Some of our recent adventures, starting in Flagstaff. We heard that a new race was happening, the Cocodona 250-miler (which to me, awesome and hard to fathom). Maggie Guterl (from Big's Backyard fame) was in the lead and nearing the finish. The race course came through the Walnut Canyon trailhead, just down the road from where we were camped.
So I hopped on my bike and rode over to see her come through. And who was waiting to pace her but none other than another amazing ultrarunner, Courtney Dauwalter! She even remembered me from the Backyard and we chatted a bit. Great to see you again, Courtney!
Here's Maggie, looking great and moving well!
Her crew getting to work preparing her for one last big section over to the top of Mount Elden before the run down to the finish line in downtown Flagstaff:
Go Maggie go! It was a fun bit of fan-girling and cheering her on.
A couple photos from a recent orienteering meet near Phoenix. John carried his phone and captured some saguaros (which were starting to flower, although you can't see it here):
Checkpoint!
More desert flowers:
Next up - an airplane trip! What? We hadn't been on a plane in so many months. We're excited to be vaccinated and able to move freely without nearly as much concern about the covid. First stop was Texas to visit John's family. It was a quick couple of days and we didn't think to take any pictures. If we had, you would have seen a lot of smiles for being together again.
Then back to the airport to fly up to New Hampshire. While we were there, it seemed appropriate to take a few minutes in Concord to see a couple historical sights.
A statue of President Pierce outside the capitol building:
The liberty bell, a staple for state capitol grounds:
And the building itself - closed on Sunday so we could only see the outside, but that counts in my "I'm not actually keeping track of this particular thing and it's NOT one of our quests I swear" book:
"The nation's oldest State Capitol in which a legislature meets in its original chambers"
For some reason I AM tracking our visits to Dead Presidents. So here's President Pierce's grave. Quite a lovely spot.
On to Vermont!
We had lunch with our Star Trek cruise buddies Siobhan and Rodney and their daughter Persie (yay!) and then continued north to Mom's house. Hello Mom, it's so wonderful to see you again finally, double yay!!
Her pretty azalea bush in front of the house:
Even on short notice (since we organized the trip only after we knew all the vaccinations would be completed), John was able to set up the materials and a bit of local assistance for a solar project on Mom's roof. We are excited that this all worked out.
Starting the install, and John's happy place:
Panels are going up fast:
It's a beautiful sight - and Vermont is all green and gorgeous too :)
A neat photo John took on the fun little trail around Mom's neighborhood:
Celebrating family time!
A perfect start to the summer
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