Been a long time...

Wow! It's been a very busy July for us. First there was Sam's pageant. She had a lot of fun with it and made friends with some of the other girls. I shot most of a roll of film, and have exactly one picture that's fit to post. It happens that way with film more often than not, especially when shooting indoors. The camera really does fantastic, but I'm hoping to upgrade to a digital Rebel sometime soon. Burns my ass to develop a roll of film for one shot. Anyway, the pageant was a good learning experience, and the dress turned out beautiful.

Then the kids went to camp(s). Jason went to a wrestling camp up near Baltimore, and feels like he learned some good stuff. Sam returned to Camp Highroad this year, where she was finally old enough to ride the horses. Both of them had a good time, as they usually do, but I think we plan to not send them next year.

Terri took a month of leave, and we spent most of that time first running kids from place to place, then running ourselves from place to place. We spent some time without the kids and some time with the kids at Mike & Annie's house, where we were happy to dig in and help with some of the new house chores. They've certainly had their hands full with getting things done. A lot of little things that add up to frustrations, mostly in the detail work and trying to work with the builder to get things done, or done properly.

Last weekend, Jason entered his first bicycle road race. I'll get pictures posted, hopefully tomorrow. He did better than I expected, and blew his breakfast after the finish. I am quite proud of him, he didn't let up, and he gave it his best effort, and he kept the shiny side up. Everything I asked.

Then, while Terri was still on leave, we went to Williamsburg for a couple of days. Anheuser Busch generously invited military families to enjoy their theme parks for a day "on the house" this year, and we were happy to take them up on the offer. Busch Gardens has long been my favorite park anyway. So we went down on Sunday, and took out bikes. From the hotel we road into Colonial Williamsburg, passing through William & Mary, and just kind of cruised around. The streets there are closed to traffic most of the time, so all you have to watch for is people and road apples. Monday we went to Busch Gardens and made most of a day of it, mostly riding old favorites. The kids and I rode the new DarKastle ride, which was like a cross between one of the "4D" rides and...well I dunno. Your car goes through the ride, there are tons of special 3D effects, and the car moves and twists and shakes a lot. It was the best 3D ride I've ever been on. Monday night we went to Captain George's, a great seafood buffet. Tuesday morning we went by one of the waffle places that I used to take Terri to before a day on the lake when we were stationed down there.

And that brings us up to date!

Fun Independence Day

We haven't been to a professional fireworks display since we've been back in Virginia, and not for a couple of years before that even. So I decided we should go check it out.

Manassas was having some music and things going on on Old Town, so we got on the bikes and headed down there about the time they were supposed to be getting started. We got into Old Town no problem, then had a crossing guard yelling at us to get on the sidewalk. I just laughed at her. 10,000 people down there and she wants us on the sidewalk "for your own safety." No thanks, we know what we're doing, and we had absolutely no problems with cars despite the heavy traffic.

We rode out and had sandwiches at Arby's and rode a few miles down Prince William Parkway, climbing the next hill after crossing the river. Terri hasn't done much in the way of hills on the recumbent, so we wanted to see how it went. No major problems, I think she did fine. Not sure I want her attempting to ride out around Purcellville to Lovettesville yet, but no problem here.

We rode back into town and find a decent spot on a hill to watch the fireworks. Good spot, although we were in the debris fallout area. Lots of mortor debris falling on us, but it was tolerable. We were all impressed with the display, Manassas put on a good show that lasted about a half hour.

Then the advantage of the bicycles became apparent. It took us just a few minutes to get out of the downtown area, we were clear of any significant traffic before most people got to their cars. A stop at 7-Eleven for ice cream or Slurpees rounded out the evening. Total ride was 24.8 miles, with an average speed of right on 12 MPH, and 1074 total feet of climbing.

Neat Ride Tonight

Our Governor, Mark Warner, suffered an accident over the weekend. Apparently after finishishing a group ride he decided to ride a little more. He was taking a drink from his water bottle as he approached a railroad crossing. He braked poorly and went over the bars, breaking a couple of bones in his hand and getting generally banged up. He's recovering, with some plates and screws in his hand. Big cycling advocate in the state, so I like the guy. Anyway, in today's paper is this cartoon.


Now an non-bike related note: Natalie Halloway, a tragic story. I'm sure you are all aware of the girl missing in Aruba. But it's funnay as hell when Jason says: "Aruba! Where happiness lives! Yeah right. So where is Charley from Aruba anyway?

Back to riding...met this guy, Jeff, via http://www.bikeforums.net, who lives about a half mile from us. Jason and I have had the opportunity to ride with him a couple of times. This guy is riding a Giant comfort-type bike with this massive rack on it that he built. Nice job of it too. But the bike is big and heavy and geared lower than our road bikes. Fortunately he's rather tall which helps him hang with us pretty well. Anyway, we're all cruising back toward home this evening along Rt. 28, and this guy comes by on a Harley. As he goes by, I see him making pedaling motions with his right leg. Jason and I laughed our butts off, unfortunately Jeff missed it.