Abacus Sounding: Summer Vacation, Part last

We spent the first half of our trip in Farmington. Played Lagoon, which is becoming a tradition. Talmage rode the white roller coaster for the first time. A little too rickety for his liking. Clara was content watching the rides for the most part. Miles loved driving the jeeps. Sydney is still a Bombora fan.   Didn't take the camera. But it really did happen.

I left the family in Farmington and flew to Spokane to cheer on Heather at her Ironman.   Here's her facebook link. There are pictures and stuff about it on June 29, 2014. And donate to United Athletics while you're at it. Please.

https://www.facebook.com/heather.kartchner?hc_location=timeline

The Ironman. Wow. What an event to witness.   These are regular people who, for whatever reason, decide to do something pretty darn extraordinary. Some of them over and over again ("It's a sickness," Heather says). The dedication and determination to put in the 100's of hours of training and then putting it all together on this one day -- where they are GOING for 10+ hours. "I'll just have a little marathon for dessert," they say, as they step off the bike, which was preceded by their little 2 mile appetizer dip in the lake. The stories behind the athletes who cross the finish line have got to be poignant and amazing. But I will always be mindful of the stories behind the ones who don't cross. All that training for "naught" because the water was so choppy they couldn't finish the swim. Or, like Heather, who had to watch from the sidelines as Rick finished the Ironman she was supposed to doing the first time. (click on her profile pic to read the "about me" write up).

I was with mom and dad and Heidi as Heather's tech support and personal cheering squad. While Heather was gone biking for a long, long time; we volunteered at the Bike Special Needs at mile 63. What a hoot! One athlete stopped and pulled out a Subway sandwich, a big bag of chips and some coke. "This is how I trained," she explained, as I searched for her red-and-white checkered tablecloth in her bag. Another girl had 6 pieces of pizza. Six!!! Just in case. We cleaned up with all the stuff they left behind that they were told would be "thrown away." I came home with a nice pair of bike gloves, a brand new shirt, a barely-used windbreaker vest, a water bottle (Ironman brand!), lots of power bars and gu and stuff; and more CO2 cartridges and bike tires than you can shake a stick at. ($15,000 Ironman bike not included). The trick to gleaning the goods, though, was to act like you were just "throwing away" what the athlete left behind, but really, you were slipping it into your growing bag of swag (quick! pop quiz! what's the scientific definition?). And then hiding it in the roadside bushes so the head volunteer guy didn't notice.

The second half of the trip was "up the canyon." This is the last time we'll see Nathan and family for awhile, since they're about to move to Japan.   A good time was had by all. Most the time.