Tahoe Prep
Tahoe Prep
With one week to go until our Ride around Tahoe, Barb and I wanted to get one last long ride in. We set out from our house around 9AM. Got on Paseo Padre at Tamayo and headed south. Took Paseo allllll the way to Durham and then headed up to Mission Blvd. Barb had to go to the bathroom so we took a right on Mission and headed to the bathroom at Mission Peak Regional Perserve. That meant a ride up Stanford Ave. Took this picture about half way up.
The Grapes that the Stanford brothers planted are now the Weibel vineyards. From there we caught Mission Blvd heading north and did the Ohlone “parking lot loop” to get some extra hill training in. Got back on Mission and took it all the way down and picked up the Alameda Creek Trail in Niles. 
This is where we saw that the rubber dam, just west of Mission Blvd was “leaking”. I’ve never seen the dam in this shape so I figure something is wrong. Had to take a picture. Anyway, now back on the creek trail, we took it all the way to the end where we took a break,
ate some strawberrys and took this picture. This is one of our favorite places. Beautifuls views, total nature and hardly anyone ever around. After that it was a great ride home with the wind at our backs We stopped at Starbucks for an iced chai latte and then headed home. 42 miles in just over three hours. And there is some good hill action in there to boot. BRING ON TAHOE!!!!.
Yesterday was our 19th wedding anniversary. On 5-25-85 we were Married at St Joseph’s Church in Cotati California. 250 family and friends joined us as we started our life together. 6900 days, two daughters and a lifetime of memories later, It amazes me how good Barbie still looks. Just like the day we were married.
Take a look at the Vintage Smith/Rodriguez photo album. Will start loading it up with some of the pictures we got.
There’s a new sheriff in town. Seems Kelly is going a little bit country on us. She bought tickets to the 
Mentioned earlier that on our weekend road trip to Valley Springs we brought home a couple of old family photo albums to hold for Eloise and Smitty while they take to the road and RV 24/7. Lots of great pictures including this one of a young Eloise Rodriguez. Barb’s mom can’t be more than 5 years old in the picture. CLASSIC family photo. I’m glad I can put this up so everyone can see it. She was a beautiful young girl
California girls living the good life in the “summer of fashion”. We are headed for another busy summer. Kate is signed up for a summer swim team with the 
In preparation for our June 6th 
Barb lost her chain once climbing up but other than that it was a good, ballbusting ride. Shady, tree covered road with Mill Creek running along side. BEAUTIFUL!! Reminded me of our Felton ride a few weekends ago. The road itself was a one-laner that is not the well maintained for road bikes. Lots of rough pavement. That was more of an issue going down than going up. We made it to the end of the road and took a well deserved break. Shared a banana,
drank some Gatorade, took a couple of pictures and headed for home. The ride down was not that fun. The rough pavement, sharp downgrade and hairpin turns made it less fun than it should have been. My hands hurt from riding the brake all the way down. The one mile down hill on Mission Blvd was pretty fun even though we did hit a few stop lights along the way. Turned into a 30 miler by the time we got back home. Not bad for a Sunday ride. BRING ON TAHOE!!
Hit the road this morning for Valley Springs. Thats where Barb’s mom and dad have lived for the last 19 years. They’ve sold thier house and are becoming full time RV’ers. We were on our way to pick up, among other things, a grandfather clock, sewing machine, BBQ, and and a few other things they wanted us to have. We filled our truck and Mazda full. Anyway, Kelly went with me in the truck and took most of the scenic pictures along the way. Nice work Kelly! We Had a great visit with Eloise and Smitty. 
It was nice to see them and the old place one last time. Take a look at the rest of the pictures here. Speaking of pictures, we also got a couple of photo albums of vintage pictures. Some going back to when Smitty and Eloise met in the Army. More on that later.
Mentioned earlier that due to our hectic schedule Saturday, we could not be home to help Kelly get ready for, or even see her off to the Senior Ball she was going to with Justin. Fortunately for us (and Kelly) she has some great friends who helped her out. The plan was to go over to Stephanie’s house so she could do her hair, once there, it turned into a mini makeover as Stephanie invited Makeup experts Gina and Audrey over to help. We took this picture when she got home that night. We were a bit sad that we could not “be there” for Kelly. We are blessed that she has such good friends that “are there” for her. Props to the the hair, wardrobe and makeup team that transformed my baby into a beautiful women. YIKES!