Greetings from the Western Slope!

Ivan, Jim and I landed in Grand Junction, CO on Friday night, picked up a few a staples (peanut butter, jelly, bread, and of course, some fine Fat Tire microbrew), then it was off to our hotel and a hike around the Fruita Fall Festival. We were up early Saturday morning, thanks to Comander Konermann's 6:00 am revelry (hey, aren't we on vacation?). Oh well, if I just stay on East Coast time, that's still sleeping in to 8:00. Or so I'll just keep telling myself.

We hit the coffee shop in Fruita and I picked up my bike at Over The Edge Sports. (Side note: I shipped my bike via Fed Ex - special thanks to Mark at Cycle Path...btw Mark, the new Endura bearings in the bottom bracket are awesome! Jim and Ivan flew their bikes with them). We met up with Dirt Diva for Life, Rebecca Adler and her friends, and it was off the the Kokopelli Trail System.

We did a warm up ride on Rustlers Loop, which offers tremendous views of the Colorado River. While it would be considered a

beginner loop, it offered those that hadn't ridden Fruita in the past, a chance to see what it was all about. It was a great warm up before going off on the more challenging trails.

Next up was the 1.5 mile climb up Mary's Loop to the portaged stairway of washing machine boulders that dropped us onto Horsethief Bench. It is truly amazing the kind of punishment that today's high tech mountain bike handle. Several times, with my skills somewhat maxed out, the bike (my Turner Flux) saved my hide. Jim, Ivan and I would scamper off for a little wide open adrenalin rush, then throttle back for Rebecca and Lese, who were never far behind. We completed Horesthief, then it was a return hike up those washing machine boulders and back to complete Mary's.

As we headed back to the parking area, Jim suffered a pinch flat of his rear tire. A pinch flat to a tubless tire can spell disaster, so we installed a tube. While reinstalling the wheel, the rotor caught a brake pad and one thing leading to another, we eventually had to remove the rear brake caliper and Jim limped in on just a front brake. The upshot was that with only one brake, Jim got to work on some new skills. Fortunately, once back in Fruita, he was able to get it quickly repaired and were ready for Sunday's ride at the Bookcliffs.

The desert heat was tough on all of us. The three of us went through 100 oz Camelback bladders and an endurance drink on the bikes. Saturday night was spent re-hydrating and an excellent meal in Grand Junction.

Stupidity Rears it's Ugly Head

Many of you know what I do for a living: Investigate part failures of race cars. It's an interesting profession to say the least. I sometimes scratch my head an say to myself, "What were they thinking?". Maybe I should heed some of that advice...

As you know, I love to mountain bike. It's the full body workout and the thrills that it gives helps to keep me young.

18 months or so ago, I gave a Santa Cruz Superlight frame to a friend of mine. Cathie was a great little rider and she was starting to participate in more and more mountain bike races. The thing that was holding her back was marginal equipment. I wasn't riding my Superlight (due to my Cathy presenting me with a Turner Flux), so I figured, "What the heck" and gave the Superlight frame to Cathie to race. And race she did.

I don't know all of the particulars, but one day her car was rear ended and unfortunately the meat in the sandwich was the Superlight that was hanging off her rear car rack. The car and bike were both toast, and she was fortunate enough that her insurance company purchase her a Specialized Epic (and a new car). She returned the frame to me, it was sent back to Santa Cruz and in no time, I had a crash replacement frame.

So what to do? I had plenty of parts and pieces laying around, so I set about the task of piecing it back together. Begging, borrowing and scraping, I was able to reassemble the new bike. A good friend of mine in the race industry was good enough to sell me a really clean Fox Float RL fork for the front end. The caveat was the fact that the the steerer tube was going to be really short. Carl is a talented fabricator and he sleeved the steerer tube, welded it together and I was on my way, much to the chagrin of Mark, my local wrench.

The maiden voyage was Friday evening at LNSP. The bike currently has a 5th Element rear shock, so I did a quick Google search and came up with the recommended pressures. With a shock pump in my pack, I set off to "dial 'er in". I made it 0.12 miles when I heard/felt a snap and some immediate loss of control. I quickly unclipped from the left side as the front wheel turned lazily full left and I was left standing over three pieces of what was once my new steed.

It seems that the torsional, tensile and compressive stresses were too great and the aforementioned weld had let go. I was fortunate to have escaped with a only scrape on my right shin. Laying in bed this morning, I thought of how bad it could have been, especially if it had let go on one of the high speed sections of the Monbo. What was I thinking?

Excitement, a Scare, and More of the Same…

Church bells will be ringing in the not too distant future as Jonathan, my daughter Lyndsay’s boyfriend of 3 years has asked for her hand in marriage! Jonathan popped the question while the couple was taking a long deserved, end of summer trip to the beach. Lyndsay, an English major graduate of UNCC and Jonathan currently live in Greensboro. Jonathan is finishing his graduate degree in biology at UNCG and Lyndsay is employed by SunTrust Bank. Jonathan has applied to several medical schools and the future looks bright for acceptance and the long road toward his dream of becoming a doctor. Wherever he lands, Lyndsay is talking of continuing her education in a graduate program.

As parents, Alison and I couldn’t be more proud of the kids and our support is firmly behind them. They are intelligent, firmly planted and complement each other very nicely. Initial indications place the wedding in May or June, fitting into Jonathan’s school schedule.

We received quite a scare from ASU, when I was contacted by Travis suitemate, Kyle on Tuesday afternoon. For the second time since last January, Travis was in the infirmary with a highly elevated heart rate. I took off for Boone in the late afternoon and we moved him from the campus medical facility to the emergency room at Watauga Medical Center. There, he was given intravenous fluids and nausea medication. They pumped the 100 mL bag of fluids into him in less than an hour and the medication did wonders to bring his resting heart rate down from 110 – 120 bpm to 55 – 60 bpm. We were able to finally leave the hospital and get to our hotel room (thanks Alison and Mark) around 12:30 am. He was feeling much better, but as of this morning he was still a bit woozy, probably more from a lack food than anything. I got him up around 8:00 this morning and talked him into going to his 3 morning classes. (edit: At least I thought he was going to class…He made it as far as his dorm room and hit the bed for several hours). We visited a cardiologist this afternoon where he had an echo cardiogram (the same basic system to view unborn children). He will wear a heart monitor for the next 24 hours.

Travis’ weekend began with a 13 hour drive to Baton Rouge, LA for the ASU/LSU football game. With little sleep, they were on their way to the stadium at 8:00 Saturday morning. With Gustav threatening the Gulf coast, the 7:30 PM game was moved to a 10:00 AM start. The weather conditions were brutal (80’s with high humidity) and he soon ran out of cash. Not able to purchase water with his ATM card, he was forced to do without until they left the 41 – 10 trashing by LSU. Following a BBQ lunch, they set off for Boone, to return at 6:30 am Sunday morning.

My boy isn’t the best traveler and he experienced motion sickness for much of the trip. Being run down, dizzy and dehydrated, his heart rate skyrocketed and he became listless and nauseated around noon on Monday. I have to keep on him to pound the fluids, listen to his body and chill out just a little bit. His intention of straight A’s for the semester hangs in the balance and I am hopeful that this little episode will slow him down, even a little bit. The home opener for ASU is this coming Saturday and I’m certain that he doesn’t want/need a repeat performance.

Speaking of repeat performances, I was back at the dermatologist this past Friday to have a basil cell cancer removed from my left collarbone. I have immense confidence in Dr. Wolf, who enjoys his art as much as he enjoys hacking on me. He removed a rather large (2-in. diameter) patch of skin and stitched me back together as Cathy was on hand for moral support. The surgery went well and I was pressure washing the driveway in a matter of hours. While I have a difficult time wearing a seatbelt or my Camelback while riding, I seem to be healing well. I will know the results of the biopsy soon and if additional measures are required, I will be waiting until I return from my trip to the southwest, later this month.