Hoopfest Weekend

Hoopfest is a crazy time. A couple days filled with friends, family, basketball and or course beer (remember this is the Winkler family).  Many traditions have developed over the years and one in particular has become extremely popular.  Beer tasting competition.  This year there were 23 entries which made for an interesting event.  It gets a little wild after about 15 tastes.  The winner you ask?  The tasters of course.  Oh in terms of which beer won?  The gold medal went to........ a Canadian beer, Sleeman Honey Brown Lager

As if tasting 23 beers wasn't fun enough, my wife and kids surprised Greg and I with some amazing gear for our trip.  Below was a jersey we received.  We'll be riding billboards! 

Of course there was some basketball played and of the five teams we had participate, two won their bracket and one got second.  Overall a pretty good showing considering there was beer tasting the night before.  Here's a picture of one of the winning teams (Ryan, Nick, Jeff and Kyle).

 

Its funny that my intent was for this to be a blog about me getting prepared for my long tour from Washington to San Francisco, but it's more about all the partying I do!  Now that Hoopfest is over, I will get some riding in.  Tomorrow I'm back on the Centennial Trail hopefully getting about 70 miles in.  We'll see how it goes......

Finally on the bike. Centennial Trail

Day 1 of sabbatical was a busy one. We drove to Spokane to Hoopfest, the largest 3 on 3 event in the world. I started coming by myself 23 years ago and now it's  grown into an annual family tradition. It's insanity in a good way (not like Shawn T). 

We got here early enough for me to get on my bike, finally!  Went for 47 on the Centennial Trail. A beautiful ride. It was over 90 degrees when I left but a little Gatorade and a couple Cliff bars and I was good to go!

Keeping Dry

I finally got around to taking my blown tire back to Performance and I was all fired up ready for the battle over the refund.  Well, they quickly doused the fire by profusely apologizing, giving me a new tire and tube (wow!).  I also took this opportunity to return the Kevlar tires that I'm not smart enough to use and went back to the old school of wire rims which a 5th grader can put on (including me). 

So that got me excited to go for a ride today.  Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate and since I am a fair weather rider, I decided to go indoors and rode for 2 hours at the gym (see below).  I must say, I got an excellent workout.  I stumbled on a show called Fast and Loud and they sucked me in with the rebuild of a wrecked 1991 Ferrari F40 which sold for $900,000 after they finished it (that's the same as 1456 Dodge Stratuses).  It wasn't great TV, but it certainly beats Are You Smarter than 5th Grader (which I am not re: Kevlar tire installation)

The other big news (not that riding indoors watching Fast and Loud is real big) is that I got a MOTA battery case for my iPhone for Fathers Day (see below).  It will provide extra battery power when I am using my GPS on long rides.  This thing is AWESOME.  You charge it up and turn it off and then put your phone in it.  When your phone runs low on power you turn on the case and it charges your phone back up.  Very, very cool and it is about the size of a case for you phone.  For more info check out their website MOTA

Blog Gets a Father's Day Makeover!

Happy Father's Day Dad!

Hi everyone...I am hacking my dad's blog today to surprise him with a blog makeover!

My whole family is in Vegas celebrating my sister's birthday and Father's Day! I think this is the first year I haven't been with my dad on this special day. Even though we are hundreds of miles apart, it doesn't mean I can't still give him his gift. This year he gets a personalized blog header that my friend Jena helped me design. I gave her the vision, she made the header and I designed the blog!

Now my dad is official...he can track his journey for all of you to follow. I will get him set-up with a hashtag (#1ktothebay) and we will also track his route online by using something like Strava or another GPS tracker.

I am looking forward to hearing the crazy adventures of my dad, mom and Greg!

Ride on.

Love,

Jenna

Different Kind of Training This Weekend

The biking excursion is less than a month away and one would think that I would be in major training mode. Hmmm those who think that don't know me well. Yes I love to exercise but also love to have fun. So what am I doing this weekend?  Vegas with the family baby!  My youngest daughters turned 21 in January so all 7 of us are of legal drinking age (Dang, I'm 2.5 times legal drinking age!) so we decided to hit Vegas.  The first night was as you would expect, a late night filled with fun on The Strip.

Today is lay by the pool at the MGM Grand!

Though on vacation, I do need to get my workout in so we found Shawn T on YouTube kept on schedule creating my beach body. I wonder what the people below us thought we were doing. 

Eventful Sunday Ride

I had a rear tire flat at the end of my ride last week and fixed it with no problem. When I went to ride Saturday the tire was flat again indicating a slow leak. So I check the tire again for any sharp objects and didn't find any so I changed the tire AGAIN and half way down the block the tire was flat!!!!  So I said enough of this so I cancelled my Sat ride and went to Performance for a new tire. I like gator skins because I hate flats!  The salesman talked me into the new type that have Kevlar instead of wire in the rim because he said they were easier to change (and $15 more per tire or course) so I got them. Well they weren't easier to change (possible I might be doing something wrong, just possible). So I finally got the tire changed and took off early Sunday for a long ride to Salem and back. It was an absolutely gorgeous day for a ride. I saw some nice back country and even made friends with some cows.

After lunch in Lafayette I was on the last 30 miles for a century and feeling pretty good. At mile 76 I heard a loud pop and my dang rear tire blew out. So much for the new Kevlar Gator skins. I'm going to look for my money back at Performance. Fortunately for me I have an awesome wife who drove to Newberg to pick me up.  

I still had a very nice ride, I just didnt get my 100 miles.  Here is what I completed before the blowout. Beaverton to Salem route 

Linked my Saturday ride

I have been trying the iPhone map my ride app and used it Saturday. My phone battery only lasted 55 of the 65 miles but if you want to see it here is the link. Helvetia Route.  There was one killer hill  wow.  When I got to the top it was beautiful. Today was beautiful but I coached my JV hoop team so I couldn't ride.  We won our game by 20 which was good.  Im not big on riding after work anyway.  Im doing a little Shawn T instead.  Dig deeper!

Finalizing the route

I've been meaning to add some links, pictures and videos but I haven't had a chance to sit and figure it out yet :)  I will eventually, but in the mean time I figured I'd send an update on the preparation.  As for the route, it's looking as though we will leave Kennewick WA on July 7. Leaving from Kennewick gets us closer to 1000 at San Francisco but we are still a little short.  Geez 1000 miles is a long way!  We moved our start day up a bit to get us to Sunriver before our relatives leave on the 12th.  When I mapped the ride from Kenewick to Sunriver I was surprised to see all of the climbing.  It's going to be rough.

As for the preparation there is the physical and also the logistical. As for the physical, I have not been on the road much because the weather has been terrible and I am a fair weather rider to be sure.  I got 65 in last Saturday.  I used the map my ride app on my phone but my battery died after 55 miles. The GPS kills the battery.  I need to get a solar panel!  I really liked the app.  I'll post the route when I figure out how to do it.

When I'm not riding I've been getting my butt kicked via Insanity and my good buddy Shawn T.

Greg got in an 80 mile ride in Sunday so he is well on his way.

As for the logistics, I got the oil and filters changed on the motor home's engine and generator so that was good.  I have a lot of other maintenance items to finish on that bad boy to make sure its in shape too!  I prefer to play in the motor home than work on it.