christmas has come and gone. (i got a bike, a rig!) we had a great time with our family. i think that i have the best family ever, even my in-laws are great. we decided to take some time off and head south, attempting to escape the snow. to do so, we had to endure a southern utah storm. it took us about two hours longer to get to st. george. we got here safely and without incident so it was worth it. it is amazing how different the weather can vary from cedar city to st. george.
yesterday we rode the race course a couple of times--or derivatives of it--and then bear claw poppy. it was beautiful when we pulled up, but about five minutes before we started riding the wind picked up. it really picked up. the way down bear claw was not bad. it was harder than ever riding back up. of course it was still a blast.today we rode hurricane rim-jem-gould and it was windy. Scary windy. it would push me around the trail and make it hard to steer. it was crazy. we ran into lynda and steve wallenfels on jem. we were going to ride it out and back but the wind was too much and we decided to just ride it as a loop. then we rode out by paradise trail. again, we ran into lynda and steve. it was much calmer in st. george than in hurricane. tomorrow we are planning on gooseberry mesa.