Rock the CASVAR!

*this post is slightly longer, with more pictures than the one on my public blog*

Wahoo! I have successfully completed my first ever bicycle tour!
What a busy weekend it was! Thursday Joe was at work nearly the entire day trying to get everything done before school starts (this wednesday). I spent the day at home packing. Then Friday we packed everything up and we drove to Star Valley to spend the night before our ride at my parent's house. We were all ready for the next day. We had our bike clothing, energy bars, Gatorade, our bikes were all ready... I guess the only thing we weren't ready for was this:

I was hoping for nicer weather. When we got up in the morning it was COLD! I am talking about 35 degrees! We decided to wait for an hour to see if it got any better (you could start whenever you wanted as long as you could finish in time). The weather warmed up a bit (in the 40s), but it was still windy. We got tired of waiting (I was ready to go, go, go!) and decided to bundle up and head to the start.

Check out that bicycle chick!

We got to the starting point and went to check in. I was in for quite a surprise... it seems that they had to change the routes a little bit from what we had expected. Joe's ride would be pretty much the same distance, but my ride was going to be 45 miles instead of 38! My thoughts were along the lines of... "WHAT?! You've got to be kidding me!" My face probably looked something like this -> ->
(Isn't Ephraim a cutie?)

But after you've gone 38 miles, what's couple more right? At least that's what I had to tell myself! So after we checked in and got our tour T-shirts we took our bikes off the rack and got ready to go.

Joe decided to ride with me until our routes split up. I really appreciated that, especially since I knew I would be slowing him down a little bit. What a guy!

Ready? Set...

GO!

The first part of the ride was the hardest. We were headed south towards Smoot. For the first 11 miles the headwind was awful and it was a bit cold. By the time we hit the first rest stop I was plenty warm, let me tell you! So we shed our jackets and continued on.

After the first stop I really started enjoy the ride. Joe and I were cruising along around 20 miles per hour and it was awesome! I LOVE my new bike. It makes cycling a lot more fun! Joe and I probably looked like and advertisement for Trek with our new bikes. His is a 2009 Trek 2.1 and mine is a 2009 Trek 1.2. (Wahoo Trek!).

They had plenty of places for us to stop, refuel our bodies, or use the restroom. Before I knew it we had gone 30 miles and it was time for us to split up at the Auburn turnoff. I gave my honey a big kiss and told him I would come find him after I had finished.

On my way to the finish when I was about five miles from Afton I caught up with my dad, who had started before we did. He was also doing the 45 mile ride. I would have stayed with him, but he told me to go on and finish. So I went to the finish and was the first one there from my family!

I got to watch both of my parents finish their rides. My dad finished the 45 mile ride, even though one of his legs was bothering him. My mom managed the 25 mile ride. I was really proud of them both!












I kind of wish someone had been there to see me finish. In any case, I was proud of myself. In 2 hours and 32 minutes (not counting stops) I went about 41 miles!! (I somehow missed a four mile detour that was only for my route) That is the longest I have ever cycled.

Then I went and found Joe. I caught up with him at Star Valley Ranch Road. He stopped for a minute to check his tires and give me some of his gear that he didn't need.

He was doing really well and had about 25 miles or so to go. I played leapfrog in the car with him and got some really nice pictures of him.

Can you believe that he went about 81 miles on his first bike tour? It took him about 4 hours 31 minutes of pedaling (not including stops). My husband is amazing! I am SO proud of him.

We had a great time on our first bike tour. The amazing thing is that neither of us is really sore! I guess we're in better shape than we thought! Don't get me wrong, I can tell I used my muscles a lot, but I don't feel stiff at all! Joe has been hurting from the sunburn he got on his legs more than all that pedaling.

We are already planning for our next bike tour. We are going to do one in Heber Valley on my birthday (September 27th). This time I think Joe and I will do the metric century ride together (that's a little over 65 miles). My parents will probably participate too.

Are we crazy or what?

After we had all finished and ate some dinner we went back in to Afton. Grandpa had promised some little boy an airplane ride. Here is Daddy and Jacob in front of the airplane.

Jacob was SO excited to ride in an airplane with Grandpa. He had been talking about it all week.

They just took off, flew around the pattern, and then landed. It was a short ride, but a good one. Jacob wasn't scared at all. Joe said he had fun looking at everything below.

So that was our weekend.

Jacob has been running a fever since we were at Grandpa and Grandma's house. If he isn't better by tomorrow morning I guess I will be taking him to the doctor. I would almost rather bike another 40 miles than have sick kids at home! Joe is super busy at work trying to get everything ready before school starts on Wednesday. I hope I get to see him before bedtime!