No, the mountain lion tracks from my last post didn’t become an unfortunate reality. The true reality was that I was MIA deep in the heart of Texas. It was an extremely busy week coupled with a well-timed recovery week on the bike. I did get in a few road rides, but nothing noteworthy.
Friday (1.5 weeks ago), I arrived at DFW and got a lovely taste driving in rush hour traffic to my cousin’s house. She has a 16 month old who I last saw in October, so it was fun to see how much the little guy had grown. He’s saying a few words… maybe next time I see him, he can say, “Auntie Sonya!” I stayed with my cousin for the next 5 nights. We got to have some fun on the weekend.
…and I also got a taste of what it’d be like to have a little on running around.
Awww, little Braeden. I know technically I’m not his aunt but my cousin has always been like a big sis to me, so I just call him that!
Me and my cous-sis, Sierra.
I love Scott’s (Sierra’s husband) side of the family. SO fun!
Parents – you are sooooo much tougher than me. That is one hard job, especially when the little one has an ear infection. And you though endurance racing was hard! Applause to parents… applause, pats on back, high five. That is REAL endurance in my book. Monday and Tuesday, I ventured all over the metroplex (Dallas, Fort Worth, Plano) visiting dealers for Ergon to get a feel for our Texas market. Surprisingly, there is a lot of cycling in DFW despite the fact that there aren’t any white lines or bike paths on the sides of the road!
Wednesday, I did a little solo road trip down to Austin. All the state trooper cars were annoying because I like to speed. Fortunately, I was able to keep my lead foot under control and make it speeding ticket free! There, I connected with my very very long time friend, Lara. We’ve been friends since we were babies/toddlers. I hit up as many bike shops as humanly possible on Wed/Thurs and was ready to go to the handmade show on Friday. Thurs night, I started feeling a little off. By the time I went to bed, I was extremely nauseated and tried to sleep it off. I failed. I spent the next 12 hours or so worshipping the porcelain thrown. Food poisoning from Panera Bread was the culprit… a bad salad, or maybe it was from the lunch I had at a local coffee shop? Regardless, I was one with the toilet. Suddenly puking up a little Powergel in my mouth a little bit in races didn’t seem so bad. Friday, I was bed-ridden and completely wiped out. It was unbelievable! Time heals everything, and by Saturday morning I was feeling jolly once again and made my way to NAHBS.
Here are a few fun things I saw:
Gary Fisher in plaid…and Ochs from Mountain Flyer conducting the interview.
Mr. T theme:
Pencil?
One day, I’ll have a sweet cruiser bike.
Purty!
lugs
Awweeeesome
Muddy cross bikes? High five!
More things I saw are on the Ergon blog.
I was able to enjoy Saturday night on the town in Austin with Lara and her friend.
Yes, we were once this little. 
As I promised to a few people, I did try my first Shiner Bock. As expected, it was totally disgusting to a microbrew snob like me… I gave it a chance and drank 1/3 of it before promptly passing it off to some thirsty chap who would appreciate it more than me!
Sunday, I had to pack up and hopped back on a plane to Colorado. It was the first time out of my last 3 trips since January that I didn’t have to drive back from the airport in a snowstorm.
Upper 50s all week here – yeehaw!!!! Time to get back on my program after a “recovery” week. Recovery is in quotes because it involved running around like a chicken with my head cut off all over Texas with not a lot of sleep and oh yeah, food poisoning. Needless to say, I wasn’t feeling like a rock star on my bike today. I did get 3 rides on the bike in Austin though! I know my legs will be back in the next day or two. I could tell in yoga and at the gym tonight that my muscles are ready to go, my nervous system just needs to catch up!
It was fun catching up with old friends and making new ones in the Lone Star State. More pics from bike shops and of the show can be found here and here. I’ll be home for about a week and a half, and then it’s back to DIA, destination: Seattle.
