Brianne and Garett

Sorry its been a while since we have posted an update, you’d think maybe we were up to nothing, but we have been pretty busy lately. Brianne’s parents flew down just before the Memorial Day weekend and spent 6 days with us here and we took them on a tour of Texas. Their past trips have kept them in the Houston area so we figured a road trip would be fun to see some other great Texas cities. Our adventures took us to an Astros Game, Dallas, The Sixth Floor Museum, Texas Stadium, the Cowboys new stadium, Austin, my parents home in Elgin, the Oasis on Lake Travis, San Antonio, the Riverwalk and River Center Mall, the Alamo, and Galveston. If you know where all those places are, you know that we put a few miles on the Escape. It was a great trip and we had a lot of fun to have them here.

Yesterday was my birthday (you can figure out which one on your own) and we had friends over to the house to enjoy some pizza, drinks, and a baseball game. Last week we attended an engagement party of one of our friends and then with my birthday this week, it was the first time in a very long time that we have had everyone gathered together in such a short time frame. Being that we are spread across the greater Houston area and some even further, its difficult to get more then 3 or 4 people together.

I made out pretty well this year on gifts. Brianne got me a Canon Digital Rebel XS with lens kit (she shouldn’t have spent so much on me), some cycling gear, and some snack treats to enjoy. My parents and brother got me another lens to go with my camera. Brianne folks got me the latest Simpsons season on DVD and a FM modulator for my car that works with my iPhone and Karlee got me a T-shirt and the upcoming soon to be released Simpsons season on DVD (figured out any TV shows I like?). I also received some assorted gift cards from friends which will be put to good use.

Thank you to everyone for the gifts and the birthday wishes, it helped to forget the milestone that I reached this year. Well all I can say about entering a new decade is that I came into this one in better shape and a little less weight then I entered the last one and a whole lot less then I was at just last year. Once again thanks everybody for everything!

Well mother nature had other plans for us on Saturday, which was suppose to be the first day of the ride. La Grange, which is the halfway point of the ride, received 11 inches of rain on Friday and blew down lots of the tents that were setup. Saturday wasn’t much better, it rained from about 8 am to 2 pm at our house and our rain gauge filled close to 5 inches. Day 1 of the ride was cancelled but I’ve read there were a few crazy riders that braved the weather from Houston to La Grange, I was not one of them. This is the first time in the 25 year history that part of the ride was cancelled due to weather.

So on Sunday the ride kicked off from downtown La Grange and the routes for day 2 were basically what they would have been had the first day not be cancelled. My original plan was to take the express route which is about 65 miles, but since I was bummed about missing the first day, I decide to push myself and take the challenge route which is close to 80 miles part of which is through the Bastrop State Park and it’s many hills. I also figured the park and its ample trees would give some relief from the 20+ mph head winds that plagued riders all day. I got started around 8:15 am in La Grange and only stopped once for a quick bite and fluid before reaching the lunch stop in Bastrop which I reached at 11 am. From there it was into the wind the rest of the way into Austin. I stopped one more time about 17 miles before Austin and crossed the finish line right at 2 pm where I was met with cheers from Brianne, my parents and my brother.

Training for the ride was difficult and time consuming and until the ride I was thinking this might be my only time, but after participating and not getting the full experience, I think I will do it again next year. Seeing all the people along the route cheering everyone along and seeing the people that benefit from this fundraiser cheering also is just that much more of motivation to participate.

Thank you to everyone who made contributions to my fundraising and I hope you will all support me again next year. Also thank you to Brianne for putting up with me being gone for hours on end on the weekends while I was pedaling around town and for taking care of things around the house and making sure I had something to eat when I was done.

Remember that both Brianne and I are participating in the LIVESTRONG Challenge in Austin this coming October so we will be fundraising together. Brianne and I are both doing the 5K run on Saturday October 24 and then on Sunday October 25 I will be doing the 65 mile bike ride, where I will probably get dropped by Lance Armstrong himself. Please make a donation to us at our fundraising webpage and we will be sure to send you one of those little nifty yellow bracelets.

Saturday is the big day and the weather forecast is not good, rain is predicted along with a bit of a crosswind. Lets cross our fingers and hope that shifts to a nice tailwind so we can go faster and get our of the rain. Sunday’s weather doesn’t look bad except for wind.

All the riders are given this thing called RiderConnect which is hanging from your bike and when you past over these mats along the route, it will send an email or text message to people we add to our list letting them know about our progress. If you are interested in finding out how I’m doing this weekend, leave a comment and let me know and I will add you.

So the NFL released the schedules for the 2009 season and the Seahawks are coming back to Dallas. I guess they wanted another beat down. So I went searching to see if any tickets were available online. There were a few on eBay, but I found some on a ticket selling site in section 203 row 1 for the right price, so we bought them! Sunday, November 1 at noon we will be there to see the new stadium and we can visit our brick that Brianne bought me for Christmas. I’m sure the outcome will be about the same, but I will take it.