Durham Bulls

Earlier this month we got to enjoy a Durham Bulls baseball game with several of my coworkers.  It was a lot of fun.  The game was looooong and the Bulls finally pulled out a win in the bottom of the 11th inning!  Brian and I left after the bottom of the 10th because it was getting late. 

I remember going through a torrential downpour on the way home and we got to see some incredible lightning.  That’s one of my all time favorite things, lightning storms in the summer! 

Anyway, here are some pics from the game :)

Brian & Me                                                                                                     Catherine & Ben

Crystal & Trey

 
Brooke, her friend & Bernie.  What’s funny in this picture are the three guys in the back.  The guy on the far right totally ducked behind Bernie’s head! And boy do they look thrilled to be at the game? Haha!

Crystal, Nancy (the boss!) & Brooke (her daughter)                HAMLET!—he didn’t really get to come, but he’s too cute not to put in the post!

Steeeeeriiiiiiiike.  Oops.  Go Bulls!                                                                          Lovely Ladies

Briar Chapel

I’m afraid my blog is becoming one dimensional.  Lately, all I seem to post about is my mountain biking excursions.  So, in keeping with my one-dimensionality here’s yet another tale about an mtb adventure.

Brian, Dave and I headed to Chapel Hill today to check out a trail recommended to us by our bike mechanic, aka the Cycle Surgeon.  It’s actually really neat because the trails are around the interior and exterior of a fairly new neighborhood called Briar Chapel.  It’s a green community and the Developer asked the residents or potential residents if they’d rather have something like a tennis court complex or mountain biking trails and the response was in favor of mountain biking trails and hiking trails.  At least, that’s what I’ve been told, but either way, the fact that a Developer would plan and implement trails throughout a neighborhood is pretty cool in my book!

When we got to where we had been told to park we were a little confused about where the trail started.  We drove around a little bit to see if we could find the trailhead but with no luck.  We decided to unload our bikes and hope for the best.  We were a bit wary at first because there was no one else in the parking lot and we wondered why, if these trails were so good, there weren’t any other bikers there.  Right about that time a truck pulls up with two bikes in the back!  So, I rode over and asked the guy where the trail started and he gave us a detailed description of where to go and where on the trails we needed to make sure we took the appropriate turns to follow it correctly.  So with that, we were off. 

Even with the  detailed instructions we still managed to take a couple of wrong turns.  But  as soon as we realized we were on the wrong path we would turn around in search of the right way.  We noted that the right trail was suited for mountain biking while the wrong trails were mulched and, therefore, spongy making our way much more strenuous.  (Hmm, you could probably draw some spiritual application from that, but I’m too tired to do it at the moment; so, if you do feel free to leave it in the comments.)

There were some very technical, rocky areas that were pretty difficult for me.  At one point I fell over and in a fit of frustration ended up kicking my bike off of me and onto the ground.  Brian and Dave just looked on helplessly, probably embarrassed for me for acting so childish.  I don’t like when I get frustrated like that and looking back I wish I had been able to exercise self-control and simply forge ahead.  A good lesson learned, I guess.  Also a good, humbling reminder that I’m not as good at this biking thing as my head tells me I am.  I have much to learn and many areas in which to progress. 

Anyway, the forest was lush and green and the cicadas were at full volume.  It was much like a natural white noise (or brown, if you’re so inclined) with them humming away in the background.  The noise, at some points, could be a bit distracting but it was pretty neat to be reminded of the phenomenon we’re witnessing.  Honestly, I can’t say that I have even heard the cicadas until this trip, and it was definitely curious to experience them.  Thankfully, we didn’t really encounter them up close and personal.  But I did snap a picture of one on our way home at the BBQ place where we stopped.  The only problem with a lush forest are the potential ticks.  And I definitely found one crawling up my leg.  I was able to brush it off, but it landed on my shoe and did not want to come off.  But it finally did and as far as I know I didn’t have any other run-ins with the little blood suckers. 

Fun times on a beautiful Saturday.  Below are pictures of the cicada.

See ‘dem beady eyes.  Where is that from?  Anyone else ever heard that quote?  No?  Just me?

The video is of Dave successfully riding over a log-bridge crossing a creek.  You can’t really tell from the video but the log is about 4'- 5’ off the ground at the highest point.  May not seem like much but  then you add the additional 3.5’ or so of bike that he’s on top of and he’s now around 8’ off the ground.  I’m impressed with his handling of the challenge.  Brian nor I attempted to ride across.  Props to Dave!

Crossing the Creek

Tsali-Part 1

This past weekend Brian and I took a trip to Bryson City, NC for a long weekend away and some mountain biking on the Tsali in the Nantahala National Forest.  These trails were once among the top 10 mountain biking trails in the country—or so I’ve been told.  Tsali is the name of a Native American that used to live at the mouth of the Fontana river.  The river has since been dammed and the trails stretch along 2 peninsulas extending into the subsequent lake. 

Here we are about to head out.  Brian did a good job getting the car all packed up!  We were worried it was going to rain on us all weekend but God blessed us with great weather the whole time.

 

Our bikes liked holding hands on top of the car.

We stayed at the Watershed Cabins which happened to be only 5 miles from the Tsali trailhead.  Very convenient and a great place to stay!  There are 4 trails at this park.  The trails are accessible to bikers, hikers/runners and horseback riders.  Because of that bikes and horses are allowed to use alternating trails each day and hikers/runners typically try to avoid the trails mountain bikers are on making the trails pretty clear and open.

On Friday the Right & Left Loop were open to bikers so we headed out.  We took the right loop first, took a break for lunch and an excursion (I detail that in just a bit) then headed out on the left loop. 

So, toward the end of the first trail (right loop) Brian noticed a screw from his clip had come off making it almost impossible to get his shoe (and therefore his foot) off his pedal.  Not a safe situation.  So, we decided to scope out a bike shop after lunch.  I had glanced at some local information back at the cabin and thought I remembered seeing a bike shop in Robbinsville.  We made it to the little town, got gas and I headed into the store to ask where the bike shop was.  The lady looked at me funny and said she didn’t know of any bike shop around the area.  We decided to head back to Bryson City, which was a bit bigger than Robbinsville, to look for a shop there.  We didn’t have an address for a bike shop in BC so I just typed in BC into the GPS and picked a random destination.  We followed the directions and ended up on a windy road.  Brian started looking around and commenting that this looked like the Tail of the Dragon…a “famous” stretch of winding road that apparently motorcyclists enjoy cruising.   Oops, my BC directions were taking us in a major circle.  We decided to type in “Nantahala Outdoor Center” because Brian remembered you could rent bikes from them and figured (rightly) that they would have a bike shop.  So off we went.  Turns out the NOC was only 4 miles from our cabin (or 6 miles from the trailhead).  My poor memory took us on a 75 mile detour around rural western NC. 

I did have one fall at mile 3.5 of the 13 mile right loop trail.  The trail had some really fun down hills with banked turns.  However, I took one turn that didn’t have a bank slightly too fast and my bike slid out from under me.  I got a nice bruise on my right hip.  There were a lot of killer climbs on this trip.  Most of them rewarded us with incredibly scenic views or screaming hills we could bomb down.   With no helmet cam I couldn’t catch any of the downhill action (darn) but we did stop at several scenic overlooks for some pictures.  The pretty views gave us a good excuse to rest and catch our breath at the top of the hill.  Some pics are below.

Here we are enjoying our lunch.  We both got some pretty nice helmet hair going on here!  And here we are sitting on the Nantahala River.  Didn’t see any rafters come in but it was fun to see some small rapids.

The left loop wasn’t quite as fun as the right loop.  It followed the edge of the lake more closely and therefore had some pretty steep drop-offs and narrower trails.  It was a good workout though because not only were there some pretty good climbs but my nerves were on edge most of the time making my muscles tense.  I was pretty nervous for a good portion about hitting a root or a rock and careening over the side.  At one point I did hit a rock funny and thankfully it threw me sideways into the side of the “mountain”.  I didn’t actually come off my bike but my face and arm slid pretty well against it and I came away with some good mud caked on my arm up to my elbow.  Brian watched the whole thing.  I think he was just thankful I fell into the mountain and not off of it!

After our adventures we headed back to the cabin where Brian grilled us a nice steak dinner.  Our friend put together a menu for us for the weekend that was great and we ate really well for breakfast, lunch and dinner!  There was a nice evening thunderstorm we enjoyed under the covered porch and after that rolled through we got to test out the hot tub.  Then it was off to bed to rest up for another day of Tsali adventures!

Part two to come.

White Blank Page

I enjoy this song.  It gives me the sense of a swelling ocean.  Ebbing and flowing, building and crashing.  Love it.  Can’t wait to see these guys live on June 8th!!   Take a listen.

Love it will not betray you, dismay or enslave you,
It will set you free
Be more like the man you were made to be.
-Sigh No More
(another song I enjoy by these fellas)

28!!!

Today we celebrated Brian’s 28th birthday!  He liked 3 of the 4 presents he got from me, I think.  You can tell by the smile on his face how much he enjoyed each gift.

Exhibit 1: 
Brian SUPER excited about his Lacoste shirt!

Exhibit 2: 
Brian excited about his Mumford & Sons cd (I think he had guessed this gift already)!

Exhibit 3: 
Brian not excited about his watch but trying to look like he is.

He also go a mixed CD from me with some new music we’ve been listening to lately.  It’s good for road trips…which is nice b/c we have several coming up this summer!  Yippee!!  Oh, and a Ring of Fire frisbee to add to his collection.  I guess it was his “retirement” disc :(. 

After opening presents we went to Panera and enjoyed a relaxed breakfast and some good quality time, reading the Word and talking about life.  Then it was off to Brier Creek to pick up cupcakes for the evening’s dinner.

The big adventure for the day was hitting up our favorite trail in the area.  The 286 near Umstead/Crabtree.  Brian convinced me to bring along our camera this time and we put together a very amateur video of our trip.  I did not have the best day on the trail and fell really hard 3 times.  Was thankful to have my helmet on for one fall as I pretty much got whiplash and smacked my head on the ground pretty hard.  All in all it was a good time and as always we enjoyed the trail due to it not being very crowded, lots of fun jumps and downhills, nice uphills for a good workout and of course the beautiful area in general.  Enjoy the video!

A little video we threw together from our trip on Brian’s birthday.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After mountain biking we came home and relaxed a bit before heading out for dinner with a few friends at Lucky 32’s.  Fun fact: Brian and I had our first date at a Lucky 32s in Raleigh (before it closed)!  Thanks everyone for coming out to celebrate Brian and what a wonderful guy he is!  Love you, Brian!  So thankful to have you as my husband and get the chance to make you feel special.

              

Feeling Sick

Ugh, spring/summer colds are the worst. It's like a mean trick. It's beautiful outside and you're stuck feeling crummy and tired. At least, that's how I'm feeling today.

I feel like I look like this dude too.  Well, I'm not in my bathrobe but I wish I was!  Cold, cold, go away.  Quickly!