Where it all began.....

Jeremy was in town last weekend for his sister's wedding so Jess and I planned to meet him in KC and race the Bone Bender Saturday, drive to Neosho, sleep, race Le Tour de Tick Sunday, then spend some time in Springfield with Zach and Erin. Jess had to bail at the last minute due to school conflicts. We were all a bit disappointed as her presence always brightens things up, but you gotta do what you gotta do. Plans were also altered a bit as the weather didn't exactly cooperate. We skipped KC and the Bone Bender and just met in Springfield instead. I met Jeremy at Sac Saturday afternoon and we spent about 2 hours refreshing our memories of the trails and rides there. Got a bit muddy, but did no damage, drank a wonderful German lager, suggested by the world traveler himself, then headed to Zach and Erin's.

Sac.






We arrived to the smell of the Fry Daddy. Zach, being the hospitable gent that he is, was frying up some White Bass and Crappie that he had caught, Morels that he had hunted, and some fries. All of it, scrumptious. That night we headed out to Patton Alley Pub in dtown Springfield for a few more beers and such. It was a low key night as we wanted to be in decent shape for the race the next day.

It didn't really rain on us on the trip from Spr to Neosho, but NOAA said that they had received 4+ inches of rain. We arrived at the race spot, registered, and warmed up.




The race went well. I felt good, I think Jeremy did as well.



It was extremely wet out there but the mud didn't stick whatsoever.




We both finished respectably. Big props to Jeremy for a great finish in the sport pack in his first solo race.

Results



I took home a t-Shirt, a gold Tour de Tick cowbell, a patchwork Tour de Tick blanket made from previous Tick t-shirts, and a new CO2 shooter. What a day.

When we got back to Springfield we were greeted with Big Sky Brewing beers and homemade manicotti. Thank you Erin, best I've ever had. Seriously.

Sunday night we just hung around the house and had a few beers, almost made it out, but we just didn't quite have the push.

Thank you so much Zach and Erin for putting us up and putting up with us, the beers, food, bike wash, bed, etc.

Hit Buckingham's on the way out of town.



Ben? David? You're up.