April - June 2010

The Kern river rapids
Garden snake on the river crossing

Andrew hanging out

Amanda and me at the top of the hiking trail

Camp site

Enjoying the ride to Kernville

Yes its been along time since I've updated the blog i have just been to to busy i guess. Lots of things have been going on. The major change is that Andrew has moved in with us and he finished the year in school her in Temecula , things went well he did a good job and he managed to obtain most of the credits that were possible .

Riding has been going well i did the the Julian Death March again this year i managed to do 55 miles in about 6.5 hrs this year overall i felt better on the second attempted Doug from the desert came out this year and killed it he did all 82 miles in about 10 hrs.June 12 I did the ride around the bear training went well doing longer rides on sat with George and the Temecula velo guys. I was happy to finis 100 miles and 9650 feet of climbing legs cramped going into running springs but i managed to finish strong 7.50 hrs of riding and approx 8.5 hrs overall time.After that ride i told myself i need a little break so i thinking about starting to do some more hiking with Amanda and Andrew.

Bad news came late April that one of my coworkers Riley Wills was killed in a off road accident in Menifee. So to say the least it was a tough couple of weeks at work i would like to say overall AMR Hemet management and all the crews really stepped up for one of fallen hero's.Riley will be missed by all that new him.

On the side of good news my nephew Danny is doing well after all of his gemo treatments and appears to be doing good we went up to Big Bear for the TOC bike race and took Danny with us he was hoping to see his hero Lance Armstrong but Lance crashed out of the race the day before. But we still had a great time we hung out at the finish line at the condo that Jaxs bicycle shop had rented for the day. I took my road bike with me and i got in a couple of good rides in over the weekend. When we woke up Sunday morning we were greeted with about 6 inches of snow awesome.

Last weekend we headed to Kernville to do some camping and a half day whitewater rafting trip that was a blast we also did some hiking and biking Shrek from work went with us along with Tony, Karla and about 6 of Tony's friends Weather was good a little warm during mid day but perfect at night.We did a 5 mile hike up to a was tough but well worth the views.Next trip is already in the works for a 4 day adventure to Zion and do a canyoneering trip.

R/C winter series photos race#4

Racers and Chasers winter series race #4
Second Place Overall in the series Sport 40-49

R/C Winter series finals

Well after our last trip to Florida thing have gotten back to normal around here. My new shift/job has been going well, Amanda has started nursing school and working 20 hr weeks so she has been real busy.Last Sat was the last r/c winter series race down in San Diego it went pretty well for me I finished 7th in my age group and I ended up 2nd place overall in the series so I was extremely pleased with that. The race itself i felt good and strong i hung in pretty tough and i could see the lead moto for quite a while 4th place was not to far a head of me until the second half of the 2nd lap i felt my pace was fast i just could not hold the pace as long as the other guys could.My partner Johnie from work signed us up at a local gym here in Temecula called Affordable fitness it is a small gym but it is never busy when we go right after work.We have been going three days a week.So far I'm all ready feeling stronger and more flexible. This week on Friday the Redlands bike race comes to Beaumont so I will be up there working and supporting the pass crews work thru all the street closures and of course watch the race as much as possible.

My parent arrived in town not to long after we got back from Florida so it has been great seeing them and they finally got to meet Amanda and they having had the kids over for weekend visits.

Busy couple of weeks 2/22/10

Its defiantly been busy recently Amanda and I along with Tony and Karla spent a week in Florida at there dads house, we went to the big Gasperella pirate invasion on Sat which is a huge parade with bead necklaces just like martigra It rained a little but it was allot of fun. on Tuesday we headed over to the east coast side and went to Daytona international speedway and visited the nascar museum ,I got to participated in a timed pit stop with a couple other guys it was a lot of fun our time was 11.86 seconds not bad per the event host.The rest of our time we spent hiking, biking went to the beach and played some tennis

Last weekend I race the 3rd race of the R/C series which was held out at Cahuilla creek mx park, good turnout for that venue I ended up fourth in my age group I did not feel real strong but I pushed hard thru out the event heart rate average was high at 168. It was my best time for three laps on that course ,so going into the last race in March I'm looking pretty good in the overall all depends on who does the last race I should end up in the top five which I will be happy with.

Last week I started on my new job title field supervisor position which means I had to go back to a night shift ,but its a good move forward in my career at AMR it will open up a lot of new opportunities for me.Along with the new shift my coworker Johnie and I joined a local gym in Temecula so we head over there a couple days a week after we get off shift, hopefully this will increase my overall fitness level.

Concerning news was told to me by my son Andrew his cousin Danny Barrett was having some pains in his stomach and back along with a swollen testicle I told them he needed to get over to the county hosp and get checked , he did and the news was not good he has cancer .They removed one of his testicles and he has 2 tumors one in his stomach and one in his back. So currently he is in the county hosp in Moreno Valley getting gemo for the cancer. hopefully thing improve over time. Danny was spending some time with me a few years ago when he was into Mtn biking but recent he had moved up north and was staying with his brother. He is in our prayers and hopefully he can beat this set back.

Cahuilla Creek race #3 winter series

My time for the tire change pit stop while at Nascars experience in Daytona Florida

Amanda with all her beads after the Casperella parade

Danica fever is everywhere

Amandas Birthday Day Two

On Saturday Andrew and I got up early and headed down to Elfin forest area so I could race the second race of the R/C winter series . The course was really tough big climbs and a lot of rocky loose descents I played conservatively on the climbs hoping not to blow up my race was just o k not to happy were I ended up but there is a lot of guys the top 10 or so in my class that had equal or better lap times than the expert class so overall I'm glad I did the race consistences will hopefully pay off in the end. After my race me and Andrew hiked around on the course for a while and we had a good time.

Karla had pay for a few people to go trapezing for Amanda's birthday so we meet them at the location after the race it was not far away in Escondido. It was a two hr class so Amanda, Andrew,Karla.Elaina,Tony and tony friend went thru the class it and I took all the pictures it was a lot of fun they all did great. They were taught how to swing from there hands and there knees upside down and sang upside down and had one of the instructors catch them from the trapeze and the do a back flip into the net.After the class we all went out to dinner and had a great time celebrating Amanda's 30th birthday.

Andrew, Elaina, Karla and Amanda ready to get started trapezing

Learning the basic before heading up to the plat form

Amanda heading up the ladder to the plat form

Amanda swinging away like a circus girl

Amanda pulling of the swinging upside down by her legs

Andrew in the middle of one the tricks

Amanda pulling off the release and catch trick Great Job Baby.

Overall the hole crew did very well, all of them pulled off some if not all the maneuvers they were taught in one short two hour class.We all had a great time watching and encouraging the crew on.This was a great birthday present and a great learning experience for everybody.

Amanda's Birthday Week Day one

It was Amanda's birthday on Thursday 1/14 the big 30 and she was not happy about seeing the end of her 20's come but good things are happening everyday for both of us.She had to go too a nursing orientation class on her birthday after working all night so she was pretty wiped out by the time I got home from work I did bring flowers, cake and a card for her. Friday morning was the big surprise for her 30 th I booked a sunrise hot air balloon ride out of south coast winery that included and Happy Birthday banner, champagne and breakfast at the winery post balloon ride.The weather was perfect we got to help set up the balloon for launch and our ride was awesome great views of the Temecula wine country the ride lasted about one hr it was amazing how small the basket was it fit three people tightly our guide was really cool and funny and he has years experience with ballooning including metals from many balloon races.

Set up almost complete

All ready for take off let the wind take us away

That's our shadow while we float over the vineyards

The ride had some awesome views

After a perfect landing we had a Champagne toast to our perfect flight

The New Year 2010

The new year has started and we are all ready in recovery mode most of us have been sick at one time or another over the last week with either a head cold or stomach flu. I have been lucky so far with only one day of illness Riding has been going well nice road ride with Temecula velo guys out in Deluz on Friday lots of steep hills, easy solo cruise on the road bike Sat morning and I meet up with some friends from the desert Doug and Dave out at Vail lake on Sunday to do some 12 hr course pre riding Ric Danny Gordon joined us.The course is fun challenging and has a lot of great down hills . This coming week will be real busy with Amanda's 30 th birthday on Thursday ,many plans in the works along with the second race of r/c series also this coming weekend.
Good news came my way this week I will be getting a promotion to one of the new field supervisors positions that recently has been created to better serve our crews up in the pass area so this will be a new challenge for me, down side I will have to go back to a night shift but this will open up for some more time to ride in the mornings and my partner and I are going to look into A local gym to join so we can get some workouts in.Hopefully this will increase my fitness level.