Sunday, February 15, 2009

February Update

It's been a good month for change of scenery.

Jan. 30th, Patrick and I closed on our new house in Boxford, Mass. Our new house has a room for a bike workshop, a garage, and perhaps best of all an abundance of natural light and limited traffic noise. Within hours of closing, we started moving in. Saturday a great group of friends helped us with the most fast and efficient move EVER, very well orchestrated by Patrick. We invite local cyclists to stop by for use of bathrooms, water tap and Gatorade powder..location to be revealed in March.

Thursday, the 5th we were off to Puerto Rico to visit friends and meet with cycling buddies in the Vuelta de los Nueve Faros. We enjoyed wonderful views of the beaches and banana leaves. I hope to have some photos up soon....but there are also many pics by a professional here http://kippierson.blogspot.com/ One highlight of the trip was meeting Keane West, a very inspirational handcyclist who covered the entire 375 mile route in great form. He even made it up hills that others walked their bikes up. My regret of the trip is that I pulled around most of the riders to climb the hill into Isabella pueblo. I wish I had stayed back to see Keane take the hand cycle up.

Another highlight was see Michael again who had organized the first trip that I took around the island. What wonderful memories! Yet another highlight was to see Patrick pedal his way around the island. Pretty impressive for a man who hasn't spent much time on his bike since October.

We came back on the 11th and this weekend, it seemed to be spring in the neighborhood. I don't think it even got to 40 degrees but the sun and lack of ice brought out a number of runners and cyclists to the neighborhood roads.