At Least Bring Dessert: Sierra Nevada Race 3



 We try our best to support cycling in general and especially the up-and-coming generation of cyclists. Hence our support of the Folsom High Cycling Team and the Sierra Nevada High School Race Series. We try to make as many of the events as we can but it just isn't always possible with my own training, race schedule and a house full of kids that need a dad and that whole holding down a full-time job thing. 

At one point, the sun was actually shining!

  We had a lot of factors working against our attending the third of the Sierra Nevada High School Race Series: kid recovering from being sick all week, another kid celebrating a birthday that afternoon and trying to bring all the kids (including a small toddler) out on an day of incredibly cold and capricious weather. We were realists, there was no way we could attend the whole event, but we could at least bring dessert.

This pic says it all... F-U-N!!!

That morning my wife got up early to bake her famous cobbler and double chocolate brownies. We bundled all the kids in the car and proceeded to go shopping for party decorations and supplies and pick up the birthday cake. It took us forever to get four kids ten and under going and by the time we did everything we needed to do we were wondering if the races were still even going on. We contemplated just driving to the party and skipping the races... well.. okay... *I* contemplated skipping it but my wife glared at me with the giant platter of cobbler and brownies pieces on her lap and somehow we ended up at the Granite Bay park just in time to watch the end of the races.

The weather didn't seem to bother the racers.

It was cold but the sun was shining and we decided to let the kids play as we searched out the Folsom High camp to deliver our goodies and find out what was going on. We trekked around the site and found an impressive camp set up with burgers grilling and a pot of chili steaming. We delivered our goods and hung around as we watched the riders returning from the race; legs coated, faces splattered with mud.

  

The bitter winds kicked up and blew in a wall of clouds, the whole area went dark and there was a scramble to move food under the awnings as the rain began to fall. We realized that the event was well in hand and all we were doing was standing around taking up valuable awning space that was needed to house the racers and the folks who were actually getting stuff done.

So that was it for our "day" at the races; we didn't see much; we did even less but hey... we brought dessert!

Then the storm rolled in....