On Thursday morning, the 17th of July, my dad, mom, and I headed for Capitol Reef. We arrived late afternoon, and checked into the Wonderland Inn. We stayed at the Inn for the rest of the day, except for dinner at the Inn's Restaurant with one of my dad's teammates.
Friday, the stage race began. That morning was the time trial race. My dad got sixth overall, and was first in his group (he rode the eight miles on his bike the fastest). After that, we went back to the Inn, and stayed there while my dad rested until his last race that day. As my mom and I left for his last race, (my dad rode his bike there) we saw a group of people with some signs. We didn't think much of it. We talked about it a little as we drove to my dad's last race today, but quickly forgot about it, as this was a 16 mile or so race, and we volunteered to be the wheel car for my dad's group(the wheel car follows the group it is 'assigned' to, in case someone gets a flat; it has the wheels of the people racing in it, and it gets to watch the whole race). My dad finished third in his group, and his teammate finished first! That afternoon, as my mom and I drove back to the Inn, we saw what the signs were for... the Inn had changed its name! Now, it was the Sandstone Inn! My mom and I talked about it, and told my dad about it when he got back to the hotel.
That night, my dad, about half of his team, my mom and I went to the Sandstone Inn's restaurant, and talked about strategy a little, people that were racing, and about the race. It was interesting to listen to.
Saturday morning, we headed off to the Start/Finish line of the very last race. This one was about 86 miles for my dad's group, and because it was so long, there was a feeding zone (where the cyclists can switch their water bottles for fresh ones, and get some food that's fine for races, like goo. It was by Fish Lake, which was where I got most of the pictures of the plants and all of the pictures of the lake. While we were driving there, we saw two storks.... in a tree! My mom pulled over so that I could take some pictures, and we decided the pictures would be best if I got out of the car. Once I opened my door, however, the storks flew off, and we didn't get ANY pictures of those two storks. I got pictures of other storks, though they were in the water when I took the pictures. It was a really great day for pictures, and I loved it! my dad's bike team, Bountiful Mazda, did well, and my dad won the Stage Race. His teammate got second, and the rest did well also. We drove home as soon as the race ended and my dad had his medal, and watched the temperature go from 87 degrees in Capitol Reef to 102 degrees to 99 degrees in Provo. It surprised me that it got hotter as we headed North.
The funniest thing for me is that we checked into the Wonderland Inn and checked out of the Sandstone Inn.
And, once again, I didn't realize how I missed our house and Provo until we were back. It feels so wonderful to be home again!
*The trees in that picture and some other trees were lined up in straight lines like soldiers, so I gave them the name of 'Soldier Trees'