Hillside Road Race and School

Alisha says: I talked Dave into going to probably my last road race of the season last weekend. He was a little reluctant to go because he was starting school on Monday and already had a huge stack of papers to read but after a little pleading and telling him I would drive so that he could study he finally agreed to make the journey with me. The race was in a tiny town about four hours away from Tucson. We left on Saturday and stopped in Chandler to see Christine and Parker's new house which is really nice. We then continued to the cool town of Prescott and found some questionable (although free) camping for the night.

In the morning there was a slight drizzle. I was hoping it would hold off for the race which it did and we had a nice cloud cover which blocked the sun but resulted in humid conditions. It was a really fun and challenging out and back course with lots of rollers and climbing. The group mostly stuck together and there were some good attacks thrown in but nothing that stuck. About nine miles from the finish I attacked the group and soloed in for the win. Just for fun I decided to try for the first time ever a two handed victory. I was so focused that I forgot to zip up my jersey, oh well, someday I'll get it all together :)

Dave says: My first week as a Ph.D. student was both busy and exciting. I already had a bunch of homework for the first day of class and my classes all have between 4 and 8 people in them so you've got to know what's going on. However, they are all going to be really great classes and I am learning a lot. The faculty and the other students are outstanding and the program is excellent. In addition to my classes, I'll be spending my time working on research projects with faculty members.

I've been waking up at 5:30 every morning since we moved here and I am not a morning person. It has been great for riding but it makes me pretty tired in the evenings. The trip up to Prescott was a fun one. The night before the race I was reading articles in the tent using a wind up flashlight that I would turn between pages. I finished in 8th which is ok but I feel like my form is coming back after a summer without much racing.

We have been enjoying some great group rides. The Tuesday Gates Pass ride and the Shootout are super fast. Yesterday we went up Mt. Lemmon with the Toussaints and the local Cactus Cycling Club. There is a kid named Tulio who is 14 and who flies up the mountain dropping almost everyone. He is already placing well against racers twice his age and he is going to be a future star.

Last but not least, we made it out to the Desert Museum for the last night of the summer program with my grandparents. We attended a presentation on beetles and saw a good number of crunchy little friends on display.

Tucson

Dave says: It's been a busy couple of weeks for us. Before I even started boxing up things for the move, I had to tackle the Utah bar exam which is quite the long and painful test. It involved two full days of testing (a day of essays and a day of multiple choice) that was easily the hardest and most punishing exam that I have ever taken. Many of my classmates were completely freaked out by taking a test that could crush their future job prospects for the immediate future (and which a significant percentage of applicants fail).

Once the bar was over, I could finally turn my attention to the move. I was really trying for the illusory stress-free move that feels like a vacation except with all of your stuff coming along. We would go riding every morning, pack boxes for a few hours, and then do something fun for the rest of the day. We used up some gift certificates to various Salt Lake restaurants, went to the movie Inception, and went through the Salt Lake temple one last time. We also did some of our favorite rides including the very fun loop from Park City around Chalk Creek and East Canyon. Alisha was flying up the back side of East Canyon at an unconcionable pace but my form is coming along and I was able to barely hang on.

My strategy for the move was to fill the back room of our house with boxes as we loaded them so we could pull the trailer to the end of the driveway and walk the boxes right out. The excitement for the move was actually trying to fit everything into my parents' big grey van and a UHaul trailer. In the end, I had all the vehicles loaded so full that you could only open the driver's side door. Our Christmas tree and dining room table and chairs were casualties of the move as there was simply no room to fit them in the end.

The van has no working a/c and the trailer was loaded down so much in the back end that it started to wobble above 55 mph. It took 5 hours to get to Cedar City and I spent much of the drive dumping water from the ice chest on myself to keep cool. My parents had my little red car in Cedar and we reloaded a lot of stuff from the back of the trailer into it. My dad was a huge help and left the next morning with the van at 5 am to make it down to Arizona before it got really hot. Alisha and I made good time driving our cars and arrived at my grandparents' home in Tucson around dinner time on the 4th.

The next big challenge was that the guest house where we are now living was used by my grandparents for storage for the last 25 years. Before we could move anything in, we had to move everything out. We spent the next week installing some appliances, painting the place, shampooing the carpets, putting back up the ceeling, and trying to decide how to fit all the stuff we had in a three bedroom house into our new one bedroom flat.

We knew we were super spoiled to have such a nice place to live in SLC but now we really know! However, we are spoiled here in some different ways that we are enjoying. It is fun to hang out with my grandparents and I have been having blueberries on my cereal every morning and drinking lots of orange juice out of their fridge. We have been swimming in their giant pool almost every day and we have gone with them to programs at the Desert Museum for the past two weeks. Last week's program involved a live rattlesnake and gila monster. This week we had hawks, ravens, and owls that flew around the room and zipped right over your head. We also looked for scoprions with a black light which Alisha had never done before. They glow bright green in the dark.

Tucson also has some fantastic cycling. We have ridden a dozen different routes and still haven't done all the good rides in this area. Last weekend we rode up Mt. Lemmon with the Toussaints. The sheer length of the climb (25 miles) is impressive and you go from cactus to pine trees pretty quickly. On Monday we had dinner with the Toussaints and had a great time. Roberta is quite the talented cook. Yesterday we did the Shootout which is the local ride that rolls like a race. Today we rode up through the foothills to Rancho Vistoso. The ride goes into the ritzy part of town with glossy pavement and nice houses.

I have one more week off before school starts to get settled. I'm sure things will be quite busy once it does but I am excited for my program.

Alisha says: Since arriving in Arizona we have turned into early birds, waking up early and leaving on our rides before 6 am in order to try and beat the heat (today it is 105 degrees). I generally consider myself a morning person but not so for my sweet husband, but he has been doing really well with our new schedule. He also didn't want his picture taken in the pool and was even more unhappy when I put it in this post. We have been on some great rides my favorite being Mt. Lemmon. It is a awesome 25 mile climb!

There is one thing that I really don't like about Tucson and that is cockroaches!! I think they are absolutly disgusting and make Dave kill the few that we have seen.