2009 Is Over

Possibly not the best year for most of the nation (or perhaps world), Sticki took a look back and came up with a pretty good time for these last 365 days.  I finally have work that I enjoy and Micki is keeping with her employment trend of dream jobs.  There are the occasional stressful off days of course, but overall things are good.

Micki's July 4th injury is still proving problematic despite multiple visits to doctors and specialists. She continually perseveres though and allows the joys of riding to overcome the pitfalls.  We were able to get out of town a lot during the hot summer with many trips to Prescott, Flagstaff and even Sedona.  We also managed to leave the state a few times with epic journeys to Colorado as well as Utah.

Bicycles... we went through a lot of 'em.

Micki got a hold of her second Pivot, a root beer colored Firebird.  She also got a commuting bike built up for Christmas of 2008 which wasn't really ridden until 2009... so that one counts.  We got the IF singlespeed back up and rolling for a few trips here and there as well.

Getting back into cycling full swing this year, I may have gone a little wrench crazy.  I swapped out my Specialized Enduro early on for the Salsa.  With my departure from the FS world, I then built up a DMR freeride hardtail for the gnarlier stuff.  Wanting to get back into shape, I decided to start riding to work... so the 64/24 commuter came to life.  Even with the constant state of disassembly for paint, I still had to build another bike and created a fixed gear from an old Schwinn late in the year.  Oh, the DMR was then deemed super fun but just a tad to small, so that frame was replaced with a OPCC aluminum hardtail.

We threw together the tandem after Micki's injury for good measure.

I think it's best to stop there and not go into all the components, tires and cycling related garb that was either acquired or just plain used up.

I managed to clock well over 3000 miles just going to and from work.  That's one whole oil change I saved on the 4Runner! Actually, when I put it that way I guess it doesn't really seem all that significant.  I did find commuting to be a big help in regaining my endurance and fitness however.  I actually really like riding to start and finish every day more than I thought.  I will say with the introduction of the fixie... I am having even more fun just tooling along the bike path.

Logan is doing well, still plugging away at college and I believe is now able to bench press a small farm combine at will.  Micki's Mom came out for a visit for Thanksgiving, and we got to take her to visit Bisbee which was a lot of fun.

We competed in a few endurance races.  One as a team, and one solo (with excellent support).

All in all it was a great year.  We made some new friends and got closer with those we already had.  Explored new trails, higher terrain and longer rides than ever before.  With the trailer, or Sticki Hilton now available, we hope to have even more fun next year.

Here is a little wrap-up video of 2009.  A special thank you goes out to Sarah for the following reasons:

1. She borrowed the GoPro for Muddy Buddy.
2. She couldn't get it figured out.
3. She couldn't tell when it was filming.
4. She didn't erase any of the footage it happened to capture.

Enjoy...

Year 2009 from Elvota on Vimeo.