Summer 2009

It has been a long time since I updated this thing. I am sure the few of you who read it are suprised that I am updating it now. I am flying to San Antonio Texas and can't sleep so I Am using my iPhone to type this up then I will transfer it to the blog. 

My last post was in may so I guess I should cover the summer. Heather graduated in may so we all flew home to illinois. It is hard to believe I have two done with college. While we were home we traveled to Missouri to attend a dedication of the ROTC lounge at Rolla to my brother Josh. 

June was also a busy month. One weekend chris and I were on the big
Island for a bike race while Courtney was on Maui with the girls scouts. The race was a stage race made up of 3 seperate races.  I ended up with a first second and third taking the overall first for my catagory. Later in the month chris and I went to San Antonio for a conference while Courtney went to ca to visit my sister Gina. San Antonio was great we got to spend time with our friends Rose and Tony.

Heather came home for a visit in July. We always have a lot of fun at the beach and on the bikes. We even trieD paddle surfing. I also won the cat 4/5 state crit for the masters division. 

I started august by traveling to japan.  This time I went to Okinawa and I didn't see any snow but I did sweat a lot. My buddy curt came out for a week.  The last weekend of the month my buddy john and i were riding on the windward side when a truck crossed in front of us. John wasn't able to stop and ran into the side of the truck breaking his collarbone, 3 ribs, and 3 vertabre.  He will be off the bike for 3 months. 

The highlight for Labor say weekend was the dick Evans round the island race. One of my goals for this year was a top 20 finish.  I didn't think I had a shot but some how I pulled off a 17th place finish. 

I also tested for chief on 10 sept. I had deci ded this would be the last time. If I don't make I will retire next summer. I felt pretty good about the test  I just have to wait until November to find out.

Finally I decided to purchase a new car.   I had planned on buying a vette then a mustang convertible but I ended up buying a ford escape....four cylinder.  A little bit of a diversion from the powerful cars I started looking at. I think. My buddy Ron was a bit disappointed but I decided to go with something more practical that could hall Ginger and the bikes. It does have a 5-speed manual transmission so it is fun to drive and it gets good mileage.  Maybe the muscle cars will come when we get back to the mainland.