2014 in Pictures

In 2014 I

took care of these psycho kittens for a while,

had visit from my sister Carolyn,

and my parents,

ran (swam) a 50k

got to see Betsy,

ran Hood to Coast in Oregon,

left my 2nd job at the Boys and Girls Club, but continued coaching recreational gymnastics and doing social media for Seattle Gymnastics Academy,

went on several hikes but wished I did more,

got to go to Austin for Thanksgiving and see the other Elizabeth Peckham, my grandmother,

won Employee of the Year at my job,

and ended the year with another great Peckham Christmas (28 of us!) in Chicago

Summer!

I had a great and much needed summer break! I relaxed and cleaned the apartment, which I hadn't had time for in forever between working like crazy and running.
Betsy came, and I ran the 50k. We touristed around Seattle and had a pole vault family reunion! 4 of us together, which hadn't happened in over 2 years. We just need Floydface to come visit now. We hiked up to Rattlesnake Ridge, which I'd done a couple times before but it had been raining both times so it was nice to do a it in the sun!

at Fremont Brewing

#pvfam reunion

downtown Seattle

Betsy at the gum wall

we ran into the Pride parade and fest

at the top of Rattlesnake

Luckily the clouds had cleared for the last couple days Betsy was there and we spent a lovely night at Golden Gardens drinking Summer Shandy's and hanging out with some new acquaintances.

Golden Gardens

4th of July was fun. A former coworker Mary, Kate and I went to the house of a couple that goes to Kate's church. I didn't really know anyone, and Kate only knew some people, but it was still fun and there was lots of food. It was drizzling all evening (typical...) but the fireworks were still cool over Lake Union.

I ended summer by actually working at Zootunes, a concert series in the Woodland Park Zoo. We set up a kids area for all the kiddos that get bored. I really liked the band and even stayed after we were done cleaning up till the end! There were the Carolina Chocolate Drops.

I'm excited to be here for summer. Everyone's just so happy here when the weather's nice, and I'm excited to have consecutive days off and more chances to go hiking and exploring the area! It comes with struggles too like finding a new place to live and not actually working a full schedule, but mostly things are going pretty well right now!

right after the 50k. soaked

So long, Farewell, Aufwiedersehen, Goodbye

I promise I didn't do the Sound of Music thing on purpose. But the twins do love that song. We have to sing it every night before bed and Philippa always says the "no" part of Liesl's line.

It still hasn't hit me that I'm leaving. Sunday night, the family had a kind of surprise going away party for me, except all my friends that haven't already left couldn't come. Which was like 3 or 4, apart from Rachel and Max who were there anyways. So it was just us, the grandparents and Sigrid, and Sonja, who was staying here the first month I was here. We sat out in the garden and grilled, and they hung up the Texas flag that hung at the capitol once. It was really nice, and I'm glad it wasn't a big thing. I don't like being the center of attention. I'm going to miss a lot of things here, and most of all my kinders! I love them all a whole bunch!

Greta's still convinced she's coming with me, flying away on the tram and eating ice cream and fries in the airplane. Johanna would come, but she told me she doesn't have enough money.

1000 Things to do Before you Die: Complete my own Tour de France

Completed: August 16th, 2012

You get full credit no matter what. Extra credit for going through any mountains

We've been back in the US of A for several days now - sorry it took me so long to finish this! After we left Geneva, we were in the Jura mountains for 2 days before we had a steep descent and then suddenly we were in Bourgogne. Not that there weren't any more hills after that...
We took a little more time to do some sight-seeing in Bourgogne and saw many impressive churches, towns, cities, and of course beautiful scenery and lots of vineyards!
A couple days before we reached Paris we were able to stay with a family Dave stayed with when he was in college in Montargis. Jacques, Josée and their granddaughter Emma fed us lots of delicious food, wine, and showed us the city of Montargis.
Once we got close to Paris, we were able to visit Judy in Montévrain (right next to Euro Disney!) and stay in a campground that was about an hour away from her. It was better for disassembling our bikes than the place we had stayed when we first arrived. And no stolen tents - just lots of stolen bungee cords! The day of our flight home, we woke up at 3am so we could make our 3 trips to the airport. And we all made it home with our bikes! Except Judy, whose new release date right now is September 30th.

Chardonnay!

Here's the rest of our itinerary:

• Col de la Faucille
• St. Claude
• Moirans-en-Montagne
• Lons-le-Saunier
• Louhans
• Tournus

Hôtel Dieu in Beaune

• Chardonnay
• Cluny
• Taizé
• Cormatin
• Chalon-sur-Saône
• Beaune

lunch on the Route des Grands Crus between Beaune and Dijon

• Clos de Vougeot
• Fixin
• Dijon
• Sombernon - we ate lunch on the continental divide!
• Montbard
• Abbaye de Fontenay
• Montréal
• Avallon
• St. Père
• Vézeley

view of Vézeley

• Auxerre
• La Ferté-Loupière
• Montargis

Auxerre in the morning

Jacques, Josée, Emma and their neighbors

• Montigny-sur-Loing
• Fontainebleau
• Pontcarré
• Montévrain
• Annet-sur-Marne
• the airport!

visiting Judy!

some new friends

Map Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne to Montbard

EDIT:

Odometer stats:

My wheel size was set wrong, so multiply everything by 1.234. The end result was about 1807km, or 1130 miles. Plus ~130km, according to google maps, for the first two days when I didn't have the odometer set up.

starting when we left our campground near Nice:

Day 1: ? (est. 30km)

Day 2: ? (est.100km)

Day 3:

Time: 3:57:10

Avs: 6.4 km/h

Max: 23.2

Dist: 25.42

Day 4: 

Time: 5:19:17

Avs: 10.0 km/h

Max: 43.1 km/h

Dist: 53.24 km

Day 5:

Time: 4:15:05

Avs: 11.3

Max: 47.3

Dist: 48.15

Day 6:

Time: 5:57:36

Avs: 10

Max: 47.0

Dist: 59.79

Day 7:

Time: 3:34:57

Avs: 10.6

Max: 44.7

Dist: 38.27

Day 8 (unloaded climb):

Time: 4:25:04

Avs: 9.6

Max: 46.0

Dist: 42.71

Day 9:

Time: 6:20:06

Avs: 9.1

Max: 49.2

Dist: 58.12

Day 10:

Time: 4:21:11

Avs: 10.2

Max:31.2

Dist: 44.81

Day 11:

Time: 6:20:34

Avs: 10.5

Max: 47.3

Dist: 67.23

Day 12 (unloaded climb):

Time: 2:37:31

Avs:10.7

Max: 41

Dist: 28.10

Day 13:

Time: 7:25:05

Avs: 8.1

Max: 45.6

Dist: 60.23

Day 14:

Time: 5:03:15

Avs: 11.0

Max: 39.9

Dist: 55.82

Day 15 (Chamonix):

Time: 0:56:11

Avs: 8.9

Max: 26.9

Dist: 8.36

Day 16:

Time: 3:29:40

Avs: 10.7

Max: 50.2

Dist: 37.52

Day 17:

Time: 6:29.32

Avs: 13.0 (13.9 before we ate raclette for dinner....)

Max: 39.6

Dist: 84.58

Day 18:

Time: 2:37:17

Avs: 13.3

Max: 34.8

Dist: 35.08

Day 19:

Time: 5:43:48

Avs: 10.5

Max: 40.5

Dist: 60.72

Day 20:

Time: 5:40:34

Avs: 14.5

Max: 58.6

Dist: 82.31

Day 21:

Time: 4:23:51

Avs: 11

Max: 36.2

Dist: 48.46

Day 22:

Time: 5:13:54

Avs: 13.3

Max: 36.1

Dist: 69.61

Day 23:

Time: 4:00:40

Avs: 11.3

Max: 36.9

Dist: 45.60

Day 24 (Dijon):

Time: 0:41:59

Avs: 11.1

Max: 24.4

Dist: 7.82

Day 25:

Time: 5:11:13

Avs: 13.4

Max: 32.5

Dist: 69.56

Day 26:

Time: 4:13:33

Avs: 13.6

Max: 49.6

Dist: 57.83

Day 27:

Time: 5:08:21

Avs: 12.2

Max: 40.4

Dist: 63.11

Day 28:

Time: 4:40:03

Avs: 14.3

Max: 36.6

Dist: 67.17

Day 29:

Time: 2:30:48

Avs: 14.1

MAx: 38.0

Dist: 35.67

Day 30:

Time: 7:27:59

Avs: 14.6

Max: 39.5

Dist: 109.03

Detour through Switzerland

As we left Bourg D'Oisans, we saw them doing a triathlon - 2k swim,
115k bike, 22k run. There was a short one and a long one, and lots of
foreign athletes were there for it. We've had some pretty steep climbs
over passes and have passed our highest point of the trip! 2770m - so
I guess it's all downhill from there! Although we might have wasted it
in the 50km of downhill we had to our next campsite, Bourg St Maurice.
We had 2 unlaoded climbs planned there, but it stormed so Matt and I went to an internet cafe in the morning and joined Dave for the 2nd climb. Of course it still poured on us. But other than that, we've had pretty good weather!

Here's where we've been since the last post:

on the way to Charmonix

Switzerland!

• Bourg d'Oisans
• Le Rivier-d'Allemont
• Col du Glandon
• Col de la Croix de Fer - we watched the Tour de France go over this
• when we were in a cafe on our way to Paris the first day!
• St Jean-de-Maurienne
• Modane
• Bramans
• Sollières-Sardières
• Lanslebourg
• Bessans
• Bonneval-sur-Arc
• Col de L'Iserans - our highest climb! 14km, up to 10% grade for the
• last couple km. We got to the top, and the temperature dropped 25° and
• it started pouring, so we put on our rain gear and made our way down
• Val-d'Isère
• Bourg St Maurice
• Les Arcs (unloaded climb)
• Cormet de Roselend (19km climb)
• Beaufort
• Les Saisies
• Col de Saisies (15km climb)
• Notre Dame de Bellecombe
• Praz-sur-Arly
• Megève
• Servoz - We met an Italian man named Joseph who lives here who showed us the way to get to Chamonix by bicycle, and then he made us spaghetti and let us use his internet and left us alone in his house while he went to the dentist!
• Saint Gervais les Bains
• Les Houches
• Chomonix Mont Blanc - we spent 2 nights here and hiked up to the Glacier and some ice caves with our day off
• Col des Montets
• and then we crossed into Switzerland!
• Col de Forclaz
• Martigny - we met 2 Americans who we happened to camp net to who were going from Amsterdam to Nice, and one of them graduated from Colby! The other one was 16, and they were both named Brian. We ate Swiss chocolate with them and watched all the fireworks going off for the Fête Nationale de Suisse. Then it turned into a real thunderstorm
• Èvian les Bains - where the original spring for Evian water is
• Excenevex
• Yvoire - we ate Raclette in the old medieval city
• Geneva

And now we're right outside Geneva, back in France, stayin with Dave and Judy's friend Veronique for the night! I'm not gonna lie, I'm excited to sleep inside for a night. We're going to go see some modern yodeling in a few minutes!

Its hard to believe we only have 2 weeks left!

We're in the Alps!

We've been riding for a little over a week, and we made it from the Cote d'Azur to the high Alps. I was a little surprised on the first day when we had, in Dave's words, a "monstous but relatively short" climb to get out of Opio, where Matt lived and I visited him in 1996. Little did I know that relatively short meant 45 minutes. But by now I've gotten used to the long, slow, several hours long climbs. I almost enjoy them? don't tell anyone.

l'Alpe d'Huez

At the top of l'Alpe d'Huez!

Today we climbed l'Alpe d'Huez, with 21 switchbacks. Then we decided it wasn't time for lunch yet, so we dropped down and climbed even more over a pass, before a 15% grade drop down on a narrow gravelly road. Matt and Dave climbed les 2 Alpes, but I came back.

Intense M&M's and Intense cidre. the beginning of an intense trip

Here's our route so far. The places in bold are where we camped, and everywhere else we stopped in or I just remembered going through.

Nice
Le Pylone Camping
Biot
Sophia Antipolise
Valbonne
Opio
Bar sur Loup (Gorge sur Loup)
Gréolières
Saint Auban ( and la clue de St Auban - it was really cool!)
Brian çonnet
Val du Roure
le Col de St. Raphael
Puget Théniers
Entrevaux
Camping du Brec
Annot
Le Col de la Colle de St Michel
La Colle de St Michel - we stayed on a farm with a beautiful view! By far my favorite place we've camped
Colmars des Alpes
Allos
La Foux d'Allos
Le Col d'Allos - our highest climb so far! 20 km, and the last 6 were steep. The ride down was amazing too!

Matt and I hiked up above the Col d'Allos - our first glimpse of the real Alps!

Barcelonette
around the Lac de Serre-Ponçon
le Sauze du Lac
Savines
Chorges
Col de Manse
St Bonnet
Corps
Les Egats
Valbonnais

and now we're in Bourg D'Oisans! We're spending 2 nights here so we could do the climbs unloaded, but tomorrow we're continuing on! The Alps are really beautiful. There are lots of flowers and waterfalls, little towns and villages, cows, sheep, goats, beautiful gardens, and mountains of course. And it's not 100° anymore.

riding beyond l'Alpe d'Huez