Leaving Athens today was quite sad - we had another wonderful family who took such good care of us that it really sucked to leave! We have been so spoiled this year with such incredible families who have treated us so well. It’s not easy to let a bunch of women invade someone’s personal space, but I’d like to think that we do a pretty good job of making sure we don’t spoil it for next year because we want to go back!!

So we hit the road for a 4 hour drive to Beaufort, SC - a quaint seaside town that exudes southern hospitality and laid back charm and is also home to the US Marine Corps Air Station (where my brother was once stationed years ago). As the final hours of daylight dropped behind the mossy trees and historic homes, cyclists descended on the town hoping to captivate the locals and tourists with some good, hard racing. After a series of attacks Rebecca once again found herself in a break, this time with Laura Van Gilder and Tina Pic - two incredibly fast women. They worked the break as the rest of the field puttered along behind with a few occasional attacks for one of the many primes that was called out about every other lap! In the end the break was close to being caught but with just seconds to spare the 3 women made it to the line ahead of the field with Tina taking the win, LVG in 2nd and Rebecca 3rd. Happy to be on the podium again, we thought it was another successful day for the team and are looking forward to what the rest of the week might bring.

Rebecca did it - our local Athens girl won the Athens Twilight Crit! From the gun Rebecca was firing on all cylinders trying to make a break happen, figuring it was safer to go for a win out of a break than sprinting against 80 women charging for the finish. She wanted this win in a BAD way and she was going to make it happen one way or another. Eventually she made it happen - the right break with the right teams represented got away and the race came down to 5 women sprinting for the win, including our girl Rebecca. Super motivated, incredibly determined and stimulated by the electrifying crowd, Rebecca crossed the finish line first to the deafening sound of whoops and hollers from her home town crowd. But not only were the thousands of strangers in the crowd super stoked for Rebecca and team, but so was Don, our main man from Aaron’s Corporate Furnishings, our awesome host family, Bruce and Pam, and every single one of her teammates. Not only were we happy to have won the race but it was extra special to see our home town girl take the big prize.

One more day here in Athens, where we are truly enjoying ourselves at our adopted home, and then we are heading off to Beaufort, SC, for the next race of Speedweek.

More to come!

Speedweek is about ready to roll. First up is the prestigious and outrageous and often out-of-control Athens Twilight. Never before have I had the fortunate opportunity to do this race but I hear it’s wicked fun! From all reports, the college kids from UGA come out in droves, drunk and obnoxious and having a blast, to holler for the cyclists who have descended upon their turf to race like mad under the humid GA sky.

And while we are here in town, we are staying with a great family on the outskirts of town who hosted the team last year and who are also expecting another great result from the team (Kat won the race last year) - hopefully we can deliver! Best of all they own a coffee shop in town where we can eat and drink for free! Hopefully they won’t regret this offer after we have left!

Besides being excited to be in town for the race, there’s one small but tasty treat that I am stoked about - southern sweet tea! I like sweet and I like ice tea which means I LOVE sweet ice tea, and no one does it better than the Southerners. Maybe I am easily pleased but my first glass of sweet tea today tasted oh so sweet!

And what else greeted us to the great south today but a drug bust…or something serious. As we were rounding a corner in the car just past the airport, we saw what looked like a car accident but really it was about 10 undercover cop cars which had surrounded a car, pulled out their guns, and gotten a man on the ground within seconds. As much as I wanted to get out the car to gawk and get the low down, Carmen made sure the car doors were locked tight. Well, maybe I’ll read about it in the papers tomorrow.

Night ya’ll
Meredith

Who could possibly think this is any fun?

Colorado vs. San Diego

The reason I was in Boulder last night was because Apple was hosting a seminar for digital photography called “The Photography Tour”. Since I have been taking baby steps into the realm of digital photography in the last year, I figured this would be a great opportunity to learn something new, both about the camera and about Aperture, Apple’s software designed to help photographers manage libraries, edit photos, manage workflow, and print. First, however, I had to pop into the Apple store to inquire about a new computer since it’s about time for me to upgrade. The question I had was whether I should buy an iMac or a new laptop + a large display for editing. The answer I got was the one I wanted to hear - a Mac Book Pro would be the best choice for what I want to do, edit photos on the go. Now I just have to hold on to the hope that more of my old cycling clothing sells on eBay so that I can afford such a fine piece of machinery.

Empty handed but still excited about a new purchase soon within reach, I left the Apple store and headed over to campus for the lecture. Starting off the lecture was one of Apple’s technical designers, Ben Capone, who greeted us with a most unexpected welcome - a FREE Aperture 2 installation disc for everyone who braved the snowy conditions to attend the evening’s lecture! A value of almost $200! How cool! Now, getting a new laptop is even more important since the software will work best on a machine that is much faster than the snail’s pace computer I have now (relatively speaking, that is). Anyway, after Ben gave us a brief introduction to Aperture and all the new rockin’ features of Aperture 2, he introduced the guest speaker of the night, Bill Frakes, a Sports Illustrated staff photographer who has spent 25 years pouring out his heart and soul through a camera’s lens. Bill shared with us several incredible slideshows (which is only just a small portion of his work - he has close to a MILLION files!) which highlighted some of his best work, from pain and suffering in Sudan to thrills and spills from the most recent Final Four and NASCAR. He showed us one of his proudest pieces, a story about a 6 man football team in the small town of Arthur, Nebraska. Bill also explained to us how he spent $80,000 to build his own strip camera for the Sydney Olympics so that he could capture an event like no one else could. Rest assured, this man is brilliant with a camera and incredibly inspiring.