3 Weeks and Counting!

Cece saw the team off this am and pumped up Yun's tires (this woman thinks that tires do not need pumping!).  Everyone said that they wish Cece would pump their tires up too!  Then, she sent off the team  with well wishes.

She came home and looked at her calendar!  Only 3 more weeks until her vacation to Moab to ride the Moab Century Tour!  Wow!  It has come upon  her very quickly!  She is going with a few friends and they will ride the rolling 73 miles course.    Here are some beautiful pics of what she has in store for her ride!  The pic below is called the Stairway to  Heaven and Cece hopes it is not on her ride profile!  LOL. 

Jeff at High Desert is going to give Cece a list and locations of some of his favorite haunts in Moab..  She hopes they will include some spots for great music!  Knowing Jeff, the blues artist, they will.  Lots of pics and funny stories will be coming you way in a few weeks....in the meanwhile, the training keeps happening! 

Also, stay tuned for a ride report from Stephanie.  She has just completed her 35 mile uphill race to the sun in Hawaii.  There was 10,000 feet of elevation gain and she made it with grace...although she may tell it another way!  We will see!  Stay tuned...probably on The Two Whos.

Fingers,Coyotes and Falling Tree Limbs! OH MY!

It was Cece's pleasure to cycle with Barb early this morning! They have known each other for several years by now... Cece considers her a good friend...that is..... until this morning!

The hill that you see below is called "Blue Sky" and is deceiving! It is one of the "fingers" in Corrales.  It is a mile long climb that winds around  turning  this way and that and than it  hitches up  to a 9% grade.  Then from the left side of this pic it goes up even further to 17.5% grade. Cece took this climb out of the route due to the steep grade at the end.   But, it went back in when the first hill they climbed was no more than a little gulp of an uphill that could easily be navigated at 13mph! However, there was more to be navigated on this climb up Blue Sky than the terrain....and this is where the friendship got a little iffy!  Cece was riding uphill ahead of Barb.... which is unusual in and of itself...when all of a sudden a coyote was seen by Cece up ahead. There was no way Cece wanted that to cross her path....Cece has seen many coyotes both in the male human and canine varieties.....and she did not want it crossing her path. She was a ways off from the coyote and watched it go back into the shrubs on the side of the foothills. Cece cycled on and poured on the power because she wanted to hurry up and get up this darned hill before she started to curse. Meanwhile, Barb was way back and out of view when Cece would turn and look and wonder where she was. So now here is where the friendship gets iffy. Later, Cece asked Barb, 'Why were you so far back on that hill?" She replied, "I was going slow and hanging back to see if the coyote would jump out at you and bite at your ankles!" This is friendship? Letting her friend take a hit from a coyote? Imagine!

Anyway, with lots of grace under fire, Barb made it up the 17.5 percent grade to the top.  Cece did not even try because her heart rate was already at 168.  Enough is enough!  

After our climbing adventure was over and we were cycling back to our parked vehicles, we rode into the Flying Star parking lot.  We saw a man in a tree and one on the ground.  The one on the ground was waving furiously at us. It took us a moment to realize that  the one in the tree was just about to make the final cut in a tree limb he was cutting down.  We stopped dead in our tracks.  The man did not make the cut.  The man on the ground waved us through.  As we looked back, we heard the chain saw and heard the crack of the limb go down...a close call.  Who knew to look for that type of road hazard?

It was a brisk morning and both women wore their "sleeves" this am.  Cece thought about how quickly the temperature changes here in  New Mexico. It seems like mid to end of August comes and it is already fall-like weather.  And even though they had a coyote sighting, a tree almost fell on them and Cece was almost served up for coyote food, Barb and Cece's friendship thrived despite it all!