What A Week! I Need Sleep!!!!

Where do I start? Since my last post we have done a lot. I guess I can start with Last weekend. My mom came into town for 6 days. We had a great time. Thanks for coming Mom; you really help us out while I was out of town. While she was here we took the girls to an apple farm that had a corn maze, chickens, apples, pumpkins, pigs, turkeys, and a bunch of other things. We also headed to Banner Elk to participate in the Woolly Worm Festive. What a hoot that was! You buy a worm for $1 and for $5 more dollars you can race it against everyone else. Talk about racking in the money! The Woolly Worm Festive was packed and we had a ton of fun.

Monday came around and I had to fly out to Providence, RI to meet up with me King Family for Interbike East. Had a great time seeing my other family out of Portland. Good people, good food, and lots of bikes. I flew home late Thursday night and had an early meeting in JC on Friday.

Spent Friday in JC and back home to pack the car and leave for Knoxville, TN for the night and part of Saturday. Lyn had a bunch of old college friends meeting in K-Town for the UT vs. Alabama game on Saturday. We meet everyone for dinner Friday night. By this time I was running on fumes and wondering how the heck I’m going to keep going. But….in Joey fashion I found the energy and continued on for the night. Dinner, some persuasion, and we were off to a local favorite for a few drinks. That lasted a few minutes and everyone was ready to call it a night, but Paul and I had some energy left in the tank. We decided to mix it up on the strip with the college kids and show them who’s still the King. After a few games of pool, my losing a bet to buying beers in Dear Valley, UT Paul and I decided it was time to hang it up. 2:30am and a hotel floor later I was sleeping. Thanks for the hospitality Beth and Paul. I owe you one.

Saturday came and Lyn and I were off on a morning ride at Norris (our old riding area). He had a really nice ride and headed back to town to prepare for the game. Cleaned up, some food in the belly, and people to see, we were off once again. Found a tailgate, watched the UT walk, and meet up with friends. Things were rocking. Now….my plans were to leave K-Town right before the game and drive to Newland, NC so I could race in the Boone cross race today. So I’m getting ready to leave and Rick says if I want to come into the game he had an extra ticket. How can you pass that up? So I head into the game and stayed through the first half.

I get to my car at about 9:30pm and hit the road with a destination of Newland. I get to Newland around 12:00pm and hit the sack. 7:00am comes around and I’m back up and going again. Breakfast, cold weather, frost on the car, and wind….what a day for a cross race. I got to the race and meet up with the team and start the morning. The race was great; me on the other hand was a hurting boy. I guess the lack of riding for almost two weeks, all the airplane time, car time, late nights, and sleeping on floors finally caught up to me. I got killed in the race. The best part was the heckling we did to the other races. That was worth the trip. Jason piled in with me and we drove back to Asheville. I was home by 6:00pm and ready to sleep for about a week.

Declaimer: The photos are not in exact order. I tried but failed in a few areas. I'm too tired to fix, spell or grammar check.

Entering the corn maze

Lost in the corn maze, but we did find our way out

Getting our pumpkin

Apples, apples, and more apples

Look at the size of that thing!

Claire and I on the move

Hanging out at the Grove Park

Claire and Grandma getting crazy

Paige's worm which she named Slop

Where the racing happens

Slop warming up

Slop on the move. He got 3rd in his heat. No to bad.

Slop's new home

Our new square feeder. Hopefully it will give us hours of entertainment

Claire going for a ride

Setting up the King booth in RI

A little ride after work

Checking out the town. What a bunch of clowns.

What a happy crew

Chris at the booth

Lyn and I on our ride in K-Town

Joey and his air guitar

Dinner

Football and Phil

Fire breathing at the tailgate.

All the girls together again

On my way to Newland

Jason helping out in the pits

A junor on our team that's rocking the house down.

Beers after the race with the team.

Congratulations Gabe and Thad

Smoke Bikes has made its mark in the bike industry. Congratulations on your article in Bike magazine. Keep up the great work and your vision. Smmmmmooooooke!!!!!!!

http://bikemag.com/features/onlineexclusive/bike-magazine-157-november-2008/

Cyclocross Is On Like Donky Kong

Last weekend was a double race weekend in JC. The guys in charge of the MSG series do a really good job. Everyone has a goodtime. It's funny, when the season starts up it's like your family away from family. All the same players and more are always being added to the mix every year. The only problem I'm having is my fitness has not changed in a few years and everyone else is taking the sport more serious. That means everyone’s coming into the season really fast and blowing my doors off. I keep tell myself in another few years I can actually start trying to work on my fitness and be more competitive. But....not until my kids get a little older. A few photos of me trying to ride my bike.

Getting Ready For Halloween

Night Cross Racing

Wednesday night cross racing (practice). Lyn told me a few weeks ago she wanted to race again. So I built up her old Ritchey with any old part I could find and got it back together. Lyn got back on her bike and raced for the first time in 5 years. It was a wonderful sight to see the girl I married 8 years ago back to herself. Welcome back sweetheart.

Paige was the official flag girl and lap counter. She did a great job. As for my race...it was a lot of fun! It started at 6:50pm as the sun started to set and the lights came on around the tennis courts. The last 4 laps of the race where in the dark and it was raining pretty hard. It was a lot of fun. We need to do more racing under the lights. Off to Tennessee this weekend for a two day race. Happy cross racing everyone.

Sorry for the blurry photo. It was the only photo I was able to take.

Paige had a lot of fun getting wet in the rain. Kids love the rain!



There is nothing more inspirational then your child cheers you on.

Claire Playing The Piano

Sunday Was Slammed Packed

Woke up Sunday morning and took Paige to the Waffle House for a little father daughter time together. Got home around 8:15am and Jason & D-Dub showed you to carpool to the cross race in Tennessee. Pretty good race but felt slow. I’m trying to get myself into shape but it’s been slow going this year. Will and I got home around 4:30pm and meet up with the girls at the trapezes training center. Ellie who is 4 1/5 actually did the trapeze. She didn’t know what to think but did it about 3 times. She had a blast. Lyn looked like a pro. We got home around 6:30pm, eat dinner, and now I’m ready to collapse in exhaustion. Back to the real world tomorrow.

These streamers are now rated at 75mph

D-Dub and streamers a flying

Racing thorugh a barn. Very cool



Jason help Will with his bike while his son gets a ride on his shoulders

Will smoking everyone



It's time to fly



Ellie flying high. It was so funny!



Lyn feeling like she is in the circus



Melanie giving the trapeze a shot.

Lyn missed her calling

Wow...What A Day Full Of Excitment

Saturday was no stop actions from when we woke up until everyone finally called it quits. Went for a cross ride with Will in the morning. Got home and Lyn and Melanie went for a ride and I did a little house cleaning while the kids took a nap. When Lyn got home it was time to head over to the William’s house for Sarah's 3rd birthday. So we load the kids up in the big buggy and head over to the party. After the party we decided it was a great night for a fire. So well called over the Black's to invite them to a fire with marshmallows for the kids. So we ate marshmallows and got the kids all sugared up. They went home and I fired up the TV to watch the Nebraska game. Yea....no comment on that. Off to bed to wake on Sunday morning to another full day of excitement.

Will and I on a cross ride. The weather so prefect.

Kids ready for the ride over to the William's









Bill being a great father and an awsome host for Sarah's birday party.









Get that sugar!





Fire, marshmallows, a few beers, and good neighbors.



Finally they all ran out of steam.