Antelope Island Ride

I'm riding the 2010 Bike MS ride in a couple of weeks and at the recommendation of my friend Kevin Day, I went out for a training ride two weeks before the big ride.  Unfortunately, two weeks before the big ride turned out to be yesterday.  I was a little gun-shy as I looked out the window and saw the trees swaying from the huge gusts of wind.  I had decided to ride to Antelope Island, because riding there and back would get me to my goal of riding 60 miles.  Here's the route I took:

The ride to Antelope Island wasn't too bad, because I had a tail wind for some of the ride.  The ride back home was a different story.  Anytime I was riding east (which was a good portion of the ride) I was battling winds that had to be 40+ mph.  Being new to the sport of road biking and not having much experience in endurance riding, I learned a couple of things from my experience:
           1.  Don't bike in hurricane wind
           2.  If you run out of water, your legs will cramp up and 
                you will experience much pain until you are able to
                find and drink more water
           3. Just because you're engaging in aerobic exercise
                doesn't mean that your legs will stay warm in the
                cold rain, sleet, and wind.  In fact it is quite possible
                to get hypothermic.
           4.  The kid at the Antelope Island pay station is very
                 cool.  I had forgotten to bring any money with me,
                 and after I had inquired about the possiblity of 
                 giving him my credit card number, he said I could 
                 just go ahead and enter without paying.  He asked
                 me not to tell anyone.  Oops.  Nobody reads this blog
                 anyway.
  

Jane's Blessing

Last Sunday was Jane's blessing. The blessing itself didn't go so well.  Jane screamed through the entire thing and I tried really hard to keep going and not just say amen.  The good thing is, with each of my three daughters, there's always been more to the blessing experience than just the blessing itself.  

Sometime before the blessing day, I like to sit down with (fill in daughter's name) and have some "daddy daughter" time.  This usually involves me making silly faces and (fill in daughter's name) drooling, smiling, cooing, or falling asleep.  I especially enjoyed my time with Jane before her blessing, because she smiles and coos so much.  Besides making faces, I thought a lot about Jane's future.  What will her favorite color be?  Will she like to sing (most definitely)?  Will she be good at algebra, where will she go to college?  Will she be better at skiing or cycling, or equally awesome at both?  The thing that always makes me a little "misty eyed" is imaging (fill in daughter's name) at the temple on her wedding day, dressed in white with a big smile on her face.  I know, it's like all of the Hallmark commercials you've ever seen, all at once in your mind.  

And then (fill in daughter's name) starts to cry, and I stop daydreaming and try to find Deb, because I have no idea what I'm doing.  Anyway, despite the blessing itself not going so well, I enjoyed the overall blessing experience.  And despite having a near "pork-tastrophe" before church, the day was really nice.