Spokane!

Hi, gang!  It's been a while since I've posted - my apologies!  The two double header weekends allowed us a weekend off, so I drove up to Spokane to visit with my brothers, Rich and Jim, and their families.  It was my nephew's birthday - Aiden turned 15, which I still can't believe!  I have a great story about the day he was born - I'll share it sometime.  My niece Meagan is getting way too TALL way too FAST.  It was good to visit with Jill, too, and watch her keep Rich in line.  Or try to, anyway. 
Thanks to extra effort from Jim (driving into Spokane from his home in CdA) I was able to see Jenny for breakfast Sunday morning.  And Jim brought Gretta out Saturday night when we went to see a high school buddy of mine, Kenny, play.  He's in a band called Bakin' Phat (awesomest band name ever) and they are really really good.  Rocking blues!
www.facebook.com/BakinPhat

Also got some time to have beers with Team Widmer - Tony, Sgt. Dan, Scott, Kyle.  Serious strategy session for the 24 Hour Mountain Bike Race in May.  Or maybe we drank beer and ate fried food.  One of those.

I had a great visit with my good friend, George - he was the best man at my wedding.  Always good to see him - we pick up right where we left off, each and every time.  We laughed our arses off.

Rich and I got out for a short trail ride Sunday, which was fun.  I had never ridden on snow and ice, and there was plenty of it in Riverside Park.  Rich is truly blessed to have such a fantastic trail system so close to his home.  I am jealous! 

We did about 10 miles total and it was a blast.  Any place the sun got through was melted off, but on the singletrack in the trees we encountered plenty of slushy snow and straight up ice.  Interesting riding for sure.  On the ice, you could pedal but you had to keep a very even rotation going.  If you pushed down too hard the back tire would spin out and then try to slide sideways out from under you.  The deep snow bogged us down just like the mud, which was in abundance.  All in all, it was a ton of fun and I got dirty!  But most importantly, my mountain bike got dirty!

Not to be outdone by my cycling adventure, Camera Crew ventured out in my absence to go crosscountry skiing with my sister, Susan, and niece, Julienne.  All reports are that they had much fun at Teacup Lake!  There were sore muscles, however, which is a good thing, right?  It means ya got out and did something!  And yoga certainly helps.

Here is a short vid shot from the entry into Riverside Park.  You can see the snow around us, and it got worse when we got into the trees onto the singletrack.  Oh, and contrary to appearances that is not Bigfoot waving at the camera - it's my brother, Rich: