The Big Summer Trip

Dave says: Alisha and I recently returned from our big summer trip. While Alisha was off racing the Tour de Toona, I traveled up to Cedar City to see Daniel get his Eagle Scout and to compete in the 100K Fire Road Race. It was fun to do a mtb race as it has been awhile and the course up in the mountains outside of Cedar City was epic. Quite a few people came from out of state and I imagine that this event will grow a lot in coming years. I took second overall which was one of my best finishes for the year.

I picked up Alisha in Las Vegas and we started our drive up through California en route to Bend, Oregon. We stayed a few days with some very nice friends of Alisha's in Santa Rosa. Santa Rosa has some amazing rides through vineyards and beautiful forests on small roads. Yet even in July it was often cold and foggy.

However, Santa Rosa wasn't nearly as cold as Crater Lake where we camped next to a giant mound of snow in a campground that was only half open so far for the year due to record snow levels. This high-altitude lake in the crater of an old volcano is very beautiful and is only a short drive from Bend.

After a week on the road, we reached Bend in time for the Cascade Classic. Alisha was in a long breakaway on Stage 1 and helped her teammate take the yellow jersey. Unfortunately, the team couldn't hold it for the rest of the week.

I did the Cat 2 race with Andre and Michael. Though we couldn't pull out any amazing results we had a fun time and rode hard in a huge Cat 2 field. I also was the official babysitter for Alisha's team. Her director Giana's son Sawyer is two years old and has a lot of energy. I entertained him quite a bit while Giana was busy with the race.

The final week of our trip took us back through Utah to see family. We stayed with Richard, Brittney, & Arley in SLC, with Devin, Amber, Quinn, and Owen in Price, and with Wayne, Debbie, Shane, Mandy, Brody, and Elsie in Cedar City. There are a lot of cute little tots in the family right now. It was also our ten year high school reunion and we saw many of our high school friends (and kids) at a lunch at canyon park followed by a dinner later in the evening. We also helped my parents get ready for their upcoming move to Phoenix. After a busy month of July on the road, we finally repacked the Mazda5 to the roof with 3 bikes, camping gear, and all our other stuff and drove back to Tucson.