Heber Valley Metric Century

My heart was swelling with joy on my descent from the Jordanelle look out, back down into Heber. The hard climbs were finally over, and it was all down hill.

And as the air whipped all around me, and I soared past all the breath-taking reds, oranges, yellows up in Heber Valley, knowing I had conquered those giant hills, not wanting to be anywhere else, enjoying the fullness of September and all her glory... this song is what was on my lips:

Horrocks Team - Tour de Cure

Dear loyal friends and readers of this blog:

I hate asking for money, but I really want to do this ride with my work's team in this tour - that means I personally have to raise $150 dollars. So I plead with you to reach into your pockets and pull out your debit/credit cards and click over to my donating page.

Here is my page you can donate at: CLICKY THIS

Here is my team page you can see the Horrocks Team joint-effort progress: CLICKY HERE

I have 25 days to the ride. Google reader says I have 66 readers - if all 66 of you donate $2.27 I will have reached my goal.

Please remember my dad in your donations, and my poor uncle ron. No, they are not brothers - but they are equally handsome fit men who both suffer from this pancreatic disease. Think of years to come when they will go blind or loose limbs - unless we find a cure. Or worse yet, think of all the ridicule they must suffer at our family get-togethers where we make fun of them for having this disease.

Thank you.

PS. Here is a picture of my Dad.




















*post edit*
I just realized that the donations amount has a minimum of 5$ - so lame. If you want to give me $2.27, or just your pocket change, I will happily accept it and make sure it gets into the funds.

*POST POST EDIT*
wow, I am already blown away that people are donating. Thank you everyone!

ATT: Provo Friends

I follow this site: www.bikeprovo.org

And look what they have going on next week:

I love community bike stuff like this.

Good Bye Bike Trainer, Hello Road!

Finally! Day light savings!

I'll miss dark evenings and this sight in my bedroom - my bike ready to be ridden at any time. Makes my heart happy to see it looking so eager to be used on that trainer.

But don't worry, I am going to put this daylight we will be saving up to good use. I hope to master all these hills in Edgemont this summer on that bike.

Spark Your Lighters, Wave Them Around

Saturday night I found myself next to a roaring fire with a view of the valley's pulsing lights below, and a view of heaven's twinkling lights above. It was just what was needed, as this picture above depicts how I felt after a crazy filled weekend.  I felt like a cow. A cow in the herd, being herded from event to event.

It was wonderful. A wonderfully wild weekend.

Starting Thursday with Greg's sweaty little Girl Talk set. Which was magical, to say the least. Maxxxxx took these picture below because he got to be on stage!!!!

freak! this last picture I like, it's when Max took over for Greg, and everyone was pumping an X - because he was so much better than girl talk. Okay, that was a lie. But if you need proof of how awesome this is, that max was on stage dancing... please make your way over to my sister's blog - she has a youtube video posted.

After the girl talk crowds and crazies, we went and saw inception at midnight. Because I love me a good midnight showing, to feel they hype and enjoy a good packed theatre.

Friday, I worked for 2 hours, than sped up to SLC. Parked my car. Was herded through the lines of the Lion House Pantry (which was packed), to have lunch with Mark. Skipped across the street after shoveling the food in (and talking business) and joined a crowd of weird, red-blooded patriots at Desert Book, to have my book signed by Mr. Glenn Beck. The line was forever long, but I only had to wait for like 2 hours - and was 12th in line to see him. My friend had been in line since 9am, talk about dedication, crazy boy!   Here's a poor picture I took after I got out of desert book, and was headed back to my car. The line goes all around that corner, and all the way down the street.

But I got to shake his hand! Glenn Becks hand! And stare into his eyes! I was pretty star-struck... if you click on this link you can see me, I made the news... it's like seconds 11 and 12.
Don't blink when you watch that. Pretty exciting, I know.

From the book signing midst, a quick fresh'n up, throwing on a dress, I found myself in my family's midst. One of my favorite cousins, Tyler Whitney, had his wedding 'p'reception Friday night. The Guymon backyard was packed, and the line was too long for me to stand in. So I just sat with my big extended family, and let them oooh and ahh over my recent brush with Glenny B. The Guymons and Standifirds have lived in Highland for billions of years, and both have tons of kids... so I think everyone from the stake came. It was a big fun mess of people.

The morning came quickly, at 6:30, when I had to wake up to get these fellows to the races:

Don't they look great? Tour de Donut is such a funny race. Ben and Nate were american hero's showing up like that to a bike race. And as I was trying to get them signed up, and before they biked up, the actual tour de donut dude recognized me from the 2008 race "hey, weren't you the indian?".. made my whole day. Can't wait till next year.
I didn't stick around the race too long, just long enough to remember how hot 21 miles is in burlap on a bike, and to be grateful I had a wedding to get to.

The temple was packed packed packed with weddings. So many people, so many bridesmaids, so many little children running around wearing yellow. And it was hot. Too hot.

I was glad to go home, relax.. take andie for a drive up the canyon, jam some bloc party, while munching on blue lemon's sweet potato fries, to catch some peace and pinetrees:

felt good.

Felt real good to not be herded around for the rest of the night.

Just sit around a fire, and let the tin foil dinners get cooked.

peace and pinetrees, whit.

Lindon Boat Harbor

oh lindon boat harbor and vineyard lane, you never fail to make me a little creeped out.

I completed my 100 miles to nowhere race on saturday. And it was weird. Weird to bike so much. Weird how my body just did it. I wanted to give up so many times and just go home, because I felt like it was the stupidest thing ever, and it didn't feel worth all the pain my body was going through.

7 hours on a bike.

The last 70 miles were awful. The last 10 were hell. The last mile was pathetic.

But I couldn't have picked a better day to do it. And I am glad I decided to do my "100 miles to nowhere" in such a pretty spot. It's funny how being down by utah lake makes you feel like you are in a different state all together. The day was nice, cool, a little breezy, and lots of sunshine. As I looped and looped the day away I caught sight of a million different kinds of birds, ate a handful of bugs, stared down the gay men creeping out the south end of the trail, and watched boaters, sailors, and picnickers come and go.

Lindon boat harbor is a wonder. I like the trail they put up there, but I wish it was longer. And I wish that you could still drive trucks down to the beach.

I love all the old geneva steel remnants. The weird cooling ponds, pipes, and train tracks are fascinating to me. Them, and the 3-eyed carp that float up to wave at me as I bike by, are all little reminders of how wonderful geneva steel used to be.

I'm glad that bike race is over. I probably won't ever do that again, at least not until I actually own a road bike. I love my fixie, and biking to work and back on it is perfect.

Once the 100th mile was over I drove over to purple turtle to get a burger. The thought of their burgers was the only thing that kept me going:

saturday morning in ferron utah

I went out on my bike, to bike ferron. 

But there is not a lot of ferron to bike.

I crossed state street, and didn't even know it.

In 15 miles I saw a lot of dogs, desert and deer.

And crossing that gad dang cattle gaurd scared me to death.

100 Miles To Nowhere

I signed up for the 100 miles to nowhere bike ride .

What does that mean? It means you literally will bike 100 miles to nowhere. Some people bike it on trainers at home, but I will be doing it around my neighborhood. I might even set up cones.

So on May 8th, if you are wondering why I am circling the block for 8 hrs straight on my fixie... you'll know what is up. And maybe you will stand out on your lawn and hand me some gatorade.

I think it would be fun to do it with a bunch of people.. and you could play tag or follow the leader. I got a computer for my bike (finally) so that I won't have to count the laps (all 200 of them)... that way if I get dizzy I can just go the other way.

Bike Time

Tandem Pedals

Max needs the tandem up and running so I got it out to work on tonight. For some reason trying to get those pedals perfect aggravates me to the core! And I will probably end up doing it all over again because the tire inner tube needs to be replaced, and there is no easy way to replace that.. you basically have to take the whole bike apart.

Max thinks that the pedals need to be going synchronized. Andie thinks that they need to be going opposite so that the ride is more energy-efficient. I read in my bike maintenance book (which I got at barnes and noble for 99 cents) that opposite pedals do help for a smoother ride but that it doesn't really matter. I think I'll end up putting them synchronized this time because there are so many big-footed people riding it, and with opposite pedals their feet collide with the other passengers. Plus, it really does look cooler when the pedals are in sync... it's just hard to do, and I demand perfection!

The whole bike needs to be tuned up! And maybe a paint job... but that scares me. I would love to get good at painting bikes. Maybe after I practice painting the one for Natalie I will paint my beach cruiser a different color, because I have always hated the sea-foam green. ew.

Mash San Fran

I like this movie.

My Bike Doesn't Have This Feature

Tree Fort Cube

This is my work spot. I like it. 

But REALLY what I like about it is -  imagining it is my own tree fort that I hide out in, high up in some shady trees, surrounded by big leafy branches. Being up on the top floor of the building, with cubicle walls I can't see over as I work, makes this easy to imagine. Sometimes work feels like a game to me, or that I'm playing pretend. Especially when I ride my bike to work. Riding my bike always brings out the kid in me. 

I love my bike route to work. I pass golf courses, the high school, big green feilds, the temple, old weird houses, the hospital, spanky's diner, and the last stretch is a long smooth road that hardly anyone drives down that has horse pastures, big trees, and little streams to look at. Then I am at work up in my secret tree fort. 

My job includes making secret maps and drawings, listening to music, and drinking soda.

I built countless forts and huts as a child romping around the un-developed neighborhood and gully by our house. I loved having my own little space I could be in, carved out of nature. Some of the huts we constructed were intricate, everyone with their own rooms, pathways connecting other huts, secret entrances, and on the inside there were shelves and hidden holes to burry our important stuff. Stuff being rocks and junk found at that weird little junk yard.

I don't think I realized how lucky we had it, having that gully right there to play in. Sad to think that some kids don't get to make forts and huts and run around wild like that.

I remember being so tired after working in my hut all day. Doing more manual labor than I would ever do at any paying job. I would lift big rocks, move logs, cut down brush... totally worth it. Then at night I would dream of other bigger huts I could make, and hide out in. I would draw the layout in my mind, and figure out all the engineering that would have to take place as I drifted off to sleep...  that was the life.

I miss those days. I also miss the days when we didn't have bike racks here at work, so I would have to take my bike with me up the elevator to my cubicle. Now my bike stays downstairs.

Super Bike For Natalie

This is the dumpster orphan bike that Amanda found behind her Dad's work. I love the basket on it, and everything else about the bike. What a treasure, can't believe it was free. It's a REAL fixer upper, but I am determined to get it in working condition again, and then give it to Natalie, because Natalie needs a bike so badly. And this one is screaming, "Perkins ride me already!"

Anyways, I noticed today when I got it down to tinker on it that it had a super man tag on the basket (do you see it?). And I can't remember if that was on it when we found it, if not than someone just wandered in my garage and hooked it on. Either way, COOL!!!! This bike is going to be a SUPER bike, and I can't wait.

*sigh*

so this is love.

You want me to go biking/camping with you in Mexico?

sounds lovely, I'm in.
(+++)

Transylvania Bike Tour

I just found this biking tour which goes through the most beautiful places in Romania.

Sighisoara, sinia, saxon villiages, brasov, castles... places I haven't even heard of, most I haven't even been to. One of my favorite memories of Romania is standing at the train's window and watching the beatuiful country go rolling by. I love romania country. Seven days out exploring it on a bike sounds breath-taking. I want to go so bad it makes my heart hurt.   next summer.

(link to trip details)

Bikes and Letterpress

I love letterpress. I think it's simplicity makes it the most gorgeous art out there, and I would like to learn how to do it one day. Until that day comes, I will just continue to drool over the ones I find online and can't afford.

I found these last night on Etsy:

wouldn't you love if this was waiting on your bike when you returned to it? I would absolutely die! I think it's the cutest idea. Bikes and letterpress... it doesn't get much cooler than that.

links: bike crush and bike tag

Kids In America

Walmart Is In Town

Took this picture on my bike ride from lunch to work this afternoon. 

Today is the grand opening of the new Wal-Mart in Cedar Hills. I used to be pist that the walmart was coming, now there is nothing I can do about it. Now it's here.

But I've decided to embrace it. Staring at it today, with those american flags flying all around its'  parking lot, I thought it stood as a symbol of freedom. Sure, I hate Wal-Mart for a growing number of reasons, but isn't capitalism wonderful? Isn't democracy fantastic?

I am proud to be part of a country that gives you the freedom to be whoever you want, believe whatever you want, and to pretty much do whatever you want. Cedar Hills put it to the vote, and that was that. They voted yes to crazy traffic, yes to high school kids being hit by cars as they cross busy streets during lunch (I almost hit one today, actually), yes to poor service, yes to minimum wage, yes to not keeping the sabbath day holy, and yes to selling beer. YES! And in a country where that is your liberty, I am proud. Cedar Hills has the freedom to be as stupid as they like, and I think that is grand.

Here's to Wal-Mart for living The American Dream!

(it's just helping the biking world out, now I may never have to drive again)