Biking Fun

Carrie came up from Wednesday evening through Sunday afternoon. Here she is helping me get my attendance sheets straightened out. Who would have known how closely examined one of those attendance sheets would be today. Carrie also helped clean up my office, just in time for me to start packing it up tomorrow.

This is at the end of our bike trip on the Kokosing Gap Trail on Saturday afternoon. The weather was beautiful and it was a lot of fun. Carrie is riding infront of the Kenyon College Athletic Center. It is pretty impressive as the college has the 2nd highest tuition in the U.S.

Here is one of the many self portraits we took. It was really a fun weekend even though it was pretty busy with school activities. On Friday evening we had Campus Family Vespers and Carrie helped out by doing the majority of the cooking with pizza and vegetables and chips and drinks. We also watched the NBA All-Star game from this February Carrie brought up this trip. Then after supper and worhip we played Bible Baseball. On Saturday night the Acro-Nics had their Gymnastics Homeshow. Then on Sunday about 1 hour after Carrie left I was at the Junior/ Senior Banquet from 4-11:35 p.m.

This was during the Bible Baseball game toward the end of the Vespers. The team Carrie and I were on won despite some tough competition from the other student team!

Saturday afternoon after church, we attempted to record the Raps. vs. New Jersey first game @ 12:30 p.m. but unfortunately the VCR would not work still. Mom and dad recorded the game for me! My prediction: Toronto in 7. I figured I would not be seeing Carrie's car in front of the gym any time soon!

While Carrie was changing before our bikeride, I walked around campus taking pictures. Here is Kevin next to Chelsea's campaign slogan. Notice the nice Canadian flag. She's got my vote.

Carrie, our 2 bikes and Kenyon's Athletic Center after the ride. Boy were we ready to get back to some water! I was going to go riding tonight, but some heavy storms with small hail are here tonight and I got soaked putting the car in the garage. I've sure been glad for that with snow here from early October through early April this year. What a year this has been all around.

Another self portrait from our bike ride. Look at how pretty and blue the sky was. Out of the next 10 days, 7 are predicted to be rainy. That has been the norm here this year except for 5 1/2 weeks during late January til early March.

This our the reality here most of the time, this was taken last Saturday, April 14. It was snowing and raining off and on and a high of around 36. Great weather...

This was a pretty sundown, I think the night before Carrie came. My car has survived so far despite almost having a large tree limb fall on it and dodging several deer, raccoons, canadian geese, etc.

I've got to head to bed, so this is the last self portrait. I had a great time with Carrie and I really wish she was still here. This year is nearly over and I am looking forward to a possible move closer next year. Seven hours away is no good. I sure look forward to next Wednesday when I can head south for Highland and a great weekend with Carrie.

Ski Trip

With snow in the forecast for the next 3 days in Mt. Vernon, I think it is a good time to post some nice pics. of the Colorado Ski Trip this year. In case you haven't been keeping track, Copper closes for the season tomorrow despite getting 3 feet of fresh powder in the last 6 days.

My camera froze up before I could take any pics. on the slopes, but for everyone who got there Friday or Saturday, here is all the great snow and road conditions and powder we had Thursday and Friday. But don't forget the high was in the upper single digits with 30 MPH winds.

The sky turned blue for the first time while I was there on Friday afternoon right after we got off the slopes. I have never been any colder or more miserable riding than Friday with my goggles freezing over so I couldn't see much at all. But if I took them off my eyes started to freeze because they were watering with all the wind and snow hitting my face. This is the stables at Keystone where John works.

It looked pretty when the sun peeked out from behind the clouds. There were no dry roads until Saturday with all the snow they had gotten earlier during the week.

The trail that goes up the side of the Wildernest road was snow covered. I hiked all the way up to Carrie's condo once, which took about maybe 30+ min. each way. It was good exercise and a beautiful sunset in the mountains I got to see as I was coming down. Too bad my camera was already frozen by then.

Faith started to warm up to me this trip somewhat, but she is still pretty shy. I attempted to take her for a walk one day, but we didn't get too far before she ran back home. She is a great dog and never barks. Here she is sitting by the heater to warm up!

This is one of the last pictures my Samsung camera ever took. This is the high school in Frisco. They have a competive touring Ski Team as well as a ice hockey varsity team and many more sports. The high school is less than 10 years old and we met there Saturday for Winterfest SS & Church and eating festival afterward, for which we waited in line for more than 1 hour 20 min. By seeing all these nice blue-sky pictures you will never imagine what the conditions were like on Thursday and Friday. It was by far the best powder riding I have ever had and also by far the coldest and dangerous weather conditions. But like Warren Miller says, if you can't get out in the worst weather you will never get the best powder.

Easter in Collegedale

The weekend was very cold surpisingly. When we went through SonRise it was in the low 30s. I felt really bad for all the actors in the Pageant. All the soldiers were heading for Wright Hall here.

Can you guess who this is? She has been at SonRise for a few years in a row at least.

The new Kelly's Prayer Garden looks really nice. I guess I haven't been on the Promenade for a long time.

To stay warm the sheep were running around their pen. There was livestock all over. Eric had

to take a detour to get to Wal-Mart!!

Don't they look warm? This picture was taken just before Amy & Jeremy headed back to the church for round 2. Once through was enough for me with the cold temps. It was great to see Amy this weekend.

On Sabbath afternoon we went for a hike at Harrison Bay. Here is Jeremy and

his parents and his aunt and 2 cousins. It was nice and sunny even though slightly breezy Sabbath afternoon.

Mom and dad pose by the water that we can't wait to start riding on in 2 short months or less for anyone lucky enough to live in the south still! The water level was pretty low this weekend. I hear they are around 10 inches low on average rain fall in Collegedale to this point in the year.

I was back and even unpacked before it was dark tonight! Unbelievable. I left at 11 a.m. this morning and got back to Mt. Vernon around 7:20 p.m. It was sure cold and there is a little snow left on the ground in patches from the weekend I guess. I had to wear a lot of layers to stay warm unloading.

My face mask from Colorado during Ski Trip sure came in handy tonight unloading. Hopefully none of the neighbors were too worried at seeing a masked man walking through the neighborhood. The Spring Break went by really quick. Before I realize it, the school year will be gone too. Good times.