Ride the Rockies Day 3

Day 3: Edwards to Steamboat | 80 miles | Yellow Jacket Pass – 7,428 ft.
Lucian's tent is the middle yellow/grey tent in the center above. He said he slept well last night as he headed out for an 80 mile day.

This shot is at the first rest stop on his way to Steamboat. He is all smiles.

Scenery

He saw lots of ranchers as he headed into Steamboat. He also mentioned you can still see snow on the ski runs. He'll stay at tonight's camp again tomorrow, which will make the morning's departure easier as they don't have to pack everything up.

The route today included a rather large climb, 10 miles long. This shot was taken right before that.

During

During

Cresting the mountain climb today. Lucian described it as an hour plus of excruciating pain. He is looking forward to tomorrow's 50 mile route, although there is a good bit of climbing with that too.

Flying Solo

I've been concentrating my recent posts around Lucian's ride, but here is what we have been up to. On Saturday night, Aunt Mimi hosted a BBQ that we attended with Nana Barb and Papa Joe. They came up to help me a little over the weekend.

Sitting by the fire

And what are summer fires good for? S'mores of course! Claire was a fan.

And so was I

She also sampled an Oreo while playing with a nerf gun

My goal on Sunday was to get our garden weeded and planted for the year. Nana and Papa watched Claire while I went to the nursery in the morning. They then helped me watch her and plant and it all got done! We have tomatoes, basil, thyme, rosemary and sage. And I planted annuals in all our decorative planters around the house. It felt really good to get that accomplished. Thanks mom and dad!

Claire had fun helping out with the planting. She liked wearing gloves and digging in the flower pots.

So far things are going pretty smooth this week. Tonight we met Sydney (and Amanda) out for dinner. The girls shared some mac and cheese.

We also got some frozen yogurt.

Claire was brushing her own hair tonight after her bath. She hates it when I do it lately.

Rockies Update 2

Day 2: Buena Vista to Edwards | 76 miles | Tennessee Pass – 10,424 ft. & Battle Mountain

Lucian said he slept much better last night and was happy with his decision to stay away from camp. Here is a photo of the cabin where he stayed. Looks pretty peaceful to me.

I spoke with Lucian briefly tonight. This will mostly be a picture post, I don't know that much about the route. They battled some high winds while riding today and long inclines that were pretty brutal. He made it through and was heading to an Italian place to get a pasta dinner this evening. He is counting on it getting easier around day 4, so everyone cross your fingers for that. So far, this ride has been quite a test of endurance.

An opera house in Leadville, where Lucian stopped for a latte and sandwich (the town, not the opera house;).

Group photo at one of the stops

A bridge

The view from the bridge

The guys at Tennessee Pass

Welcome to Ride the Rockies

I dropped Lucian off at the Airport around 7:30am Saturday morning. He flew into Denver and met up with his crew to transport them to Crested Butte, around a 4 hour drive. Lucian's friend's parents provided a truck and car to get the guys and their stuff there.

Packing up at the Denver airport

Registration was Saturday and camping commenced as well.

You have to slightly disassemble a bike to put it in a shipping box. Here's Lucian testing out his ride after reattaching the wheels, seat and handlebars.

Attaching his number. I think it says #1282.

Camp the first night

Lucian said it was cold and loud overnight and he didn't get much sleep. Unfortunately, day 1 of riding is one of the toughest. It's Crested Butte to Buena Vista, 76 miles through Cottonwood Pass – 12,126 ft. He said his tent was covered in frost in the morning. Here is his tent broken down and remnants of the coffee and oatmeal he packed rather than pay for breakfast.

Lucian's bike was locked to his buddy's, who happened to stay in a hotel the fist night. Here's Lucian waiting for Chris to arrive so they can unlock and get going.
Day 1 consists of a 14 mile stretch of gravel road. Sounds pretty difficult on a road bike, but Lucian didn't report any issues. Cottonwood Pass is one of the snowy peaks behind the guys in this shot. They rode to those peaks and, then up and over.
I read online that this is the most snow Cottonwood Pass has seen along the road for early June. It is only open to vehicles in the summer.

I spoke to Lucian tonight and he said today's ride was the hardest he's ever done. He was lucky enough to meet up with his mom (Nana Kathleen as some readers may know her:) at a cabin next to some hot springs. He was treated to a nice soak and dinner and decided to stay there overnight. He figured he'd sleep better next to a rushing river rather than 2,000 tents. I hope it works, tomorrow is a big day as well!

Tree Drama

Last Wed. night there was a decent storm that rolled through our area with high winds we noticed as we were finishing up dinner. We went to bed later that evening and half asleep, I heard a distinctive crack, crack, swoosh. We have some trees on the side of our house we have been concerned about falling. I knew exactly what it was.

The kicker is that after buying our minivan last weekend, we've been parking my old Honda Accord at the foot of the driveway... near these trees (Spencer will drive it starting in Aug.). I got out of bed and looked out the window to see a large branch had fallen. On the car.

We went outside in the rain, thunder and lightning, moved the car up the driveway out from under the branches and called the police, since it was lying across the road. Two cars came to access the situation. They put their lights on and called public works to come and clear the street. This is all happening a little after 11pm, mind you. They told us we could go back to bed.

Around 1am a tree crew, chainsaws and all, arrived to clear the road. I hadn't been sound asleep prior to that with my adrenaline going and listening for a car to run into the limb or the trucks to arrive.

The fallen branch

The next morning a crew arrived and told us the trees technically belong to the city because of how close they are to the creek. They would remove the remaining tree and one with a cracked trunk next to it. We still need to investigate if they will pay for the car repair as well. The trunk and side was dented from the falling branch, but not terribly.

Anyway, this was the scene at our house the past week. Never a dull moment, right?

Thursday evening. The crew's shredder was broken so they left all this.

But came back Friday morning to collect the remaining debris.

Our new view. Supposedly, they will be back to remove the rest of the trunks and grind down the stumps. We'll see.

Beautiful Weekend

The weekend started out a little rough for Claire. She was running a fever Friday evening after getting picked up from daycare and basically snuggled all night until going to bed. I was worried about a rough weekend ahead, but she seemed to bounce back Sat.

After a light morning nap Sat. (I needed it) Claire was crying and crying and asking to go in the car. So I put her in the car and went to get an oil change. I decided to run to the mall and get an iced coffee after that and to our surprise, there were safety days going on with fire trucks and ambulances and a dive team on display. Claire liked exploring all the trucks, but was shy and didn't want to sit in any of them. It was a perfect surprise.

I took both kids for a haircut in the early afternoon. Claire did okay. I'm glad I don't attempt that myself anymore. I'm sure it would look terrible with how much she moves around.

Saturday afternoon we headed to the Chicago suburbs to purchase a new car. Spencer will get his license in August and with much discussion we finally settled on the fact that a minivan would suit our needs best. Car seats take up a heck of a lot of room and with an adult sized child riding along side it, neither of our cars were very accommodating. After about a month of shopping we found one we liked and managed to get there before it was sold.

After an hour and a half commute, another hour and a half of test driving, paper work and no nap for Claire, she lost it. While trying to discuss final terms, her screaming became too much and we walked out of the dealership. The manager, sales rep and loan officer all followed us out to the parking lot asking if they did anything wrong and what they could do to fix it. In the end, they agreed to the price we were asking, lowered the interest rate and got those last steps done in about 5 minutes. Although we are happy with the end result, what a stressful process! I don't want to do that again anytime soon. And now I know to plan for a sitter... although we have Claire to thank for our final negotiating.

Sunday was an absolutely beautiful day. Lucian washed his bike and we ran a few last minute errands for his big ride next week. Claire was very eager to help with the washing.

I changed her into a swim shirt, but she wouldn't go barefoot and got her mary jane's sopping wet. We picked up a pair of "crocs" and water slippers at Target later while she napped.