from 1960 to 1965.  I just love this little thing.  Wish I would have had a chance to look inside, but I felt the owner was giving me the evil eye as I was photographing it.

Chesterfield...it's good for car watchers

 I wish I had my phone ready to take photos all of the time.  It's amazing how many cool cars come through Chesterfield every day.  Take this second generation Corvette (a C2, as 'vette people say).  It's one of my favorites.

But this is the view that blows my mind with this one.  Is there a more beautiful rear end on a car?  Ever?  Well, that's up for debate, but this has to be in the top ten.

LaVista 'Cross race goes well

Thanks to Mike Dawson for the fabulous photo from LaVista!

Last year, I gushed about how well-suited the LaVista course was for my...ahem...strengths.  LaVista is a permanent 'cross course in Godfrey, Illinois.  It's a course with short straights, many corners, and lots of ways to get out of sight.  Last year I raced in the open class with the fast guys and got third.

This year, continuing my reality training, I raced with the masters.  Since the master's race starts one minute behind the Open field, I figured I could race guys my age and still see how close I could come to competing with the faster, younger crowd.  It worked out pretty well, as I was able to get a pretty good lead on the old guys and move up a bit into the Open field.  But only just.   I caught just a few of the Open guys, and it looked like I would have gotten a whoopin' from at least 5 of guys leading that race.

Oh well.  Even though the course was bumpy, I still consider it a must-do on the race calendar.  And the barriers were perfect for bunny hopping!

Onward and upward.

Hermann Cyclocross Race!

I have taken some real beatings at the Hermann cyclocross races over the last 5+ years.  There have been some good races there, for sure.  But I don't often come home excited about my placing.

Tonight, I raced the Masters 40+ class instead of the Pro/1/2.  And I won.  Go figure.  As much as I wish that I could compete for the win in a faster P12 race like Hermann, it's much more realistic for me to just admit that I'm not that good and race with guys like me.  It was fun, it was a really competitive race, and I loved it.

Love the city of Hermann, and I really love this race.  I'm very happy that I was finally able to put together a nice podium finish to round out my enthusiasm for the event.

I can barely contain my enthusiasm for my night as I stood on the podium with the leader's jersey on.  Hanna, the horns are for you!  I gave the leader's jersey back because I'm not racing tomorrow's event.  It was perfect just to wear one for once in my life.

Tyson's First Junior Race on The Hill

 Tyson, second from right, with black jersey and my blue and silver helmet

After 8 years of doing the short sprint races at the Gateway Cup, Tyson finished his first actual Juniors race today.  On a borrowed road bike (and using my helmet), he experienced a real deal crit on the Hill.  There were 20 or so juniors, ranging in age from 11 to 16.  His race lasted 20+ minutes, and he hung in there.  Best of all, he LOVED it.  That's the part I can't believe.  Looks like I'll dip into his college savings for a road bike.....  :)

Eli and Tyson Tear it up at St. Francis Park

The first video shows Eli winning his race at St. Francis park today.  It's a little closer today than yesterday's race.  You can see him on the right side of the screen.  The second video shows Tyson winning his race.  That's a little surprising since he hasn't been doing any racing this year.  Both of them did extremely well and I'm very proud that they braved the heat today.  Way to go, boys!!

Eli is SMOKIN' !!!

The ever-stylish Eli, posing for a pre-race photo.  He's only 7 years old, but his kids class at the Gateway Cup is 7-8.  He absolutely smoked the race, having at least a 50 yard gap at the finish line.  His jersey was unzipped because it was 99 degrees at race time.  He zipped it up for his race. Very proud of him carrying on the tradition of Hanna and Tyson.

And speaking of Hanna...I guess you know that she can't resist a good photo bomb?

Cape Girardeau Mountain Bike Race

This was the fifth year for the Cape Girardeau race at the "new" location.  Prior to 2009, it was in another location inside the city of Cape.  That one was a sweaty mess, and apparently Mother Nature didn't like it and consistently sent her wrath on race day with 101% humidity to go along with the dense foliage.  The change to this venue was literally like a breath of fresh air.  It's a very open design, with roller-coaster like action and non-stop fun.  The first photo is from the first lap on "the hill", where countless buffoons spend the entire race trying to get the racers attention.  I am seen emerging from a massive smoke bomb, one of the more annoying and acrid way of showcasing the race.

Late in the race, Sam Moore and Brad Brown join me in wondering how a 16 year old kid could mash our souls so badly and so quickly.  Anyway, I ended up 4th.  Great weather, great course, and even a thunderstorm after the race was over couldn't turn this into a bad day. 

Thanks to Zach Young for taking great photos at the race!!!!

CX Bike

Almost ready.  I'm going to experiment with more tire sizes this year.  These are 40c's, about 13c's smaller than the smallest tires I races last year.  It weighs 19 pounds on the nose.

Kids love the Apple Store

 The Apple store is one of those places that the kids will never, ever avoid going.  There is always something to do there.  The beautiful Mrs K had trouble with the iPad and had to have it switched out...free of charge, thanks very much.

Eli found a few of the devices with Minecraft installed on them.  Naturally, he didn't look up for about half an hour.

Proud Dad with Mountain Biking Kids

Last Sunday, Deanna and I took Eli to Cliff Cave for some mountain biking fun.  He did great.  Yesterday, I had a golden opportunity to take all of them.

Tyson is already a great bike rider and has done a few of the kids mountain bike races.  Of course, he did very well.  Hanna has always done well in the kids road races at the various criteriums around town, but has never taken well to riding in the dirt.

Sunday was awesome.  Tyson led Hanna for a long lap through almost all of the trails there while I led Eli.  It was really a great combination.  I took Tyson alone with me on a hot lap, in which he did exceptionally well, and then I took a lap by myself.  No falls, no complaining, just a lot of fun.  I am so proud of them for getting along and having fun, even though they are at very different levels.  We even stopped at QT on the way home for snacks.

A few eagle eyed readers will notice some of the familiar hardware in the photo.  Hanna is aboard the red Homegrown, Tyson is riding the blue Homegrown (with clipless shoes and pedals!), and Eli is straddling Hanna's old 24" Trek FX.  We believe in hand-me-downs here at the Kakouris residence!

Rex is an Amalgamation

 When I walked into our bedroom the other night, I shook my head and laughed.  Yes, that is an expensive comforter that has been gutted.  And it's very, very obvious what happened.  But, I was reminded of the photo below.

This was Rosco in 1999.  He, too, had a habit of pulling the stuffing out of anything that had it.  Stuffed animals, pillows, blankets, you name it.  The photo with Rosco is a little more dramatic...small, dark haired dog sitting in the middle of a pile of stuffing.  But Rex is no slouch.  He has found stuffing where I did not know it existed.  And when I found Rex, he was sleeping hard, as if disemboweling the comforter took up his day's worth of power.

That's one of the funny things about Rex.  He possesses traits from all of our previous dogs.  He is unimaginably frustrating, unimaginably destructive, incredibly loud, such a bull in a glass store.  And we love him.