Season Ender

We had our church's 25th anniversary friday night on one of those paddle boats on the St.Croix out of Stillwater.Alot of people showed up that I wasn't expecting.People I haven't seen in years.My family has been going to the Miracle Centre in South St.Paul for about 23-24 of those years.Jefferson Christian School which me and Sam attended K-12 was connected with the church.We only lived about half a mile away when I lived in So.St.Paul.My mom worked at the school doing janitorial work and when we were in grade school me and Sam helped out every friday spending our evenings up there.I was the last to graduate from the school as it closed a year latter.It was a very small school as is the Church so I got to know everyone pretty good.Anyway,a classmate of ours moved to Oklahoma years back and he showed up at the celebration.We kind of knew what he was up to as his family would come up to visit once in awhile.But hearing first hand his war stories from Iraq was amazing.He got to see alot of things other Marines didn't.He was right in the thick of things and even got to do some special ops taking out some terrorists.Thank God He was watching over him because he was close to being killed many times.He did get injured bad in a road side bombing.He said a 250lb bomb went off 20ft from his Hummer and blasted the door in on him.His kevlar helmet broke in half and his left side got banged up.He suffered minor brain damage and gets headaches once in a while now.Some of his stories though were insane.Close quarter firefights are not for the faint of heart.Thanks to all our troops who served and are serving, your all heros.



The next morning we headed up to St.Cloud for the season ender of the mtb season.what a muddy mess is all I have to say.I liked the course and it was fun to slide through the mud but when your done the cleanup sucks.And I have to replace the drivetrain.I started out going into the singletrack after a prologue behind Sam The entire race the positions stayed the same.It was a replay of Laddies Loppet.Me pulling Tom Miller around for 3 laps with Dave Oachs chasing not far behind.Then lap 4 it started raining again and the trail went from bad to worse and I started to get chain suck.Tom wasn't having any problems so he took off and I couln't see Dave behind.I ended up catching Mr.Fisher near the end who was not looking good.I rolled in a muddy 8th and Sam hammered to a 4th place finnish behind Brendan.I'm not kidding when I say my bike had about 10lbs of mud on it.When I went to lift it up through a rock garden, holy crap I could hardly lift the thing.Chris said by the time he set his bike back down his arm started to cramp up.(Chris is no weakling mind you,he sets granite tops for a living).I still had a good time ripping through the mud and felt fine untill the end,it was a good season ender.Now I look forward to some throttle-twisting,hunting,and fishing at the cabin for the fall.

Chequamy-Out of the race but not the fun

Alright kiddies heres the scoop.I never got in this year for the Chequamegon so I was motoing it with Mike Hall and working the handoffs.Funny,I went up to Gary Crandell before the race to get a feeding pass and he must have recognized my name because he said "Why aren't you racing".Me-"I didn't make it in".Gary-"Why didn't you send me an essay".Me-"I did".Then he mumbled something about being on a list.Regardless,I had a blast going fast without suffering.I watched as everyone went by and looked like they wanted to kill someone.Mike was ripping up the trails.He's been riding longer than me so he was smoother through the corners but I could keep up on the flats.I had the silencer out which gives it way more power.All the forest critters were running for cover under the sound of my thunderous 4-stroke engine.We went to about 5 different spots throughout the course.I was handing off some neutral bottles,Doug and Aric Harland were the only ones to take one after the firetower climb.But since I was so busy running around I didn't take any sweet pics so go here for some good pics.Most of the riders on the sidebar raced it.They can tell you more of went on than me.By the time next year rolls around I'll be itching to pound the legs to a pulp.

Winding down

After racing the last 4 weekends and my last race 3 weeks away I'm going to take a few days off the bike.Dan said I haven't been updating my blog much either so this will make up for that.
Can't believe only 1 race left this year.But anyway,I've got a work report.The last few weeks I've been working at Basils restaurant in the Marquette Hotel.The one where they have Mary Tyler Moores' table out on the veranda.Its not a big restaurant but its fine dining.Very fancy.That rug pictured above in the waiting lounge with the wine tables is from New Zealand and is made out of wool.I heard about $5,000+ for it.And they put wine tables in there,go figure.I pretty much laid all the base in the place and it looks great for what I had to work with.Some of the walls had a good 1/2 inch bow in only 2' and the base was solid black walnut,not much flex to the stuff and the adhesive didn't have enough time to set up so I ended up caulking the grand canyon on a couple pieces.We were rushing hard at the end of last week.Friday I had to skip lunch but luckily I brought a powerbar to get something in me.The walkthrough was friday afternoon and everyones blood pressure was running high because of a naggy person that was drawing it out longer than needed.In my opinion there was stuff that went unfinished.It was too early to have a walkthrough.The designer wasn't thinking when she drew up the plans for the 2 small front booths and the two booths that are next to the steps going up onto an upper platform.We have to come back latter to redo the 2 front booths because unless your horse jockey your not going to fit.And in order to get into the other two booths by the steps they had us take the screws out of the base so you can move the top over and get in.It was still a nice job to be at though when I think about it,inside,close to the smoothie shop,clean,and not much hard labor.
I got transfered to a church in Plymouth again.It was this time last year that I went to St Barnabas about 2 miles from this church.I'm right off hwy55 and Rockford rd I won't be here long though because its all sub-ed out.
This weekend is the Snow barrens snowmobile grass drags up in Lino Lakes.We try and make it up there once in a while and get a good dose of high octane exhaust.They also make huge woodchip jumps and do freestyle with motorcycles,snowmobiles,and snow hawks.The snowmobile industry always brings in their big name riders and huge team rigs.If the weather is nice, I'm there.

Laddies Loppet

Sam woke up at 4:30am sat morning to make it for the time trial at 10:00.I drove seprately.It was rainy on and off sat and the course was pretty slick.I didn't preride untill about 4:00.Everything except the lake side drops was rideable.The 29er was working well through all the rocks and roots,it was lots-o-fun.Before I prerode though, I took my motorcycle out with Paul Hanson in his Subaru rally car.I followed him down the Marry yellow Head trail which was a perfect rally trail.He was absolutely flying down the trail and I was burying my throttle to keep up.Good thing I kept the 42 tooth ring on the rear.I'm sure he'll post the pics and video he took along the way.I liked when he went down one of the secondary trails and hit a huge waterhole,steam just came pouring out of car and everyone was rolling in the car.After I split up he went back to a sand pit and did a few laps up a berm.
Anyway, Sunday we lined up with alot of fast guys.Me and sam had another bad start with Sam almost getting taken out buy another rider who was cutting him off.Luckily we made a few moves and started moving up right away before the singletrack.I was suprised that no one in front of us dabed to create the usuall slow up.I just stuck on Sams wheel as long as I could which was suicide hill.This is where he bridged up to Brendan Moore.Things were a bit of a blur here but I know I was with Dave Oachs and we ended up catching Tom Miller,Dan Swanson,and Doug Swanson on the long ski trail section about 3/4 into the 1st of 2 laps.I thought Doug was done for but I was wrong as a few min latter he came shooting past me.Going onto the 2nd lap I had a gap on Dave,Dan,and Tom running in 8th place behind Sam who I'm guessing was only about 1-2 min up.It wasn't untill suicide hill that Tom had caught me and he was pounding the singletrack.about 10-15 min latter I heared Dan who was gaining on me crash hard.I thought I had him bagged too,but noooo.He bridged on the ski trail and passed me before the last lakeside drop section.I stuck his wheel for a while but he slowly pulled away.At this point I was running scared because I knew Dave O.was close.I held him off though and came in 1 min behind Dan and Tom and only 2 min behind Sam.I just made the payout finally and made $40.I was pleased with myself and rode a solid race.Oh,and the weather was perfect.Things cleared out nicely and you couldn't ask for a better day.
Gota give a big thanks to Jay Richards and the family for hosting one the best races of the year.Its nice that everyone can chill and socialize after the races and not be in a rush to get home like all the other races.

this lady should compete in some flatlanding.