2009 Tour de Cure photos

Tour de Cure 2009 Wrap Up

We had a great time riding July 25th out in Hillsboro. I guess I am slow getting this posting written up. This has been a busy summer.

Our team (only six of us this year) raised a total of $6,185. Thanks to Rob and Cherie Rainwater for joining us. We had a great time riding with them!

The AMEC match for donations in my name was $2,549 - which was incredible. All made possible by your donations to the ADA. Thanks for your support in this worthy cause!

Here is a Picasaweb slideshow of our photos taken that day. Click here to go to the Picasaweb site.

One Week 'till Tour de Cure Portland

Today is Sunday July 19th. Next Saturday is July 25th - the day of the Tour de Cure event here in Portland. It takes place out in Hillsboro, which is west of Portland. Checking out the temperature forecasts at this point - it looks to be a hot day. The NWS Portland office hourly model shows a high temp of 99° at 5pm on Saturday. It looks to be only 79-84° at 10:30am - out start time for the 10 mile ride. No rain forecast though!



There is still time to donate to the American Diabetes Association. We have all met the $150 minimum fund raising goal, though we'd like to do more. My account (Brian) has quite a bit more, since my company, AMEC, matches the amount I raise dollar-for-dollar. They have agreed to match up to at least $3,000 - so I still have around $1,100 more to go to make use of that commitment.

A recent potluck at my office, with voting for the best food with your money - raised $209 dollars! Mick's peanut butter pie and ham and bean stew won 1st and 2nd prizes. Thanks to all my AMEC co-workers for your donations!


Yard Work #14 - July 16th. About four weeks since the last mowing - the grass is quite patchy now. Some areas that get the runoff from the driveway or where spray from flower watering helps the grass to survive - these areas have still managed to stay green and grow. Other areas - that had formerly been bark dust - are quite dry and brown. The recent 90°+ temperatures here in Portland haven't helped.

2009 Tigard Festival of Balloons

This past weekend was the Tigard Festival of Balloons. We have never actually gone to Cook Park to see the fun. Usually we just go out the back door and watch the balloons float by. This works out if the winds are from the north or northeast. If the wind is blowing from the south, the balloons head off into Beaverton or Portland. Not good - as a test flight on Thursday had a not-so-good landing in Beaverton.

Friday morning started out with dissappointment. Due to possible rain and winds - no balloons flew. We decided to go there Friday night and see the night glow. We actually didn't think through how long we would be there. We got there at 5pm so we could get dinner, and then we planned to walk around until the night glow. Well - that wouldn't be starting until 9pm or so...

At around 8:30, they announced that due to possible rain - they would not be doing the night glow, but rather just 'candlesticking.' Apparently when weather causes problems, I guess they just setup the gondola's without the balloon and fire up the burner. I bet this is just to prevent riots from all the people who really wanted the night glow. We decided we didn't want to wait around for another 30-45 minutes - so we called it a night.

Saturday saw the launch of 19 balloons. Connor and I sat out in the Tualatin Elementary field and saw at least 17 of them. The wind was coming from the northwest...so the balloons didn't fly overhead, but rather off the the east. No landings near us...


Saturday night, we headed back to Cook Park and saw the night glow. We didn't want to pay the $5 parking - so we decided to park at the Tualatin Community Park, and walk to Cook Park. We had biked this before - but it was a good walk - probably a mile or so. And - we didn't think about the walk back until we were almost there...this path has no lights.

There were seven balloons setup, and it looks pretty awesome when then all fire at once. The wind was picking up a little, but there were no real problems. Fun stuff! The walk back to the car was fine - but we had to watch carefully for slugs. The path was full of those guys - not sure where they were trying to go.


Sunday morning - I was up alone to watch for the launches, as we didn't get home Saturday until after 10pm. When the first two balloons went up - they took off almost due east. Not a chance that they would fly near our house, so I jumped on my bike and took off. Less than 10 minutes later I was at Cook Park - just as the last balloon took off. So I took a few photos and headed back home.

We still keep an eye out for balloons throughout the summer. Sometimes we can see them off towards Sherwood.

Housekeeping - Yard Work #13 was June 19th. The grass is starting to look less green, as the rains have slowed down. We water the front yard some because of the flowers. The back yard doesn't get much - and now with a inflatable pool out there - we'll soon have dead patches.

Only about four weeks until the Tour de Cure ride. Still time left for your donations!

http://tour.diabetes.org/goto/TeamTegan2009

Tour de Cure - Team Tegan Promotional Video

Just playing around with the technology I've got available. This is what I used recently...

• Nintendo Wii - fun stuff, no matter how old you are.
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• Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga - I've completed all six levels on episodes 1, 2, 3. I'm ready to move on to Star Wars - A New Hope! See the original Star Wars movie trailer here! "A billion years in the making...and it's coming to your galaxy this summer"
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• Sony VCR SLV-N750 - This lets me watch the Wii action on the TV, as well as provides the necessary video out for recording by my camcorder. Soon - the VCR will only be recording channel 3 - after June 12th, all over the air TV will be coming through our digital TV converter box - the DTVPal, TR-40 - now sold out!
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• Sony Digital Handycam DCR-TRV310 - This is almost ancient in the video world - it is circa 1999 technology - it actually uses a 8mm tape! But it has Firewire, and it connects easily for transfer to computer. It also allows you to record video/audio from RCA ports. So this is my analog to digital conversion tool.
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• Windows Movie Maker - There are probably better movie editing software out there, but this came with Windows XP. So I used it. Pretty intuitive - but don't try and make a slideshow type movie using 30 to 40 JPEGs....it crashes every time.
  

Here it is. Nothing really fancy...just watch and enjoy. After watching - I'll bet you really want to go purchase Lego Star Wars...or maybe even donate to the Tour de Cure!

Tour de Cure 2009

The cool looking poster for this year's Tour de Cure in Oregon...come join us!

http://tour.diabetes.org/goto/TeamTegan2009

Clean out my refigerator!

We need help cleaning out my refrigerator.

We've got the normal food and drink in our refrigerator. We've also got something you probably don't have in your 'dairy' section. You would probably put eggs or a butter dish in here.

In our frig, this is where we keep insulin.

Lantus and Humalog Insulins - fresh and cold

Insulin is hormone that in a healthy person is made in the pancreas. In a person with Type 1 diabetes - the pancreas no longer makes insulin. In the body, insulin acts as a key that unlocks the cells doors allowing them to use glucose as energy. Without insulin, the glucose cannot get from the bloodstream into the body's cells. As the blood glucose level rises, the kidneys work hard to extract out the excess glucose. This causes excessive trips to the restroom and a great thirst as soon much water is being removed from the body.

Since insulin is a protein, a type 1 diabetic cannot take a pill or drink a solution of insulin. The insulin would be digested and never reach the bloodstream. Diabetics must take insulin subcutaneously using needles. The bottles of insulin a diabetic is using should only be at room temperature for about a month. So the future bottles of insulin that will be needed are kept cool in a refrigerator.

There is currently no cure for diabetes. Diabetics must manage their blood sugar levels by balancing the amount of food they eat, the amount of exercise they get, and the amount of insulin they inject. This process is like those performers who balance multiple plates on sticks. Sometimes it seems like everything is going well and no great effort is needed to keep them spinning. But then a little something happens - like a breeze blows by, the performer gives a little too much spin, maybe they bump the table, or something unexplainable happens and a plate just falls.

Diabetes management is just like this. For days everything can be going well - blood sugars are in the normal range, insulin injections are timed perfectly with meals, exercise is normal, and the body is healthy. Throw in a late meal, a missed insulin dose or maybe mismeasured dose, a little bit more effort in an exercise routine or soccer practice, a restaurant that serves up a regular Coke instead of a diet Coke (no joke - this has happened more than once), coming down with a cold....or something else that you'll never figure out. Soon there can be high blood sugars causing discomfort in the muscles or low blood sugars risking the possibility of becoming disoriented or passing out.

After all that is over - well - you keep on doing it. This is not a disease that can be cured. You don't go to the doctor's visits to get well - you go to see how well you are managing a process that your body should be doing on its own. Four (or more) shots of insulin a day. Eight (or more) finger pricks to get out the blood to be tested. Carbohydrates to count on everything you eat. Guessing how much less insulin you need for those 15 minutes of exercise. Fighting with the insurance company over the most absurb things (how can they be so incredibly blind? Oh wait...I forgot. It's a profit thing.) Diabetes is a real thing. Concentration is always needed. No time off. Not for birthday parties with cake. Not for Halloween. Not for midnight snacks (unless you wake up incoherent due to low blood sugar). No vacation days from diabetes.

So how can you help us? How about donating to the American Diabetes Association (ADA)? The ADA is involved in efforts to improve diabetes care - and efforts to find a cure. There are many research programs in need of money. Our family is participating in one of the fundraisers again this year. The Tour de Cure is a series of bike riding events all over the USA. Bike riders pay a small fee to register, then go out and raise money to support the ADA. Last year our team of riders raised $8,340. We'd like to raise that much or more again - but the donations this year are coming in very slowly... It is disappointing - but I realize people just may not have that much extra money. Maybe if you can't donate - help spread the work. Pass along this posting and our donation page URL. http://tour.diabetes.org/goto/TeamTegan2009 Or you could join our team and raise some money yourself. We are looking for some more riders...

If you want to donate - head on over the the Tour de Cure page and go to the Portland, Oregon event. We'd love it if you donated to (or joined!) Team Tegan and Her Daddy - but anyone registered would love your support. Check out the ride in Minneapolis - Uncle Kevin, Auntie Paula, and cousins Jake, Luke, and Kyle have their own team - Tegan Power. Sponsor them! Both Tegan and Her Daddy (that's me!) would be very grateful.



Help clean out our refrigerator.

Yikes...time flies by

Here is it already March.

Wow. Our adventures have been happening, but my posting of the adventures has not. What have we been up to recently?

1) Last Saturday (February 28th) marked the beginning of Yard Work 2009.

Mick started on the weeding in the flower beds along our front fence. I gave the grass the first cut of the year. So - again this year I missed out on mowing in January, but February was covered on the last day.

Before starting the mowing, I figured that I should change the oil in the mower since I didn't do it last fall like I had intended. It was a little scary because only 4 ounces of oil came out when I took out the oil plug. I about 20 or so ounces of oil back in. It was quite hard to determine the exact amount that was needed since the oil dipstick always looks like there is a certain amount of oil in the engine. This must be due to the crazy tube the stick is in - the oil must stick to the sides and it gets on the stick when pulling it out. So - I guess I was mowing last season with only a little bit of oil in the engine. I'll just have to see if any long term damage was done...doesn't sound like it as the engine is still purring along - 13 years after we first bought it.

I tried sharpening the mower blade - but my Dremel tool is still not working after many hours of taking it apart and putting it back together. Not sure why - and they are too expensive to just go buy another one. I did put the Dremel sharpening bit in my drill - and that seemed to work, even though the drill RPMs are much less than the Dremel.

The lawn needed a lot of moss killer this spring - the green I was seeing was not due only the the grass, which does stay green year round. It is just starting to be growing more now...but winter is not completely out of the picture. Apparently there is a chance for snow in Portland this coming weekend.

2) Family dinner at Macaroni Grill.

Last Friday, we went to the local Macaroni grill with all of Mick's family. We had a table full of cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents. Sister-in-law Maritza's mother was soon going back to Guatemala - and she was there too.

Connor really loves this place because he can get pizza - and draw on the table. They have the paper on the tables, and we all love drawing on it. Connor even packed extra crayons so we wouldn't be stuck with the roasted Red Pepper, Bleu Cheese, Florentine, and Eggplant colors they provide.

I love the pizza as well - but I really like the bread they bring the table when you sit down. It is always warm and fresh out of the oven - and it has a delicious coating on it - almost sweet. Dipping this in the olive oil with ground pepper....hmmm. Yummy!

3) Waffle Extravaganza at Temple.

Just over a week ago - the Women's Ministries group at church had a waffle feed after the Sunday Morning service. I was there to make my 'famous' chocolate chip waffles. They are famous at least to those who have had the pleasure of enjoying them. I made regular square waffles and also Mickey Mouse waffles....because those people are hungry and waffles do take 4-5 minutes to be cooked. I stayed mostly ahead of the rush - but I did have a line for a time. There were other stations with other types of waffles being prepared as well.

4) Speaking of church....I've been workin on our church's website. http://www.temple-baptist.com - just in case you are interested in checking it out.

I am not the person creating the content - I just get it formatting, looking good, and get it posted. I've learned a lot of XHTML, CSS, and lots more web programming tricks. I've checked out more web books from the library that I thought possible, checked out 'how-to' CSS websites, and more. There is still not a lot of content on the website - but I am still working on it. Bit by bit it will look more and more like the place you have to be on Sunday mornings in Portland, Oregon. If you are out there reading this - make plans for this Sunday. The morning service starts at 11am, and Sunday School starts at around 9:45am. We'll see you there!

5) More, more, more!

Bingo night at Tegan & Connor's school.
Getting ready for spring soccer (starts March 9th!).
Diabetes Expo - Tegan & I were there in our Red Rider shirts!
Getting bikes ready for the coming Tour de Cure!
Small group bible study every week - hi small groupees!
Birthday parties, dance classes, Wednesday night bible clubs, homework
Reading! You should see all four of us sitting around some evenings - each lost in our own book.


So - dear blog reader - what is going on with you these days? You never write, and I'm never quite sure if you get my updates.

Drop us a line! Comment right down here! You know you want to....and I'll try and write more often. They will probably be "Brian's Crazy Thoughts" postings - I've got a lot of those swirling around lately.

Tour de Cure 2009

The registration website for the Portland area 2009 Tour de Cure event is live. The event this year will not be called Summit to Surf - because it is not being held up on Mt. Hood and in Hood River. This year, the event is being held in Hillsboro - with the start and ending all taking place at the Hillsboro Stadium. There are 10 mile, 27 mile, 63 mile, and 100 mile rides.

We had a great time last year, and got some cool photos of Tegan and me. The local ADA person liked them so much - we are featured on the website for the Portland event. Check us out!

Team Tegan 2008

We've already signed up our family and got Team Tegan and her Daddy in the starting blocks. (do they call the starting line for bike races 'the starting blocks'?) Check out our progress at Team Tegan and her Daddy.

Tegan and Brian - Red Riders 2009

Tegan and Brian - Red Riders 2009

You can check out our individual fundraising pages here...visit them often. Or at least once...with your credit card handy. :)

Brian

Mick

Tegan

Connor

Picasa facial recognition

I know the Mick & Brian Adventures blog has been a little slow lately. If you check the header - you'll know why. We had a very busy summer, with just enough down time to sit back and relax. We didn't use the grill much that I remember - but the weather here - we can grill anytime. Nicely BBQ'ed burgers in January sound good, don't they?

Something that Google released in early September is interesting to note. I wanted to write about this just about a month ago....but you know. Adventures happen. Just yesterday, we participated in the JDRF Walk to Cure Diabetes, here in Portland. We registered at the last minute - and just went and had fun! We walked on a team organized for one of Tegan's friends - Lili. The Team we were on was called Hi Lili Hi Lo - and they have done this for a few years now. Lili was one of the Walk Ambassadors for this event - very exciting! After the walk - we got to ride on the Oak's Park rides all day long! I even discovered that as you get older - you don't have the same ride endurance. I went on about 3 rides too many - and by the time we quit at 4:30 - luckily lunch was four hours past....

So - on to the main topic of this post - facial recognition comes to the impoverished masses!

We have used Picasa to manage all our digital photos - probably since before we got our digital camera, and only had photos sent to us by others. We started using the Picasa Web Albums soon after to share photos of our adventures with all of you. Now - Picasa Web Albums have facial recognition technology!

What does that mean? Well -the Picasa/Google servers look through all our photos that have been uploaded. The software find all the faces that it can recognize - and then starts sorting them by facial characteristics. Once it has finished that - it presents the faces it thinks are the same person to you to identify. It does actually work very well. Now - whenever we upload new photos, it can find our 'classified' faces and tag the photos automatically. Neat!

The first face groupings presented for identification are usually all the same face. Sometimes - interesting things happen. Photos of Tegan and Connor were sometimes grouped together. Sometimes they were at the same age, or shared a similar smile, or Tegan's long hair was up in a hat... Sometimes Connor's nephews were grouped with him, and vice versa. I don't think my face and Mick's were ever mixed together...but I guess we need to be a lot older before we start looking like each other.

Just for fun - I grabbed a most of the shots of me (Brian). Take a look, and see the tough job that the Picasa computers had to deal with. I think they are up and processing again after dealing with this crazy face.

Click on me to see it slightly larger - if you dare.

I really wish this technology was in the Picasa software on our computer, because I don't want to upload our 10,000+ library to Google. Someday - when I get the time - I intend to indentify all the people in our photos. The EXIF tags make this 'easy' to do, if you get the right software. I am still looking for that perfect setup - so I can export data to Excel, enter info there, and then reload the data back into the photos. I did find a freeware program once that did this (Exifer) - but that one is no longer being developed. Something will come along....even if the time to do it doesn't.

Tour de Cure - July 26, 2008 (Picassa slideshow)

This version might have better resolution photos.

Or just go see them on our Picassa site

Tour de Cure - July 26, 2008 (quick photo slideshow)

Here is a quick slide show of some of our photos from the Tour de Cure ride today up in Hood River, Oregon. We all had a great time, no one got hurt, and the weather was incredible.

I've got over 150 photos to choose from - so this movie is a quick way to see our adventure. We'll probably post them on Picassa soon.

Tour de Cure: Ride Day

The bikes are loaded in the car. The sun is rising, and the temperature is still cool. Soon - the family will be awake and we will all climb into the car and drive up to Hood River.

We are excited!

Just for you - since we don't have any ride day photos yet, and I'm sure you are sitting by the computer all day long today - here is a logo that Nate and Jody created for our team T-shirts.


Nate and Jody were going to ride on our team (they are serious bikers) - but they had a crazy relative that thought getting married in July was the thing to do this year. Who gets married in July? Uh...I guess Mick and I did....so I guess we can't blame them. Since they could ride with us, Nate and Jody created this cool design and had it made into a silk screen for us. Wednesday night Mick and I screened it onto a bunch of shirts, after a quick explanation from N&J how to do it - since they were getting on a plane at 1am Wednesday morning. Most of them turned out really well.

Brian measures screen placement

T-shirts drying....don't touch!

Logo closeup

I played around a little with coloring the design to try and come up with a logo I could print out at work on our large HP 800ps 42 inch plotter. Maybe a banner to put on the car... I had some fun with it - but I didn't have the original file that they had created, just a lower resolution JPG. And so, it didn't scale up to 80x42 inches. But you can see it here...

Nice!

Tour de Cure: Final pre-event posting

The Tour de Cure event - Summit to Surf XIII - takes place in two days. You can still donate at our Team Tegan and Her Daddy page.

We've met our team goal of $5,000 - currently we are over $6,000. At one point we were in 2nd place out of 71 teams. Looks like the other big teams are finally getting their money in, and we are slipping back a little. Brian is a little short of his $2,000 goal...you could help with that if your charitable giving account is not empty this month...

Last Sunday - we took a drive up to Hood River to take a look at the course, and give it a test ride. It has incredible scenery - and in the Pacific Northwest - the scenery always includes ups and downs...unless you are at the beach.

We got on the bikes and went...it was hard - but we made it. There were quite a few other bikers on the trail, but I'm sure there will be a lot more this Saturday. Over 1,040 riders have registered. Not all of them will be doing our 10 mile course - but I'm sure all the family groups will. Even with the Gorge Games going on in Hood River - we saw many other cyclists.

Tegan, Brian, and Connor take a break from the 1st climb

Tegan, Connor, and Mick take a break from the 1st climb

So - early Saturday we will load up the bikes, head off to Hood River - and earn all the money that all of you have so graciously donated to the cause so dear to our family - the cure of diabetes Stay tuned for the results of this adventure!

Tour de Cure biking update

Since it was going to be in the 90°s today, we got on our bikes before 10am this morning. We we out on a wondering path - ended up at the end in Cook Park in Tigard. We went over the Tualatin River twice - and this weekend you wouldn't want to be in the Tualatin. Apparently there is an outbreak of blue-green algae. A total of seven miles today - when we got home the temps with past 80°. This was a good test for us - because the Tour is in two weeks - and it will be in Hood River around noon. The temperature is sure to be warm then.

Be sure to check out our fundraising progress - we are at over 80% of our $5,000 goal.

Memorial Day Weekend Camping

Well...I put off writing this post because I needed to get some photos together to add to the story. But going through the photos we took - there are too many to choose from. Looking at the photo filenames - it looks like 270 photos were taken. Some of these were deleted immediately on the camera due to a blink or failed flash or maybe someone didn't want to smile. But threaten to withhold the s'mores - and you'll get at least a halfhearted smile.

So - I decided to create a Picasa album. It is uploading right now - 82 of our best shots. Some even worthly of publication in a magazine. We did get good weather on Saturday and Sunday and on Tuesday - but the other days it did rain. Imagine that - it rained in Oregon on the coast in May. That must have never happened before....

Check out the Picasa album. The photos tell the story. Any questions? Well - post a comment on the blog entry! You know you want to...

Here is a slideshow of the Picasa photos. I hope this works...

Tour de Cure Update #8

After a windy and rainy week - the weekend is here again with temperatures in the 70s. So - we packed a lunch and set out on a quick Tour de Cure training. This was trip nunmber eight.



A short trip to Ibach Park, AKA "The Dinosaur Park" for lunch, playground time, and then back home. Three and a half miles. We're getting stronger!

A great way to spend part of this beautiful day!

Orienteering in Champoeg (Tour de Cure #7?)

This weekend, we had a brand new adventure. Mick was looking for something to do this weekend that would get us out and moving and something new. She found out about The Columbia River Orienteering Club. This is an organization that involves the sport of orienteering. To summarize the sport in a paragraph (there are lots of websites with more info if you want - here, here, here, and - or use your friend Google) the goal is usually to get a map of your course, visit all the control points on your map, punch a card with the card puncher located at the control point, then return to the start. You can do this as fast as you can - or you can just go out and enjoy the day and the course someone else has created.

This Saturday, the club was having an event at the Champoeg State Park. South of the Portland metro area, and less than 20 miles away - we decided to make this our next adventure. The weather forecasts were predicting rain and snow and cold weather, so we dressed up warm and dry. We arrived and headed to the meeting location. While we got registered and orienteered - it began to snow and hail. Soon it turned into a light rain. After a quick intro to the sport and directions given by one of the club members, we began the course.

We found our 1st control point with no problems. The control points are white/orange triangle flag type things. There was also an old CD in the flag with the control point number. Good thing too....because that 2nd point - well - Brian blew it. We took the wrong trail off the end of a parking lot, and ended up going and finding the 9th control point by accident. After a little better reading of the map - we found the 2nd point.

Tegan and Connor at our 2nd control point

Soon the weather began to change for the better. The sun came out and we had a nice walk. Our course was a beginner level, or White course. So we could complete the course by staying on or near a walking path. Good thing too... since the course was just over two miles long, and the ground was wet and muddy. We saw lots of other people following their maps (the more difficult courses might not follow the paths) and they were often quite wet. We stopped for lunch near the halfway point.

Tegan checking out punch card

Brian with the map - the sun came out!

We found all the control points and had the proof! At the end of the course you MUST check back in with the organizers. If you don't - they assume you are lost on the course and send out the helicopters and the search teams. Not a good thing when you are sitting at home watching TV and see the newsbreak "Some lost participants at an orienteering event - news at 11".

Tegan with our finished card

While this was not a biking event for us - we considered it training for the Tour de Cure. We were building our endurance and stretching muscles.

Tour de Cure Update #6

With the weather today predicted to be in the upper 70's, we knew it was time to get out the bikes and go for another training ride.

The weather cooperated! So we packed a lunch, got the tires on the bikes pumped up to the recommended pressures, and headed out. The day was perfect - sunny, and probably still in the 60s so we didn't get too hot.

Out goal today was to see a house a few miles away that we had just seen on an episode of Ask This Old House. Roger Cook started the segment saying "We're about 10 miles SW of Portland, Oregon in a suburb named Tualatin to help a homeowner with her lawn." He showed her how to power dethatch the lawn, aeriate the lawn with a core aerator, fertilize, and spread seed. Since most of the segments on ATOH are in the Boston area, we never figured we get them out to our house. Well - I guess we just never asked! We wanted to see how the lawn turned out, as it appeared this work was done last spring or fall. One shot of the house on the show had the house number, and with a little help from the Metro GIS taxlot layer - we found the house. The lawn turned out pretty nice. See a writeup of the episode here.

So - as to our ride....after seeing the house, we headed a short distance over to Jurgens Park for our picnic. A little food and refreshment, playing on the playground, then back on the bikes - heading for home.

Enjoying our lunch

When we got home - the odometer on my bike showed we had traveled about 6.9 miles! It was a hard ride - but we are almost worked up to our 10 mile length of the Tour de Cure race.

Tired - but still standing!

Tomorrow is predicted to be another nice day - not as warm, and rain coming late in the day. I don't think we'll be out biking then - but you never know. We're determined!

Tour de Cure Update #5

Yesterday the weather here in Tualatin the weather was great. The temperatures were in the 60's and the sun was shining. We just had to get out and bike! To bad the weather was not to last until Easter. The egg hunt at Grammi & Papa's might not be in the yard....

Brian and Connor got our our bikes - Brian on his bike and Connor on the tag-a-long. We biked around Tualatin. We went up and down hills and around the bend. We started going up 105th street, and had to stop when the chain guard on the tag-a-long got stuck in the chain. We almost made it to the top of the pretty steep hill. Next time we'll make it. This was a four mile training ride....we're getting closer to our 10 mile Tour de Cure course.

On the way home we stopped at the 'dinosaur park' - Ibach Park. It is a pretty fun place with lots of interesting playground equipment. Connor enjoyed the quick rest stop.

Tour de Cure Update #4

Our planning for the Tour de Cure this July is going very well - the name of the event is Summit to Surf. This is because the longest route is 100 miles and starts on Mt. Hood and end in Hood River on the Columbia River, a great spot for wind surfing.

Our team - Team Tegan and her Daddy - is up to 12 members now, and we have raised $960 of our $5,000 goal. The goal thermometer on our team page is almost to 20% - just $40 more will get us there. Might we have to increase the goal? Stay tuned to find out - or help us get going faster and donate! There are 29 teams signed up so far. Our donations at this point place us in 3rd place. But we are just getting started!

Take a look at these routes listed below - maybe you want to join. You can take a fun 10 mile ride with 1,200 feet of elevation change or the 100 mile endurance test with the 9,500 feet of elevation change. What looks good to you?


100 mile route
Starting up on Mt. Hood at Welches - the course then goes up to Timberline Lodge (try just doing that!) and then down again to Hwy 26 and Government Camp, up to Bennett Pass, then to Hwy 35, and downhill (most of the way to Hood River) and then over to the Mosier Tunnels and back to Hood River.

75 mile route
Same start in Welches and route as the 100 mile route, but skips the trip to Mosier near the end.

68 mile route
Similar to the 75 mile route...not sure where the differences are.

56 mile route
Start at Welches and skip the Timberline climb, up to Bennett Pass and down the hill to Hood River.

48 mile route
Start at Government Camp, up to Bennett Pass, and down to Hood River.

36 mile route
Start at Mt. Hood Meadows on Hwy 35 and go downhill (mostly) to Hood River.

10 mile route
This route starts at Port Marina Park in Hood River, goes to Mosier on the old Columbia River Highway, through the twin tunnels, and park to the start.

July is coming soon!