I'm back baby!.. well kinda of..

Holy Smokes, what a trip. It might be lengthy but I will get to the point, so let's hit it.

Left Vegas on Weds (a week ago). and flew to H-twn. where I met up with Coach Liz at the airport, there was about an hour layover there and then it was off to Tampa. Got to Tampa with a nice aircraft carrier landing but not to worry all wheels were on the ground. Once outta the airport we picked up the rental pimpn` van and it was off to the townhouse in Clearwater. Being as it was about 8pm it was dark out so could not see too much of Tampa driving out to Clearwater but we found the twn-hse and can you say P-H-A-T! das right, phat!! This place was basically 4 stories with an elevator from the garage to the roof where da hot tub waz! Nice huh. Once scouting out the rooms and dropping our stuff off it was time to get back to the airport to pick up Geoff, it was an out and back trip with a quick stop at the store.

Next morning it was up and adam with blueberry pancakes and eggs by none other than Liz., score! Then it was off to go by at pick up Mitch and David but first we stopped by the first of a couple of expo tents and being as I was driving I dropped liz and geoff off with the intention of finding the registration/packet pickup and NOT hitting any goodies! Right! I was totally PUNK`D on that one as 20 mins later I pick them up and they both proceed to show-n-tell JT all da shit they just bought. Ohhh nelly... now for the next couple of hours JT had sum serious wine and cheese..

After picking up Mitch and David we found the expo and they all got checkn` in. It was a pretty good expo and I ended up with new helmet, pair of socks and long sleeve training shirt. We then dropped everything at the twn-hse. and went to lunch. By this time, Bigun, was on his way and he pick me up from the lunch spot and off we went to his casa.

Once at da hacienda de Bigun/Di it was totally chill time. Bigun was feeling a little sick so we just drank beer, snacked on chips, and Di totally cooked an awesome dinner!! It was so great to hang out with these two and enjoy there company. In the morning I was up before da Bigun had the coffee ready so that gave me time to hit da shower and get ready, then it was joe time and it was some gooood joe! After breakfast Bigun had to get to work and Di took me back to the twn-hse. Once back it was time to go with Liz down to the beach where she had profile interview with NBC TV as a feature athlete. She was basically asked a series of questions and then some pictures were taken and was told they would be shooting footage of her during the race. How cool is that!!

Saturday morning Race Day! I was up with the crew and walked down to body marking. Then they went into transition and I was running all over trying to get pics. I was in a good couple of locations to see the pro's start and as they entered T1 and headed to change tents. After a while when everyone was on the bike I walked back to the twn-hse to watch some coverage via web, get some food and relax for about an hour then I went back down to see the pro's finish and wait for da peeps to come in and head out on the run.

It was a long day and everyone did a great job. Later we went to the award banquet and I was able to sneak in which was great because they were sold out of tickets. It was a great awards presentation and even the parents of the Blazeman places his ashes in the ocean as a tribute, it was pretty awesome! Then it was back to the twn-hse and the peeps were in party mode. We drank for a while and then they hit da hot tub. I was a nice dude and kept refilling the beer while they were rehydrating! During this time there was some pretty funny stories told and some interesting racing tips came out.. as well as a new nick name for Mitch.. aka Sponge Water..!! if you know him, just ask..lol.. Seems like every time there is a group of us.. someone gets a nickname.!

Sunday was pack up time and go home. Got back to Houston in the afternoon, had dinner at Cafe Express, watched Ricky Bobby, too funny and we went to bed.

Monday it was time to hit the road for Dallas as I had a lunch time with Allez and none other than LanceNotStrong! Allez picked a great mexican place and it was great to hang out, meet Lance and just take time off from the road. Once that was over it was back on the road towards Santa Fe, NM. By the time I got there I was not feeling good and thought maybe it was because of all the traveling. Bed time it was once talking with Grandpa.

Tuesday, holy shit, I was sick as a motha` had a fever of 101.5 and was totally wiped out. Gpa got me some medicine and I slept all day long which was good cuz JT's head was pounding like a mike tyson just smackd it before the ear biting days. Fever broke at night and by Wednesday I was feeling much better, enough so to go bowling with Gpa (80yrs.) whipped my ass in 3 straight games! Go Grandpa! Thursday I pretty much rested again all day as the ass whoopn by Gpa had wore me out and I was feeling a little run down.

Friday it was time to head out to go meet Sweet Baboo and Geekgirl. I had to leave Gpa behind and thank him so much for taking care of me, getting food, watching my tv's shows over his and just being a great Grandpa.. I love you Gpa!..

We met for dinner at a great India restaurant and the food was awesome. Now Baboo just came off of Silverman and had to catch the scope on this race as it is in my back yard nowadays. It was great to meet them and talk about the Bigun, (yes, we made fun of you!) and how great of a cook Di is (yes, you cook awesome!) I can't wait for Baboo and Geekgirl to come to Vegas!! I gotta get da house ready! yikes! Thanks for the dinner you two and see ya in a couple of weeks.

I then headed to my cuzins house and spent the night there. Today, it was back on the road and rolled into Sin City once again after a 1500 mile road trip, that's 3000 miles of driving in a month!

So take a look at the pics on the side bar and enjoy! Sunday is recovery time and still trying to shake this last little bit of a cough/cold, sucks!

glad to be back`

rockon`