Weekend in Tsali

Sam, Steve, Ray, Brian T, and myself piled into two fully loaded vehicles and headed to Tsali to go camping/mountain bike riding this past weekend. From the amount of stuff we took you would think we were going to be there for a week. The weather forecast called for a beautiful weekend, so I was really looking forward to checking out the trails for the first time and experiencing a true camping weekend other than my ARMY days of camping.

When we arrived we found out that some of our 2012 teammates, Nicole and Debbie and their crew, would be our camping neighbors. Steve was master of setting up tents...you could tell this wasn't his first camping rodeo. Ray is definitely the camp King. He brought his huge 3 room tent to make us all comfortable. Yes it really did have 3 rooms and Steve could even stand up in it!! Ray also had all the bells and whistles to ensure maximum comfort during our camping experience to include a hammock for afternoon naps! Not to mention he knows how to
cook some mean chicken chili on a camp stove. We were camping like Kings and Queens.

Every night after dinner, we sat around by the camp fire roasting huge marshmallows, sharing jokes and good times. There is something about a campfire that brings out the good conversation in people, especially when the marshmallows are as big as lemons! I was in charge of bringing the marshmallows so I found the biggest ones we had ever seen. We were a little competitive on the trails, but I also found out that some TEAM headstrong riders can roast a mean marshmallow. Brian was learning the ropes on how to eat a marshmallow.

As we were sitting around the campfire, I realized how lucky I am to be able to be on a team that I can not only race bikes with but enjoy life with. Life is good!!