Yesterday was a long day…. The dogs and I drove straight through from Austin to Buena Vista. The dogs were as relaxed as ever – Darby on her bed and Izzy sleeping on the seat.
Izzy would sit up every time I slowed down to see if it was time for a break.
Darby just slept and barely opened her eyes.
In BV, I strung up a leash dog run until the fence gets put in.
We went for a walk along the River Park. The dogs got to swim and play in two huge fenced in dog areas they put in.
Last week, Tracy had a work thing in Denver so I decided to go along. We stayed downtown at the Ritz, and it wasn’t too shabby. On Thursday, Mike and Tina picked me up and we went for a hike in one of the parks near the Front Range.
Way in the distance, you can see downtown Denver.
This weekend, Preston and I ran the 30k Tangle race. Preston did great and my first two loops were fantastic, but I had nothing left for the 3rd loop. Preston ran with a sprained wrist from football.
On Saturday, I have a trail marathon out at Reville Ranch. This is usually a tough race, due to the exposure and warm temperatures this time of year. However, the forecast looks promising this year.
On Monday, the dogs and I drive to Buena Vista, CO for the summer. We are staying in the same house we rented last year. I’m excited to climb all the 14k foot peaks in the area. I found this cool map that shows all the summit trails.
shortcode
April has been beautiful in Austin. This weekend Tracy had the Texas rowing championship. I ran down and met her on Saturday and on Sunday we all met at a restaurant for brunch.
Tracy is in the bow of the boat.
Izzy and Darby have been getting a lot of exercise. The problem with spring is all the animals are out which makes the dogs crazy. They can’t get over their instincts to terrorize little creatures. Izzy still checks this spot for turtles. All the exercise means that the dogs hurt themselves. Izzy can be seen below with a wrapped paw due to a swelling between her toes. Darby also has a mouth issue – it looks like she bit her lip so hard that she almost put a full hole in her cheek.
Tracy took her sister to Mexico last week to celebrate Jenn’s birthday. The dogs and I spent a lot of time together and did some grilling. Izzy loves to eat anything and it’s pretty funny to watch her nibble on scraps of corn on the cob.
I put in 50 miles last week in an effort to get back in shape for the spring races. I’ve got a 30k, trail marathon, and the Jemez 52 miler coming up in the next 6 weeks. On Sunday morning, I did a long run to the pool and back and had to cross the creek at “stoner falls”. The moon was setting above the trees.
Mom passed away on the 14th. We’d known the day was coming and I’m so thankful that all of us got to spend time with her before she got bad. Per her wish, we spread her ashes in the flower garden of the pet cemetery where her dogs, Teddy and Freddy, are buried. Here’s a picture of Barb’s resting place.
Here’s a link to Barb’s obituary: http://obits.mlive.com/obituaries/grandrapids/obituary.aspx?n=barbara-skelding&pid=188473286&fhid=5484
At her service, we played a video all the kids made for her 80th birthday and her favorite song by Kid Rock. Here’s a link to both:
The first weekend in January was the annual Bandera race. I was shooting for 14 hours, but missed by 26 minutes. I consider it a wash since the course was 2 miles longer than previous years. I finished in the top third overall and 3rd in my age group.
WP Strava ERROR strava_info should be an array, received: false
A few days later, I went to visit my mom. It was freezing in Michigan but I spent most of my time visiting with mom and watching Downton Abbey.
This last week, I was back in Austin for the big freeze. Once again, the frost weed was out and I took some great pictures.
Just like the rest of the nation, it’s cold here. One cool thing we saw while walking the trail yesterday was the occurrence of “frost weed”. I took a few pictures and looked up the information: https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=vevi3
We had Christmas at Tracy’s sister house.
Tracy’s siblings in their yearly picture with the Joy pillow.
When we got home, we “dog sat” the neighbor’s dogs. Rossi fell asleep on her toy monkey.
Christmas is here and we had a couple trips planned. Before we left, Tracy finally finished a massive Halloween puzzle she’d been slaving over. It took many hours.
On the 19th, we left for Michigan to visit my mom and two days after that we headed to Philly to visit Tracy’s family.
We had a great time visiting with Barb and her happy little dog Paddy.
We stayed in a studio apartment in mom’s joint. It’s really convenient. There had been a lot of snow and this was the view from our window.
Paddy doesn’t get out for a lot of walks, but we took him on a few. Barb insisted he wear his jacket in the snow. He looked funny jumping through the snow.
We are in Philly now and the lazy Tucker dog loves to be in the center of everyone.
Tracy couldn’t see our dogs on the camera at Hip Hounds so they sent her a picture.
