Phew, ok. Where do I begin after a 2 month hiatus from blogging?? Needless to say more has happened than I can write about here without writing a short novel, but let me think back on some of the highs…and some lows.

On the racing side of things I’ve been to the the Meijer GP in Michigan which Jo won! The rest of us didn’t count laps right and screwed up the finish so we didn’t quite stack the results like we had hoped to do. Oops. Thanks Jo for saving us!!

The flight home from that race was one of the worst I’ve ever had. The day that I left for Michigan Kohi wasn’t feeling well but she wasn’t bad enough for us to be too concerned. The next day Toni let me know that she still wasn’t eating and drinking so she took her to the CSU Vet Hospital. As I was driving to the Grand Rapids airport I got a call from the Dr informing me that Kohi was really sick. I completely lost it and was in tears the whole way home. Upon landing in Denver late that evening Ben told me that Kohi was in the process of receiving a blood transfusion because an auto immune disease was attacking her red blood cells. In short less than 24 hours after arriving at the vet hospital we had to make the difficult decision to have Kohi put down. She wasn’t responding to treatment and her body was quickly shutting down. There was nothing more we could do for her. Three years and 1 day after we brought Haka and Kohi home when they were just 8 weeks old, Kohi was gone. I cried for 4 days straight. I never imagined it would be that hard to lose one of my dogs.

Just several days after leaving for Cascade Ben brought home another furry friend who we named Koru (it means new beginning, new life in Maori). Haka wasn’t herself after never being alone for the last 3 years so we asked her to help us pick out another companion for her and for us. Five weeks later the 2 dogs are inseparable. Koru won’t leave Haka’s side and Haka loves the attention!

Going back to the racing Cascade is a race I look forward to each year because I love being in Bend. It’s such a cool, laid back town that has all the outdoor elements that I could ask for. For me personally I had a decent race (finished 7th overall). Had I not sucked so bad in the TT maybe I could have bumped into the top 5. I guess everyday isn’t going to be a great day so 7th isn’t too bad. I’ve got one more chance in Bend this year to bring home a big result…cross nationals.

Cascade marked the near end of the road season for most of the women racing in the US since there are no road races left on the calendar, just a few crits. A couple weeks ago we landed in Charlotte for what is arguably one of the biggest crits of the year. The crowds are HUGE and the prize list is one of the largest we have for a one day race. Luckily the heat and humidity weren’t as oppressive as in years past so the race conditions were tolerable. We tried hard to win that race but it didn’t quite work according to plan. We may not have won the race but Jo did jump onto the podium in 3rd place! Not to mention we won some money along the way.

Last weekend I flew out to Chicago for the Glencoe GP. Normally this weekend is full of energy because it’s been the National Crit Championships for the past 24 years, or something like that, in Downers Grove. This year not only did the venue change but so did the fact that only the pro men’s race was the national championship race. The “rest” of us had our nationals in Bend along with the road race and TT. Glencoe was a great place for the race, and the course was good, but the vibe just wasn’t the same. Still, I managed to finish 2nd that day even though I was the only “non sprinter” in a break of 5. Not quite sure how I pulled that off but I’m not going to question it!

Today (see, it didn’t take that long for me to get to the present day news) Ben and I packed up the car with mtn bikes and fly fishing gear for a small trip to the mtns before Ben starts school next week. I’ve been doing a fair amount of mtn biking the last few weeks to help me get ready for the ‘cross season – I raced my first mtb race ever in Winter Park 3 weekends ago and have also raced the 3 races we’ve had in Lory State Park, which is right in our backyard. That’s 4 mtb races in 3 weeks! So here we are in Salida where we’ll ride the Monarch Crest Trail tomorrow – possibly 5 hours in the saddle of which a couple will be above tree line. This ride is renowned for being epic so I’m sure I’ll have a lot to say after the ride is over.

After the ride the plan is to head west to Crested Butte for a chill evening of fly fishing (my first time) and more mtn bike riding on Friday.

As long as Ben is patient with me and the weather cooperates, I should have mucho pictures to post from our adventures.

By the way, I’m writing this on my iPhone (I was able to leave the computer behind but god forbid I leave my phone behind!) so you’ll have to excuse any typos because I’m not going back to proof read.

Oh, I have to shout out to my aunt Jane and uncle Gus because they might be the only 2 people reading my blog anymore so hellllooooo!!