Hood River - Mid August

Okay, I am able to head to Hood River, Oregon for a weekend with the family but can not get photos posted to my smugmug web-site! I promise to myself and all those fans, I will be getting some of the categories updated this weekend 8/25-26. Follow a link on the right side of this page to get there and if you like something, feel free to make a purchase!

Like I said, we went to the HR for a weekend to hook up with my wife's friend and her husband who were up from the San Fran area. First time I or any of us had spent any time in the area except for passing through on i-84 or one visit for a Thomas the Train thing. Have stayed up North from there in Trout Lake, WA. which is basically at the foot of Mt. Adams fantastic view from there.

Anyway there are quite a few things to do in Hood River, good eats, places to stay and activities such as biking, hiking, wandering around and of course "Wind Sports!" tons of folks hit the columbia gorge to Sailboard or Kiteboard, you choose your fancy. Our friend is the old school person and does the sailboarding so have put up a shot of some folks out doing their thing.


Also spent some time doing what they call the 'Fruit Loop' in the Hood River valley, which is basically a ton of spots to stop at and get fresh fruit and other assorted goodies from the many orchards, wineries and local folks who make a living off the land. Included is a shot of some lavendar growing as part of 'Hood River Lavender Farms'. The relaxing scent from those plants was simply amazing. Pretty fun thing to do and would recommend it for anyone spending some time there. Great scernery and super folks to talk with about their products, etc.

Hey couldn't forget to throw in a shot of a small flower from our back deck, you see you do not always have to travel to find some beautiful things!

Well it was a short weekend as they always are. Hope things are going great in your world, as things are going pretty darn good in our world. From Salem, OR. Bye for now - Tim

Mourning Dove - Sunset & a Blimp

Well here we are the close of another weekend the second full one in August! I have recovered quite well from last weeks State TT's and got in a good little ride with Scott's Tuesday night rides this past week. I took Monday and Tuesday off as it really was getting old going to the day job every Monday and Tuesday.

Since I had some time off I was hoping I was going to get some photo work done, maybe like posting out to Smugmug and cleaning up files on the PC here at home. Got a few files cleaned up but nothing new posted and now am aiming for this week - week of 8/13/07.

Back towards the end of July I was spending an evening with my Pentax ist-DS out on the back deck near the bird feeders. I keep a Sigma 135-400 lens attached and mounted to my tripod for some of the closer work. I am still a bit skeptical on the glass work of this particular lens but some other landscape shots have come out quite nice, so I will keep it for a while longer. Anyway, I was able to be still for a long enough time to allow some Mourning Doves to continue feeding off of seed and insects from the ground. I took this shot between two slats on the deck and have cropped in to get a closer feel.

The same evening, I got bored with the birds so tilted the camera on the tripod and took some shots of some tall pines just a few hundred yards away. Looks kind of cool with the darkness of the trees, the clouds drifting by all the while the sun is setting beyond the Eola Hills.

A couple of days later while having dinner I look out the window and there is the 'GoodYear' Blimp cruising by! Not sure where they were going and never saw anything in the local paper about it, so obviously was not that interesting to many. My daughter thought it was really cool as this was the first time she had seen one and my first time in the last 20 years or so!

Thanks for reading and feel free to drop a line at tim@trephotos.com anytime you like.

Bye,
Tim

OBRA State TT's

Wow, Did that totally suck wind or what? I added around 4 minutes and 30 seconds to my best time on the Peoria 40K course. By added, I mean, slower....1:06:11 which gave me DFL for the master mens 40-44.

Wasn't feeling bad hitting the turn around with a just over 25 mph average, was trying to conserve some as it was going to be a consistent head wind on the way back. Really affected me, but didn't seem to bother much of anyone else.

I can't complain to much, it was a great course as usual and I felt in decent shape. Could afford to drop a few LBs and train a little harder. Speaking of which I finally went out on one of Scott's Cycle group gathering rides tonight [8/7]. I rode with the faster group of the slower group, as I didn't feel like getting dropped with the overall fast group. Didn't know many of the names or faces in my group as I had not been on this ride in over two years. I train alone....all by myself, maybe not the best tactic and my TT results show not riding high paced rides can affect you.

Sorry no photos of the TT that I am aware of, but will have a blimp story and some more feathered friends here later this week.

Bye
Tim -