Trail Work and Riding on Katie's Birthday

Twelve years ago today Kaitlyn Ann came into this world and forever changed our lives for the better. Recently she decided to spend the morning of her twelfth anniversary with her dad and a bunch of other mountain biking trail rats cutting in new trail at Banner Lakes State Park.

Being the only girl and kid there didn't phase her as she grabbed the loppers (or "choppers" as she insisted on calling them) and set to showing various flora who was boss. She triumphed over all manner of sticks, twigs and branches before finally running out of gas about 2.5 hours into the assault.

We decided to retreat to the Indianola McDonalds for McFlurries and fries but on the walk out Katie spied a rather steep hill. "I can climb that" she declared and in a flash she was standing at the top. After returning to Banner full of greesy McD's we got the bikes out and went to ride the previously established beginner loop on the south side of the park. Unfortunately there was too much deadfall covering the trail. I asked Katie if she wanted to ride the paved trail connected to the park or head to Easter Lake for a little more dirt under the tires. She immediately opted for the dirt - ata girl.

When we got to Easter we saw 2 of Katie's friends doing the all-too-common panhandling thing on the side of the road for East Side Softball. Katie wanted to go say "hi" and (I think) demonstrate she is a bad biker chick. The girls had the worst sign I have ever seen. They said the had only raised $3. Normally I don't support the straight-up begging approach (in fact it really irks me) but since these were Katie's friends and their sign was sooo pathetic I doubled their take for the day by donating $3. They were unable to provide a receipt for my donation, but I did request they utilize my contribution to get a better sign. Here's our rigs at Easter. I tried to get a picture of Katie and I standing together but I didn't get the timer on the camera right. Katie was in no mood for a re shoot because she "had to pee". She was also none-too-happy that we had to ride up a big hill to get back to the car. The McFlurry and fry fuel had clearly run out. After the needed bathroom break Katie said all she wanted was to take a shower. Well, she almost made it. I noticed that I hadn't heard any water running even though she had headed upstairs awhile ago.

When I went to check on her this is what I found. Bam! Down for the count. She is sound asleep. All in all it was a great father-daughter morning. This is the stuff that money just can't buy.