Lyle Pearson 200

Here is a picture of Dan (my brother), James Kuykendall and I riding the last stage of the Lyle Pearson 200 cycling race. We compted in this event June 2nd and had a great experience. Dan got us entered and organized for the event which races its way from Boise to Stanley and then to its finish in Sun Valley. Each person rode 4 stages. Some were solo and others had 2-3 three of us riding at the same time. This picture is on the 5 stage, which Dan, James and I rode together. I was fighting some cramps in my right quad at the time, so it is funny to see me at the front of the train smiling. We rode the final stage together as a team through a driving rain storm. Dangerous, but also fun. We finished 3rd in our catergory and 25th overall. Not bad for our first time in the event and we are all pumped to take another shot at it next year. FYI - in the pic, I am the first rider, then Dan, then James and you can see the shoulder of other riders from a team we see-sawed with all day. Dan and I will be in the Porcupine Hill Climb in a few weeks in Utah and then 7 of us will ride the Seattle-to-Portland July 14th.

Gettysburg

Here is a pic of me and Camille at Gettysburg battlefield in PA. We are standing on Little Round Top, only a few hundred yards from where Chamberlain and his Maine boys made their famous stand. Down behind us you can see Devils Den where some of the worst fighting occured. Men from both sides hid in the rocks you can see and fought to the death. We are standing in a prime spot for sharpshooters. When Dan and I went there a few years ago, we ran into some sharpshooter re-enacters and they were actually very interesting to talk to. If you follow the little road you can see behind us, it goes over the little, rocky hill drops down in front of the line of trees. That area is known as the Wheatfield and it was the bloodiest scene of the 3 day battle. It is a very small area and changed hands 5-6 times if I remember correctly. If you look past that area of trees you can see the battle field start to open to a larger, cleared area. Much of the last two days of battle occured in that area with the South coming from the far side of the clearing and trying to dislodge the flank of the Union Army which sat roughly where Camille and I are. Interestingly, if you pass that clearing and then go a few hundred yards into the trees that line it you would leave the National Park, cross a fence and step onto the Eisenhower Farm. Yes you are correct, it is that Eisenhower, Dwight himself. He did not grow up there, but loved the area and its history and bought the farm after his rise to prominence. You can visit the farm today and it is a very beautiful place that Dwight used to welcome many interesting people, such as Winston Churchill. To give you some perspective, if you were wondering, The battlefield area is very large. You are seeing probably a tenth of it behind us. The areas encompassing the 1st day of battle, the town of Gettysburg, Union and Southern Headquarters, and the key areas such as Pickett's Charge are far to the right of the picture.

Greetings

Howdy family. I hope we can use this blog to share pictures and information with each other more often. Adding pictures is easy and then its pretty easy to add any story or information you want that go with the picture. This is a great picture from our Christmas in McCall with Dan's gang. We are on the edge of a pond that was frozen over. We were slinging the kids across the pond in a sled and it was really fun.