My first 08' post...I am a slacker!

I'm not really a slacker, I just have gone through a camerless spell and have not been able to get some good shots to share. Finally though, I paid a visit out to my dad's farm last weekend and he so kindly sent me a shot of my activity for the day. Llamas! My dad and Joyce have begun taking on unwanted llamas on their farm. Before, they took on pot-bellied pigs (they have 9), and now their latest animal to add to the Laughalot pets are LLAMAS! They have 11 of them now in two different pastures. I need to go out and get a bunch of shots of all the animals (koi, horses, dogs, pigs, llamas, cats, and sometimes they have some of my uncle's cattle). It is such a fun place to take Ippon because he has so much fun sniffing, swimming, and just hanging out w/all the other dogs.

So, here I am feeding a few llamas. The brown one was letting me hand feed him. I can't remember his name. Corky (the blonde) was only eating out of the bucket (Dad said it was his first time eating out of the bucket). Such funny animals to be around. I shall post more soon....I promise!

Halloween Ridge Ridge 07

Here are a few shots of me enjoying the ride!

Alan and Jimi waiting for shots to be taken!

Someone hung a disco ball at the top of the Hill of Truth for the 12 hour race. The ball was still there last night. We did not climb the HOT though, we came up Rainbow. This shot does not due the HOT justice on how steep it is.


Jimi and Alan again. Alan is on his new Ferris that Smap got for him FREE.... Smap warrantied his old Fisher Rig and Alan lucked out getting a new Ferris since the new 08 Rigs are backordered.

Jimi following the ride. She cleans up nice! She looks much younger than her years and acts younger for that matter. Gotta love Ms. Flynt!

All of us waiting for the random guy to shoot a photo of us.

More waiting.

Me hanging with Alan and Mr. Jones after riding. Our friend's tool truck makes for an odd background. This is also a photo of Alan's new Fisher.

Just a quick blog to show some shots a friend took at the Ridge last night. This will be one our last "Wednesday Night Rides" until next spring. Sad times.

I met up with my friends Jimi Flint (a close friend who introduced Smap and me), Karen Clemments, Alan Carnell, Jeff Murray (Karen's fiance'), and a few others who joined us along the way. It was a perfect night for riding our favorite local trails. I will surely miss my Wednesday night fix.

Thanks to my friend Karen for making us stop to take the photos (even though you had some random guy take quite a few of the shots).

I will surely try to get out right after school for a quick lap here and there. One plus to being a teacher!

Cheers!

9th Annual 12 Hours of Haw Ridge

Here is a tiny photo of me coming finishing my 2nd lap coming off of Low Gap, which is a crazy fun decent. The 12 Hours of Haw Ridge was a blast this year! My women's team (The Menstrual Cycles) had a great race! We got second place behind a semi pro/pro team of ladies out of Chattanooga. My lap times were a lot faster than I thought they would be. My whole team really did well.

Smap did an impressive nine laps on his single speed. Next year he is promiseing to do more. I am sure he will too.

Unfortunately, I did not have my stupid camera at the race because I was having technical difficulties with it. I will still try to find more photos of us at the race. The best part of the race were all of our friends being there. I have never had so much fun. Ippon had a good time too.... Each year we lose him while he goes from camp to camp begging for food. This year though, he had to hang in the Element quite a bit. He was limping (he will be 11 in a few weeks), so I didn't want him to wear himself out too much.

We all had a good time and our team even won Thompson goods for our second place finish.

Here is a link of some professional photos taken of all the racers at the 12 hour. I wish I had some of the field where everyone partied. It was a HUGE party this year. I had too much fun actually.

http://www.photoreflect.com/pr3/thumbpage.aspx?e=3229978

We can't wait till next year!!!!

Rach

More San Fransisco 2007

Picture by Kate...me in the grape field.

Here are some more shots of my trip. We were lucky to get to spend the night on the Korbel estate. Alex has a lot of pull in the restaurant/wine industry due to his position at a nice restaurant in Marin. Alex, Kate and I got up early to get some good shots. Kate took the shot of me just up from the cottage we were staying in....great photos from such a little camera....I like the one w/the fountain. Behind this fountain were some beautiful flowers...we found a hummingbird feeding there and Alex got some great shots (he has a professional camera). Maybe if he sends me some shots I will post them!

I have always have a love for trees. On this trip, I finally got to see Red Woods. They were soooo beautiful. Thank goodness it is now illegal to cut them down. This shot doesn't do the tree justice (again, I have a small camera).

Here are Alex, Barbara and Kate down at the Farmer's Market (held on Saturdays) at the Fairy Building. Amazing food and goods sold here!

Inside the Korbel tour. Of course we were tasting....that was what our entire trip was about....food and wine...and some beer (for my husband's sake...who wasn't present...I could only tell him what was nice)

Ahhhh, Alex was telling us to get ready for the view. We came around a curve on Interstate 1, and this is what we found. The third time I have ever had tears in my eyes due to a spectacular view (others....Grand Canyon and the Galibei).

More on the trip later. I need to talk about food....the most important part of the trip.

Also, tomorrow is the famous 12 hours of Haw Ridge mountain bike race. I will be also posting pics of this wonderful day when I get a chance.

Peace Out!

San Fransisco, CA 2007

So here I am looking out from one of the tallest buildings in SF. What a trip! I will have to do several posts to the blog to get to all the cool stuff we did. I went over this past Friday with my mother-in-law (Barbara) to visit Alex (her youngest son) and Kate (Alex's wife). We were busy pretty much the whole time we were there doing all kinds of different things....mainly eating and drinking wine!

Here I am in Marin. Alex and I rode over the Golden Gate Bridge from their apartment and we caught some great views. I did miss my own personal road bike on this ride.... I am watching some surfers here. I think this was my first real experience of watching surfers. Pretty cool...pretty awesome location.

Here is some of the mountain bike/hiking trail we rode up to get to one of the highest points of the Marin Grasslands. It was pretty dang spectacular. Alex took some sweet shots, so when he sends them to me, I will load them up here.

Here we are (Alex and me) at the top of the first climb we did. The second half of this ride was a blast coming down the single track overlooking the water (kind of behind us, but on another side). It was soooo much fun and amazing. The views are incredible. This would have been been a perfect single speed trail to ride, but I didn't complain. I at least had a really nice mtn.bike to ride (Intense Spider)...Thanks Kate and Alex!!!!

Fall weekend of 10-14-07

Yesterday was a beautiful day for a Brewer's Jam! Smap and I rode our "greenway" bikes down to the World's Fair site to taste some very tasty beers from all over the country (mainly the eastern side....a few from out west). We caught up with several friends during the day. The site was PACKED with pretty cool people. I did have a run-in with a blonde bimbo who thought just because she had on makeup an inch thick and bleached blonde hair and huge boobs, that she could just cut in front of each line to get her glass refilled. I did give her a piece of my mind....it was pretty funny because once I spoke up the other guys in the line did as well.

Other than that, it was a great time! Here are some photos to get an idea of the craziness!

This is a fellow I have known for 27 of my 32 years of existense...Chris King!!! Smap and I have a lot in common with this guy because we are always seeing him EVERYWHERE...

We had a great time catching up yesterday at the Brewer's Jam! I'm sure we will see more of Chris at the different shows downtown...

This is Gibson...one of Smap's friends from High School. I was sitting with a friend (who was serving beer) and up walks Gibson. I first just asked the guy if I could take his picture, but then I looked at him closer and I actually knew him!!!! He said to take a second shot of him so he could send Smap a message. What a nice guy! No really, he is pretty funny. It was good catching up with him...it has been a few years since we have seen him.

My husband. I am a lucky girl....dang he looks good for his 41 years! (he is concentrating on beer right now, that is why he looks so serious)

Saturday Morning

I just want to play around a little here today. Smap and I have a full day of fun activities ahead, so I have little time here. He and I are going to ride our bikes from our house (@20 miles by bike) to the Brewer's Jam downtown. It should be a good time. I plan on taking some good photos while tasting the plentiful array of cold frosty beverages.

August-2007
Smap is happy his race is over. The Black Bear Rampage was the event to participate in this year. We had a drought all summer and of course it rained on us, but we all still had a blast.

It was a 42 mile race in the rain. One of the most fun times I have ever had racing except for the mud flying in my eyes.

Ms. Jimi Flynt rocked the race! One of my wonderful teammates for the 12 hour HOT this year!!! I can't wait! (she is the gal who introduced Smap and me...Thanks Jimi!!!!)

All Knoxville Friends...there must have been 50 folks from Knoxville. Monte Jones is on the ground...imagine that!

Here is Karen, another 12 hour teammate of ours! She raced hard in the race. I wonder if the mud came out of that jersey???? And, last but not least KIMBERLY!!! I credit Kimberly for taking the fear of riding down sketchy SH*T for me. She is a great coach and a great athlete!!! All my teammates are for that matter!!!! We are going to have a great time.

GO MENSTRUAL CYCLES!!!!! Here I am finishing w/my dear sweet single speed.........

Peace Out!!!!