Saturday was spent on the radio and Sunday was a nice visit with family. I should probably break them into two posts, but heck, y'all like reading my long posts, right!? I'm tired so I'm sure it'll be short!
Saturday was the Big Bear Grizzly Granfondo Mountain Bike event. There were 4 rides of 20, 30, 70, and 100 km, in addition to the National Ultra Endurance race of 100km. The two 100 km used the same course, but the race guys were fast and the rest were normal :) Dad and I got the INCREDIBLY cool assignment of riding SAG. I actually just googled SAG to learn that it apparently stands for "support and gear". What it IS is a vehicle that is out on the course, with a mechanic or gear, or sometimes simply the ability to transport riders who no longer want to ride. Every race does it different and a lot don't even have them. Our vehicles were scaled down versions of all that. Scaled down because they were not mechanics and really had no ability to help riders. BUT we were able to drive around and resupply the aid stations and such. Our job was to sit shotgun and communicate where we were and what our drivers were up to or needed or whathaveyou. Although this was a cool job, it had one terrifying hitch for me - I was solo radio in my vehicle! Meaning I had to know how to work the radio and make it do what I needed it to do. I asked Dad LOTS of questions before the event. Luckily, I never touched the radio except to talk and change the volume!
Dad and I were in two different vehicles, but were able to talk by radio and several times our vehicles ended up in the same place. I got to do A LOT of transmitting (talking) and I had such a great time doing it. It all came very naturally to me which makes sense because I've been listening to other people talk HAM for pretty much my entire life. Dad said he was very proud of my work. So I'm happy :)
As the race was coming to a close, it was decided that my SAG vehicle would become sweep. Sweep is someone (usually using the same format as the race - i.e. on bike if it's a bike race) who rides the course after the final rider has gone through. So, two people on bikes rode most of the course after everyone else did, to make sure that everyone really had finished. Or in yesterday's case, got to the the bottom aid station. Then my vehicle took over. We DROVE up the very steep, very rocky dirt road that the riders had ridden. We actually caught two of them but hung back to let them do their bike thing. Once we got to the downhill, they smoked us! It was a really cool experience and I feel special that I got to do it. Though really, I just picked the right car when we started at 7am :)
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| Dad and I in uniform |
THEN TODAY Dad and I drove down the hill to my aunt's house (Mary, his sister) where we met up with my uncle Charlie (Dad's brother), aunt Patty and 3 cousins who are now all teenagers, plus a girlfriend. I have no idea how long ago I'd seen them but they are much bigger now! One of my other cousins, Aunt Mary's daughter, who lives in the Phoenix area also happened to be in town, so she and her two kids (5 and 1.5) also came over. We all ventured out to lunch, skipping the planned Souplantation (soup can't be grown) for BJs which was a little less busy, and a favorite for several of us. After lunch, we all went back to Aunt Mary's to hang out and catch up. The cousins are awesome teenagers who I'd love to have in my classes!! They got me set up on Instagram (@msemigahs) so we could stay in touch in the new hip way :) (I'd been considering it for school use anyway!) Perhaps we can make it an annual visit. Seriously, they'd all grown 3 feet at least!!
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| My gorgeous youngest Cuz'n (also my first Instagram post!) |
Dad and I are really looking forward to tomorrow - nothing is on the agenda!! It's been quite a busy week for us!!
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