The Bauer Family

I woke up Saturday morning early as always with a full day planned already.  I started a fire in the wood burner and woke JJ up.  He had to be at the high school by 7:40am.  Got breakfast going and I got him to the school.  The Marching Band was heading to Central Michigan University for Band Day.  This was an all day event for them culminating with the band performing on the field with the CMU band at halftime of the game. I got back home and Michelle and I did some work and then we bundled up Brendan and I took him out on the tandem for our last ride together before Iceman.  Iceman is Saturday, November 3.  It looks like 4 of the top 5 tandems will be returning to the Slush Cup.  Should be a good race. After the ride one of Brendan's friends invited him over for the afternoon.  Michelle dropped him off and then we headed for CMU.  We arrived at the stadium got parked and headed in.  We rented stadium seats (best $5 you can spe...

So today we had another party for Brendan's Birthday.  We also celebrated MacKenzie's birthday today (hers was yesterday).  We had Michelle's parents here also.  This was about the 6th birthday celebration for Brendan.  Michelle made some really cool cakes for the two of them.   Brendan's Turtle Cake     Mackenzie's Owl Cake   Everyone arrived and we had a great meal and watched the Michigan/Michigan State game.  Very close game with Michigan pulling out the win in the last seconds.  There was cake and ice cream and the traditional Happy Birthday song.       

So I got to the start line in time this year.  There was light rain this year for the entire race.  We started and I felt good from the start.  Once over the initial climb it is very fast and I was spinning out and unable to keep up.  This put me a little back in the pack, but not to bad.  About 2.5 miles in several of us got stuck behind three slower riders in the single track.  When we finally got in an area we could pass it put us a ways behind the leaders.  I pushed hard and definitely made the right tire choice.  Things got hard in the last 1.5 miles as you come up the back of Crystal Mountain.  I had to dismount several times on the climbs.  I finally got in the last stretch and flew down the downhill.  I made the bend for the grass climb to the finish.  I passed three riders in this section.  Michelle was there at the end cheering me on!    It is over.     I really enjoyed the race an...

Woke up to rain as expected.  It is around 37 degrees.  Looks like rain all day.  A little sad because I really wanted to ride tandem with Brendan.  Guess I will be on the SS by myself.  See you after the race.

We are on our second annual trip to Crystal Mountain in Northwest Michigan for the Peak to Peak Mountain Bike race.  It was a very nice ride up and the colors were incredible when we got around Cadillac and farther north.  We checked in and got our stuff unloaded and then hit the trail for a short trail ride and preride of the course.  Brendan and I were on the tandem.  It was our first off road ride on the tandema and it was great.  Michelle and JJ rode the trail also.  This is a great trail system up here.  Not to technical and very flowing.  We got to a road crossing near the end and I gave Michelle and JJ the option to take the pavement back which they did.  Brendan and I took what was the tougher route but more difficult.  So we climbed the back of the mountain and had a blast flying back down.  Brendan and I picked up the race packet and still got back to the van before JJ and Michell.  We packed the bikes ...

Tomorrow is Brendan's 7th Birthday.  On Saturday we celebrated with my parents here at home.  We will be going to see the big mouse tomorrow on his Birthday. Next Monday we will take him to Kokomos with one of his friends.  On the 20th is the family party where we celebrate MacKenzie and Brendan's birthdays together.  I will post pictures after it is all done. Opening Presents   Grand Dad relaxing.   On Brendan's Birthday we took MacKenzie and him to Chuck E Cheese to celebrate both their birthdays.  Mackenzie's birthday is the 17th.   Mouse Love!   To be continued.  One party left on the 20th.