Another Weekend at the Races

After school yesterday, we headed out to Estrella Mountain Park on the west side of Phoenix for Brian's second race in the MBAA series. His mom is still in town, so she came with us. We camped last night and cheered him on this morning. It's really a fun atmosphere, and it's so neat to see how a parking lot turns into a mountain biking enthusiast's village for at least a few hours.

After arriving around 5:30 yesterday evening, we set up, devoured our dinner, and then had a lovely campfire. Brian captured the scene beautifully with this awesome photo.

We slept so well last night, and although it was extremely breezy this morning the day turned out to be warm, sunny, and calm. Brian found his place in his wave, and the kids and Sue and I found a place at the start of the course.

There's a lot of luck involved in getting a good shot of your guy. Riders go almost all out in the beginning to get a good position for when the trail eventually bottlenecks to a single track, so I set the camera to the sport setting, hold down the button, and hope for the best. Even though I know where he is, other riders often photobomb. I was lucky last time, but not so much this time. If only #170 was our guy. This was the best shot of Brian at the start.

I had more luck when Dayson's wave started.

According to Brian and everyone else, this course is much more technical than the last. He did really well, though, and finished 12th out of 37 in his group. The first 16 riders earn the points, so he was happy to finish with points again.

This time he was passed at the the end, but that's okay because that guy wasn't in his group.

Maya moved up to the Intermediate class this week. She finished 6th out of 8 but gained some experience. She was pleased.

And the Airstream was again a convenient base camp for all of us. Mike brought his corn hole game, and it entertained for hours. The kids tried out the starter trail and loved it. Brian's going to take them on some rides soon, and next year maybe our kids will be wearing the orange and blue jerseys, too. Here's hoping.

We're starting to really get used to this lifestyle.