Lots of rain...

Last night was our 1 year anniversary for our local SORBA mountain bike club AMBC (Appalachain Mountain Bike Club). Our president, Randy Conner, called for a ride/meeting/party for the occasion. It was a great idea....but....

We showed up and it was sprinkling....riding out at Haw Ridge when it is raining or just wet is a NO NO... We figured since it was just a little sprinkle, then it would be okay to ride. There were maybe 10 of us or so... we got all the way out to West Shore when it got ominously dark... I told Jay Smelser I was heading back after we got to the regrouping spot. I learned a long time ago, that getting stuck out in the middle of Haw Ridge when it is storming SUCKS. I left the group and rode out to the nearby parking lot where the kiosk is and headed immediately to the LDC field where we were all parked. I got back and changed just in time. Jay pretty much followed me back, just taking a little bit different route back to the cars...the two of us were the only two to get back without getting soaked.

It was fun watching all the guys come back to the field one by one....it seemed like everyone choose a different route back. Finally Jimi came back w/her two dogs...she had gone in for a trail run. We were getting nervous when we all had returned except for her. She was all the way back at Rachel's Landing (a piece of trail named after me about 7-8 years ago when I fell off of the trail into the water below) when it started to pour. Monte knew for sure that her phone would be dead due to the down pour, but Jimi is a genious! She took her water bottle and emptied it...put some leaves down in it, then put her phone inside to keep it dry. GENIUS!!! She is a smart cookie.

We had our meeting after we all dried off and cracked open some beers...talked about new trail systems we want to build and the current one we are building....Hastings Park. Randy has done a lot for our new club and it is a cool group to be involved in. Finally, Monte cracked open his grill and we loaded it full of meat...dinner consisted of burger or dog, and chips...yum.

That's what is going on....hopefully it will not rain anymore over Haw Ridge for a while. It is going to be sloppy!

Finally some photos

Finally, I had some time last night and this morning to get some new photos posted. I had a ton of them and it was hard for me to choose which ones to put up. Here are photos from our recent Fourth of July beach trip, a few from my Tour de France trip in 05' (since the tour is going on, I thought it was a good time to get them up), and a Father's Day greenway ride Smap and I did with my dad, sis, and little brother Nic.

ENJOY....

Jay and Jen came down to Hilton Head for their first time with us... Chuck and Peggy have been coming with us and our missing friends Tim and Lindsay now for like 6 years... It was fun having some newbies along with us this year.


Jay just did a tequila shot, so he needed some salt. No, not really...I'm unsure why he was doing that....
Jen....skinny girl w/a bad tan....he he he.....
Nice tan Jen....she and Jay got us all into making a big sand castle.


Peg and me on the nice sunny beach.
Jen and me at the Salty Dog.

My girl Jen....sipping something good at the Salty Dog.
Jen and Peg at the Ruins....we got every year and always have to show the newbies what the ruins are on the island....it is just pieces of old buildings that were built on the island like a couple hundred years ago. We try to make our vacations somewhat educational at times.
Mailbox shot.
Jen and me being stupid (we are very good at this when we are together).
Smap and Jay at the Baynard Ruins in Sea Pines.

Chuck tossing from a small island his frisbee luckily fell on instead of the water surrounding it.
Smap and Peg finishing the golf course walk way.
PEG!!! She gets the prettiest smile award. One day in the sun and she looks like she has lived on an island. Such a photogenic lady! She is always smiling like this too. That is why we love her!
Smap and Chuck riding down the beach.
Here I am trying to take my shot of myself.

The Apkings enjoying the Salty Dog bar down at South Beach
Peggy became our pool boy. She did the job well. Thanks Peg. Oh, and her beach moomoo....she got so burned on the first day in the sun, she had to go out and buy this nightshirt/moomoo....poor Peg....she had to walk around holding out the shirt from hitting her "BELLY".....luckily we had some cortizone and she was fine after the first day of pain.
I got him again! Smap loves the Fat Tire.....Jay and Chuck brought a case each down. I personally like the 1554 the best.
Chuck trying to fish out his frisbee. It was a good thing I decided NOT to play...
Me at the frisbee course....it was a great course...all wooded where you could easily lose a frisbee. I was the score keeper, which wasn't a good job for me because I lost the pen.

Me on the beach...
I'm trying to take a photo of the path down to the beach.... I had several drinks that day, you are going to have to forgive me. :)
Chuck having a good time!
Smap and Chuck posing in front of the neat sign. This was a new frisbee golf course at this pretty new park off the island of Hilton Head. Peg and I had a good time watching the guys play....it was a hard course!

On the beach with the frisbee goal and some other toys. We ended up playing bocce the most.
Smap and Chuck playing some frisbee on the beach.
Me at our pool and hot tub in the backyard.
Peggy trying to keep the sun off her head when she should have been trying to keep it off her BELLY!!!!
Chuck and Peg....not sure what is going on here. I think we were watching smap in the pool. We all had a fabulous time in Hilton Head. I can't wait to go back again. It is too bad Smap has to work so much or I would be down there all the time. I lived down there for 6 months back in college. I didn't like living there, but going down every other month would be ideal.

Since it is TOUR TIME!

Le Tour de France 05'....Col de Galibier....the tour will pass over this beast today (7/23/08). I was lucky enough to ride up this mountain during the 2005 Tour. I got to see all the dopers together one last time.....Lance (he has never been proven, but at this point they all probably are/were doping), Rasmussen, Landis, Ullrich, Vinoukerouv (sp?), etc...

I rode up the other side of this and there is a tunnel that goes through the top of the mountain about 1/2 mile from the very top. We ran through it after all the riders had gone by us, and got to watch them descend. It was crazy how fast they flew down these tight steep roads. They don't have guard rails over there like we do here all over the place either.

Here (above) is Vinny...he won the stage that day...first over the mountain. It was so cool to see him fly by up the mountain even if he was doping.

Lance is right in front of Rasmussen (polk-a-dots) in this shot...Ullrich, Julich, and I can't remember now who 101 was....I think I got a photo of Basso somewhere too....he was in this pack as well.

Here I am on the Col de la Madeleine....it was sooooo freaking cold up on top of these mountains. I had on so many layers underneath and had spare stuff in my backpack to put on just to descend the mountains. I had bad bike luck on this trip and only got to ride a few days. I just can't wait to go back there some day.Here is a view from where we stayed up in Le Deu Alpes....It was right next to Alpe deu Huez...I am sure I am misspelling everything, but I never said I could spell. I could go back to the Alps and stay there for a week. Can you say AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!????????????

Above is a shot of the "foothills" of the Alps...what we would call them anyways. Just gorgeous.

Belated Father's day ride two weeks after the fact....nope, this is not me....it is my sis and she has on ALL of my clothes including my bike shoes and my bike. I must say one of the best things about being a twin would be having double the clothing....except I went down to Nashville one year and started scoping out her closet and she had STOLEN my favorite Patagonia wool pullover. Needless to say, I had to leave Nashville without it. It was a battle and I did not win. I am not sure how that happened....her getting to keep my favorite article of clothing....

We all kind of rode from the old Bi-Lo parking lot to Market Square for a nice Sunday brunch. My little brother Nic and Dad were the only two out of the five that got to do the whole ride because I ended up flatting on the way there and it was irrepairable, and then my sis flatted right as we were leaving the Tomato Head.....we had already used what tubes we had on my stupid flat. So, luckily Smap has 3 bike trays on top of his car so we all had a way back. This shot right above is the artwork on the boarded up stores of Market Square. I love all the artwork! Oh, and the shot of Smap running in the skate park is him chasing a mouse....poor little mouse had no way out, so Smap was chasing him to throw him out. He finally got him. It was quite humorous watching him run all over trying to drop a t-shirt on the mouse in order to pick him up and throw him out.

I have a lot more photos I could have posted, but ran out of time last night.

Later!

Two more weeks...

Yep, in two weeks I will be setting my classroom up trying to figure out how I can get through another year of 6th grade as painlessly as possible. I will be teaching reading again, so I am going to have to find something new to do to make it a lot more fun for myself to teach and for the kids to learn. A lot of the stuff I do is fun, but I have done it already for 2 years, so I am already a bit bored with it.

This weekend proved to be another busy one.....sort of. We started out Friday night with a moonlight ride up at Cades Cove. Unfortunately I started feeling icky... there has been talk of some sort of stomach funk going around town, which makes you feel like you need to vomit, but you don't. I don't know which is worse, but I had the one that made me just FEEL like I was going to puke. We turned around at the top of Rich Mountain road and came back down slowly. We still saw the moon, just not inside the Cove. It was really beautiful.

Saturday morning Smap and I headed over to volunteer for a local sprint tri. Smap's bike shop does all the bike maintenance for Race Day Events. I always help Smap out when it is his turn, and then I end up volunteering for other duties they are short people on. This time I got sucked into traffic control. It wasn't too bad. We did have a good time watching all the first timer tri folk going through transition. One guy had his wife in the transition area wiping his face for him. He was taking it really slow, but I think he was having fun so that is all that counts. Others were sitting down UNTIEING their shoe laces prior to putting their shoes on for the bike....One guy slowly sat there doing the shoe thing, then stood up and put his shirt on after turning it around several times to make sure he had it on the correct way. I mean really! It was quite humorous and I felt guilty laughing, but it couldn't be stopped.

We were very domestic this weekend as well as getting in a great HOT mountain bike ride on Sunday. I was going to try to do some hill repeats, but it was BLOODY HOT!!!! I decided after doing one hill repeat, that it was enough or I would find myself not able to get out alive.

Our new kitty cat is doing good. I did find that he had snuck downstairs to poo a few times, so we put a stop to that. He also really likes oatmeal just like Ippon. We have a nice family breakfast now with everyone enjoying their oatmeal.

TGIF....sort of....

After this weekend, I only have two more weeks before I go back to school. What happened to all my time??? I know, I have been working for Smap at the Label company. Earlier this summer I was working at the bike shop when I wanted to and however long I wanted to. The first part of my summer went really slow and I enjoyed the hell out of it. But, good things must come to an end... It hasn't been too bad. Smap and I work extremely well together. People can't believe that we like to work together, but we do. Sometimes when I work at the bike shop on Saturdays, Smap will work with me so we can be together. We REALLY work well together at the bike shop. We just have a lot of fun.

Last night Smap and I got a new member for our family. In June I had to cat/dog sit for Tim and Lindsay Rogers. I fell in love with their kitty, Escher....he is an outside cat, but just loved to be held etc. I told Lindsay how sweet he was and that Smap and I have been thinking about getting a kitty for some time. Long story short, she called me Sunday in excitement claiming a kitty just like Escher had walked into her yard/life. So, I picked him up last night. His name is Fisher (after the 5 Fisher mtn.bikes we have hanging in our garage). The name totally suits him too. I felt a little guilty getting a kitten because of Ippon. I didn't want Ippon to get his feelings hurt...but, Ippon likes him.. He was a little peaved by Fisher last night, but this morning Ippon was trying to play with him and even let him curl up next to him while we ate our morning oatmeal. So sweet!

So, tonight we are doing Cades Cove...it is a full moon. It will be a mountain bike ride up and over Rich Mountain, around the cove and back. The only times I have done this, it has been freakin' colder than S**T! This will be a nice change.

That's about it...still no pics for my blog. I just have been busy whenever I am at the house.
Ciao

Widespread Panic 08'

Wow, we had a great time last night at the Widespread show. They are here playing at the Tennessee Theatre three nights in a row. We had some killer seats up on the balcony in the center, so we could see the stage really well. I never sat down one time and never stopped moving for that matter. Smap was even dancing the entire time. Even though I worked out before going to this show, I consideer the amount of dancing I did last night a good two hour workout.

Tonight is a mountain bike night. I do miss riding my road bike. I really need to get back on a steady training program. I use to be so obsessed with training and racing for so many years. I think it is just that my daily schedule is so different from day to day this last part of my summer. When school starts back, it will be easier for me to find my rhythm again.

I would love to get back into the whole triathlon thing again if I could run. My dad has been on me for years to stop running completely, but Eric Bell's mom says she can help me with her Reiki and Quantum-Touch. I am going to give it a shot! It would be awesome to start doing the X-Terra thing. The last one I did I had to walk the whole run due to my asthma and my knees, so we'll see!

T minus 3 weeks till I go back to school....

Smap and I had a great weekend for his birthday. He decided he wanted to go down to the Ocoee on Saturday, so we took our single speeds and rode trails, then he jumped in his kayak to cool off with some friends we ran into (Brian N and Jeff M). It was a very enjoyable day. Again, I will post some pics next time I get a chance to download at home. I am still pretending to be Smap's office girl at this label company. I am trying to get him some new business. Anyone know anyone who needs some labels? We do all sorts!

Tonight we are heading down to the Tennessee Theatre to see Widespread Panic. This will be my 6th or 7th time to see this band. The first two times I saw WP was at the World's Fair Park amplitheater....way too much fun. I use to go see a LOT of shows with the guys and gals on the swim team at UT. It shocks me to realize that I graduated from UT 10 years ago. Gosh, I really don't feel like I am getting older... I think the last time we saw WP was at the Civic Colliseum in 02' or 03'. It should be a great show tonight! They sold out three nights in a row. Time to dance!

Yep, so it is starting to hit me that I have to be back in my school on August 4th. I saw my assistant principal the other day and she said I had my job back. I was a little worried because of the stupid Knox County school budget crisis. We were told on the last day of school that all of us who are not tenured woudn't be promised our jobs this next school year. Luckily our school didn't get hit and I will be back. It will be very interesting though because we are having a lot of administrative turnover this year as well as teacher turnover. It is also ALWAYS interesting to meet the new little scared 6th graders coming in. I love it!

I will try to post a bunch of photos on Thursday.
Cheers!

A few shots of Birthday Boy...

I am not at home and have limited access to shots of Smap on my computer at Smap's office. Here are a few that I don't think I have posted on here before. Again, Happy Birthday Smap. I love you so very much. You are a stellar husband. :)Here is poor ole' Smap on his 40th birthday. We had a great evening in the ER after Smap had a little accident at Haw Ridge. Sucked because I had a cake in the car in a cooler and totally forgot about it until like 3 days later. When I remembered it, I dreaded opening the lid knowing it was going to be a big nasty watery cake mess.

Here is Smap finishing the Black Bear Rampage last summer. Of course everyone knows there was a drought last summer. And, of course it decided to rain hard as nails at the beginning of the race for an hour. Made for a very sloppy ride much like the Cohutta 100 this year!

Smap and I are both signed up to race single speed again this year down at Black Bear. Gary Fisher will be there racing and for post race entertainment. The preregistered riders list states that Floyd Landis is racing. We'll see. It is only a 44 mile race. I'm excited! (not to see Floyd, just for the race because last year was such a kickin' fun time).

And of course a shot of Smap standing in front of the New Belgium Brewery in Fort Collins, CO last year. We had one hell of a good time hanging out here for three hours getting a private tour and learning all we could about beer being manufactured off the grid. Luckily, we can FINALLY purchase this stuff in K-Town! Smap has been drinking every night I think since it has been on the shelves here.

Enough for today.

ps...how about that Tour! It is pretty good this year! I haven't picked my favorite yet, but I guess I will go for Team Columbia since they are a US team and Hincapi is on there. Gotta love that he has been a very strong racer in the tour for the last 13 years.

Next week I will also try to post shots from the 05' Tour de France! I had an interesting time!

a day early.....HAPPY BIRTHDAY SMAP!!!!

Tomorrow is Smap's big day. He will be 42 years young! The other night we were out to dinner and the gal looked at Smap's ID and gasped at how young he looked for his age. He does very good indeed! I wouldn't have married him if he wasn't good looking! Ha ha....only kidding...not really. We'll be doing just about whatever Smap wants to do tomorrow. It will probably consist of mountain biking and/or kayaking. We may have to squeeze the kayaking in on Sunday instead?? It will be a fun weekend though! I will surely get some shots of Smap enjoying his day.
Cheers!

BEE careful of the BEEs....

I still haven't got the chance to upload the shots from last week.

Last night Smap and I decided to do our own road ride out of the house after work. We have this fun route we take out Hardin Valley down to Solway and then back behind Solway (in between Solway and Hardin Valley) there are all kinds of hills and nice beautiful country roads to ride. We came down this downhill that I have done many times before and on the way down I got stung. I am not sure what it was, but I was going so fast and the fear of the dogs that usually haunt this particular hill, I couldn't stop in time to see the bee. I hollered at Smap to hold-up and that I had been stung. When I reached him and got off my bike, he pulled out a huge stinger with some kind of little round white sack attached. I know nothing of bees except I hate getting stung. Smap told me to tell him if I started feeling weird. We talked for a few minutes while riding and sure enough it hit me hard. First my ears and head got extremely hot, my body got really cold with chills, and I had an emergency bathroom break behind a small tree...one that required the use of a sock! I have had to use this trick before. I was also having a hard time breathing. Smap got my phone and got a hold of my dad and stepmom (Joyce). They came and got me about 30 minutes later and drove me home. I still feel not normal today, like that stuff is still in my system. My leg looks like something other than a bee got me too....there is a red puffy area 5" in diameter surrounding the sting. Crap...all I need is some other type of scar on my legs.
Luckily Dad is a doc, so he prescribed me an epi-pen....just in case the next time I go into anafalactic shock. He said the symptoms I had came to me so fast because my heart rate was up there and the juice spread through my system fast...including my digestive system. Poor Smap told me to get behind a tree....I could only make it behind a tiny tree just barely off the road. It is pretty funny now, but at the time it was awful...

Bee Careful.

P.s....this year's Tour is shaping up to be a pretty good one!

Back from the beach!

Smap and I went with several friends (the Grants and the Smelsers) for an extended Fourth of July holiday weekend this past week.  We enjoyed Smap's family beach house in Hilton Head once again playing on the beach, riding bikes, and having a lot of laughs.  I will get the photos up as time permits.  I have been summoned to take on the role of Smap's office manager at his label company while he tries to hire someone new.  I can't say I am overly excited by this because I sense that my summer is pretty much over as far as having continued days off in a row.  Not anymore.  Oh well, I am helping Smap as I should....my bike time will suffer too....and my swim time....fuey.

I really can't complain though because I have been off for 6 nice long weeks.  I will get some HHI shots posted soon.  Right now, I am just recovering from the car ride home.

Cheers!