Quick Update

Hello hello. Little time here, but a quick update on the racing. Yesterday was the longest day of 206km with climbing for the first 130km and the last 40-50km flat and fast, easy to sit in. I finished with the group, but due to a couple guys sitting up right at the end, I received a time penalty. Not a big deal, but more lessons learned. I was tentative for sure on the run in because it was my first field sprint at this level; honestly, not all that much different, at least in the back seat where I was.

Today was another long stage of 181km with two significant climbs near the end. It was very windy all day, but thankfully it never got crazy in the cross winds and it was really manageable. Our goal was to keep Chris and Jani safe before the last climb and then let them go to work. The last climb ended up not being crazy hard though and the attacks never really came to fruition. It was a run in to the line and I was near the front this time. I was certainly going on the limit at some points when it was all strung out, but good experience for sure. I don't know if I will ever be a field sprinter though, not really my cup of tea.

Tomorrow a short, mostly flat 140ish kilometers along the southern coast of the island. A day for the sprinters for sure. After the stage we have a 220KM transfer to the north coast for Sunday's race. Not looking forward to the transfer. Alright, that is all from here. There are many pictures of the race posted on cycling news, maybe velonews and a few of beautiful quality on steephill.tv; Check them out. Later!

Changed My Mind

Well I wasn't going to post today because of frustration and disappointment again, but I have gathered myself and will report on today. It was rainy at the start and then on/off all day. The race was fast at the start waiting for the break to get established. I approached the front and was about to go, but was a few seconds to late. The group split and we had Irizar in, so it was good. The group stayed away all day. The tempo was considerable today and pretty tiring. I did not feel super, but stuck with it. The course was relentless not ever allowing much if any time for recovery. I was feeling it. After taking in more lessons about bathroom break timing, descending, eating/drinking properly, etc. I arrived on the final ascent of the day to the finish.
Now I had not been looking forward to it all day as I felt tired, but somehow I felt a spark of energy with about 45km to go and I thought I might have something to go for. As a domestique to the team now I had a few duties to take care of as we approached the final 20km like taking extra clothing, getting final bottles, etc. I did this fine including giving Chris Horner my bike when he flatted. He had no problem getting back in with the field and then switched to his spare bike and I got mine back right before I reintegrated, although I had a hefty chase back to the field afterward, which was me wasting more energy than I already had in the day. I was feeling ok, but by the time the final climb arrived I was mid field and struggling to find my way to the front. I wanted to make it there and do one of those sweet team tempo jobs that you see in the tour destroy everyone, but I never made it. I sat up 7 or 8km from the finish and saved it for later in the week knowing we might have to defend the jersey.
Chris is now second on GC 4 seconds back and Jani is right there too, maybe 6 seconds, so we are still sitting good. Tomorrow is a long 200km with a lot of up and down, a few classified climbs. I am sure it will be hard though as everything around here is up and down and even the unclassified climbs can be more difficult than the classified ones. See ya.

Lessons...

To be honest I thought for the last 20km of todays race what to title my blog tonight. I came up with a few options, but the basic message is lessons. Today school was in session and the first of many European lessons was had. I began the ascent of the category 1 climb about 110th of 120 riders: NOT A GOOD IDEA. Now obviously I did not "voluntarily" put myself there, but the long descent prior did. I am working on my descending skills and today was another confirmation I have a little work to do. Anyway, long story short, I started near last, had a lot of ground to make up and that does not help in the bid to make the front group...
Yes I did make it to the first group of about 45 riders a ways up the climb, but I was in the pain cave at that point. I did a little recovery and thought I might be able to make it, but then the wheels seemed to come undone... or so I think. I came unhitched and went over the top probably 60-90sec off the back, but still close enough that if I had been able to catch a group of 4 guys who were about 10meters in front of me I probably would have reintegrated on the descent. Well, my legs did not cooperate to close the HUGE 10m gap and I never reintegrated, left to ride it in feeling a bit dejected/disappointed.
I have been lucky enough in my short cycling career to finish near or in the first group in nearly every race. I knew coming to Europe that was probably not going to be the case, but it is still a hard kick in the face to take. It really makes you wonder if you have what it takes or if you could have made it. "Did I give up?" "Did I wimp out?" etc, etc. the questioning goes on in the head wondering if you were making the pain up and should be in the group or "what could have been". Whatever, what's done is done and I didn't do it today.
I am sure this is just one of many times this could happen and I have to keep riding hard and training hard and use it as motivation to make me get to the front group next time. And now I have opportunity to work for my teammates and hopefully help them to high finishes. It is a team sport and everyone has ups and downs. And it is my first race and I am sure I will get better as the season progresses. For now, I take it as one of those experiences I have said all along I want to learn from. Stay tuned for more reports as the race goes on. Check out www.teamradioshack.com for other updates. Or Google Giro di Sardenga if you can read Italian or Spanish, whatever the website is in. Ok, sweet dreams to me!

A Day Late...

Ok, so I arrived in Italy after silly short plane flights and long layovers, but couldn't find internet. Anyway, here is the post I composed on the train yesterday on the way to Barcelona. I will try to update after the first stage today! Ciao ciao!

As I sit here on the train watching the Spanish countryside pass, I reflect on my first week in Girona and my first 2.5 weeks in Spain. Where am I going on the train? To the Barcelona airport for my first race, Giro di Sardengna (Italy), starting tomorrow, February 23.

What have I learned? Well, I know that learning or knowing the Spanish language would be incredibly helpful! Nonetheless I have managed to get by. At camp in Calpe I was fortunate enough to not need much else besides what was given to me at camp. We woke up, went to the cafeteria, trained, relaxed, ate, repeated. Calpe was a great time, a good introduction to Spain and a good learning experience. We had good accommodations, great training and I really felt like I became more integrated into the team. I never felt excluded, but I certainly felt as if I got to know my teammates/staff much better and they knew me better. That is certainly something very important for this sport. You can’t be a member of a team and feel like an outsider. Feeling as if you belong is a necessary component to your success.

At camp I also learned that jet leg can kick your butt and although you might not feel like you are doing much work when training with the group, you may actually be doing more than you think. I have not really ever experienced jet leg that I know of for sure. I am certain that my travels to Ghana and New Zealand provided me plenty of jet leg, but those were in my younger years… so I didn’t feel the effects so much! I don’t think I suffered too bad at camp, but as I arrived in Girona this last week, I felt quite tired and realized I needed more rest. What I learned about training with the group is that although I felt as though I was slacking pretty much the entire time except when I was on the front, the sheer volume/distance of the training was still taking a toll on me. It was a bit frustrating actually. By the end of camp, my legs were sore and I couldn’t figure out why. I really felt like I hadn’t done much work besides those couple workouts/tests, which were not incredibly taxing. But as I said, I think a combination of jet leg and volume of training, which I hadn’t been doing because I was riding with more intensity prior to camp, were certainly taking a toll on my legs. I left camp feeling tired, but knowing it was a great week of training and team building.

I arrived in Girona on Monday afternoon knowing very little of the area or Spain in general for that matter. Thankfully I had a few experienced teammates with me who helped me to figure some stuff out. My housing situation here in Girona is nice. I am staying a little outside of the city, which is nice although sometimes more inconvenient. Obviously I can’t just walk or ride my bike in for groceries or for a coffee, etc. Still the set up is nice and everything has been pretty easy going. The riding has been wonderful. I have seen some beautiful country and enjoyed some great training, as well as a few days of feeling like I am dragging a semi. This week has actually been a good lesson for me in learning to listen to my body. An incredibly important part of this sport is knowing your body and learning what it is telling you. Your body is the only true measure or “device” that can tell you how you feel. No power meter or heart rate monitor or coach for that matter can tell you exactly how you are feeling. Only what you feel while on/off your bike tells you how you are. There are many factors which influence this: training volume/intensity, diet, sleep, etc. so you have to do your best to monitor those (the controllable). For me I think I have never paid very close attention to all these, opting to ignore them as signs of potential weakness or excuses, but I am slowly learning that the saying “rest is as important as work/training” is very true. There are certainly times when you need to push through but there is great value in learning when you need to listen to the signs.

This week I experienced the “rest adage” first hand. I was struggling with my rides and felt as though I simply had to push too hard to ride my bike, I just wasn’t feeling it. I tried an interval workout and although it went ok, it didn’t feel like it should have. Normally I will finish a workout and feel good for the ride home or tired, but still fine for the ride home, this time I just didn’t want to ride. I thought about the factors and realized that all the travel compounded with camp compounded with more travel and stress was certainly affecting me. I made a decision to postpone my long ride with threshold intervals for the next day and rest instead. And although hindsight is 20/20, I would say it was a great decision. I had a great ride the day after rest and felt as though my legs were returning to me. The last thing I wanted to do was go into my first race drained and set myself up for a miserable week and dig a bigger hole to try and climb out of. So I guess I learned to listen to my body.

Ok, enough “philosophizing” for me. Boring stuff. As I said I am on my way to my first race. I am a bit nervous, but I think that is probably natural. I will report as the race goes. An update: I FOUND SALSA! It is only Ortega or Ol’ El Paso or something like that, but in a pinch it might do. I am still in search. I actually found a sauce/salsa I like, so I might be ok!

Oh, one other thing I found about Girona that is awesome is the farmers market(s). I experienced the one on Saturday which was probably the biggest and coolest market I have been to. It was in a big park in town and had probably a miles worth of stands offering everything from clothing, to pots/pans, to watches, to food. And they have a huge variety of food stands with fruits, veggies, candies, breads, meats. It is awesome. Supposedly this market takes place on Tuesday as well and then on Thursday there is a similar market held in a different part of town. Pretty sweet stuff.

Briefly, yesterday I did my first ride to the coast and it was sweet. The beaches are nice looking and I can’t wait to see the business of those beach/coast towns in the summer. And as usual the towns seemed to have nice character with many small shops and cafes to stop for a bit to eat or a coffee. Alright, I am out. Check back later!

¿Dónde está la salsa

Yes that is right, I need salsa! and tortillas! I am starting to feel the lack of home comforts here in the new place. I really want to make some burritos and be back on my home diet. All in all it is not bad, but I really would enjoy some fine mexican flair for my food as it is so dear to my heart.

Today was an easy day of training and some time in town. I met a few guys for the beginning of their ride and I was treated to a beautiful day for photography and a wonderful place to take pictures! Jason took us on this "road" that was no wider than one lane and wound through the trees past houses, through fields, up/down, around. Where were we? How did he find this? I was amazed at what he was showing us, but I knew approximately where we were going because I had ridden in this direction the day before; to my satisfaction, we popped out on a road where I had ridden yesterday! Awesome, a new deviation.
As the first picture shows, we were on this cart path through the trees, then in the second picture, we popped out into these awesome fields! The third picture shows some of the typical sights around here with old stone buildings/houses dotting the countryside. It is pretty cool to ride by.

It is amazing here the roads or goat paths you can take. I have not ridden so many, but have heard about the options. I have heard of a 45 minute climb that requires a 39x25 (really small gear) or smaller that goes up one of these little goat path roads, I can't wait to experience it!
On my return through town I took a moment to stop at one of the many bakery/bread shops here and enjoyed a chocolate chip croissant thing. To be honest it was a bit dry, probably won't go their again. Then after making it back up the hill to my house I enjoyed a nice lunch and readied myself to head into town.
I met up with Daryl and Sam for a coffee when I headed into town at this awesome restaurant call "de cre-pe-perie"; I think that is it. Nonetheless, it is one of those awesome places with a retro style with very little changed or renovated since they have gone into business. Then we walked about for a while. It was fun exploring for me. There are many small shops around, it doesn't seem like the "walmarts" of the US would survive too well here because everything is in town and people probably have their favorite shops they always go back to. I am sure to develop some of my own favorites eventually. That can only happen though if I can ever figure out where I am in the tangled mess of cobbled streets and stone buildings that is the center of Girona: so cool, but so confusing! Streets rarely go straight for more than a block and they don't seem to parallel one another either! I got slightly misplaced taking a different route back to my car today. Oh well, eventually I will figure it out.

Tomorrow the weather is predicted for rain, but who knows. Intervals in the rain are inspiring! Hasta mañana!

5 beautiful hours

I woke up this morning to see the fog and drizzle again. Bummer I thought. Ate breakfast, had some coffee, messed around for a bit and then headed out the door around 1030am expecting another cloudy and potentially rainy ride. Today however, the clouds broke and I was treated to 5 wonderful hours of Catalunya county!

I met up with a few of my teammates at the "stone bridge" in the center of town and we headed out to more new ground. We rode through the valleys, some small but beautiful climbs, nice descents and lush green country fields/forests. All the while passing old farms, small towns and historic stone structures (houses, barns, etc.) There are many old churches and people living out in the country with nothing really but their own self-sustaining farm. It is beautiful.

To be honest, the area reminds me a lot of Iowa, where my cycling really began. It is nice for sure. Of course Iowa doesn't have quite the climbing or the Pyrenees so close, but the general feel makes me have similar vibes. It is inspiring and makes you want to ride your bike.

Well, I guess that is really all I have for now. I will find more once I get settled and my mind isn't spinning trying to figure out what I need to get done to make sure I have proper communication techniques, bank accounts, "residency", on and on and on and on! Whatever, I have to train because I race in less than a week; holy cow! Peace.
Check out my first pictures of Girona area, tomorrow hopefully I have sun and can take pictures of the city!
http://picasaweb.google.com/buschem/Girona?feat=directlink

Valentines from afar

Here I am in the hotel shuttle on the way to the Valencia airport to leave camp. It is sad and exciting. It was a great week of training, team building and learning. This last week I was able to really get to know my teammates and the staff. It was great. Perhaps the highlight of camp was beating Ekimov in a close, hard fought game of ping pong last night before dinner. Actually the whole camp was great.
From here I am flying to Barcelona from which I will catch a taxi with a few of my teammates to Girona where we will be based while in Europe. It is exciting but certainly nerve racking too because it is really the first time I am going to be on my own here in Europe. It is sure to be a learning experience.
What can I catch you up on from the last three days? We had some great training and managed to avoid the crap weather until the rain yesterday at the end of training. All togethr though it was great weather.
We did a long ride on Thursday that began with nearly two hours of ascent from the coast. It was certainly the coldest we had expeienced at about 6'C. After three hours we stopped for a coffee and some food to warm up. After that we were treated to warmer temps and beautiful roads. After 4.5+ hours we summited a climb and were treated to a most amazing view of Calpe, the coast and the Meditaranean. I really wished I had my camera. From that decent we came along a town sign named Pinos. Pinos! Yes I had ridden up this road from the other direction a few days prior but turned because I didn't need all the time and knew not where it would take me. My wish came true though of seeing the other side of the road. It was truly beautiful and the climb was spectacular.
I suppose some great insight from camp is expected at this point. For me I think it is just learning and always watching and listening to the experienced riders. There is so much for me to learn and I know this team is going to help me tremendously. Again too I have learned how normal these guys are in everyday life and how much they love cycling. There are many hardships with this sport and lifestyle but the rewards and experiences that can be had are wonderful too. I am certainly missing home, my family, friends and wife for sure.
My European experience thus far is a positive one. The country of Spain is beautiful, the people are nice, the food is good. Alhough I have been in a hotel so everything could change!
Tonight I am just settling into my new spot and probably going to head back into town for some dinner with a few of the fellas. Tomorrow I will take the time to explore the area a bit and get a feel for what is around. Perhaps visit a bike shop, look into a cell phone and check into this wireless internet USB card I have heard about. Alright, I am off.

Stupid Internet!

It was a little more media today before the training and then some good training and a little relaxing. We had action shots on our bikes in race clothing before training. We rode down to the sidewalk area in front of the shops and restaurants on the beach/coast of the Mediterranean and did one pass through with our game face on in the drops, standing up (showing off our guns) for the camera man. It was pretty easy and not too burdensome.

After that we went for our training. Today we started as one group again and went for almost 2 hours before we split into three groups to work on some pace lining. The groups were the race teams for the upcoming races. My team was Brajkovic, Rovny, Hermans, Selander, Horner, Lequarte, Muravyev and me. Having never ridden with these guys before I was not sure what to expect in a pace line situation, but it was totally seamless and smooth. We worked very well together and rolled a great pace for the three 20 minute efforts we did. It was actually quite fun. At one point, we caught the first team on the road and made it into a little bit of competition passing them, only to have them pass us toward the end of the interval. We all hopped on together for those last couple minutes and were hauling on this road through the valley. It was a good time.

Upon our return home, it has been the same old stuff: cafeteria, coffee, computer time. The computer time is most frustrating because everyone wants to be on at the same time, which jams the wireless, making it either super slow or not work at all, even with FULL signal. It is so frustrating when you are trying to check email, chat with people, blog, Skype, etc. Oh well. Back to trying to get the internet to work!

Test/Media Day

Today was the first time we would intentionally go hard as per the directors request. I was a bit nervous not knowing what to expect would happen when the hammer went down, but I survived! We did the test on a climb called Pego (the town it stands over/behind) I believe. It was about 8km long and had a nice gradient to it. It was a good tempo and I was in the first group when we summited. I feel good about that and am happy to say I felt generally comfortable.

From the top we split from the one big group back into our two training groups. Our group descended off the summit into a beautiful valley where I really wish I had my camera. The road rolled and dipped and twisted along. We descended into the valley where some houses were, crossed a little bridge with a sweet mountain stream passing under it and started to work our way back out the other side of the valley. We hit a climb shortly afterward which was marked 18% I believe and it was about 1km long. Not so nice on the legs. After making our way through some beautiful country we came down another long valley and came into Pego from the other side of town. Then we returned back to Calpe on some familiar roads. Our small group had some fun on the final climb of the day playing a little cat and mouse; attacking and following. It was a lactic acid filled kind of fun. Great stuff.

I think tomorrow we will be breaking up into three groups to do some pacelining and rotation work. I think this might be worse than the test today, but that will be ok. This is all great preparation for my first race.
Oh! The title says media day, too. Indeed today was the day the media was granted full access to the training and the riders. I did a brief interview with VS tv prior to the training and then this evening I did some photo shoot for I don't know who followed by a more extensive interview with VS. It was nice and followed the general format of everything thus far for my interviews: tell us your story, how does it feel, etc. I didn't have good answers this time however because I hadn't been practicing! It is all good though and I hope it comes out ok. Until next time, ciao!

Rest Day: coffee and Pinos

Today we have on the schedule a rest day from a good volume the last few days and in preparation for a tough week to come. Rumor has it that tomorrow Johan wants to see us "race" a bit before he leaves... uh oh. No worries though, I will just give it a go when it goes hard and see what happens. It is early season anyway, only need to build from here. More about the rest day. Woke up this morning for a nice breakfast of and egg, cheese sandwich and some cereal/muesli. Good stuff. After a short digestion, it was off to the truck for bike and off from there for some coffee with a few of the guys. We rode the coast as we have a few times now and found a nice shop. We enjoyed our drinks, a few pastries and some great conversation. A gentle roll back to the hotel and I ventured on solo for some more easy riding and some pictures; little did I know what I was getting myself into.

I rolled up out of town onto the main highway I had come in on a few days earlier and went back up to the intersection which we had rolled up to out of a valley on our first day of riding. I took the turn, but this time I did not take the road back into the valley we rode in. Instead I took a smaller road into a different valley and it was great. I didn't know where it led, but eventually I found myself on a beautiful road wrapping its way up and around the mountain side looking back on Calpe and the Mediterranean coast. It was the lower of two roads I had seen earlier shadowing each other cutting across the mountain. I thought it would be awesome to get onto one of those when I saw them, but I had no idea I would actually find myself on one of them. Too bad it was not more sunny as it would have been more breath taking. Nonetheless, the short, easy ride was spectacular.

I rode the gentle slope upward to until it seemed to summit at one of the little towns that scatter the countryside of Spain named Pinos. I was already into my ride almost 2 hours, which on this rest day was plenty of time in the saddle. Even though I hardly reached even 200 watts or pushed my heart rate higher than 110bpm, I still shouldn't venture on much further as it is a rest day. I decided to see what was around the corner our the other side of this tiny mountain village and it looked beautiful. I hoped the road would go down to the valley on the other side and hook into another road headed back to Calpe, but when I saw the 19km sign I knew I needed to turn because I had been watching the kilometers count down as I rode and another 19km plus my return from wherever it dumped me out was going to be too much. I u-turned and rode down the mountain and back into town.

It was a beautiful ride and since then I have been chilling out. I had a nice lunch and then a lot of time in the lobby on my computer. You never know who will walk into your hotel lobby either when you are in Spain. Hint: he has been the most dominant cyclist in the world for the past three or four years. Yes that is correct, Alberto Contador came in to say hello to a few of the guys and give them some gifts from the tour last year. It is common practice for the leader to give the team something as a "thanks for the help".

Not such a bad rest day I would say. Tomorrow might be a race, it might not be, but either way I hope to report back something good. Until then, good rides, good runs, good day at work, etc. Take care!

I'm Fired Already

Not really, but it did feel that way a bit today because I was not allowed to do the complete ride with the team. The directors told me to only ride 3 hours today as a matter of my health. They are doing the right thing and making sure I do not over do it as a young rider, but it is still tough to take that advice when you want to be out there improving. Nonetheless, this shorter ride today will help me recover from my jet-leg, as well as keep me under control as riding with these more experienced and seasoned riders can make it easy to over train. Tomorrow we have a rest day and then the rest of camp I am allowed to take on the full training load, so I am hoping to be on track to have a great week of training.
Other than this happening, I really have nothing new to report. I have been relaxing this afternoon since training just sending emails, having a cup of coffee and uploading pictures. Later!

Day 1

Today was the first day of our Calpe training camp. We had on schedule a 4 hour ride. I had no idea what to expect being new to all this, but it was 100% fine. The country here is very nice. We rode along the coast for quite a while weaving our way along the roads, most of them more city-ish than country, then after a while got off the coast and began to circle back toward Calpe through the inland. It was pretty cool to ride through a lot of small towns along the way. We did a few nice climbs, nothing long, but still nice. We are riding our race bikes now, too, getting them all dialed in. They look nice and ride nicely. Overall a great day.

Tomorrow we have another long ride on tap and the weather looks to be alright. Still warm, but it is supposed to be windy, which is not fun. I can hear it whipping outside the window now. That is the news from here. I will try to post some pictures soon. Cheers.

Safe Arrival

I have officially arrived in Spain for the beginning of training camp and the 2010 cycling season. It was certainly a long flight/travel day/night, but it was pretty well glitch free, which for me (if you ask Lisa) is relatively uncommon. I always have trouble with security for some reason. Either I forget to empty my waterbottle or I have an apple in my backpack or I forget about my mini leatherman, etc. It never ends. And there must be a stereotype alert for people who have brown hair, brown eyes, are about 69" tall, weigh about 150lbs and have the look of Matthew Busche because in my experience they usually get stopped somewhere along the line. Today they ran my backpack twice and I thought, "Oh great, here we go again!" But there was no problem thankfully; especially because it was in the Madrid airport, where I would have had a harder time pleading anything but "no hablo espanol". Not really, the people here are actually very well versed, so hopefully I can immerse myself slowly and learn some of the language.

We are having camp in Calpe on the southeast coast of Spain. When I arrived today it was mostly cloudy and a little rainy so I have been unable to see much of the surroundings. It does look quite nice so far though. The hotel/resort is nice, the accommodations are nice and food is alright. We are about 400m from the coast, so I can see the Mediterranean from the hotel. Mountains rise up around us, too; not towering, but they are definitely here and it is shaping up to be a great week of training. We got our schedule tonight at dinner and it looks to be a good load of volume, which will be really good for me. I have been down on the volume a bit, but my intensity has been pretty good, so I think overall I should be able to make a nice smooth transition for the load. I think almost everyone has arrived now. I am rooming with Tomas Vaitkus.

I would like to upload a couple pictures for you to see, but I am having trouble with the computer/internet, so that will have to wait. Alright thanks for reading, sorry if anything is a little off in this entry; I am running on about 3 hours of sleep in the past 40ish hours. This is part of my plan to stay awake until about 10pm, so I can try and adapt to the schedule ASAP. Cheers.

It's Go Time

It is with a sorrowful joy that I blog today. Joyous because I have been married happily for one month, time flies when you are having fun! Happy Anniversary Lisa! Joyous because life is great. Joyous because I fly out for the beginning of an experience of a lifetime tomorrow. Joyous because I have wonderful friends and family. So where is the sorrow? It comes with distance and time away from friends and family, love ones. I must admit I am pretty scared and nervous about flying off to Europe knowing nothing of the present or the future. All I know is I am supposed to be picked up at the Alicante airport by a hotel shuttle that says "Team RadioShack". Supposedly that will get me to where I am to be. I guess I will get on and see where it takes me.

That is sort of what the whole experience is about, getting on and seeing where it takes me, but more importantly where it takes Lisa and me. This whole adventure is not going to be easy, but I know with the support of everyone around us and our love for one another things are going to work out and life is going to be good. Thanks to everyone for all the support and love. Lisa and I appreciate it so much and I will do my best to represent and make you all proud.

I must go finish packing for the adventure. Then I have an adventure with my wife tonight to celebrate our month of marriage! Funny thing is though, I still had butterflies in my stomach when I asked her out on a dinner date. Just kidding! I asked here where she would like to go for dinner and she says "where ever you had in mind". Well what I had in mind was where she wanted to go. Do you see the big dilemma here? Ciao.