Almost finished up down here

Can you believe that I'm blogging at 5:22am? And I'm not jet lagged, and I didn't need an alarm to wake me? It's true, I've gone from sleeping till 9am to going to bed at 9pm!  It's been a great routine for me, so why change it up, at least until I get back to Colorado and have to wait till 11 to even want to go ride this time of year.

So a couple more days till I pack up(I have a lot of stuff), drive north and sort things at home before heading to team camp in Oxnard, CA.  I've managed to cram a lot of extra curricular activities in with a ton of training, so much so dad asked, "Are you even riding your bike?" Oh yeah dad, I'm riding....

Alisha got us tickets to the U of A hockey game, which we thought was funny, seeing it's in the desert and all.  Apparently they put ice down in the convention center when they have a game and let me tell you, they did not disappoint!  We had a great time.

Yeah, so it wasn't a sellout crowd but we still had fun:)

Alisha, Amber and I decided it wouldn't be a Tucson trip without visiting the San Xavier Mission south of town, it was spectacular!  If I remember correctly, the mission was built in the 1700's, was routinely attacked by Apache indians and at one point the priest allowed people to live in the church and build fires.  This led to the complete covering of all the Fresco paintings with soot until they started to restore the church to it's origins by hand with sponges, one 6inch space at a time. It is still an active church and they are constantly restoring the inside, one small bit at a time while holding tours.  It is so worth seeing if you are ever in town, even Sunset magazine says so;)

 Tour guide...

 The 'cowboy' who decided to have a mission here....

 A representation of 'your life' the center is happiness or something like that..

 Ceilings.

 The walls are 3ft thick, originally just the brick...

 Window coverings..

 Narrow passages

 Original brick...

 Their book they carried around, made out of sheep skin...

 What's left of the crucifix's Jesus....

 Oh hey!

 Model of the building and grounds....

 Headed to the church...

 Church entrance...

 Right side...

 That's the gutter built into the wall behind the tree, I think these things are interesting.

 Door handle hardware...

 Entering into the church

 Baptismal room.

 Pulpit

 Fresco of the Last Supper, in the lower right hand corner there is a devil's head....

 Alter and parts are being restored...

 Looking up at one of the domes...

 Every inch was covered in some sort of artwork!

 Since the Indians and the missionaries couldn't converse back and forth, they basically built the church to give a pictorial description of the bible and the story of Christ.

 From the alter looking out, upstairs is the choir room.

 This is just a part of the chapel outside of the church, the whole room looked exactly like this and when you walked in you could noticeably feel an increase in temperature because of all of the lit candles.

The biggest event for January has to be the Half the Road screening at The Loft this past Wednesday. It's a film documentary about most all of the issues in women's cycling today and it will definitely start a conversation about the past, present and future(God willing) of our sport.  Click on the title to see the trailer and if you want to see this movie, ask your local theater to show it!  The film will make the circuit of film festivals before coming out on DVD(around 5-6months) and yours truly is in the film;) along with: Alison Powers, Emily Kachorek, Emma Pooley, Marianne Vos, Chrissy Wellington(the world's best female triathlete),  Katherine Switzer(first female to run the Boston marathon) just to name a few...

It was an amazing event to be a part of and hopefully we can all look back and say this was a turning point in our sport for the better.

And last but not least, of course, I'm riding a LOT and enjoying the wonderful Tucson weather and my friends - Dave and Alisha.....

 Get a lot of flats down here - the only negative....

 Token top tube/leg shot of my new Diamondback ....

 2 awesome people, my friends - Dave and Alisha....

2 important tools for my work - SRM powermeter and Training Peaks training log.

Camp is next, so check back soon for pics and stories:)

Eating: fruit bowls - cantaloupe, honeydew melon, strawberries, watermelon, pears, apples, grapes, pineapple
Watching: the Frontline story on concussions within the NFL
Reading: still Bill Bryson's One Summer, 1927
Listening: Open Mic with Mike Creed podcasts
Website: http://www.tomfoxphotography.com/home.htm Dad ordered one of Tom's photos for me, I'm pretty excited!