Big ride with Phil
Long day in the saddle…
I met up with my bro this morning for our first road ride together in eon’s. We started in Provo, and worked our way over to American Fork canyon to ride the Alpine Loop. This is my favorite ride. The upper part is so cool. Narrow road, little traffic (on a weekday), spectacular scenery, lots of switchbacks, and a looong climb.
Unfortunately, we were turned back near the top due to some hasty construction work being done to repair a section of road that had washed out in a recent storm. Undaunted, we headed back down the canyon and climbed over the SunCrest road into Salt Lake valley. A huge crosswind on the descent (and some loose bearings in my rear wheel that I discovered later) had me crawling down the hill like a near-sighted granny with the emergency brake engaged and the hazard lights flashing. I think Phil was a little worried about me, the bike was just feeling REALLY squirrelly and I got spooked when I let it run.
My bright idea was to take the frontage road along the freeway as we headed south. I’ve ridden it a few times before and thought it was ok. What I didn’t think of is that it had always been on a weekend – fairly quiet. Today is Friday and there’s a huge gravel pit in full operation. That means trucks… No shoulder to ride on and a huge headwind made for a pretty scary time of it. I put my head down and just started cranking into the wind with Phil on my wheel trying to get us out of there as quickly as possible. We had to sprint through a construction zone complete with ruts, holes, mud, dust, and puddles. Fun!! not
When I got back to the house, most everyone was out shopping, so I took the opportunity to contine my ride and get some more miles in. I headed up Maple Canyon (steep 4 mile climb) with 90 miles of hard riding already in my legs. Turns out I was able to tie my personal best that I set (with fresh legs…) 10 years ago. Nice!!!
I finished off the day with 101 miles and 6 1/2 hours of riding.
The Goon
Lagoon is a Six Flags-type theme park north of Salt Lake City. My parents had a truckload of discount passes, so we were able to get the whole family together for a day of fun. This place has been around for quite a while, we used to call it “The Goon” when we were young. It was pretty cool for me to be taking my kids there now. Carried along by the enthusiasm of their cousins, the girls hit the roller coaster for their first ride of the day – they’ve never been on anything that goes even close to that speed. Lindsey loved it, Natalie was scared to pieces!! I sat in the row ahead of her and was able to look back and see her eyes get as big as dinner plates when we approached the top of the first hill and she realized there was nowhere to go but D-O-W-N. Sheer terror gripped her and she began screaming like the Grim Reaper himself was sitting on her lap holding a basket of spiders and rattlesnakes. Out of control…
She later (very reluctantly) rode on a new attraction called “The Bat”. It’s a coaster that you sit in with your legs dangling in the air. No loops or corkscrews, but still pretty scary considering the previous experience. Well, it became her most-favorite ride, after her mom suggested pretending like she was a flying unicorn, swooping through the trees. That was all it took… She was heard passing that advice along, with an air of authority, to other cousins who were nervously waiting their turn in line. Hey, whatever works!
Jessica had an awesome time riding the train, whales, boats, and airplanes in the kiddie section. She even got to go on a little roller coaster with mom. LOVED IT! She would cry when I’d take her off a ride, and I’d have to come up with another one pretty quick!
We stayed until closing time and everyone was able to get in plenty of riding. Malcolm went on the Colossus (coaster with loops) and loved it. 8 of us did the Rattlesnake Rapids rafting ride together. You expect to get a little wet, and know there will be maybe one or two of you that get it pretty good. On this trip, we ALL got totally DRENCHED!!
The Scene Begins 
