Nobody cares about this except me, but my car hit 50,000 miles and I felt like it was a special moment. Not special enough to warrant pulling over for the photo, evidently, but still special.I joined my parents at the beach for a few [BICYCLE FREE!] days and decided one afternoon to walk to the Starbucks in a nearby town. Several HOURS of walking later, the old folks were going strong while I was lagging and limping and complaining down the beach. Apparently a career professional cycling prepares you for absolutely no other physical activity.My father generously held my bag on the walk back so I could get in the water. I got new bathing suits recently at my mother’s insistence (“A sports bra and shorts are not swimming apparel!”) and after she watched my first swim in the ocean, she understood why ‘ability to withstand excessive moment’ was an evaluation criteria while shopping. I don’t like to just look at the waves; I like to stand under them and get smushed into the shoreline. It was common to find sand and small rocks in my swimsuit. And did you know you could get bruises from the ocean?My mother decided to feed the seagulls. Then she got tired of feeding them and thought saying, “shoo! shoo! that’s it! no more!” would make them go away. We had birds for the next hour.My father brought his bike to the beach and pulled it out one night to show me. The man has a spare everything in his saddle bag (“Dad, you have great stuff in here! A Crank Brothers multi-tool! Titanium tire levers! A nice CO2 valve!” His response: “You bought it for me.” Oh. Right.) except he doesn’t have a spare tube. When I asked him about it, he scoffed and said that he wouldn’t get a flat. “But what if you did?” I asked. His reply: “I’ll walk.”Andrew and I were on our way to a fall festival out near Bluemont, VA but ended up at the general store in town drinking root beer on the porch instead. Then we visited a plantation after a drive in the country. “Oh! Look at that little chair hidden in the garden! I want to sit in it. [inspected dirty chair. grimaced.] Do you think it’s dirty?” He told me it was as dirty as anything else outside and I was all, dude, this is why I don’t do outside.Drew at the plantation. It was a perfect autumn afternoon. Except that training starts again today and my body is having a hard time coming to grips with the reality that we’re going to have to do intervals and crits this week instead of pumpkin carving and apple cider.
Lots of great memories!