The Skinny

New adventure...

2012-01-20T19:14:00.000-08:00

Coming soon.

shawnslist 1

2011-05-31T20:43:00.000-07:00

So at the beginning of 2011, I started a "Get your house in order plan." My goal is/was to reduce 1/3 to 1/2 of all of our stuff. So far I have 5 Suburban loads full of "stuff" that went to the DI. Here is the good stuff. If you are interested, send me an email or text/call me. This batch of stuff was originally my grandparents. Much of it vintage/antique. What doesn't move here will be posted on KSL or consigned.

Roll top desk, all wood, $800

Basic Shelves: $40

Mahogany buffet, refinished, best piece we have: $1800

Chair and love seat: $250

Black Shelves: Free

Book Shelf: Free to $20

CD Fold out storage: $50 each

Pottery Barn Art Easel: $100

Shelves: $40

Cherry Wood Dresser: $150 (some water Damage)

6 Drawer Dresser: $200

Fancier 6 Drawer Dresser: $200

Corner Desk w/hutches (hutches go on base pieces): $300

Antique vanity (mirror goes between two uprights, one broken, but repairable): $150

Chest of drawers: $150

CD Case: Free

Antique Desk that used to be an Organ. Really cool: $325

Horseshoe Table: $700

Desk chair: $75

Bookshelf: Free

Mid size book shelf: $100,000 (Melissa really likes this one).

Stand you up arm chair. Raises up to get you off your duff: $400

Solid wood Table Tennis Table: $100

Dining room table and chairs: $200

Small book shelf: $200,000 (Melissa likes this one too)

More furniture, kids stuff, sporting goods etc to come.

shawnslist

2011-05-25T20:09:00.000-07:00

Coming soon. Watch with anticipation. Hopefully started by Saturday.

I have a ski dream....

2010-11-24T19:42:00.001-08:00

Interestingly, I have a dream to go on a ski vacation. You might find that strange, seeing that I can travel to the best skiing on the planet in 25 minutes from my front porch. But still, I really want to go on a ski vacation for a week or so with my family. Maybe, Tahoe or BC. You know the whole, ski in, ski out lodge thing could really be up my alley. Here is the kicker. In this dream I take my family, Me, Melissa and my 5 darling children. The best part of the dream is that on this ski vacation all of my children can self manage and are excited to go skiing. Boots, hats, gloves, skis, poles, goggles, you name it they can get ready themselves, get their gear to the snow and then proceed to smoke me down the mountain. The only persons boots I want to buckle in this dream are my own and of course, Melissa. If I were take this dream and distill it down to one image it would be this: We are boarding a 6-pack chair lift and my wife and 5 fore-mentioned darlings board the chair laughing and genuinely enjoying each others company. I get on the next chair, by myself and get to watch 12 skis, 12 poles, 6 helmets, 12 gloves, etc that I didn't put on (except for Melissa's boots of course) gracefully glide up the mountain, whilst I reflect on the pain and sacrifice to get to this juncture. This is my magic moment......

In case you were wondering, The Stringham Family is not there yet. Oh, man.

This post could be a guide to how to execute a ski day with 7 souls 5 of which are 12 and under. I think a lot of people think I'm crazy (I am), but today, even I thought "This is not worth it." Cue vision of dream here to help stay on target.

My stated goal is to have a family that enjoys recreational activities together, especially a "culture of skiing." We go to Warren Miller, we shop Labor Day sales, we plan over snow reports. To this point I have driven this. But there was a slight shift in the "force," perhaps you felt it. When the snow started to fly earlier int he week, my girls (Manth and Milsey) started to say things like "Dad, when can we go skiing?" "Oh my gosh, look at that powder" this morning as I was laying in bed I overheard Samantha and Amelia talking, one said to the other "I am so excited for today" response "Why?", "We get to go skiing!" "yeah, it is going to be awesome!" Bless their hearts! Let's go skiing!

The one thing that you need to know when you are a good skier that then has a family your standard of a "great" ski day changes drastically. There is no "first chair", very rarely is there any powder. There is lots of "edgie-wedgies" (not the same thing as happens to your underwear), there are lots of gear explosions as witnessed here. And there is a ton, I mean a ton of time spent prepping, organizing, checking, re-checking, finding again after Peter pulls stuff out of bags, stuff. Every skier does the quick-checklist as they pull out of the drive way "Skis, boots, poles, gloves, hat, goggles." Times that by 7 and you have a task on your hand. This clearly falls into my territory. As we get ready to go skiing, I look to Melissa for help, and, as you all know, she is incredibly supportive of all my "endeavors." But on skiing, she kind of looks at me like "hey, this your gig, dude." I am OK with that. Anyway, I pack, which is doubly difficult for the first day of the season. I have a list of 13 essentials everyone needs to go to the mountain, times that by 7... you have 91 items that have to be found and put in a bag. Our rule is that every kid has their own ski bag, in which the 13 items go and essentially stay there all ski season. Melissa, loves to organize, they are even color coded. Makes it very easy, well..... not easy, but better. We load the gear and it's off to the mountain. Being the fun dad that I am, on the way up we drive past the "red church" untouched parking lot, time for "doughnuts," Not the kind you eat. Kids (Jonas, Samantha, Amelia, Megan and Peter), you are not allowed to do this. Unless, I am in the car, of course. Melissa quote: "You can never take the teenager out of the man." Nope. Anywhooo..... up to Brighton.

We arrive, no car sickness (this is an improvement). The second great phase of pain. Assembly. It is cold. Really cold, we play the count every digit the temperature is falling game up the canyon. Ummmm... it reached "0." We did score the best parking spot in the lot, however. So in the assembly phase, you take out everything you diligently just put in the bag on all of these very wiggly, and complaining loudly (because of the cold) children. As a father, you can't win here. There is no order that will satisfy everyone. I have tried oldest to youngest, youngest to oldest, we have moved to if you are out of the car and not whining, you get help. Otherwise, it is up to you (insert vision of dream here).

Everyone dressed, I think this took us about 20 minutes and up to the lodge, another 15 minutes. Envision the 10th mountain division in formation, hiking up the mountain, preparing a frontal attack. I sent everyone up to the lodge because I had to go pick up my employee pass. Remember that everyone was dressed. By the time I got my pass (10 minutes) and I found them, most of them had their boots, helmets, goggles, socks and gloves off. Seriously? I had a choice, Re-dress or eat. Eat. If you have learn anything from this post and you are interested in having a "ski culture" in your home. Take this advice. Eat early and often. And..... Throw all nutritional concerns out the window. We had fries, 1 chocolate chip cookie, one sugar cookie and brownie for lunch. Kids love it. And always have a pocket of chocolate. It is amazing the power of a Crunch bar to fight back impending meltdowns. Sure it is bribery, but you know what? It works.

While I am in the advice mode.... Do your best, but plan on cursing, hopefully only under your breath, but often aloud at least one time during a family ski day. It is inevitable. It is a great way to teach repentance ("Daddies aren't perfect, and sometimes get tired of carrying all your CRAP!") Sorry, I digress. Notice, we have not even put our skis on yet. Focus on patience. A "great" family ski day has very little to do with actual skiing. So throughout this process, Jonas decided he didn't want to ski today, so he was nominated to "watch" (I use that term loosely) Peter in the lodge. Okay, time to redress (another 15 minutes) and off to ski. At this point we actually get our skis on and head to.... the bunny hill.

The Explorer lift (affectionately known as "Exploder" by the Brighton Ski School staff) is where we will get our "ski legs" under us. This part is actually really fun. Samantha and Amelia take off. Samantha skiing beautiful parallel turns, Amelia bombing the wedge, but pretty excited to show Melissa around. I skied with Duff and she was successfully playing "red-light, green-light." Duff and I get to the bottom and Duffy says "Dad, that was so fun, can we go again" I say "I love you, yep." Up at the top, I get "Dad, I'm tired, can we go home?" Here is the test. More advice. Avoid temptation to say "D@#$ IT! I packed for 3 hours and hauled all your stuff up here for 1 run? I don't think so! We are skiing, until those little short legs fall off!" Say something like "You want some Crunch Bar? We can go back to the lodge and get some chocolate." The typical response is "Ooh yeah!" By the way Samantha, while she lapped us a couple of times, is already heading back. I take Duff in, leave her in Jonas and Samantha's capable hand and head back out.

Amelia earns the "trooper" award. Lapped Exploder 7-8 times, decided she wanted to go up Majestic, bails at the last second because of cold feet. Hike her back to the lodge. Melissa also is a little cold but motivated to get back out to ski. While I take a run she hides in the ski school so the kids don't see her. Yup, we hide from our kids.

I swing back around and we take a run together. Just the two of us. I think the first time since 1994. On the lift she said that Amelia told her "When I am an adult, I am leaving my kids behind and skiing with The Husband" The 3 things I get from this statement.... 1) She wants to ski as an adult, 2) I will someday be a grandparent. Wow. 3) She wants to marry a man. Sweet. As we ski down it is great to be with Melissa. When we get down to the lodge, Samantha wants to take another run so Melissa takes her on Majestic. It is now my task to get all the stuff back to the car.

In a family ski trip, if people are warm and happy, keep 'em that way. I start with the gear to the car first. A great investment is a cheap toboggan. We load all the gear (skis and poles) and pull it up to the lodge. So skis and stuff back in toboggan and back to car. Hike from car back to lodge. I take the toboggan with me for children. Climb stairs, find kids, convince it's time to go out in the 0 degree weather back to the car. "You can ride in the sled!" Cheers. Amelia, Duff and Peter in the toboggan, I start to pull. The nice thing about back to the car is you are not typically fighting gravity. I proved that. As we were making the last little pitch into the parking lot, I slipped, fell and let go of the sled. Yep, there they go my 3 youngest children careening down the mountain into to the parking lot. I am running as fast as I can after them, in boots. Amelia has the survival instinct to lean out the back and drag her body in the snow, which makes Duff and Peter fall backwards also. This is a good thing. The dragging weight slows them down enough that they glide gently under a parked PathFinder. Unscathed and unharmed. Man, I wish I had it on tape. I would be $10,000 richer from AFV. Enough to pay for my ski vacation someday.

Get everything loaded up, heat the car up and wait for Samantha and Melissa to join us back at the car. Everyone seems to have a fun day, 3 of 5 fall asleep on the ride down the canyon. Good sign. We stop at the new Five Guys on the way home and eat more french fries. Very good.

Unload, re-pack, put away stuff thinking "I have been working on ski gear for 10 hours now". But, gotta keep the dream alive. Try again on Friday.

Someday, I'm giving it 12 years, Peter will be 13 and I will watch them in the chair in front of me. Then they will unload an all of them will rip it up. It will be so worth it.

Until then anybody want a Crunch Bar?

This is a photo from last year. Same idea. Today we couldn't find the camera and it was too cold to take gloves off for photos anyway.....

Bucket bike.

2010-10-13T22:14:00.000-07:00

I wish I could be this cool. Hey, at least I have the bike. Check out Jared's latest version.

07/31/2010 Emigration and Little Cottonwood in Salt Lake City, UT

2010-07-31T17:08:00.000-07:00

Date: July 31, 2010 (Happy Birthday Robbie!)
Miles: 73
July Miles: 1006

MapMyRide - 07/31/2010 Emigration and Little Cottonwood in Salt Lake City, UT

Well, I made it. 1,006 miles in 31 days. Four days off for Sunday, 3 "missed" days and 24 days of riding. 24 days does not seem like a lot of days now that it is over. But this may be the longest July I have every endured. I rode for a total of 60 hours, 43,834 calories. I am the shadow of the man I used to be.... (don't know if that even makes sense, but I thought it was a cool picture).

At the summit of Emigration Canyon. Very comfortable ride (38:15, saving legs for jaunt to Alta later) On my way down the canyon I counted over 100 bikes coming up. I was tempted to turn around and ride again just to see how many I could pass, but no... off to Little Cottonwood.

Little Cottonwood Canyon is a hard climb. There is no respite. Somewhere between 6 and 12% for 10 miles. I was 90 seconds slower than my PR last hear at the Snowbird Hill climb with 50 miles in my legs on the day and 970 miles on my legs for the month. I hope to crush my PR on August 21st. If you go to the very top at Alta you climb about 4000 feet. Topping out at:

And get to see this. Awesome. I love Little Cottonwood Canyon.

Albion Basin has a fountain of life. Thanks Alta. Needed it.

High Rustler. Best powder run in the United States.

Snowbird.

So a few reflections on what I learned from my goal.
1) I don't need to watch TV ever again. Inane and mind-sucking. I even gave up on the Tour. That sound you hear is Comcast crying as they downgrade our service.
2) You need a very supportive wife to ride 1,000 miles in a month. Melissa, thanks! I love you for many reasons, none the least is that you support me and my crazy adventures.
3) I will try and make this sound kind. I never want to hear anybody tell me "they don't have time to exercise." I think I have a sound "Phooey" coming their way.
4) I don't think you can ride much more than 1,000 miles, be a husband, father, Young Mens President, work full time and play in a band. Just don't think you can.
5) My reason for this goal was to avoid a puke bomb at LOTOJA and to build strength and power in the flats and winds. I am feeling pretty good on the bike. If you see me remind me to eat and drink often.

August is for climbing. If you want to ride with me, it will probably be uphill. Hey Rob, 50,000 feet vertical in August? Let me know.

Ride on.......

07/30/2010 Work in Salt Lake City, UT

2010-07-30T16:52:00.000-07:00

Date: July 30, 2010
Distance: 13
July Distance: 933

MapMyRide - 07/30/2010 Work in Salt Lake City, UT

Nothing too fancy here. Just to work and back. A day of good intentions. Was hoping to go longer before and after work. Yeah, that didn't happen. But, I did get a lot done. Have to make it up, grind it out tomorrow. Because, well, tomorrow is the last day of July.

Had a productive day at work and the annual Peter Breinholt concert. Which, the kids love.

We have a lot of cute girls in our circle of friends. I am afraid for the next 5-10 years. Wow.

We have a lot of cute girls in our circle of friends. I am afraid for the next 5-10 years. Wow.

Plus if you wondered if Pete has his groove on. He does. (Our Pete. It seems Mr. Breinholt always has his groove on.)

07/29/2010 Capitol/NSL Loop in Salt Lake City, UT

2010-07-29T16:44:00.000-07:00

July 29, 2010
Distance: 34
July Distance: 920

MapMyRide - 07/29/2010 Capitol/NSL Loop in Salt Lake City, UT

Broke into the last 10% over 900 miles. I can see the finish line. A classic route with a twist at the end. Instead of heading up S. Temple or 2nd Ave I went out to 45th S. on 5th/9th east. Nice way to get a few extra miles.

After work, took the family boating. Thursday night is boat night this year for the Stringham Family. Good stuff. Anybody want to come?

Jonas may have found his boating passion. The Dunfords unearthed an old knee board. Couldn't keep Jonas off it. Was in the water for 40 mins with a smile the whole time.

No riding today. Fail.

2010-07-28T16:30:00.000-07:00

Date: July 28, 2010
Distance: 0
July Distance: 886

Getting a little mentally weary I have to admit. Fought with myself from 5:15 til about 7:15am. Get up. Stay in bed. Get up. Stay in bed. Stay in bed won. And I took the Priests water skiing after work. Hopefully what I lack in training benefit I make up for in service benefit. Plus it is always fun to take guys who fight over who is going in the water next, even when it is crappy water. Love the enthusiasm. Stayed till it was almost pitch dark.

07/27/2010 Work/Lil Cottonwood/Home in Salt Lake City, UT

2010-07-27T16:26:00.000-07:00

July 27, 2010
Distance: 36
July Distance: 886

MapMyRide - 07/27/2010 Work/Lil Cottonwood/Home in Salt Lake City, UT

I really like riding my bike to work. It is a great way to build miles without a) getting up very early, b) spending an additional amount of time from the family. If I go the "long way" there and home and I can get about 30-40 miles depending on the route. I couldn't do this without short hair and baby wipes. Baby wipes is what I use to "freshen up" when I get to work. It is nice that I work for a wellness company, they get what I am trying to do.

Speaking of work, here is the progress on our new office.

We have walls now. Progress is coming along quickly. Move in date set for Sept 10th. The day before LOTOJA. That will be interesting.

On the way home from work, went by Little Cottonwood and thought this was a cool sign. I am easily entertained.

07/26/2010 Work/TC/Home in Salt Lake City, UT

2010-07-26T16:09:00.000-07:00

Date: July 26, 2010
Distance: 19
July Distance: 850

MapMyRide - A ride mapped on 07/26/2010 in Salt Lake City, UT

A nice simple recovery day today. A little less motivated becuase I know I only have 150 miles to go. I never thought 150 miles in a week would make me think "Easy." I feel pretty confident that I am going to hit 1000. Just need to "stay the course" and "focus on the fundamentals" two of my favorite post game sports quotes. Best part of today is I bumped up into a guy named "Bill" on my way to work as I was dropping down 45th South. He hooked onto my wheel and I pulled a mile or two at about 22-23 mph. He was probably early 60's. As I turned right on 900 East he yelled out to me and said "Let me take a turn," Heck why not, some one wants to block the wind for me. Can do. As he pulled past he said "You are dragging that big back pack, I can help" (When I ride to work on Mondays, I take all my work clothes, computer, lunch, etc... My bag weighs about 25 lbs) Bill pulled in front and proceeded at about 14mph. He was working hard and I thought what he did was cool. As I turned down my street to work, I said thanks he reached out and shook my hand like we had just finished a Tour stage. When I grow up I want to be that guy. It was pretty cool.

07/24/2010 Happy Pioneer Day! in Salt Lake City, UT

2010-07-24T15:15:00.000-07:00

Date: July 24, 2010
Distance: 101
July Distance: 831
Partner: Robert Backman Marsh

MapMyRide - 07/24/2010 Happy Pioneer Day! in Salt Lake City, UT

I kind of had a feeling this was going to be a great ride and a great blog post. We will see if I can do both of them justice. So I was behind 30 miles on the quota and needed to pull a century, no problem, throw in a couple of Cat 2 climbs, a marathon, parade, hot and cold and of course some clowns a bagpipe band and you have yourself a good day. I am not making this up.

The day started at 5:30am, Rob Marsh knocking on my door (there is a song in there somewhere). We head for our favorite warm-up, Emigration Canyon knowing that the marathon will be coming down hoping to check out the action. Didn't quite make it to the top before we saw the leaders. There were 3 Kenyans, oh, about 25 minutes in front of the rest at mile 10. My thought "Run faster people of Utah!" When we got to the elbow, we started to see the rest of the field and had a great time cheering people on as we were going up and they were going down. I think the runners thought it was cool also. At 9 miles into a marathon, most runners are still pretty happy. Made it to the summit to see most of the runners and the sunrise. Very cool combination. Here is a photo:

We cheered for lots of folk and I planned a couple of photos on the way down.

Dude running in a kilt. This may not be a bad idea, less chaffing if done authentically.
Spoke to our Scottish heritage. We decided to wear kilts in LOTOJA this year. We do look good in kilts after all.

Dude running with an American Flag. Cool.
I did not take a photo of the newest running fashion. Women with the bottom 2-3 inches of the buttocks hanging out, Rob and I decided, that we knew what we were getting Melissa and Michelle for Mother's Day next year.

Eventually we got out of the canyon, cold and shivering, because it was the slowest descent of the canyon ever. It was fun and I saw my friends Laurel Alder and Julie Wray on the way up. Apparently their tradition also. Have to hook up together next year. Headed for the Capitol along 11th Ave, knowing that we were going to South Mountain, snapped this photo thinking, that is a long way to go.
Cruised through City Creek, past the Capitol, down Victory Road to 2200 West. Found out where SunRiver bill boards go to die. Funny. They cover hay.
Realized that there is still real farm land in the Salt Lake Valley.
Then headed into downtown to check out the parade. Boy Scouts, I was going to march with them, but, bike shoes not great for walking. ....
And now, as proclaimed by Rob "Photo of the Year" What is unique about this photo? A) 2 grown men dressed in Lycra standing in the middle of downtown, B) 2 grown individuals in make-up C) Rob spotted the clowns and suggested the photo, D) Have you ever seen Rob smile that much in any photo, thus making it rare E) The conversation overheard right before the photo. Rob "Can we get a photo with you?" Red head clown "Have you seen our friend, he looks like a clown." Rob "Ummmmm, no, Do you mind if we take a photo?" Green hair clown "Yes, that would be great."
Bag pipe band, ready for piping. I think they are looking for Kilt Running Man. Seems he was late.
Rob and I decided to ride right down the middle of the parade route. My FB post of this photo said "I'd like to thank everyone for coming out for our ride today." I thought that was funny. Got a hook up from the Jimmy John dude. Thanks for the free sandwiches. I was already getting pretty hungry. 50 miles in.
Always nice to know and be related to a Police Officers. Melissa and Rob's cousin David Knaub. He let us cross the line and he didn't taser us. Thanks.
This is really the best way to see the parade. Looking forward to the same ride next year. Plus lots of folks cheered for us as we rode. They were delirious from sleeping on the pavement overnight.

So this is a photo you don't see very often. Mostly because, it has never happened to me before. Hit a pot hole, knocked my bottle out, which then wedged between my crank and frame. Worst news is I put a hole in my LOTOJA trophy bottle. Bummer.
From here rode out 9th East to the end of the world, then around point of the mountain to Highland, up the back side of South Mountain, here is the view from the other direction. It is a big valley.

What a great place to live. Overall the 101 felt good, the climbs felt good also. Best news is I am now up 33 miles and only have 169 miles to 1000. Whew. Thanks for reading..... The day wrapped up with a nap, a shaved ice, some swimming, and some great food at Michelle and Rob's. Thanks!

07/23/2010 Old Mill/wasatch/shoreline/marsh/home in Salt Lake City, UT

2010-07-23T14:55:00.000-07:00

Date: July 23, 2010
Distance: 24
July Distance: 730

MapMyRide - 07/23/2010 Old Mill/wasatch/shoreline/marsh/home in Salt Lake City, UT

Today was good. I took the day off work in observance of Pioneer Day. Seriously, I love Utah. Really, what the day turned into was, "do every chore that you have neglected for the past 4 weeks because you are either on your bike or at work or its Wednesday Day. Mowed the lawn (first time since Summer Solstice in the back, Melissa mowed it once in the front. First time in our marriage). Taught Jonas and Robbie to wash cars (and they thought they were playing video games after swimming). This is a good deal. Got the Audi, Suburban and VW clean. They did a really nice job.

Fixed the blinds, cleaned the garage, organized the workroom, helped finish and fold laundry, cleaned kitchen, water dead flower and grass extensively, played with dog, swept, cleaned girls room (Oh my!), replaced broken porch swing, affixed new license plate to VW. Appropriate, I believe.

Some of these chores are my household responsibility, some are "make-up chores" after Melissa had the "When did we turn into white trash conversation?" Simple answer. July 1st.

Anyway after a long day of work, kids wanted to go to the pool, sure, I'll meet you there. Head out about 7pm, get a text that a kid at TC has hit head on diving board, off to the Marshes. Swim. The best part of the day, we are leaving at the same time, I say "I'll race you home" Kids think this is an easy win. I beat em, fair and square. Sometimes the breakaway stays away. And yes, I gave the two arm overhead salute as I finished. The kids were amazed..... occasional power of dad.

07/22/2010 Capitol Loop in Salt Lake City, UT

2010-07-22T14:25:00.000-07:00

Date: July 22, 2010
Distance: 22
July Distance: 706

MapMyRide - 07/22/2010 Capitol Loop in Salt Lake City, UT

Clearly the answer to get me out the door in the morning is to have the day and night packed full. Today is the promise of boating in the evening. I don't want to be the guy that says "Hey kids, no fun family time on the boat today, Dad has to go ride his bike."

Out the door, Need to be done in and hour and 15, bout 24 miles, so I shoot off for the capitol. Always a fun ride. Love the view from 11th Ave, downtown, 2nd Ave, U, home. I remember back in my pre LOTOJA life when this was a challenging ride. Now it is a easy ride day. I love getting better at stuff.

The reward for a morning ride is boating. Getting the legs in the cool water actually feels really good.

Samantha is now up and skiing unassisted. Awesome. Notice the glassy water.

Food and "chillin" are a big part of our boat life.

Amelia enjoying a pull on the tube.

Notice on this picture the failure of another goal from the beginning of the summer. I was going to try for the "no farmer tan, line tan in 2010" Decided this is impossible while riding a bike. My arms, just to my wrists and my knees only are very tan. Other wise, white. As seen below.

Next year the goal will be to surf. Lots. Worth getting up for. Anyone want to go boating with us?

07/21/2010 A trip to the office

2010-07-21T14:05:00.000-07:00

Date: July 21, 2010
Distance: 34
July Distance: 684

MapMyRide - A ride mapped on 07/21/2010 in Salt Lake City, UT

If you are a regular reader, you know that Wednesdays are the hardest day of the week in the Stringham home. Work, seems to be always crazy, Young Mens, Grey Dogs, family commitments. It is just always nuts. So Melissa first words of the day "Get up and go ride, it's Wednesday" If our life were a movie you would hear a "dun, dun duhhhhh" in the sound track with me sitting strait up out of bed with a look of fear and concern on my face. Well, needless to say with the motivation of my sweet wife, another morning ride. She is great. Doing well this week. Trying to keep the miles up as high as possible. Only have a few miles above quota to play with. In fact, after this ride I am exactly even. With 18 ride days so far this month I have averaged exactly 38 miles a day. Starting to feel good.

On my route I stopped by our new office that finally started construction. They have the framing up. Here are a few pics.

A look down the hall way from the main entrance:

My office. Kind of looks like a jail cell in this phase:

My view. Yep, those are the Chik-Fil-A cows. Can't wait to watch the billboard dudes change them. Even better news. You can not tell from this photo, but my window aligns directly with a view up Little Cottonwood Canyon. I can see the top of the Snowbird Tram from my desk. Seriously, who thinks this is a good idea. At least I'll be able to see when it is sunny at the top!

7/20/2010 TC/and Emigration Canyon

2010-07-20T21:00:00.000-07:00

Date: July 20, 2010
Distance: 34
July Distance: 646
Partner: Focus

MapMyRide - View Workout Details

So I didn't get up. Surprise. Seems the pattern if I ride the night before, very difficult to get up the next morning and ride. Anyway, rode with Jonas over the Swim team at the Tennis Club (hey, miles are miles, I am counting it). On the way back determined we can do better in our neighborhood with getting to swim workout. Saw Dunfords, Strongs and Stringhams all driving. We should at least car pool. Kids should all be riding over in a peleton.

Went to work, had all day to think about my ride after feeling strong in my personal time trial yesterday I think it is time to do a fitness test: Emigration Canyon. Off I go. Wait, legs a little tired, take some time to get a good warm-up. Then at the the base of canyon, very little wind, good day to go for a time. Into the canyon and I can feel the air temp drop a good 10 degrees. Feel very steady. My first "time check" is Cromptons (it will always be Cromptons to me). 20:10 - 2 minutes faster than last time. Good. Elbow: 25:15, still two minutes up, feel pretty good, time to hammer the last 1.5 miles, which is steep. Time at base of last turn: 32:10, my goal time for the summit this year. Top out at 34:36, 2.5 minutes faster than last week. 2.5 minutes to go. Always a good ride.

7/19/2010 am and pm time trial negative split in Salt Lake City, UT

2010-07-19T21:30:00.000-07:00

Date: July 19, 2010
Distance: 43
July Distance: 616
Partner: Pain

MapMyRide - 7/19/2010 am and pm time trial negative split in Salt Lake City, UT

My goal Sunday night was to get up at 5am, get ready to ride out the door by 5:20, ride 40 miles home by 7:45am. Ummm..... Slept til 6:30, Melissa pats my back, "Get up, go ride" "OK." Think I hit snooze 17 times. First few were, "It's too dark" etc, etc. Later it was "Man, this feels way too good." Anyway out the door at 6:45, decide to gun for 20 miles make 21.5 in 1:12. Feel pretty good, except I am short, oh, 20 miles. Going to be a two a day. Go to work, yadda, yadda. Home from work at 5:15, no kids, no wife, no note, no phone answer, no text answer, clearly an invitation to get my next 20 miles in. So I think to myself, OK same route, but faster, a negative split, this time I have wind and heat to deal with. But I feel good, so I put on my "cycling face" as Samantha says and I go into time trial mode. Really it is 2 - 20 mile intervals with some hill repeats. Actually, a really good workout both in the am and the pm. And I went 2 mins faster in the afternoon. I'll take it. Home in time for FHE, Dinner, Typhoon at the Surf Shack and grocery shopping. A good day. Emigration Canyon tomorrow. I hope. If I get up.

07/17/2010 Big Mtn/North Salt Lake/ Downtown/Midvalley in Salt Lake City, UT

2010-07-17T17:28:00.000-07:00

Date: July 17, 2010
Distance: 70
July Distance: 571
Partner: Melissa and the Heat. (Cool band name)

MapMyRide - 07/17/2010 Big Mtn/North Salt Lake/ Downtown/Midvalley in Salt Lake City, UT

As mentioned, had a long week plus Fathers and Sons to top it off. The tradition at Fathers and Sons is to gorge yourself and the best cheeseburgers ever. Chad, thanks for taking the extra burger challenge with me. Dinner is topped off by all the doughnuts you could eat (Katie, I thought of you). Then sleep on the ground, awake and have huge omelets. Great pre-long ride prep. Jonas and I got home about 9:30am. The thing I dislike most about cycling is how much time it takes to get stuff ready to ride. Helmet - check, gloves-check, food - check, water - check, You think "Shawn, keep all this stuff together. I say "you don't have this to contend with"

That crazed look in Peter's eye is I must move everything in the house at least once every day. I digress. Sometimes it takes us a while to get out of the house, especially when Melissa and I try to go together. Finally get out of the house at about 10:45. Last words spoken: "No messes" This doesn't work.

Melissa and I head out for Emigration Canyon. Actually feeling pretty good. It is amazing what a "rest week" (this is how I have rationalized my two missed days) will do for you. I feel pretty good. We take it slow on the bottom 1/2 of the canyon and the second half I fire it up. Total time was 36:11, two minutes faster than last week, with a pretty slow start. I feel good about that. Still have 4 overall minutes to drop to be in peak form. At the top, Melissa decided to head back down and I split to hit Big mountain. This is turning into one of my favorite rides. I love the feeling of accomplishment when you crest Big Mtn and you can see the valley very far away and very low down. Made it to the county line.

I was swooped by several packs of motorcycles. I was tempted when I got to the top to push these over domino style. (Ya know like in the movies) thought better.

Now time to descend. Fun part. Melissa hates this part and hates knowing that I hit 48mph coming down. So don't tell her.

By the time I make it back to the valley it is pretty hot. I realize that this needs to become the "tour of the water fountain" quickly. Cruise through the U over to 11th Ave and to City Creek Canyon. Water fountain 1:

Pound one full bottle. Two bottles over the head. That feels really good to rinse off my salt encrusted face.

Out to beautiful NSL. That is the cool thing about long rides, you get to see a variety of terrain. RV's and an oil refinery.

Off to downtown. Imagine photo of the temple here. Actually made all the lights so didn't stop in traffic to take a photo. Made my way to one of my favorite downtown location. The Artesian Well Park. Best water in the valley. Seriously. On the corner of 500 S and 800 E. Two more bottles chugged, two over the head, and it is cold. Plus, the homeless people called me Lance. They were also fascinated how my shoes clipped into my pedals. They came over to check it out. Pretty funny.

Rode out to 5600 S and looped back home. By the time I got home it was:

Hot. But very little wind. I'll take it. 8 bottles of water for the day. A good sign, when you come home from a ride and need a "natural break" plus two along the way. Hydration makes the difference. Best part of the day. Hose shower:

I'll let you wonder if I am wearing anything at all. Back above quota by 3 miles. This week is looking better for some miles.

Peace, thanks for reading if you made it this far.

7/16/2010 - Once you've done it, its easy to do again.

2010-07-16T17:11:00.000-07:00

Date: July 16, 2010
Distance: 0
July Distance: 501 - still.

Stupid responsibilities. Don't you know that I am trying to get to 1000 miles. This means nothing else gets done. Lawn mowing - no! House cleaning - No! only tired legs and over training crankiness. When I am expected to be at work early and do my job I say "Sheesh!"Rant over. I had the opportunity to visit beautiful Mt. Pleasant and Genola, Utah. They are kind of far away and the meetings were dreadfully long. And, the problem with exercise. Once you have missed once. It is so easy to miss again. Back on track. And now off to Fathers and Sons. No Friday evening ride. No Saturday morning ride. Now below quota 31 miles.

07/15/2010 Old Mill/Wasatch/foothill in Salt Lake City, UT

2010-07-15T17:06:00.000-07:00

Date: 7/15/2010
Distance:20
July Distance: 501 - Half way

MapMyRide - 07/15/2010 Old Mill/Wasatch/foothill in Salt Lake City, UT

Another busy day. Another short ride starting at 8pm. But, I wasn't going to miss 2 days in a row. I was happy to break the 50% complete barrier. I am still 7 miles over my planned quota to make it to 1000. So I take off at 8pm need to get some miles quick. Already watching sunset come earlier. Sunset around 9:10. At the first of the month I had til about 9:25. Here comes ski season! (I digress). Run through the Old mill loop/Wasatch/parleys crossing/come off onto Foothill getting dark I think to myself "I am just going to blow down Foothill instead of taking the prudent course on Shoreline. The traffic is light and the wide open boulevard with a gentle downhill is inviting" OK. So I go. No more than 300 yards pass the turn I should have taken, the dreaded "Pwheeeeeeshhhhhhh " coming from my back tire. Flat. No support car to jump out, trade tires, and push me along. and it is close to dark. Sweet. Massive staples will give you a flat each time. The perpetrator.

This is one of the best inventions ever.

Compressed gas. Love it. Every time I change a flat on the road I think of Clark Burbidge and SNOWTOJA. Coming up on him sad and deflated, offering a gas canister and filling his tire. The yelp of joy was burned into my soul. It really is cool. I finished in the dark. Not all bad.

7/14 - The day the streak ended.

2010-07-14T16:48:00.000-07:00

Date: 7/14/2010
Mileage: 0 -Zero, zip, nilch, nada.
July Mileage: 481
Partner: Disappointment

So Wednesdays tend to be my arch enemy. My work day started at 6:15am with a health assessment. Followed by meetings all day, in Honeyville, Utah, 90 miles away, followed by Young Mens, followed by the Grey Dogs ending at 10pm. Most Wednesdays are like this. Really. In my job I hear a lot of "I don't have time to exercise" which in my mind is an excuse. We all make choices. Anyway, today was my day. I was a little pissed at myself. When I started this journey I was glad I "banked" some miles early. Here is a withdrawal.

7/13/2010 am and pm in Salt Lake City, UT

2010-07-13T16:47:00.000-07:00

Date: 7/13/2010
Distance: 45
July Distance: 481

MapMyRide - 7/13/2010 am and pm in Salt Lake City, UT

The "two-a-day" is a good way to get some miles. Woke up, little late. Melissa and I are struggling with the morning workout lately. The Stringham World is a little off kilter in that our kids are staying up a little past their bed time and we have stayed up later just for the silence. Anyway, after a late awakening, rode a quick Old Mill Loop. I talked Melissa to go out with me in the evening for a ride down Wasatch out to 123rd and then back in. Hooked up with Danny, wonder kid, and he rode with us also. Danny, you are getting much better. We had a tail wind from 123rd in. It was awesome. Another great sunset.

7/12/2010 39th, Wasatch/Creek/13th home in Salt Lake City, UT

2010-07-12T16:34:00.000-07:00

Date: 7/12/2010
Distance: 20
July Distance: 436
Partners: None

MapMyRide - 7/12/2010 39th, Wasatch/Creek/13th home in Salt Lake City, UT

Clearly had some fatigue from my big mile week last week. Didn't get up in the morning as planned. Never a good way to start out the week. Especially knowing that work is going to be crazy all week. Have to travel all over that state. Never taken this route. Creek Road going "down" is fun. 12% grade and a great sunset. Sorry no photos.

07/10/2010 Big Cottonwood/home/Emigration

2010-07-11T17:34:00.000-07:00

Date: 7/10/2010
Location: Canyons, Baby
Distance: 73
July Distance: 416

MapMyRide - 07/10/2010 Big Cottonwood/home/Emigration in Salt Lake City, UT

So this ride looks more impressive than I rode it. I rode it in two parts. Part A: Porcupine Hill Climb (Big Cottonwood Canyon) with Rob and Part B: Evening Date night ride up Emigration with Melissa.

Part A: Porcupine Hill Climb. Woke up after 10 hours of sleeping. (On the Tour coverage they keep talking about how important recovery is. I don't think the tour riders have a family of 7 and a full time job to support.) I got up at 6:20, you can do the math of when I went to bed. Got ready, begged a ride up 39th from Melissa so I could meet Rob on time at 7am. Didn't want to be late again, since he left me last time I was 3 mins late. No Excuses, just saying, seriously? Met Rob at 7, right on time, had our regular early ride "You, poop?" conversation. Mutual success. Rob doubled. Lucky. Find out he has been up, done some laundry, fixed breakfast, pooped twice, lubed and cleaned his bike. Anyway, you get the idea. We make it to the base of the canyon in plenty of time. Michelle is on her long run and snaps a pre-race photo. (Thanks)

Two fine cycling specimens. The start goes, off, feel pretty tired, legs heavy but continue to warm-up. Rob drops me. No problem. Part of the strategy, let him go, catch him on the steep, hang on for the mid canyon Flat, put more time in him on the steep. Hang on for a win, seeing that he edged me by a half a wheel on Big Mountain last week. Plan went along well, caught him on the "S" turn, put some time in him, then he caught me on the flat and I didn't see him again. Beat me by 3 minutes. Great ride Rob. Best I have ever seen him ride. Held on for a finish, didn't blow up, had a great time, got a t-shirt and got to see one of my favorite views:
I finished a way back in the race, but, I was 5th in line for breakfast. That is a sign of priorities. Cruised home to catch Maren D. get baptized. Great morning.

Part B: Emigration date night with Melissa. After eating lunch, sitting in my basement for the afternoon catching up on tour stages. 3, I think, went out for a date night ride. Thought it was going to be a long night when on the lead-in the canyon, Melissa drops me like her old boyfriends.

If you look up ahead in this photo you can see Melissa. This sign is an important Shawn Cycling Landmark. The starting point of the Emigration Canyon Time Split. Only hope exists at this sign.

Honestly, I've been seeing a lot more Marsh Tail than I prefer to the last 10 days. OK, repeat to self "Its a recovery ride, you have ridden 400 miles in 10 days, these miles will pay off in September" Yeah, whatever, "Your wife just dropped you." (Melissa: I love you, baby! Please don't take this the wrong way). Pissed. She keeps putting time in on me. Finally, after 10 days and 400 miles, I feel good. My legs tune in and I have power to give. I crush the last 2 miles of the canyon, averaging 12mph after the "elbow", catch her and finish. By the way, she had a great ride also. Best part get to see the sunset with Melissa at the top of the canyon.

Best date night activity. I would highly recommend it. Cruise home, end with 73 miles on the day and the knowledge that I am going to have a Vanilla Frosty. They give me power. We will see what the week holds. Very busy at work and the Tour is in the Alps. I am up 74 miles over my quota to finish the 1000 by the end of July.

Ride on.....

07/09/2010 - Drag your butt around on your bike

2010-07-09T17:22:00.000-07:00

Date 7/9/10
Location: Work to packet pick up to home
Distance:23
July Distance: 343

MapMyRide - 07/09/2010 - Work/bengal/wasatch in Salt Lake City, UT

This was mentally difficult. Didn't want to ride, didn't want to sissy out. So begrudgingly got on my bike and rode to work. Then, decided at the last minute to do the Big Cottonwood Hill Climb. Admittedly, legs are heavy and tired. Mostly wanted the t-shirt. So after work rode to pick up packet and then home. Was down 5 lbs this morning. Must do better job of eating and drinking. No pics. Sorry.

: Jul 8, 2010 6:59 PM in Salt Lake City, UT

2010-07-08T16:38:00.000-07:00

Date: July 8,2010
Distance: 23
July Distance: 304

MapMyRide - iMapMyRide+: Jul 8, 2010 6:59 PM in Salt Lake City, UT

Make up post. Forgot this one.

7/72010 Sneaker Ride

2010-07-07T21:45:00.001-07:00

Date: 7/7/2010
Location: Home
Distance:24
July Distance: 290
Ride companion: My thoughts

MapMyRide - 07/07/2010 Millcreek rd/Wasatch/Mouth of Little/Holladay in Salt Lake City, UT

This ride is affectionately a "sneaker." I blew off my morning alarm for a ride when I awoke to howling canyon winds. Not physically and more importantly mentally ready for wind right at the moment. Scared from my ride around Bear Lake from last week. So I have to admit the stars aligned a little when my afternoon meeting ended a little early and I realized I could get out for a little, thereby getting some miles. So I did, before I had to go to Young Mens. It was hot, a little windy, but always does my soul good when I make it out the Cottonwood Canyons. Just to the base of Little. Had to turn left when I got here:

Kind of a bummer. Love Little. But as I was coming around the corner, got a great view of the valley.

It's amazing the things you can see within a 30 minute radius on a bike ride from home.

Also, made it home in time for a hose shower, quick change and then some rock climbing with the YM. I love Utah.

07/06/2010 Work/Old Mill/Stairs/Olympus Hills/Home in Salt Lake City, UT

2010-07-06T20:52:00.000-07:00

Date: 7/6/2010
Location: Work plus some
Distance: 33
July Distance 266
With: Melissa

MapMyRide - 07/06/2010 Work/Old Mill/Stairs/Olympus Hills/Home in Salt Lake City, UT

Commute to work and back then a nice little 20 mile recovery ride. Great that you can ride for 6 miles and then be in a beautiful canyon. Went a couple miles up Big to the Stairs Plant and then along Wasatch home. Got to catch the sunset. Lots of kids making out along Wasatch. Ahh, to be young.

Its blurry because she was moving too fast.

Mom, don't worry, it wasn't as dark as this photo makes it seem. Great sunset though.

Ride on......

7/5/2010 Big Mtn DT Loop

2010-07-05T10:50:00.000-07:00

Date: July 5, 2010
Location: Canyons/DT
Distance: 55
July Distance: 232
Distance to go:768
Partners in Crime: Rob Marsh, Jim Schnaepel, Mike Ensign

MapMyRide - 7/5/2010 Big Mtn DT Loop in Salt Lake City, UT

Days off are good for riding. Got a great ride up to Big Mtn. Summit at 7,400 feet. Rob won the 1st climb (Emigration Canyon) squarely by 45 seconds. I pulled away in the steeps of Big Mountain, as I looked over my shoulder with 200M to go Rob was 100M back, feeling good, glided in, I should have listened to Paul and Phil in my head. Something like this...Paul "Marsh is on today, he is hammering down, Stringham is oblivious" Phil, "Oh my what a finish! Wait, Stringham takes notice and my, oh my, Marsh takes the mountain top finish by a half a wheel." Paul "That goes down in the epic climbs!" Anyway, it was a good ride. Cruised out the last 30 miles.

Met some other Wheeler/HBI guys on the climb. They served as good rabbits. Great view from the summit. Thanks, Rob, Jim, Mike.....

July 4, 2010

2010-07-04T19:39:00.000-07:00

No riding today. Just rest and motivation. To say I have had a "man crush" on Lance is an understatement. I love the tour. Go Lance. Here is something to get you cyclists motivated.

July 3, 2010 - Old Faithful

2010-07-03T17:38:00.000-07:00

Date: July 3, 2010
Location: Home
Distance: 40
July distance: 177
Distance to go: 823

MapMyRide - A ride mapped on 07/04/2010 in Salt Lake City, UT

"Whenever you are feeling down and out, ride Emigration Canyon" - Shawn Stringham. You can quote me on that. This is a magical place. A road, cycling was meant for. After getting my butt kicked in Bear Lake I needed to "take it one day at a time." And, I just love this ride. After the canyon, rode the tailwind out to the mouth of Big Cottonwood. Needed that. Melissa went with me, don't worry, she keeps up.

July 2, 2010 - Around the Lake

2010-07-02T17:26:00.000-07:00

Date: July 2, 2010
Location: Bear Lake
Distance: 50 miles
July Distance: 137
Distance to go: 863

MapMyRide - 07/02/2010 - Around Bear Lake in Garden City, UT

Started with some tired legs, imagine that. Rob and I thought it would be good to go "clockwise" around the lake. Hmm... bad choice. First 20 miles Bear Lake Tailwind. Awesome. Last 30 miles, Bear Lake Headwind. Bad. It really wasn't that fun. Lot's of "This is making me stronger" self talk, followed by... "Damn It"

July 1, 2010 - The Road to 1000 begins

2010-07-01T17:15:00.000-07:00

MapMyRide - 07/01/2010 Sweetwater to Geneva Summit in Bear Lake, UT

Date: July 1, 2010
Location: Bear Lake, Utah
Distance: 87
July Distance: 87

Well, Rob talked me into starting big. He says "let's pop off a century" Sure, why not. Been at Camp Steiner for 3 days, 10,400 feet, no sleep, 8 scouts, I am sure I will feel great. Did feel pretty good. Averaged just under 23mph for the first 30 miles into Montpelier, ID. Good to be on LOTOJA course. Climbed to Geneva Summit, got smoked by Rob, crushed my soul. Must now re-double effort. Rob has had a great early season, up over 1500 miles, tracking his effort in doughnuts burned. Good stuff. Let's say I was not at 100% and now owe Rob about 80 miles of "pull." Did not get to the century, but a good dent in my goal.

The Road to 1000 Miles

2010-07-01T16:44:00.000-07:00

My training has been good this season (from January 2010), had a great St George Tri, etc, but June has been a little rough. I have had work commitments, Pioneer Trek, Summer Solstice, Scout Camp, just to name a few. So I have 2 primary goals for the remainder of the season. 1) Finish LOTOJA for a 5th time as an individual and 2) Don't puke anywhere on course or after at LOTOJA (I have puked twice, Rob will attest). So in other words, finish strong. For this to happen I need to have an awesome July. So....... my goal for July is to ride 1000 miles. Up, down, all around. Follow me, cheer for me, ride with me, I have to average just under 40 miles a day. Doable, but a challenge.

With the Tour under way, I am also going to try and match the elevation profiles of each days Stage. Obviously, I will scale the distance back anywhere from 1/4 to 1/2.

I really have an awesome wife. Who will hopefully ride with me a couple of times.

The end of an Adventure....

2010-04-04T04:22:00.000-07:00

Well, I am sitting here in O'hare airport at 6am on Sunday (Easter) morning, excited to get home to gorge my self on beinets. So lets finish the story....

I last left you just outside Des Moines Iowa. We passed through about 5:30 and officially moved into the, "OK, lets get the drive over phase" That is when the rain started. Sweet! Matt was driving and I promptly fell asleep. Only to be awakened in Coralville, IA to "Shawn, my left contact just popped off I need you to drive." Me "OK" So, again, I drag myself behind of the car. Then we drive..... and think we gotta be getting closer, then more rain. All the way to Naperville. I have to admit both Matt and I were moved into the "Turn the radio up and sing along to stay awake phase" We decided to stop at 10:30 for dinner. See previous post on weird food issues while roadtripping. Anyway, we pulled into Naperville just about midnight, on fumes literally putting the truck in neutral and coasting as far as possible, yep, it was that empty. We coasted into Naperville, luckily the gas station at Matt's exit had diesel.

In Naperville: We did a little dance and I am sure awakened the neighborhood by our rumbling truck, sorry Naperville. As we rolled out of the truck Boomer shot out of that cab as fast as she could. I think she could tell she was home. Matt did a great job of picking their house. I didn't realize Anne wasn't involved in the process. He did a really good job. Great little place. we walked in and I promptly laid down on the floor in the front room and slept til morning.

7:30 Awake, thankful Matt went out after our arrival last night to buy toilet paper and cereal. That really is all you need, well and spoons. Didn't buy those, no cereal.

8:00 Naperville 6th ward Elders Q show up. What took us 6 days of packing to load is unloaded in 47 minutes. The church is true.

9:30 depart for downtown Chicago. Bob and weave through traffic, (To the people of Chicago: Why must I pay a toll on your roads and still have really crappy roads? Seriously, I felt like I was jeeping in Moab) At this point I feel like the truck is now an extension of me. I am turning into an autobot. Find my way to the Hansen House where Quincy and Fran are awaiting and we unload all the records and books you can imagine.

10:45 depart for Lincoln Park, did I mention the downpour rainstorm that we are unloading in. Perfect! One thing that I realize as we unload, when you live in downtown Chicago you live vertically. Very narrow staircases and steep. Quote of the day from Fran "The heavy stuff goes on the top floor" I am pretty sure we almost killed the helpers that Q and F hired to help us unload.

12:30 Truck unloaded. Can I hear a Hallelujah! Let's eat. Salt and Pepper Cafe.

1:30 Drive back to Naperville to find Matt making significant progress on unpacking.

3:45 Drop off truck. Feel a little separation anxiety. I too shall overcome.

4:30 Back to Chicago. I now have route between Matt's house and Quincy memorized. that is a good thing, seeing those are the only two I know in Chicago.

5:30 Go for celebratory run in Chicago, Lake front, Hancock tower, Old Town, Lincoln Park. Great way to see the city and remind my muscles that they can do more than sit.

Then out for dinner and a tour of some of Quincy and Fran's favorite haunts. Go to a great French restaurant that uses only all natural and organic food. Incredibly good and I think from Laramie Wyoming to Lincoln Park Chicago. I live a charmed life......

Great adventure, always great to go home. Thanks Matt, Quincy and Fran! I'll be back! But for now "Zone 3 is now boarding" Back to Zion......

The Excellent Adventure Day 2 (so far)

2010-04-02T16:14:00.001-07:00

Well to say today has been a little disappointing would be an understatement. Here is what we have done.

6:54 Depart Kimball, NE

7:30 to 9:30 record events of day one, post on blogger and facebook. Create Internet stir (that was fun).

9:45 Matt's driving, Shawn and Boomer head bobbing.

11:30 Arrive in Kearny NE, Fuel up, eat at Wendy's (again).

Noon Shawn now driving.

1pm Shawn driving, Matt sleeping

2pm Shawn driving, Matt sleeping

3pm Shawn Driving, Boomer and Matt sleeping snuggled up together. Very cute.

4pm Shawn Driving, Matt awake briefly to see scenic Lincoln and Omaha NE, State Line! Yeah.

5pm Shawn Driving, Matt and Boomer, more snuggling

5:30 Arrive in Des Moines, IA, Gas and fuel (one in cab, one in tank).

6:00 Depart Des Moines, IA 304 miles to go

So as you can see I have had some time to myself to ponder. These have been my topics:

1) Bless President Eisenhower for building the Interstate freeway system. How cool is it that I can get on a road 4 miles from my house, get off that same road 1400 miles later and be in Chicago. That is awesome.

2) Why whenever you road trip do your nutritional standards drop so drastically? I have been doing great with my eating. Making great choices, feeling good. In the past 48 hours I have eaten 3 Power Bars, 1 orange, Sun Chips, 12 inch Subway Club, Licorice (half a bag), Beef jerky (3/4 bag) and a single cheese burger from Wendy's, 2 pieces of toast with grape jelly, another single with cheese, small vanilla frosty, fries, chicken wings. I have held off on the Moon Pie that Matt bought me but I did just buy a bag of Reese's Pieces and a Hershey's cookies and cream candy bar. Seriously, someone help me.

3) You can never go wrong on a road trip listening to a) The Eagles, b) The Samples, c) Jimmy Buffett.

4) I have seen 3 Cabelas, and 2 Super Bass Fishing Pro shops today. Seems plenty. All of the parking lots are full.

5) Most of the people that live in Nebraska live in Omaha.

6) Midwesterners have seemingly less than appropriate names for their convenience stores. Mainly "Kum & Go" and "Loaf n' Jug" Really? That does not make me want to buy anything.

7) In case you were wondering, Corn hasn't been planted yet. Lots of empty fields.

8) I couldn't believe how many wind mills their were. I am really glad it was a tail wind. At least 30 mph all day, no let up. We've been able to average about 65mph. Big improvement.

Once again signing off...... Next stop Naperville. Time for Shawn to do some head bobbing. Tomorrow I can hardly wait to drive a moving truck in downtown Chicago.

The Excellent Adventure

2010-04-02T06:45:00.000-07:00

If there is ever a time to restart my blog, today is the day. Mostly because we (Matt and I) survived yesterday. Wow, what a day. I love an adventure, that is what I signed up for when Matt annoucned he was moving to Chicago. I got my wish. Wandering the country brings me joy. I love seeing all the different towns and cities. We get so used to staying inside our 10 mile radius, it is fun to see how other people live. I can see myself being an RV owner trying to hit all 50 states. I have also decided that I would like a really nice camera and be a male photo nazi. Taking cool photos of our adventures. Any whoo......

Day one of Shawn & Matts Excellent Adventure:

Stardate: April 1, 2010
5:30am Awake with the hope that we could drive to Omaha, NE today. Shower, breakfast, final packing preperations. Look out the window, 5 inches of new snow. Moving on a powder day. Crap.

7:00am Attach Matt's car to the back of the Moving truck using tow-dolly, steal some PowerBars and fruit, scrape the 6 inches of snow off the truck and load up. For photos you can see Melissa's description.

7:26: Depart. Here we go.

8:30ish: Top out at the top of Parley's Canyon. Realize this is going to be slow and steady wins the race. Taunt those passing us that we are still going to beat them to Chicago. It seems that they don't give the trucks with the big engines to those who check it out at a counter. Averages sustained speed going up hill, 30mph.

9:00: Pass Echo Lake. Ice is melting but lake is full. Hooray! Boating around the corner.

9:00 to 2:30: In case you were wondering, Wyoming is all up hill, the wind blows, hard. And it doesn't seem that they do great with snow removal off the road. Not judging, just saying. 5.5 hours of really crappy road conditions. I have not seen "car-bergs" as large as were on our car/truck ever. I was feeling like we were making great progress given the conditions. When we pull over for gas at 2:30 I am playing the "how close can I call the time that we will pull in Cheyene, given our speed and distance". I love that game. And Jonas says he'll never use math. My prediction 4:30. Which is not great given the initial time line, but given conditions, it will get us half way across Nebraska for a reasonable stopping point. At least that is what I thought then.

3:15 arrive in Laramie, Wyoming, Matt is driving I was sleeping. Come to a stop on the freeway with many of our best freeway friends. I-80 is closed. Expletive. OK, time frame is now getting serioulsy pushed back. I have to say it is really cool traveling with laptops and internet access. It is amazing the stuff you can find out. Kudos to Al Gore for inventing it. Waiting......

4:15 still waiting..... in Laramie. On the freeway. Realize that the road is closed due to a pretty bad truck accident. Also realize that we were pretty close to the front of the line going into the canyon. I start to think that, I was impressed to pull over and get gas the last time. Didn't really need to, but decided it would be a good time to stretch and relax. I don't know what would have happened but have a distinct feeling that we were guided to stop when we did.

5:00 getting hungry. Not making it to Cheyene by 4:30. Other trucks are turning around, descision made lets get food, re-assess and see what we can do.

5:30 stop at McDonalds. Closed. Power outage. Lights still on. Interesting. Decide that Laramie has serious power grid issues. Remember when the Utes played there in 2004? Only half the stadium lights worked. Well, same with the restaurants. Decided against gastric distress and chose not eat an the Inidan, Chinese or other questionable eating establishments. Now hungry, but we decide to head down Rt 287 to Fort Collins, CO. I-80 still closed. It will add 65 miles to the trip. But moving is better than sitting, especially in Laramie. No offense, Laramie.

5:45 depart for Fort Collins and realize that we have made the correct descision. All of the Fed Ex trucks are re-routing the same way. When I say all I mean, like over 100. New carreer path. Wolrd President of FedEx logistics. I couldn't believe how many trucks there were. I bet they have a wicked-awesome "War-room" routing and re-routing stuff. That would be cool. New theme of the trip, if we see FedEx trucks, we know we are heading in the right direction.

6:00 7:30 Hey guess what? There are blowy (that is a cute word for the description I would rather use, but my kids might read this) winds and black-ice and snow packed roads and remember the 100 FedEx trucks plus all the other traffic on a 2 lane road. Plus it was uphill. Part of the conversations was, "Wow, I am glad our kids aren't with us strapped into carseats, etc." As we get to the summit, trucks are lined up tail to nose, there are several that have slid off the road and we look up we see a few go off. As we get to that section of road the truck in front of us slides and slows, we slide and again, I am telling you that there is no reason we should have stayed on that road. Matt's awesome driving in a 24 foot moving truck, pulling a car and the hand of God reaching down and holding us on that road were the only thing that kept all of Matt's worldly possessions from ending up in the ditch. Then we hit the Colorado border, wind stops, road dry traffic disapates. No joke. Could not believe it. As we get to the base of the canyon, Road up the canyon is closed. Another crash, we can imagine especially after what we just drove through. Drive off the mountain into Ft. Collins. Arive about 8:30-9p.

9:00p - Still quite hungry, but the dog is being good. So we decide to push back to Cheyene 40 miles away. I tell you, I had serious reservations about traveling with Boomer in the cab. She is a great dog. Just cuddles up between us, occasionaly looks up and out the window. She does shed and occasionally licks your ears. But I can handle that compared to the alternative. We wind our way through Ft Collins and onto I-25 heading north. It's dark and Matt makes a jerky turn onto the freeway entrance. No harm. No foul. Averages out the massive save in the canyon.

9:10-9:45 Smooth sailing to Wyoming border, listening to a good spy novel on the iPod. Hit the border, honestly, massive cross-winds, blowing snow black-ice. Welcome to W-Y-O. I say Matt "Let's go to Wendy's, hungry." He grunts back in his best man talk.

9:45 - You thought the story was good so far? This is where it's at..... We pull into the Wendy's parking lot, I am a little groggy, Matt gets out first, immediately comes back to the cab "Shawn, we have a problem." I respond "OK, what's up" Matt, "The car is gone." Me, "What?!!!" Matt, "The car is gone! What are we going to do" Being the keen thinker that I am I immediately think, April Fools. I jump out of the cab, nope, not April Fools. The car really is gone. Tow dolly there, car gone. I think to myself "Hmmmm. That is awesome." I have to hand it to Matt, again, he was pretty calm and collected. Matt calls 911, "I need to report an missing vehicle, we are driving a 24 foot rental truck and the red Oldsmobile Bravada, loaded to the brim is no longer on our tow-dolly" 911 "When was the last time you saw it?" Matt, "I don't know exactly." (Sidenote: It is very difficult to see the car behind the truck, you get an occasional glimse when you turn a corner or sometimes you can see it in the shadow, but there is no good way to "Keep your eye on it.") Matt, "I 'think' I saw it when we turned onto I-25 in Colorado". Wyoming 911 response "You should call Colorado then" Nice.

10:15 I say, "Hey Matt, It's going to be a long night, let's get some food" Wendy's here we come.

10:25 To say that you run all the different scenarios in your head is an understatement. How exactly does a car come off a tow dolly without two, grown, responsible men not noticing it? Really, no one noticing it. Because it is not like when we called 911 they said "you mean, you are the one responsible for causing the cataclismic crash and then just drove away." Our response would have been "Well, Matt really didn't want any of his kitchen stuff any way" I have to admit I thougth to myself "Oh crap, all my best comfort clothes are gone, Utah Sweatshirt, scrubs, khakis, favorite LOTOJA t-shirt and my running shoes and GPS" We have got to find this car! But anyway, we thought no report of an accident involving a red Bravada was a good thing at this point. We pile in, drive back down I-25 looking for an Oldsmobile on the side of the road. Did I mention that the key was in it?

10:45 No Bravada. We've gone all the way back to the base of the canyon. Matt "thinks" he saw it on the turns in Ft Collins but is unsure. We decide to drive back toward Cheyene. If you are keeping track at home, we are pushing an extra 2oo miles of driving at this point. When we came back to Ft Collins we really couldn't see much it was quite dark. So we think driving on the same side of the road will increase our odds of locaing the car.

11:00 So I am driving as we turn back onto I-25, there in the median, perched in neutral, undamaged and awaiting our return is the car. Holy (insert your favorite term here). I could not belive it. The median was a concrete island with a small embankment. The front two wheels rolled over the apex of the embankment while the back two did not, slowing and stabilizing the car. Had the cars back two wheels gone over, it, being in neutral would have rolled across the freeway access and down a 30-50 foot embankment, most likely to it's death. Think Thelma and Louise. But instead of two fun loving women, all of Matt's kitchen and all of my Dad's guitars. We were also glad Boomer wasn't in the back like origianlly planned. I don't think Anne or Quincy would ever talk to us again. At this point I am on the freeway entrance, I slow, Matt jumps out I drive up to the next freeway exit to circle around to pick up our cargo. As I do so I see cop lights shining on Matt. How sweet is that.

11:15 After convincing the cops that he is not a drunk guy wandering the freeway interchanges of Ft Collins the kind officer helps Matt jump the car, the battery is dead and the officer transports our luggage, which was in the drivers seat of the car. Literally no other place in the car to put it. It is that full. Matt dives the car where I am awaiting. The officer says "Anything else I can do for you two" I think to myself "You mean other than not arresting us and putting us in jail for unvoluntary criminal endangerment and failure to secure your load?" "No I think we are good, Thanks, Officer Friendly."

Sometime after 11:15, getting blurry. The car is loaded and secure we break into various Church Hymns (Shawn style, top of your lungs interchanging tunes and lyrics. There was some 'Spirit of God' a little 'How Firm a Foundation') and offered thanks and praise, and, we did a little dance in the Sinclair parking lot. I turn to Matt as I sit in the drivers seat (Looking back, he may have been in a little bit of shock for the previous 3 hours, you know, when we were looking for his car that came off the tow-dolly unnoticed.) "Now where?" Response "Nebraska". I couldn't agree more. Sometimes it is just about the principle.

1:00 Cheyene. WYO border, snow, ice, wind, repeat. I poop out about 15 miles from Kimball, NE, Matt takes over driving. I remember seeing the Nebraska State line smiling and thinkng. "Whew" Pull into the Super8, we get a room and sleep. Lights out at 2:15.

Day 2: Stardate: April 2, 2010.

6:00am Awake, look out window, Sunny and a 30 mph tail wind. Amen. I love Nebraska. Next stop - Naperville. Check out the photo of Matt's car sitting in the median on Facebook.

More photos to come. Gotta wait so I don't get car sick. Now that is what I call a blog post.

Signing off, Shawn, Matt, Boomer from milepost 202 in Nebraska

2010-01-21T13:28:00.001-08:00

Post. Top of the list.

Suburban on wheels.

2008-10-06T14:16:00.000-07:00

A Madsen Cycle is in my future. I want a black one.

http://www.madsencycles.com/

Nice job Jared!

BNO in Coalville

2008-10-05T12:20:00.000-07:00

Chad (owner of the other half of the boat) and I decided it was time to bring the boat back from Echo. All together the Stringhams used the boat 13 times. Chad and family used it 11 times. Not bad considering we didn't start going up til mid July. When we went up last week, we were feeling pretty tough. No other boats on the lake and the water is getting quite cold. On this last rendevous we decided that we should BNO it and show how tough we are, we even brought a huge spotlight so we could play in the dark. Well, every story is an adventure. This one started with just getting through Coalville to the resivoir. Seems that it was North Summit High School Homecoming (Go Braves!) against rival South Summit (Booooo!). Seriouly, who doesn't have a massive parade that shuts down main street so 50 plus floats can go down and then back. Everyone in Coalville was there (except Chad's parents, they were curious what the noise was a block away). We were able to get across the street (which really didn't help our forward progress) and then we had to observe the parade. It was fun to see some small town fun. Best part is that we were able to see some dancing girls on our BNO.

And the Homecoming royalty.

You gotta love that. We did make it to the water eventually after some free candy thrown from the floats. A kind Sheriff let us drive the Suburban and boat right downt the middle of the parade route. Some kid yelled "Nice float."

Once we made it to the water we found the end of the boat ramp. You don't ever want to drive your trailer of the edge of the ramp. It would be a bad thing. We had to go wheeling (another great BNO activity) across the beach and launch from the shore. That was cool. Once in Chad, Steve and I took several runs each, enjoyed the smooth water, were the only boat on the water, had a great view of fall colors and were euophoric from stage 1 hypothermia. Great fun.

I have always wanted to be a surf bum.

Chad just before he pushes his eyeballs to the back of his skull. He is moving to the right, notice the tip of his board.

Scott sporting the 1991 wetsuit, still keeps you warm!

We had a great time, got the boat out just as darkness fell enjoyed a Subway on the way home. We all felt we had one too many Polar King's this summer. By the way N. Summit won their game. Coalvile was a happy place.

Now that boating is over time to look to the hills. Yep, this photo was taken on October 5. See you on the slopes.

Epic.

2008-09-28T14:12:00.000-07:00

I went to the dentist recently and my hygenist asked "How was your summer?" Epic was the first word that came to mind. And it really has been.

So much so, that I have not really had time to blog. Last time I blogged it was the first week of June and a lot has happened since then. Here is a brief time line.

June 9-10 went to Bear Lake. Always fun.

June 20 - Megan Summer Stringham 2 years old.

June 21 - Summer Solstice. The real start of summer. Oh yeah.
If you came, you witnessed the melee that it has become. If you didn't, see you next year.

The band played, it was a good time. The attendance count was about 150.

June 22-24 Cedar City for work. We did go to Cedar Breaks. Always cool.

Jake and his HBI harem. Nice.

June 24-July 1

Marsh Family Bear Lake. Exciting, fun, crowded. That is how I describe it.

During Marsh Family Bear Lake I had to come to Salt Lake for a Golf Tourney and for a Grey Dogs gig. Men, take my marital advice, don't do this during family vacation. Sorry Melissa.

July 4 - Nothing burned down.

July 12 - Echo Triathlon
Raced well. Fast out of the water. Passed on the bike. Survived the run. What's new?

July 18-19 Fathers and Sons Campout. Up by Smith Moorehouse. No photos. Just JQ and SQ. Great time. We like to camp together.

July 19 - The Police Concert. I have a man crush. Best concert of my life. Just Awesome.

July-Sept - Are we a boat family? I think we are. We bought into a "training/beater" boat. Man, it has been really fun. We got out 11 times. It has put a cramp in our style but we hope to get everyone out. We even killed a deer with it. The boat's name is now "The Deer Slayer" I have mowed the lawn a lot less. That part is cool. It seems we have wet towels everywhere in the house.

June - August Swim Team

Jonas and Samantha swam at The Tennis Club this summer. They are studs. We rode our bikes over all but 2-3 mornings. 6 miles round trip plus an hour and a half of swimming. They got some work in. I was proud of them. Samantha and I had a great crash. Both of us got a little scraped up but no harm. More here.

July 20-21 Cub Country.

July 24 - Deseret New 10K. Lost a toenail. Ran fast though.

July 28 - August 2 Scout Camp. 6 days, 12 boys, 3 leaders, 2 showers, 72 merit badges, 12 rank advancements, 1 trip to Evanston ER, and a pair of underwear. I split a .22 bullet on the blade of an axe. That was cool. Be Prepared.

August 8-9 Ward Campout. The fam damily went. No photos. Sorry.

August 16- Snowbird Hill Climb. I can't believe I didn't beat Levi's course record. Maybe next year.

August 18 - Jack Johnson in Concert. 2nd best concert of the year.

Bubble Toes =Stringham's favorite Jack Johnson song. Thanks Jack.

August 19 - I turned 36. Crap. Thanks for the blog-card Michelle

August 23 Jordanelle Triathlon. Swim, Bike, Run.

August 29 - The Grey Dogs Rock fest. Imagine a cool band rocking.

August 30 - Fishing at Pass Lake with Doug and Cathy.

August 31 - JQ turns 10. Wow.

September 1 - Labor Day. Kids Tri that ended in a massive hail storm and lightning. Way to go Jonas, Samantha and Robbie. No pictures of the finish. It was under water.

Sept 4 - Quincy announces he is marrying Fran and moving to Chicago. Fran, welcome to the craziness that is Stringham. She will fit in just fine. We were boating, she wanted to tube. Didn't have a suit so got in in her clothes anyway. Nice. Also the night of the deer slaying. That is what makes memories.

Sept 6 - LOTOJA

So I wimped out this year. I did it as a relay with my great friend Eric. We were in school at U of O. Life was much more simple there. Now we are over programed with lots of kids and lots of responsibility.

Well that is about it. September has been pretty mellow. We have been "taking it easy". Work is awesome too. We are growing and working hard. The highlights of the summer have been riding my bike to and from work 2-3 times a week, bagel dog shoes (ask Jonas), the boat and having an incredible family. Speaking of family, if you have made it this far in the blog, you deserve to know, we have a new model in production, STR005. Specs unknown. Coming April 7, 2009. Life is an adventure. I love it.

Neffs Canyon Backpacking

2008-06-08T19:50:00.000-07:00

Another great Scout trip. June 7, 2008.... it snowed on us.

GrandeurPeak

2008-05-24T19:13:00.000-07:00

This is a great local hike. Our Scout troop turned it into an overnight back pack trip. Read more on the Troop 181 blog.

Packed up to the "saddle" made camp. Summited in the morning. Best part, landed at the trail head around 10:15. Everyone home by 10:30. I love Utah.

St. George Triathlon May 10, 2008

2008-05-11T17:49:00.000-07:00

Triathlon is a pretty cool sport. I have enjoyed it for 18 years. I estimate I have completed between 40-50 races. This was the "spookiest" swim in all those years. 2-3 foot whitecaps coming down. Depending on the direction you were swimming, the waves were either pushing you (very good), breaking sideways over you (bad) or swimming directly into them (very bad) . Melissa said the brought at least 60 people in on the boats. And they ended up cancelling the swim for the other races for safety. I was 18th out of the water. I felt pretty good.

The bike sucked! Oh man, 30mph head winds, and in my style got passed by about 80 people. I hate that part. Lately, I have been using the "I rode LOTOJA last year" bike trainng plan. My power was not at the high end.

Running was good. Same wind, sandblasting red sand. Everything was caked with red dirt. Overall I was satisfied. Melissa did great as well. Outside of no swim, and a buffeting wind. Thanks to Cathy for watching the kids, Quincy, Ralph and Doug for soccer game patrol.

Poor Old Tree

2008-04-29T17:24:00.000-07:00

This was the apple tree that lived in our front yard. Originally it was apart of the apple orchard before our neigborhood was a subdivision and it was an apple orchard. The rings indicate that it was over 60 years old. There are now only 2 trees left from the orchard. They still line up in a row. This tree has some accomplishments.

Climbed many times. Bore much fruit ( except for last year, when it produced 1 apple). Knocked my dad unconcious. The night my grandpa had his stroke, he was running (my dad, not grandpa) out the front door and a branch clocked him hard. Last year a neighbor kid, fell out. When I was a kid it was a really cool hang out.

So these, were the tree executioners. The they were "bad a**" They knew how to cut down a tree. It was like watching a chainsaw ballet. And what is really cool is that Dave is the rhythm guitar player in The Grey Dogs. Anyway, if you need a tree dude, let me know and I will give you his number. Thanks for the memories Apple Tree.

ABC Tag - Man Version

2008-04-12T17:41:00.000-07:00

This is the post that derailed my blogging for 2.5 months. It is not that funny, but it provides a snapshot of my brain.

A- AC/DC or ABBA. "She was a fast machine" who "shook me all night long"....but, did not "Take a Chance." My vote AC/DC

B- Burritos. Always burritos

C- Car, favorite. 1990 Red Isuzu Trooper. Named Trigger. Purveyor of fun.

D- Dog, How many? 6, Cassie, Meggie, Abbie Simon, Cisco, Ziggy

E- Essential Item. Sunglasses, especially at night

F- Fan of... The Utes, Jazz, Braves, Packers (?, they are growing on me)

G- Gore Tex, this is the good stuff, serioulsy it is cool

H-Hungry? Yes most of the time. See "B" above.

I- Indecision? Sometimes it seems as if it surrounds me.

J- Name of No 1. Son - Jonas

K- Kitchen Appliance (Favorite) - Microwave, followed by toaster oven

L - Lips or Legs? I shave both (in the summer), for women, a subtle combination of both.

M- Movies or Make-Out? Yes.

N- Nuggets or Nouget. Nouget. Especially involving chocolate

O- Oregon. Go Ducks!

P- Pizza. Mmm... Pepperoni and Sausage.

Q- Best middle initial ever.

R- Rock and Roll - The Samples, The Police, lately, Jack Johnson, perhaps I was born in the wrong generation

S- Ski or Sail - Both.

T- Trail or road? Trail if I can.

U-Utah. Best state to live in by far.

V-Volume - I like it at "11"

W-Women- Melissa is the best followed by my 3 daughters

X-X-ray vision, dangerous in the hands of men

Y-Why do I have to go to work every day?

Z-Zorro - 3rd grade Holloween costume.

Great trip to Zion

2008-03-30T20:21:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we roadtriped to Zion, had a great trip! I was a little aprehensive. To say our hiking has always been successful would be a stretch. Everyone was great. We hiked into emerald pools and had a great picnic at the Lodge. Spent most of the day in the Park. It was beatiful. On the way back to St. George we stopped at Grafton (the ghost town) to see if we could see Shaggy and Scooby and the Mystery Machine. The weren't there but it was still pretty cool. I remember stopping as a little kid and thinking it was strange. Anywhooo... this trip gave me hope that we can hike as a family. There was very little whinning and lots of laughter. Put one in the win column.

This is why I want to buy a scooter.

2008-03-30T20:18:00.000-07:00

Ouch, and I still had a quarter tank before I filled up.

Green Eggs and Ham

2008-03-30T20:15:00.000-07:00

This is what happens when you put me in charge of St. Patrick's Day dinner. Green eggs and ham. Mmmmm......

Snow Caves

2008-03-15T19:14:00.000-07:00

So, I have never dug a snow cave and slept in it. Until this weekend. I went up with the my scout troop (which I serve as Asst. Troublemaker, I mean Scoutmaster) to dig caves, some with the intention of sleeping, some with the intention of just digging. Here are a couple of lessons I learned.

It takes about 2 1/2 hours to dig a quality cave.

You get really wet. In the effort of full disclosure, we were caving in snowbanks at one of our scouts cabins. So after getting really wet, I was able to go change and sit by the fire for 3 hours before returning for my slumber. I was still glad to have many layers.

When you wake up in the morning you wake up with really sore shouders from chipping and hauling snow, and suprisingly really bruised knees from kneeling in small confined areas chippng and hauling snow.

While sleeping in a snow cave the mind plays some wierd tricks on you. You think, "What if a cougar (Not a BYU cougar, although that might be uncomfortable as well) thinks my awesome cave is an awesome cave? Could I fight if off? Would it be afraid of my headlamp?" You also think, "Wow, that cave ceiling is awful close to my head." Then you actually fall asleep, sit up, to roll over and think "Crap/Ouch, that hurt, I knew that celing was too close to my head"

Things I am glad I had for a quality snow caving experience: Big Blue Tarp, 2 crazy creek chairs (folded out for insulation) 1 Thermarest Pad, 2 sleeping bags, 2 socks, fleece pants, rain pants, 1 Poly-pro shirt, 1 fleece turtleneck, 1 fleece jacket, 2 sets of gloves, 1 beanie cap, 1 camp pillow, head lamp (to fend of the cougras), Sorels, and a short shovel with a hand grip (and a cabin close by to change and get warm and dry!)

I have to say that I was the only person to make it through the night outside. Man vs Wild, here I come. I have also had many nights camping where I was colder then than I was in the snow cave. I would do it again, minus the visions of cougars.

For more Snow Cave fun check out the Troop 181 blog link. See you in the snowbank.

One of the best days of the year.

2008-03-10T21:53:00.000-07:00

There is just something awesome about riding your bike with 4-5 foot snow banks on the side of the road. Makes you feel tough. In my opinion, one of the best days of the year is when you get to ride outside and get off the trainer. I was not the only one with this idea. I counted 54 cyclists in Emigration Canyon, everyone seemed pretty happy. I rode farther and harder than "the plan" called for, but it was great. I was 5 minutes off my PR from the "Slide Area" sign at the bottom to the yellow gaurd rail at the summit, so there is some work to do, but mostly is was fun just to get out and enjoy the extra added hour of sun, thanks to an early DST. Even made it home in the daylight. I have to admit that I am sad to see the snow melt. I would like to get out and ski some more, but the trade offs will be abundant as hiking, Mtn. biking and all the other stuff that clutters my garage can come out and play. See you at the summit.

Two wild and crazy guys...

2008-03-10T21:38:00.000-07:00

Now there is no question that I got a straight shot of genetic "cool" from my father. The tweed blazer, the turtleneck and of course the moustache, any gentlemen should sport one. The real question? Who pulls it off better. Mr. "I lived the 70's" (Quincy) or Mr. "I wish I lived the 70's" (Shawn). Don't forget to vote on the sidebar!

It is not often you have a gathering of such fine gentlemen. But on occasion it does happen.