DC part 2

...........I stayed here for awhile. A half hour maybe. I took lots of pictures not knowing when or if I'd ever be back.

I got up and walked slowly toward the visitor center. It was then remembered about the Marine WWII memorial and headed that way, water less. It was a very long hike, seamed like 5 miles, might have been 1. I took a few turns wrong and ended up toward a Kennedy. Then I pulled out the darn map and saw a trail that would take me right to the spot I was looking for. The walk took me back toward the visitor center. I did make it there and it was awesome. Again I took a lot of pictures. And left a lot of sweat behind.

It was a few hours later and I had called it day. Grabbed the Metro Red line and headed to the hotel. Worked on loading the daily pictures and took a shower. I later loaded a few shots to Face Book and had a friend note that I had visited him a day before his birthday. So i knew the next day I was gonna go back. And I did. Goofie singing Happy Birthday to some one in Arlington, but again, I knew if I didn't I'd regret it. I was SOOOO happy no one was around to witness it, trust me I kept an eye out!

Again, back on the Red Line and off to town. I did the Korean memorial, saw the Smokey Bear station and took a little tour. All in all it was way to hot to have fun, but I had done what I came to do and was happy.

One per month quota, Met.

I see i am right on course for an award for one crappy blog post per month. I really thought about putting off until tomorrow, but wednesday morning is Goose hunting. So sorry i'm not going to stay up blogging when I can be resting for hunting. It just won't work. Trust me it won't.

So my August started off pretty cool, well it was really freakin hot. The month started off in DC. We had nothing planned for the first day. That worked out well. Since the flights were all screwed up. We arrived in the afternoon and not in the morning like planned. So we had time to do a little walking around and we had dinner. Did I mention it was hot?

Day two was a day I had somewhat planned, notice I say somewhat. My plan was going to Arlington and seeing an High School friend Jeff Davis. And off I went, my second ride on the Metro. I kinda had it figure out now. I mean I made it all the way to Arlington and didn't get lost! Well, on the Metro anyhow. I got off the Metro and walked into the Arlington Visitor Center. I was sure I could walk right to section 54. But, I didn't remember "section 54". OOPS, take note, Arlington is NOT small, you want to be damn sure you know what section you are looking for. So I went off memory, another big mistake! I remembered the section he was in was two sections from the visitor center. So off I went. It was right about now I wish would have stopped and got some water! So anyhow. I took a short cut and headed across a parking lot, and past the first section. So as I get to the second section, it was empty! So off to the third section you know the one I am sure he is the one, I notice that I am on the wrong end. I'll say I was on the East side instead of the West. Honestly I never knew north, south, east or west the whole time I was there. So I figure crap one more section. At least I was upbeat! I was close and I was on the right end. So I went to the next section, it was huge and he was not there. To the next section, nothing. I stopped and checked out the useless map again and saw I was to far and I knew I was in the wrong place, for sure. So I headed to the Tomb of the Unknowns. i got there at 10 to noon. The bell sounded and I watched as the first Guard came out, shortly later the next Guard. I felt like I was in a good spot to take pictures and I was ready to go. To say I was moved would be an understatement. It was flooring. I shot alot of shots and watched as the Guards were switched and back they went. I have to believe these Men are the most dedicated people I have ever saw. The heat was intense and these young men marching like machines. I took shelter from the heat for about 20 minutes and then took my spot. I had scouted it out and got the place I wanted for my second round. I was on a mission. A mission to document my day there, and to not pass out. I finished with the 12:30 changing and headed back toward the visitor center. The closer I got the more upset I became. I really only had one single reason to go to Washington DC, it was to see Jeff. And the more I walked the more I felt defeated. I got to a place and it was like some one slapped my stupid ass. I had my new phone, and I could get onto the internet. Jeff had been a Guard for years, and on the Old Guard web site they had a page of Guards that had passed away, they also had some information. And on that site I knew they had Jeffs info. Section and Head stone number. I felt a small amount of relief. I was off again, still no water.

I found section 54 and in a short time stone 242. All I saw was the rear of the stone. I paused a for quite awhile. I guess I hoped when I went to the other side of the stone it would say Duffy Smith or something. But it didn't. i had found him. And after all these years it felt real. Real sad. I sat there for about an hour. Baking. I remember the times he would come over to his Aunts house, she lived right next to my Dad. We all took off behind the trailer park and would go sledding. And just plain hang out. I couldn't believe he was really gone........

more tomorrow I can't seam to see the key board anymore.

Crap

Well, busted by the Blog cops. Thought I'd be all about this blogging stuff. Come to find out I never remember to post anything. My live is kinda boring, but NOT that boring.

So a quick update. Went our Saturday morning with my brother and Son. We rode mountain bike at Cannonsberg. Man I feel old. They both kicked my butt. So to celebrate William and I headed out sunday to a trail near Rockford. Luten Park I believe was the name. He tells me that it is flatter and more "flowy" then Cannonsberg, but a little more technical. A little? BS. Flatter? BS. Both ride were about 7.5 miles long. Saturdays ride was 500'+ of climbing and on Saturday it was 450'. Both days were way to hot to ride. But dam I had a blast.

I think the best way to sum it all up was done well by my brother. He spoke of the weather: "humid enough today ya gotta chew the air before ya breath it."

So as it would be I am in a hurry to blow out of the office and go riding with the kid. Sure he'll kick my ass. But it's days like these he'll remember while changing my diaper.

I'm outta here.
RoadId

Michigan Mountain Mayhem

What a week end eh? Friday night I was so happy I had been asked to shoot pictures! Cold and rain, not very good riding weather.

Saturday morning came around to the same kind of crap weather. But, as the morning went on the weather got better and better. Roads where drying up and it also warmed up. Just about perfect weather after awhile.

I had hoped for a more riders. Yet, with the weather the way it was and this being the first year of the ride I heard 400+ riders were there! Thats cool. Next year I have to think 400+ more will show up.

I have been to many events, yet I have to say, this ride is the ride of the year in Michigan for road bikes. It's one of those rides where your setting around with your buddies and you open your mouth and brag that you rode it. Deep in their minds they are saying "Yah right" You know their jealous, and they were wishing they could pull that card out. You know, the one that says "I rode the toughest hilliest road bike ride in Michigan". The cool thing is not many buddies can brag about it. I know I can't. Heck I sat at the top of "the wall" with my brother and thought, "How the hell can ANYONE ride up that hill, and to think they all have 50+ miles on up to this point!" Go ahead, see me at the bar, set down and pull out the card. I'll listen in awe, I'll be jealous, I'll know that you were one of very few to ride the Michigan Mountain Mayhem.

See you all next year. Yah, I'll be there, on top of "the wall". Be sure to wave to me, and yell, "Your jealous and I know it."

Ride safe, wear your RoadID.

Hospitals suck.

Hi everyone. I am doing day two of the hospital thing. I am not the patient, just the support. My buddie Joe had some sort of weight loss surgery done yesterday. Today is recovery day. I spent the night here. I find I weird the times that folks come and attack you! Jerimia the blood elf was here at 3:30am. So answer me this......why? 3:30 in the morning? Should you not be getting up to hunt or fish at that time of the day? The surgeon came in and gave us the game plan for the day. Then the PA came in and gave us the same plan for the day. Then the nurse came in and said hi. But still, no blood ferry. What the hell, come wake us up, poke us and then not even stop back by to say "hey!" Your off my friend list pal. I can say one thing, I have internet, I hate hospitals, they drive me nuts. It's not really the building or the people in it, hell this place is awesome. Its the fact that you just can't jump up and walk outside and enjoy life. Your like velcro'd to the bed. Don't move stay there. No worry about that alarm going off, it's just the IV, we can't show you how to shut it off, but, we can't hear it from the nurses station so get use to hearing it, it'll be on all night! UGH. So now I am off, I just was so bored at 8am, that I figured I should update this here blog. Sorry it's not world changing stuff, or something that moved you. but right now I'm just happy to be here, living and breathing. No tubes, no IV's no nothing. Just a room temp Mountain Dew that I smuggled in. That might be tomorrows story. Do they have jails in hospitals???

Remember wear your RoadID, it very well could make the difference in a hospital room or a casket. If you don't wanna wear the ID, no worries, just update your will. Piece

Dusty brains

So it's been over a month since I posted anything in here. I'm a slacker.

At the beginning of March I signed up for a time Trial. The Fisk Knob Time Trail. Don't know what the hell I was thinking. But, a road race is something I have always wanted to do. I guess sometimes the hardest part is getting on line and registering. So one day I got a bug in my ass and did it. I rode the course twice before the race. I compared my 2 runs to the results of 2009. Yep, I had last place in my age group locked in. The best time I had turned was 57:00:. It was the Friday before the race, the race was on Sunday. i pushed and I paid for it. Once I got to the flats my calves locked up, solid like rocks. I stretched them when I got back into the hills and figured two days would be plenty to recover. I was wrong. While in the starting gate on Sunday I was still stretching out my calves. I didn't have much pressure really. All I had to do was finish and I'd be a happy camper. And finish I did. I did it 1:00:59. (I was about 5 minutes slower than the finisher in front of me. 5 minutes is for ever in a time trail.) Slower than I had hoped, but considering I lost my chain once and took no time to train I was mostly happy. next year I'll do better.

Then last weekend my Brother was in a race. The Barry-Roubaix. What a race, started in a park, raced through a small summer cottage village and onto the gravel roads, later turned into paved roads. I wish I woulda rode that ride! But I was happy behind the camera and took what turned out to be 393 "keeper" pictures. All of them are on the web-site. Only trouble with the shoot was the ending. I got stuck behind some riders on a gravel road. Didn't wanna be the typical prick in a car and force them to let me by. So I took my time, passed when I could. In the end it cost me "finish line" pictures of Craig. but I guess it is better than whacking a rider.

Ok, so this here blog takes me of the list of "slacker/blogger" so I will go now. I'll be back sooner, or maybe later.

Ride safe,
Oh ya, Put your dam RoadID on.

Saturday ride with the ladies.

I was finally able to make it to the training ride with the Team In Training team. Got there a little later than I had hoped. But, I was there, and nervous. I mean I had ridden just shy of 400 miles and I was doing my first indoor group ride.

Up until this point I choose my riding partners with great attention. First my brother Craig. Number one in the state in his division a few years ago in Mountain Bike Time Trial racing. Hey, if your gonna ride, pick the best! OK, so i didn't pick him because he kicks ass on a mountain bike, I picked him...well, because he'd ride with me. And I knew he'd take it easy on his younger fatter, more (by a long ways) out of shape brother. So we ride a few times a year. Then I picked Jake, he was a funny partner, we laughed so hard I thought we'd die, and we missed like 3 fire calls on one ride! Besides we rode like 30 miles in about a half a day! We were speed demons!

But now...I was with "The Team". You need to meet these people. Ladies, all of them. And they can ride. I was nervous that I'd stumble into the church with my Trek and walk out in crutches. I was shaking. I got the bike on the trainer and got ready to go. All of them looked at me like they had just planned on how to stomp me into the dirt. I thought about running, leaving the Trek behind as a peace offering. Then I thought, lets see what these ladies got. How could they be that bad? I mean if your crazy enough to raise money to fight Cancer AND pedal your butt on a bike around Lake Tahoe......They gotta have a soft spot somewhere.

The coach had to get some help getting the video to play. We should have had a small child there, it would have been much quicker! But in the end the video was playing. A little bit more and we got the audio going. We were up and running, I mean up and riding. The Coach had an awesome video. It wasn't one of those one where the guy just tells you this and that. This video was of a guy out riding his bike. It was great! We rode hard and had a blast. In the end we rode just over 17 miles in about 45 minutes. It rocked. So now I look forward to riding with these ladies again, soon.

So if your into the bike riding thing and sick of the normal training video watch these..

http://www.coachtroy.com/products/item132.cfm

Oh ya, and like Coach says, once in while, if your good like us, you might have to wait for "Coach Troy" cuz he may have his own videos.....but the don't hold nothing on the "Team in Training" bikers. I have to go now, I'm ordering my training videos next. Be safe, GO TEAM

Happy Birthday MOM

Well, today is/was Moms birthday. My brother and the family took her out last week end, so she got to hang out around the house. Sounds to me like she needs to get a full time job so she can slow down!

Not much happened today in the Team in Training camp for me. Had a brain fart and remember to new names that needed to be hit with an Envelope. So those are off in the mail. Laura and I did out taxes tonight, so no riding for me. Kind of a bummer. I am needing to get rocking. Wish I could stand to ride the trainer for longer indoors. Gets SOOO boring and seam to be harder than riding double the miles outside. I am thinking because the bike is so solid. On the road it will at least give a little with the rubber tires and the wheels give a small amount. Also watching TV is not a "normal" thing to do while riding! But the good news is we don't have to pay the creeps in DC or Lansing any more than they already took us for!

So tomorrow I ride. I need to hang in for about 20 miles. We'll see how it goes!

Have a great night. I am outta here!

http://pages.teamintraining.org/mi/ambbr10/rhayso

Step one.

Well, today I finally got the envelopes done and delivered to the Team in Training office. I sure hope that the 77 in turned in raise some mu-lah. I am really starting to doubt my ability to raise enough to go on my dream ride. But I guess I should be looking at it like I am only 1.5 weeks into it and the only way I have put out the word is on Face Book.

I did get the paper work filled out to be sent in to get the raffle numbers. So can't wait to get those number so i can start selling the tickets. Thanks to Reese Rickards and B-93 I have two AWESOME tickets to the Martina McBride and Trace Adkins. Price will be $10.00 a ticket. As soon as I get all the details set in stone and the permit I'll be shouting it out to start selling them.

Alright I gotta get for now. Maybe tonight i'll get some sleep!

Riding screaches to a halt.

Howdy, So this blog is all about this dude with a new bike and a killer camera. Then last week it turns to a dude with a camera and a bike fighting the cancer cause.

Right now, as far as i know the bike could set for a few more days. Now folks I will be known again as DustyWheels. See, I signed up with Team In Training and right now I have to get my poop together. Right now bike riding is no where near my high priority. I am hitting places for money, trying to get ideas on making money. Sending e-mails, getting address' to hand write letters. Right now my goal is to raise $5,000.00, and the slower it goes the more I think I might raise the bar to $6,000.00! Ask my Mother, I was one of two kids in the family, and I was never the bright one!!!

I have a cool idea in my head and sent out an email. Hate to let to much out but I am hoping the best morning show in Country Music in Michigan can help out. If that works out I will be looking into finding a bike shop in the Grand Rapids area, maybe Holland, to ride in. Then if the cards all fall together I'll release the details. I just hate to post a bunch tonight and get a "Are you shitting me"? response tomorrow.

I started this venture on Saturday with a small bag, like one of those "tree hugger" bags you reuse at the grocery store. It held everything I needed. HA, Well, now my laptop "for photography only" is my "Team in Training" office. I have moved into a brief case. And i find myself staying up at night coming up with fund raising ideas! I have a new note pad my side of the bed.

OK so now I have been working at the table for 3 hours and I need to go to bed.

Nite
GO TEAM
http://pages.teamintraining.org/mi/ambbr10/rhayso

My other new site!

Well, the new site is up. I have made some changes to it, what I can any how! Hope you stop and check it out.

Please bookmark this link and come back often, forward it to friends.

http://pages.teamintraining.org/mi/ambbr10/rhayso

I am shooting to raise $5,000.00. But cancer needs more than that so help me out. Maybe I can hit $6,000.00? If you have some fund raising ideas please email me at Richhays1@yahoo.com

Remember to keep an eye out on this page. Check it and join the fun!

Short and sweet

Good morning and good news! My Team In Training site is up! Ok so it at this point is VERY generic, please give me a break! It's 12:30 AM! I'll be suping that baby up soon. Hope to see results SOON. I know I can count on friends and even people whom I have never met. Cancer is a world wide problem, not just a Michigan problem. Thanks again

http://pages.teamintraining.org/mi/ambbr10/rhayso

Holy Dirt!

I guess I didn't realize how darn long it has been since I updated the ol' blog. I guess it's about time.

Last year I and the family were at the Rockford Bar, going in for the hot dogs and smiley faced fries. While standing in line I saw a little postcard flier, something about "Team in Training". I looked it over and put it in my pocket for later checkin' out.

It was the next day and I saw the post card in a pile of my accumulated "stuff" on my end of the bar table at the house. So i grabbed it and checked it out. Seams these kind of cool things are all about being able to run 30+ miles. Well, the boy can't. I did see something about a bike ride option, so I signed up to go to a meeting.

I went to the meeting and was so much wanting to sign up. Took the info home and then never did another thing with it, but wish I had signed up.

This year I went to the meeting. Again I came home to chat it over with the wife. We both were WAY to busy to chat. Actually I don't know if I have even spoke many words since the meeting with her. It looked like again this year it would not happen. Ends up the meeting was at 9:00. My daughter Dana had a volleyball match at 8:00. I found that I was bummin more than I thought I would. Didn't sleep last night very well. I found that I dreading missing another year.

We woke up early and headed to the volleyball match. If you ask Dana she'll tell you she was no good. But I think she rocked, her very first volleyball game and she got three or four points on her own. I was proud. but the game didn't last to long and they lost.

It was 8:45 and I hoped in the end I would have time to get to the meeting. All I knew was the name of where it was. It's good to have a wife that is not directionally challenged. She had a good idea where it was. With a quicker twitter and a quick response from my brother she knew right where we were going.

I got there in time for the 9:00 kick off. A quick program to show you how to change a flat tire. I had a blast watching the ladies trying to do it and not crack a finger nail. I think it was harder to stand back and not help them. But how do you learn unless you do it? So have at it. I made a mental note of who was doing well, and who wasn't. I mean what the heck if I flat I wanted help from someone who could do it correctly.......right?

Needless to say I joined the Bike table and listen to the information and signed up. Soon I will have my own web site just for this Team in Training ride! That will be cool! It kinda makes it so I have to update my blog more. I don't know a thing about the web site for TNT. So I am shooting to log something in here weekly. As things go along and the date is closer to going I may end up blogging daily. So keep yer eye out for me. I'll be posting that web site as soon as I get it...trust me. I want you pennies.