BRP: Cherokee to Asheville

Bobby and four of his friends took to the Blue Ridge Parkway today and rode from Cherokee to Asheville ...ON BIKES!  That's right, no typo here.  Kristine drove Bobby, Herb, Wes, James and Andy over this morning where they commenced in fog and 52-degree weather.  She served as their faithful SAG wagon the entire way home.  Six hours fifteen minutes of moving time later, they arrived back on the loop, having completed the 75.29 journey, including over 10,000 feet in total elevation gain and burning nearly 5,000 calories.  Super proud of the Team Training Wheels crew...and huge thanks to Nay-Nay!  (The 50-mile Honor Ride in October should be a walk in the park.)

Budding Golfers

The boys spent Saturday evening and Sunday with Annie and Poppy.  After attending church Sunday morning and indulging in lunch at the Club, they hit to the golf course - driving range, putting green and holes 1, 5 and 2.  According to Annie and Poppy, both boys did great.  Thompson is improving, and it appears we have a budding golfer in William.  (So much so that WY got the "green light" for golf camp next summer.)  As a side note, and while it means nothing to the boys now, Tom Fazio was practicing on the driving range next to William!

CYMBL #4

We had another spectacular weekend for mountain bike racing.  This past Saturday, Falling Creek Camp hosting CYMBL's fourth race.  For this race, we were back to the traditional cross-country format.  One neat aspect about FCC hosting is that that have altered the XC course each year, which changes it up for the young riders.  Thompson's age group had to complete two laps, for a total of 2.6 miles.  Thompson finished fifth, one second behind fourth place...a great finish considering he threw his chain on the first lap (somewhere out in the woods) and fixed it himself.  (I guess he has been paying attention during "boy time" in the garage with Bobby and Herbie.)  And most importantly, he said he had fun!  This finish places him in third in the overall series.  We will miss next week's Uphill Time Trial and Super D at Bracken Mountain; however he won't lose those points since he competed in the Short Track race.  His last race, and the final race of the series, will be in two weeks at Brevard College.  As for William, he chartered himself a course and navigated through several young riders who took a tumble on the pea gravel and finish first in the under 6 race.  Way to go!

T's rides the Hilly

Thompson has been itching to ride on the road for some time now; however, we've talked about how dangerous the roads can be and that he's not quite old enough yet.  Well...this morning, we let him give it a whirl...and what a whirl it was!  The Asheville Youth Cycling Club sponsors the Holly Hellacious each fall.  This year they introduced a "family" ride, which we thought might provide the best opportunity to ride the road (translation: lots of cyclists on the road would make us more visible to drivers).  When we shared news of this ride with him earlier in the week, it would be an understatement to say he was thrilled.  He's been counting down the days telling everyone about his upcoming 20-mile road ride.  We started rolling shortly before 9 am, and 2 hours 45 minutes later, Thompson had cranked his bike around the 28 mile "family" course. (yes, it was longer than the anticipated 20 miles.)  In addition to being the youngest rider, he was the only rider on a mountain bike, so we figure he one was of the hardest working riders, moving the heaviest bike with the smallest wheels.  Super proud of him and throughout the ride, he claimed he was having fun...that's what it's all about, right!?  (And as a bonus, Brent and Jamie Bookwalter turned out to ride the 100-mile course and took some time to catch up with Thompson.)

CYMBL Race #3

This year CYMBL changed the series format.  In addition to the traditional cross country races, they have added the short track, super D and an uphill time trail disciplines.  Riders competing in the series are required to race in at least one race that isn't cross country.

The third race found us at the Brevard Music Center braving the elements for the short track discipline: see how many laps you can complete in 20 minutes.  The weather...rain, rain, rain.  Conditions...muddy!  T crashed seconds into his first lap, getting a few abrasions and losing a portion of his thumbnail.  It took him a couple laps to recognize his finger would and had stopped bleeding then he "got his race on".  In the end, he placed 4th, completing 9 laps.  (First and second place each completed 10 laps.)

One of the coolest parts of these races is the encouragement from other riders, especially adults. A group of riders from the Pisgah Stage Race pulled into the parking lot as we were packing up to leave.  One guy got out of the car and immediately ran over to Thompson and began asking him about his race, how he felt he did, how awesome it was that his jersey was so muddy it was unrecognizable, how cool his bike was, etc.  It was the perfect ending to boost his spirits and remind him of his accomplishments (even if accompanied by road rash and a missing finger nail)!

BEFORE

 AND AFTER

A Day of Fishing

In recent years, we have spent the third week of September at the beach; however, with school and obligations flanking both weekends (plus a top-secret, surprise trip to NYC in November that the boys don't know about...shhh!), we elected to stay home, deliberately schedule a few days out of the office, and attempt to have somewhat of a "stay-cation". Bobby and I went biking Monday morning, and yesterday, Bobby and Herb spent the day on the river.  The pictures speak for themselves...they had a fabulous day of fishing!  (Herb got the award for landing the biggest fish at 24 inches.)

 

 

 

CYMBL Race #2

This past Saturday found us at Gwyn Valley for another great morning of youth mountain bike riding and racing.  The format once again was cross-country style with Thompson's 7-8 age division riding two laps of the 1.1 mile course.  He rode up a section he had to walk last year, so that was a confidence booster.  In the end, he crossed the finish line fourth with a time of 20:27 (50 seconds off 1st and 32 seconds from 3rd).  This finish ties him for 2nd place in the overall series standings.  Next race - short track format.  And William, well, he simply has fun riding the "rattlesnake" wherever he goes!