Five Years

Five years today.  My life has never been the same as of five years ago but thanks to the support from my family and friends from all over I have not looked back.  Yesterday I had a great day riding and if my IRISH can pull off a win today the weekend will be beyond great.  It has been a great 5 years with so many crazy opportunities.  I look forward to the days ahead.  Thank you everyone for your support and encouragement through the years.  It does not go unnoticed.

Yesterday I went to Park City Mountain Resort with Tera.  We rode the lift up Payday lift and then climbed up to the Bonanza lift.  It was about a 2 mile climb with about 2,000 or 3,000 vertical feet.  You never realize that those runs are that steep when you are on a ski and bombing down the runs but I have a new appreciation riding it up hill on wheels.

Here I am in front of Bonanza lift.  It was a beautiful day and the ride down was a lot more fun than the ride up.

Here is a picture of one of the spots on the down hill.

This was when Tera and I went out and rode the mountain bikes with George and Patti.  Tera rode her regular bike yesterday with lots of stops and her telling me I was almost there.  It was a long climb up.

50 mile ride

A couple weeks ago I got to try out my new bike.  I bought this bike from my buddy back in Indiana.  It is set up way more for racing and is geared up less of a wind sail like my handcyle I have been riding for a while.  This was the finish.  It was a long 50 mile ride with very minimal training but I smashed my goal time and had a great time.

Here I am on course with some of the riders.

 This was one of the highlights of the day.  I was able to continue my great Utah farmer tan.

I was able to register for the Boston Marathon this week too.  That was a pretty cool goal to finally accomplish.  Well fall is coming and soon the old winter so very soon the snow will be here.  I can't wait.

I am out!!!!!!

I got a new place!!!!  I should have done this the day I moved here and gotten out of the place I was living but hind sight is 20/20 right.  This place is a one room studio.  It is quite the place and totally on my own.  All for ten bucks more a month.  Who could ask for more???

This is looking from my front door to the back side of the studio.  Everything is built in so I did not have to move much stuff.  As you can see my bed is not a perfect fit but it works!

 Here is my kitchen area.  There are tons of shelves and stuff off to the right.

 This is the view from the patio to the front door.  I have a closet on the left and then the bathroom is the last door on the left.  This place is so cool.

 Jonathon, his girlfriend Kate and Patti and I went to a rodeo.  Jonathon and Kate are from England so they really got into the dress up for cowboy night.  It was a good time for sure.

 Two wheelies at the fair.  Our story for the night was he rode a bull and fell off and the bull stepped on him.  I was the clown who came to his rescue and got the same treatment from the stupid bull.  Not too many people bought the story but it was a noble effort.

 George took me fly fishing last week.  It was pretty fun.  He was all geared up and rather good.

 I was not geared up and was rather bad.  None of us caught a fish but they nibbled and it was fun trying.  It is way better than regular fishing by far.

Yellowstone!!!

 We had a blast this past week when Mom, Dad and Tanner came out and visited Park City and then we went out west to the Tetons and Yellowstone.  This is one of our lunch breaks.  I have never eaten out so much with my family but it was awesome hanging out at every opportunity.

 Tanner wanted to walk with the elk.  They were just hanging out in the town in Yellowstone.

 Dad wanted to have a picture of himself in Montana.  He even hugged the bear on the left.

 This is Tanner and I at one of the many stops we made in the parks.  This was at a resort / hotel / eating place.  I went in and was not that impressed but people were there so I am sure they are making money some how.

 This is one of the closest bison we came in contact with.  Mom said, "Keep it in Drive"  I did not listen and put it in park and took some pictures.  It was pretty funny.

 Old Faithful.  Let me be the first to tell you that this is pretty cool but not life changing.  The worst part was the Asian man directly on my right who would not get out of my personal bubble while he was taking pictures.  I was just a little annoyed.

 Mom, Dad and Tanner climbed this rock face.

 It was awesome to see them climb and then all of them on top.  I tried but did not get that far up. Ha Ha yeah right!

 Entering the Grand Tetons.

 Our Yellowstone picture.


One of the many, many elk.

This was an awesome trip.  One of the best times was the whitewater rafting.  Tanner took some pics on that trip but not really great ones with the GoPro.  We got some cool video though.  It was awesome spending time with my family.  Next time the rest of the family needs to come join.  You always know family is something special but when you get to spend time with them and hang out when its been a while it means even more.

Thanks guys for coming out.

Ben

Mountain Biking

This is the best cross train for road racing.

Stupid Bee and Shooting

This is how I woke up a few weeks ago.  It would have been cooler if there was a good story but there is not a really good story.  I was mountain biking and a bee got caught in between my sunglasses and my eye and went to town on me.  The next morning, this is how I looked.  It would have been better if the other guy looked worse than me and this was all I took in a fist fight but nope, it was just a stupid bee.

Me and two buddies went shooting too the other day.  It was pretty cool.  We shot some clay and then some other targets in this dumpy part of town.  It was pretty fun.

Utah Valley Marathon

Boston Qualifier - 1.55.56