Rocky Hill

Nicole went solo to the Rocky Hill race and came out with 3rd place for this race and 1st place overall for the Fall series. This was the final race of the fall. She brought back a new bike for me - Green!

Rocky Hill 07

Lake Bryan Race

Nicole and I headed out to Bryan, TX for the 4th installment of the fall series. Nicole finished 1st and I finished 11th. Pretty fun stuff. The course was pretty flat and uneventful. Lots of tight turns and loose sand. Here are some pictures that others took out there. You'll notice someone snuck a photo of my calf when I wasn't looking when I was wearing a different jersey and riding a different bike. :)
Darn those paparazzi!!

Lake Bryan 2007

Palo Duro Canyon Weekend

Nicole, Billy, David Bearden, and I went to Palo Duro Canyon this past weekend. It was a great place. We went for the 3rd of the Texas Mountainbiking Racing Association race of the fall season. The scenery was special and the mountianbiking was top notch. I would rank it up there with Colorado and Utah mountainbiking - Patrick! Nicole finished 1st in the women's expert category and I moved up from the beginner category to sport and finished 7th out of about 14. The sport category is a bit more advanced because they typically do twice the length (about 20 miles) of the beginners (10 miles). Super fun and challenging!

Palo Duro 2007

Huntsville Fall '07

We went to Huntsville this past weekend and did some racing. It is a generally flat course of 9.5 miles. Nicole's client Floyd joined us for some riding, racing, and camping. I finished 8th out of 43 and Nicole finished 2nd out of 4. She also took home $175 in winnings...NICE!

Huntsville Race

MTB racing at Camp Eagle

Camp Eagle is the 1st race of the fall TMBRA series. Camp Eagle is about 1 hour west of Kerrville. It is probably the most scenic and fun place to hang out. The trail is tough and offsets the serene landscape. There is a small lake area that is springfed with 68 degree water all summer. It is cold and refreshing. The water is so clear - it would be a great place to fish as well. The trail was muddy, slipper, rocky, rooty, and all that fun stuff.

Nicole finished 1st in the Womens 19-29 Expert Category. There were two of them racing in that category. She did a great job and finished just 11 minutes behind the Pro women. She won $40 for coming in 1st place!! $$$$. I still did beginner and came in 6th out of 15 or so. Whoopteedoooo!! ;)

Camp Eagle

Pearsons BBQ weekend

We went to the Pearsons to have some good ol' BBQ and hang out. Here are a few pictures and a video of Julius Dancing...

Pearsons Weekend BBQ

Life in Missouri

Here are a few pictures and a video from our visit to Dad's house in Missouri. Our camera was going out of batteries, so we didn't get as many as we could've. Dad has done a lot of work to the place and it is looking good!

Missouri

Here are some more pictures of Mom's that I scanned for fun...

80's and beyond - - Call's

60's and 70's Call Photos

Here are some cool old family pictures that I got from my Mom.

60's and 70's Calls

Mexico Family Vacation

Nicole and I just got back from visiting James and his crew in Mexico. They live in Dublan and we went with Theresa, her two kids and Mom and Ray as well. We had a great time seeing everyone. The weather was awesome and we were able to truly relax Mexican style...

Mexico Vacation con Familia

X-bar Ranch Race

X bar Finale for Spring Series

This was the last race of the Spring Series. It was a fun and now we are glad it is over - hopefully we can chill for a few months. The location was Eldorado, TX which is about 1 hour southwest of San Angelo and 5 1/2 hours from Denton. There is absolutely nothing around there except cactus, mesquite trees, cactus, some cows, more cactus, roadkill, and more cactus. The cactus were in bloom so it was actually pretty neat to see all of the desert colors in bloom. The weather was 70 degrees at 3:30 when we arrived and it didn't get much above 80 degrees on the day of the race. That definitely beats 95 degrees with no wind 2 years earlier.

I did my race and it was fairly uneventful. I finished 5th at X-bar with a 5th place for the season overall. Nicole finished 2nd at the race and 1st in the overall standings for the Spring Series. She did have a run in with some cactus too. I think the cactus won 1st place. She went off the trail about an inch too much and ended up getting some nice needles in her leg. Nothing too serious, but probably about one hundred inch-long pieces and there are still a few that we couldn't get out. Fun times!!! Nicole finished 1 year of racing in the Sport category and came in 1st place. At this race, she had a small ceremony with the official Jurgen Heise to stamp her card to move to the Expert category next fall. This gives her a chance to race people with more similar skill levels and also to win a little cash depending on how she finishes. $$$. I might retire and be her bike mechanic if she starts raking in the cash.

DC

Double Lake race

I just learned how to type and post pictures. This last race was in Coldspring, TX which is about 45 minutes northeast of Houston in the Sam Houston National Forest. It is the flattest, fastest course of the Spring series and a real lung burner. We have one more race of the Spring Series to go in two weeks out at X-bar in the semi-desert of Southwest Texas. This place was the complete opposite - 100' pine trees everywhere, a spring fed lake to swim in and wash off after riding and sweating in the 99.8% humidity.

Nicole did great as usual. She finished 1st again and I won my first podium position at 3rd place. It was tough. I wanted to stop, but didn't want to fall into 4th position. Nicole rode hard for 1:51 minutes and mine was shorter since I did 2 laps instead of 3 at 1:13min. Fun times! The Hannusch's from Houston and Brazoria came as well to spectate. They did an excellent job as well. Billy Beckes was there as well. He was sporting a fancy new full suspension Kona bike and enjoyed not being numb after the race because of the vibration.

'Til next time......

Waco race

Waco Race

Warda Race

Warda race

Comfort, TX race

Comfort Race

Miss Kitty

Miss Kitty

2nd race - Bar H

Bar H race

1st race of the season

tapatio race

Germany Fotos

germany

Utah/Colorado Mountainbiking

Colorado/Utah Mountainbiking

What David and Nicole do for fun

Texas Calls

This is a small sample of what Nicole and I are doing for fun these days. Most of it consists of mountiainbiking in some form or fashion. This is Nicole rounding a curve at our last race. She rides like a mad woman. She finished 1st overall in the Sport category in Texas.