Tour of Dairyland

After visiting with my folks for a few days I picked Sean up from the Chicago airport and headed to Milwaukee to race in the Tour of Dairyland.  The race series is 10 days of racing in various towns around the Milwaukee area.  Sean raced well getting on the podium many times...he won a lot of coffee.  The races in Wisconsin, both Dairyland and Superweek, attract the best Master's racers in the country, which made for great finishes and fun competition for Sean.  We stayed with a great host family in Brookfield and was able to enjoy the local Greenway system in town.  We swam in Long Lake at the Kettle Moraine State Forest after the Greenbush road race.  The forest and lake were beautiful, with minimal uggies in the water, enabling me to swim and touch the bottom!  One of our favorite parts of traveling is eating at great restaurants.  You can see below we found a great breakfast spot, where surprisingly at 8am we were the only ones not drinking fancy OJ Mimosa's or beer.   We thought for a moment we had AM and PM mixed up, but I guess its part of their culture.  They had a delicious eggs benedict, something hard to find the southland.  Another night we had dinner with David Forkner at a vegetarian/vegan restaurant, which was amazing!  We had a great time and miss many things about the Midwest, including the beautiful rural farm landscapes, friendly people, and cool weather.  We head back to Indiana to visit family, friends, and partake in the July 4th festival until next week when it's back to work!

 

 

 

 

 

Down Home

Made the trip to Indiana last week as we start our Grand Summer Midwest Tour.  Snapped a few shots of my parents farm, which has great memories. I delivered a barn quilt made in our town, West Jefferson, to my folks.  It took my Dad making a serious pulley system to raise the quilt and it looks great!  Heading to Wisconsin for five days of racing in the Tour of Dairyland.

 

Memorial Day Traditions

Since I can remember we go to the lakes for Memorial Day and in Indiana it was the official start of summer.  I broke that tradition last year when Sean and I raced BURN, a 24 hour mountain bike race in Wilkesboro, NC on the Dark Mountain Trails.  It seemed like a great idea to ring in our 10 year wedding anniversary; however, with a few stomach issues, heat, and lack of sleep I decided breaking that tradition was a bad idea!  So, this year I went to the lakes and stayed at the Wood's Playground in Clemson which includes the Issaqueena Forest, Hartwell lake, and a pool.  We had a great time and I love watching the kids grow up and pick on each other...it brings back great memories!  Sean on the hand raced on a five man team for the 24 hours of BURN race.  Although he had a great time, I think he'll be returning to my tradition next year too!