Not exactly the way I’d like to spend my anniversary, but at least I was suffering with my sweet husband, and he wasn’t in the hospital!  

We’re still trying to get home… We got off at about 8am, then had to go back for something we forgot at the hotel.  Then we had restless kids and spent some time in Madison at a Hardee’s playground to wear them out around lunch time.  Brian’s feeling considerably better, but he’s still got issues.  I’m sure the checker at WalMart had it all figured out as Brian checked out with Immodium, a package of new boxers and a pair of shorts.  Then shortly after that, Analise woke from a nap burning up, and threw up when we tried to get some tylenol into her. 

We should have taken the cues to stop our travels there, and continue tomorrow.  But no, we pressed on… and sure enough, though she was feeling better and ate a little dinner, she threw up again this evening all over her car seat.  45 minutes and an entire container of wipes later, we trudged on looking for a place to stay.  We’re finally here in Marion, IL.  Brian desperately wanted to make it to Paducah, Kentucky, since he feels like Illinois has defeated us today.  But I convinced him to stop a littler earlier so we can actually rest.  We’ve still got 400 miles to go tomorrow. 

Hopefully we’ll check in tomorrow from Birmingham…

And God is able to make ALL grace abound, so that in ALL things, at ALL times, having ALL that you need, you will abound for every good work.  –2nd Corintihans 9:8

It’s been a good trip, and I look forward to sharing lots of great pictures with you. But I’ve got just a second to ask for a favor as we’re heading home…

Brian’s been sick since Monday with an intestinal bug. We had plans to meet my friend, Dena, and her son, Derek, in Wausau for playing at the playground, lunch and splashing at the splash pad before heading to southern IL for the night, and finishing the trip back to AL tomorrow. Well, Brian was feeling somewhat better today, so we headed off. He felt worse and worse as we drove over, but just wanted to rest in the air conditioned car while we played and had lunch. He finally felt too bad, though and tried to come find us in the restaurant and passed out briefly, probably due to dehydration.

Thankfully, Dena and my other friend, Jen, took Analise and the kids to splash, after Jen found out from her sister the best walk-in clinic for us to go to. It was a super choice, as they took good care of us. I only had to manage to get Josiah and a largely incapacitated Brian in to the doctor. He got some meds and some IV fluids and slept, and amazingly, so did Josiah, for most of the time we were there. Analise was an angel when she arrived, and after about 4 hours at the clinic, they sent us home… well, "home" meaning whatever hotel we could find here, instead of the one we had reserved in southern IL.

So, we’re in a hotel in Wausau, Wisconsin, with 14 more hours of travel ahead of us to get back to Birmingham. Toss up a prayer for us… I’m anxious to get us all home, safe and sound, so we can get healthy and get some good rest. It’s hard to take care of a sick husband and 2 lively kids, especially when you’re in a city you don’t know well and your plans are all jumbled up. God took good care of us today, and I know He’ll get us home. I just hope it’s soon!

My number one fans before the start of the Mankato Race.

 
Another number one fan. Analise was standing there as I was getting ready to warm-up. Whenever Kristine would tell
her to say "Go Daddy Go", she would instead come over to me and give me a hug around my leg which is what
she is doing in the second picture above. I ended up 8th in the race (see the race report below).

Here I am in second position near the beginning of the race.

Whew, a lot has happened since I last wrote, but it has been hard to sit down and find time to upload pictures or write a blog. First, the Nature Valley Grand Prix is over and done with and it was an exciting race to watch. I hope to be an active participant in next year’s edition. I was still able to race in the amateur races on Saturday and Sunday and I’ve included my race report below for those who are interested.

Currently, I am sitting in a local coffee shop with air conditioning and wireless internet. I have managed to get sick again this year and have been feeling really really bad. To put it in perspective, I didn’t ride my bike today and probably won’t tomorrow making for only the 3rd and 4th, days this year I have not ridden my bike. Kristine, the amazing superhero mom and beautiful wife, has picked up the slack and is at her parent’s home getting two sometimes very fussy kids to sleep in 90 degree weather without air conditioning. I missed a trip to the Shell Lake beach during lunch so Kristine will have to report on how that went. Ok, I think that’s all for now, except for my race report below:

Minnesota Iron and Metal Criterium (June 23)

I felt good during this race. Great start, good position for most of the race. I stayed near the front going with every break thinking that a break would emerge fairly quickly like it did during the training crit on Tuesday. Unfortunately, there was a large team (Grandstay Hotel) that was not letting anything get away and they didn’t seem interested in getting in a break themselves. They chased down their own breakaway at least once. With three laps to go on the 1.5 mile course, one rider attacked and got a short gap. With two to go, I attacked hard through the start/finish gapping the field and bridging to the lone rider. I passed him and kept going through the next two corners. Then I made a mistake by looking back. Never look back with less than 2 laps to go!!! I was discouraged thinking that the gap wasn’t enough so I sat up. It took an agonizingly long 5-6 seconds for the field to catch me after I sat up. I then tried to go for the sprint, too, and managed 8^th. I should have won that race just by laying it all out once I had the gap.

Stillwater Kurt Kinetic Criterium (June 24)

This race was unbelievable. We raced on the same crit course as the pro’s with the 20+ percent gradient climb. Imagine something slightly less steep than South Cove Dr in a crit! The start was at the bottom of the climb and the finish was at the top of the climb so my heart rate went from 98 before the start to 182 in less than a minute. I felt great on the climb and the group went from maybe 50 at the start to just 10 of us with about 4 laps to go. One guy attacked on the hill and I was right there and started to bridge up to him, but there were 3 Grandstay Hotels riders at the front who had been chasing down everything earlier so I figured they would just chase us down again so I sat up. Unfortunately, they were tired and they didn’t really chase that hard so we were racing for 2^nd place with one lap to go when I had an anaerobic brain meltdown – I started to figure out how I could move into position to be first around the last corner since there was hardly any room between that corner and what I was thinking was the finish line. So I attacked and moved into first through the corner thinking that there was no way anybody could pass after the corner … But as soon as I rounded the corner, I remembered that the finish line was at the top of the hill. This meant that I was at the front leading into the hill at which point I made another mistake – I should have attacked at the bottom of the hill rather than waiting for people to come from behind me to attack. When those attacks came I got passed by everyone except one guy. I was able to re-pass a couple guys on the climb since it was so steep, but that was only good enough for 6^th  in the race.

Whew, it’s taken me a while to be able to sit down and write this blog!  We’ve been so busy.  Even now, it’s 10:45, and we’re just now getting settled into bed, but I thought I’d steal a few minutes to catch you up a couple of our adventures.  I’ll use my trip summary from an earlier blog, and give you the "plan" versus "actual" trip details. 

Enough details.  We’ll be back tomorrow with pictures, hopefully.  Not much on the agenda tomorrow.  We need a rest day!