Mountain Bike Nationals - Granby, Colorado

We drove to Granby, CO for mountain bike nationals. We left Tuesday, 7/14. Drove to Mesquite, NV where we stopped at about 2:30 am. I have to tell you that of the total 2000 mile trip, David drove all but about 60 miles. He was awesome! Anyway, we parked in an LDS church parking lot and slept until about 6:30 am. Drove on to Grand Junction, CO. We stayed in a nice little RV park there. Sara and I went swimming, David went running and Dallin went for a bike ride. We got up Thursday morning and drove until we got to Granby (about noon-ish). We stopped at a grocery store and then headed up to our camp spot. I'm thinking we will have a "camp site". I hadn't considered that we were going to be parked at a ski resort. No camp sites. Just a semi-flat area up on a mountain side where you could look for a spot to park your RV or pitch your tent. We did find a good spot...looking over the side of the hill. Beautiful! Dallin rode the course. Altitude was a bit different than what we are used to. We live at about 100 feet above sea level. Where we were was 8400 feet above sea level. The course climbed to about 9200. Yikes! Dallin said he couldn't recover very well and the hard breathing was making his throat hurt. Granted, we did know that this would be an issue before we came. I was completely winded climbing the hill to our camp spot. While Dallin rode the course we meet up with David's parents, who had driven from Logan. It was so nice to see them! We went into downtown Granby and looked at some little shops. Then David drove back to get Dallin and we went out to dinner (pasta for Dallin!). That night Sara went to Grandpa and Grandma's hotel. It was at a natural sulpher hot springs in the area. The next morning we all got together for some hot pools. That afternoon (Friday) we were back for the race. Dallin did well. Fourth place! The start was horrible...basically straight up a hill. But when you are riding at a ski resort, at least some of the ride is going to be a steep climb! I was impressed watching the riders go up that hill! We just kind of hung out waiting for the riders to start coming back in. Dallin came back after one hour and 12 minutes (I think). he looked good and felt good. No crashes or flats for him - that's always nice! We left that night. David drove until almost 4 am. Thank you skittles and diet coke. We stopped at a rest stop and slept (well everyone but David had been sleeping). Saturday we drove until Las Vegas. Stayed at a hotel there. Went swimming, watched Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, ate at a buffet. Drove home the next day. Whew! David didn't have to work until Wednesday, so it was nice for him to have Sunday evening, Monday and Tuesday to relax.

Cove Fort

On our way to mountain bike nationals we stopped at Cove Fort at the junction of the 15 and the 70 in Utah. It was very interesting. We all really liked the tour. It's a fort that Brigham young asked Ira Hinckley to set up for people traveling through. There were rooms for the family to live in and a few rooms that were rented out to travelers. One of the things the guides show you is a game called hoop that the children (and probably some adults!) played. It's an iron ring that you guide with a stick and get it rolling. If you're really good at it you run along with it and keep it going. If you get a chance to stop and visit, I'd highly recommend it. It's very educational and will make you reconsider what you may deem as needs/wants and what it means to be self-reliant.

Wonderful summer day.

Sara and I spent several hours today on Balboa Island. The weather is beautiful, the sky is blue, the water is sparkling. So, so nice. We walked around the bay looking at the adorable houses and sailboats. We (mostly she) played in the water. We stood in line to take the ferry to the fun zone, but one of the ferries broke down and it was taking waaay too long to fix it. We're going to go back for that next week. We ate at a very tiny, but super yummy mexican place called Picante Martin's. We bought salt water taffy (and some malted milk chocolate balls for David) at Balboa Candy. Then we came home and took a nap. Sara is still sleeping. Tonight David, Sara and I are going to see William Shakespeare's As You Like It performed in a lovely outdoor theater. This is a wonderful summer day.

Wouldn't it be nice to be able to afford to have this built right on the bay?
I love seeing these houses so clean and lined up. Perfect.

I really want to see inside this one. But I don't have $3000/week to rent it or a couple of million to buy it.

Sara liked this one. It looks like Snow White's cottage.

Salt water taffy, baby!

Miss her.

Lauren flew to Oregon to visit her best friend in the whole world on Tuesday. She'll be gone for a couple of weeks. I miss her already.