The Trip Recap

The trip was a great success!! Amy rode and completed the 86 mile Shinerbash, it 10 ½ hours. Additionally she doubled her fund raising goal (an was the highest North Texas Chapter Team in Training Fundraiser for just this race.) She doubled the furthest distance she had ridden on her bike, and double the longest amount of time that she had ever ridden. It was great to see her crossing the finish line. I do not really have any pictures of that of Cap watching the race from the car seat. We will get some of Amy at the end of the race, and I will post them in here once that is completed. Thanks to everyone who supported her through finances, thoughts and especially PRAYERS!! There is something amazing in watching someone accomplish this kind of physical test of endurance, particularly someone who is not an athlete.

I wrote a post for Thursday, and I will stick it in tomorrow, it is on a different computer. Below are some of the highlights, and there is a timetable at the end…

Friday
We followed the Team In Training Coordinator down from Dallas to Austin, she drives like a NASCAR driver, so I was driving almost like a NASCAR driver, in and out of traffic, through construction, I think our average speed was around 75 mph in the construction zones. WOW, I was glad to get out of the car. We made it down there in time to get the car unpacked, and go to Amy’s Practice ride.
I am tired and will finish this tomorrow!
Ok now it is tomorrow (Tuesday)

After the practice ride we went to the hotel, cleaned up and went to dinner. I carried Amy’s Bike into the hotel, and got some strange looks (this was not the only time I was moving Amy’s bike in and out of the hotel). After that it was time for the “Pasta Party” we ate at the spaghetti warehouse, in Downtown Austin. It was good, Cap got cranky so we went to the waiting area/lobby and looked at the video games. After Cap was in bed I went down to the lobby to do some work on the ole computer. It was a happening place. There was a wedding party staying at the hotel, and a herd of college age girls we leaving for the bachelorette party. As they were walking out the door one of them exclaimed, “Now don’t lose your **^() straws!!!” (I will let you fill in **^() for yourself.)

Saturday
I awoke at 3:00 am to the sound of wind rain and thunder, and thought to myself, this is not a good sing for the bike ride. I could not go to sleep so I turned on the TV, went to the car to get something that Amy needed, and ventured to the lobby. There were quite a few people that were, “socially lubricated” and hanging out watching it rain, included the two dudes smoking in the hall. I said, I don’t think that you can some in the hall, and they said that room 924 was a smoking room so they could, I replied that they should just go in room 924 and smoke then. At 6:00 am, Cap Amy and I departed for the staring point of the race, it was still raining, but not as hard. Amy took off on the race and Cap and I went and had breakfast. We traveled around the circuit from rest stop to rest stop until we reached the finish line. There we waited for Amy to arrive, and she did. It was a glorious moment, 86 miles on a bike, wow!

We had dinner and went to be around 12:00 am, boy it was a long day.

Sunday we drove from Austin to Dallas, actually McKinney but everyone knows where Dallas is. We stopped at Waco and had lunch. There were a lot of high school kids in there, I am thinking it was a regional track meet for the weekend. They were all excited and talking, and in the WAY. It was interesting to see them and wonder what challenges they will face of the next 4 years! I also recounted the story of when Joey jumped off the bridge into the Brazos River on a drafting state completion trip, so kids can run, I could draw! One point on interest is that I saw the girls from the bachelorette party in the elevator on Sunday, and they looked like they had a hard weekend, of self inflicted pain and agony.

We made it home on Monday, and to keep things brief I will end this post here.