Am I Quite Good At This?

So I am safely home from Nature Valley, and my computer is finally able to get a much-needed (ok, essential) charge so I can blog properly with photos and everything! Get psyched.

Or not. I am actually kinda running out of steam.

Here's Sharon. She has great taste in outfits and reading material, and she's an expert at stage-race recovery:

That is In Touch Magazine, those are tan lines not white spandex, and Sharon your hair looks great

She can't get mad at me for posting this because I totally made her bike-packing life way easier. Her "resident mechanic" had told her that to take off the pedals you just turn them the opposite way of the pedaling motion provided you only do some confusing thing or somethingorother. Basically a total guy trick. I helpfully informed her that you turn the wrench towards the back of the bike and presto change-o your pedals are off.

Moving on, I don't have photos from two of my favourite incidents from the trip, incident #1 being my breakaway on the Mankato stage and incident #2 being my horse rescue operation at the Stillwater stage. We were sitting in the parking lot, getting really fired up for the final stage ("OMG I so need coffee" "I can't deal with walking down the hill to get it" "Lisa do we have to warm up?" "Can we go clothes shopping instead?" sort of thing), and there was this horse trailer off in the corner of the lot with a carriage parked next to it. All of the sudden this big draft horse comes running out from behind the trailer, trotting across the parking lot looking totally scared, and no owner or responsible party seemed to be on hand. So tired-I-want-to-shop-or-nap Courtenay goes trotting across the parking lot at full speed to rescue the horse and return her to her tie-up spot. The Lipton girls seemed to be taking photos so maybe I will eventually see proof of my heroics.

(update: here is Meredith's post)

That was probably the fastest I moved all day.

O.K., more catch-up blogging to come, after I catch up on real life...