Wow. 2010 is just about in the books.

This time last year I had a goal.  It wasn't to cure the flu or anything, but it was still a goal.  I was headed to the Sea Otter Classic, a huge yearly festival of road and mountain bike racing at Laguna Seca Raceway in April.  It is also combined with a trade show, demos, and a few new bike film premieres.  I was definitely looking forward to it.

As many of you know, I had taken some time off of work so as it happened I was really able to focus on my training.  I had a new singlespeed build for me by Brendan at Siren Bicycles and was stoked to show it off.   I got a camping spot a few hundred yards from the track and saw some good downhill racing, including a few SD friends who were there as well.

My race was one of the last of the festival, on Sunday.  I managed to get some sleep the night before and attacked the course, placing 2nd in my category and about 20th overall in a field of a couple hundred.  I also managed to fit in time to attend premieres of Ride the Divide and Follow Me.  Both are highly recommended.  Follow Me is in pretty heavy rotation at the house these days.

I also discovered Yoga this year and I must say to anyone who will listen, "give it a try".  It's not just for twenty and thirty something ladies. My flexibility and strength have increased quite a bit this year.  There are not many out there who would not benefit from a few hours of Yoga practice each week.  I am lucky to have a great instructor who teaches a once a week class at my local gym.  I have not yet had to go to one of the millions of Yoga studios around town but I am sure someday I will.  I'm just not going to wear the workout pants that seem to be the uniform there.

Kreuger the wondermutt continues to be his puppy like self but is calming down a bit, month by month.  People are amazed to hear he is almost nine, so I take this as a good thing.  He should live a long, happy life. 

In July I attended my 20th High School reunion.  It was actually a lot less painful than I anticipated.  I was able to catch up with some old friends and was pleasantly surprised to see that many of them seemed to still have their souls intact after twenty years of being functioning adults.

I made it a vacation road trip and headed north after that.  I visited friends and Family in Oregon and Washington, then satisfied a desire of several years to ride Whistler.  Here is a video of one of my favorite trails there, Dirt Merchant.  After the trail ends you can connect it with Lower A Line.  Twenty minutes or so of chair lift served paradise.  Sorry, it's not me riding.  No video of this trip. 

I returned to work in August and am working in an office environment.  It's basically Office Space except that my many bosses are armed.   Other than that its pretty much the same.  It's pretty comical.  And don't worry, I'm not going to be cleaning fish on my desk anytime soon.

In November I made a serious purchase.  One I had been thinking about for a while was a VW Vanagon Syncro Westfalia camper.  I had been on the fence about this because they stopped making them in 1991, so the newest one you will ever find is 19 years old.  My friend Lee made the decision for me.  When I visited he and Kerry in Olympia, we drove up to Seattle to look around and get some riding in at The Colonnade bike park.  We had a great time but were reminded of the rule to never take "one more run".  Lee had a pretty badly bruised ankle so I got to drive the Syncro back to Olympia.  I had a great time driving it.  Once you are behind the wheel, you just naturally embrace the slow.  It's a pretty nice ride.  Well, I began the search and educational process.  These are pretty quirky vehicles so there is a lot of information (some of it wrong) out there.  I found one in Los Angeles that had been purchased by the current owner from a guy in San Diego.  It had lots of maintenance and upgrades done with all the documentation so I picked it up.  I'm not crazy about the color but it's definitely recognizable.  And for the uninitiated a Syncro is all wheel drive and Westfalia means camper pop top with fridge, stove, and sink.  Rad!

So here we are, it's the holidays.  What to do?  As it happens, Christmas Eve this year is also my Grandmother's 90th birthday.  Why not take a road trip in the big red machine?  Sounds great.  I gave the cat to a friend for ten days, loaded up the wondermutt and headed north.  Of course, around San Luis Obisbo some sort of off electrical issue cropped up and the motor started to have issues.  I pulled into a European repair shop and as luck would have it, they had worked on the van before.  The mechanic was unfortunately unable to determine exactly what was wrong, but the issue went away and I headed back.   I made it to Redding in time to have a beer or two with my Dad and get a few hours sleep.  The next morning I headed north to Bend.  I knew there was going to be some weather around Mt. Shasta, and mother nature did not disappoint.  Luckily, poor weather is exactly what the Syncro was designed for so I had no problem for the rest of the haul to Bend.



I also visited a few of the local breweries and watering holes, mostly to do research for a business concept I am working on.  More on that later. 

So here I sit, egg nog in hand and wondermutt nearby writing a quick rundown of the year's events.  Of course I left some stuff out.  Bad bike crashes with possibly (but ignored) broken bones.  A few weddings attended.  Some mistakes and some triumphs.  All part of the life that was my life in 2010.

That's me, on the bow of my friend Bart's boat Shine On.  Looking for 2011.

Happy New Year!