Feathers, Cleats, and Lace

It's Spring time in the big City. When we're not dodging the rain which never seems to stop, we're taking the girls to one of their games or events. This Spring, we've added another sport to our itinerary. Sara has decided to play softball. She's never played a competitive sport before, let alone swung a bat, so we were a bit unsure how things would turn out. Well, it turns out that she really loves to play. She has cleats, a pink glove, and a pink bat, so she's ready to go. She's already gotten her first hit and has scored. Pretty cool. The girls don't have one position, so Sara's been able to play in the outfield, at catcher, and as the pitcher (although the coaches pitch). Here she is at pitcher...

At catcher...

And at the plate...

On the opposite end of the spectrum, Sara had her first communion a few weeks ago. She was wearing the same veil that her Aunt Karen wore on her first communion, 30 some years ago.

Meanwhile, Libby has been busy as well. After Sara's first communion, Libby and I went out on an 18-mile bike ride (her longest ever). We rode from Shawnee Mission Park, north to the Kansas River, and back again. It's pretty hilly, and she was a beast on the climbs. Here's Libby at the halfway point...

Libby is also in the choir at school and the Spring concert had a Hollywood theme. To go along with the movie themed music, they were to dress up as their favorite movie star or character. It's pretty obvious whom Libby chose...

(If you can't figure it out, it's Cruella De Vil!)

Libby is also quite the artist. Two of her art projects were in the Shawnee Mission School District Art Fair. She was the only kid in her school with two pieces in the Art Fair (only 14 kids in her school were selected for the showing). This is a piece that was based on an Archie and Jughead comic strip.

Finally, besides her regular weekly dance class, Sara was in the tumbling program at school. They had their "Open House" last Friday after school.

Tour de BBQ

Hey look, another blog entry on biking! That's just crazy! (Or repetitive.) Anyway, this past weekend was the 1st Annual Tour de BBQ presented by the LiveStrong Army of Kansas City. It was a 15 or 60 mile charity ride for local LiveStrong charities including the Cancer Center at KU Med. It began and ended at the American Royal Complex in the West Bottoms which was also hosting the American Royal BBQ Contest which may be the premier BBQ contest on the planet.

Keeping with the theme of the ride, the 60 mile route went past at least 15 different BBQ joints around the metro area, with rest stops at five of them (BB's Lawnside, Jack Stack in Martin City, Haywards, Oklahoma Joes (the original on 47th and Mission) and Woodyard on Merriam Lane) where we could load up on as much 'Que and fixin's at each as we wanted. Then at the end there was a BBQ lunch, pizza from Spin! (the coolest pizza place in the area) and tasty beverages courtesy of our friends at the Boulevard Brewery. All for the low entry fee of $48 which also got you a t-shirt, water bottle, and a recyclable shopping bag. The route made a big loop through parts of both Missouri and Kansas. The route was well marked, but was on regular roads, so we had to stop at all the stop signs and stop lights.

Saturday morning rolled around and the temperatures were hovering in the low 40's. Time to dig out the fall riding gear! I got all layered up, threw the bike and all the gear in the truck and left to get to the venue in time for the 8 AM start. They announced just before the ride began that there were 450 riders signed up and that they had raised over $45,000.

As I said, the temperatures were in the low 40's at the beginning of the ride. I don't think it got past 50 by the time I finished. Oh yeah, it was also overcast and windy. And the wind was coming from the east-northeast so it was a headwind for the majority of the last half of the ride (which was also the hilly portion of the ride).

On big charity group rides like this, you try and find a group of people that have roughly the same abilities as you do, so you can share the workload of being in the front. I found a group that was pretty good at first, but after the second rest stop at around the 20 mile mark, I think a lot of the riders hit their limit, so I found myself at the front of the group for a good chunk of the remainder of the ride. I'm glad I just took a sample sized portion of BBQ at each stop instead of filling up a plate.

I kept the camera in the jersey pocket for most of the ride, but dug it out at the last rest stop which was Woodyard BBQ. They had ribs, chicken, beans, and a guy on acoustic guitar.

Woodyard uses hand painted signboards to advertise what their special of the day is. It made a pretty cool background to take a couple of pictures.

And just a shot of my Madone.

After 3-1/2 hours of riding (which wasn't too bad considering all the lost momentum from stop signs, stop lights and rest stops) I made it back to Hale Arena at the American Royal Complex where the BBQ and pizza lunch and more importantly the beer was awiting me at the finish. The girls came out to greet me at the finish and to chow down on some lunch. Libby and Lori felt like dancing...

And Sara felt like posing...

Meanwhile, I was too tired to do either.

Overall, it was a fun morning, even with the coolish weather. BBQ, beer, bike riding, the girls, and raising money for charity. Good stuff.

Tour de Shawnee

The weather felt like Mid-October, but the calendar said that it was the end of August, so that means one thing... The Tour de Shawnee. The TdS is a charity bicycle ride which supports the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and is now in it's 20th Year. There were around 600 riders this year. There's a 25 mile or an 11.5 mile option. There used to be a 50 mile route, but it's been cut for budgetary reasons. This is the 5th time that I've ridden in the event and for the second year in a row, I've brought Libby along with me. The event is really well organized from beginning to end. Plenty of parking, breakfast (bagels, donuts, fruit, juice, coffee, etc.), rest stops (four total on the 25 mile route, two on the 11.5 mile route) stocked with cookies, fruit, and water, police at every intersection giving the right-of-way to the riders, roving bike repair from the local shops, and a box lunch at the end of the ride. Plus a long sleeve t-shirt. All for $25. Not a bad way to spend a Sunday morning.

I rode over to the start from our house. Lori and Sara drove Libby and her bike out. Libby forgot her helmet, so Lori drove home and picked it up. But, she made it back in time and Libby and I pedaled away when the air horn went off at 8AM. Here's Libby and I all geared up and ready to go.

And here's Libby just by herself.

I brought one of the cameras along with me and thought I'd attempt my first rolling interview.

Here's Libby "in action" on 55th Street.

I mentioned the rest stops earlier. If they had cookies we had to stop. I think Libby could have continued, but I can't pass up a cookie stop.

Meanwhile, back at the start, Lori and Sara ran a couple of errands, but came back to make sure that they would be there when we finished.

Sara didn't think that Lori was doing a good job of being the Team Photographer, so she took things into her own hands. She likes self-portraits.

After Libby and I had our cookie break, we finished up the last half of the ride, which included an 8 block stretch along Pflumm Road that is pretty much uphill all the way. Libby didn't complain, and she spun her way up the hill without stopping. She was doing better on her mountain bike than a lot of people were doing on their road bikes. I was really proud of her. She commented that these hills would be a lot easier if there was a chocolate stop at the top of each hill. I think she has a valid point.

After a couple more turns and a couple of additional hills, we made it to the finish line. Sara was there to capture the moment.

It took Libby and I about an hour of riding time to cover the whole route. I think that was about 15 minutes quicker than last year. Next year, we'll have to do the 25 mile route!