MS150, EG and Other Stuff

Well as usual, we are far behind on the blog.  Kimber was in Equatorial Guinea from March 20 through April 18.  She returned home just in time to complete the MS150.  The MS150 is the 150 mile bike ride from Houston to Austin over two days to raise money for the Multiple Sclerosis Society.  It is a lovely but challenging ride for a great cause.  This year, Kimber had company on the ride.  Kirk and Kimber completed the ride together on a tandem.  This turned out to be a good thing as there were strong head and side winds on Saturday and on a tandem you get twice the push for the wind breaking.  The larger of the two riders is on the front of then tandem.  This is the pilot and of course that is Kirk.  The smaller rider is on the back and is the stoker.  And contrary to what people may think, the back is not a free ride.  The pedals of the pilot and stoker are connected and our feet are clipped to them.  The stoker does not appreciate the comment by those who are not an a tandem that she is not pedalling.

Other than the wind on the first day of the ride, it was beautiful.  the wild flowers were amazing this year.  Kimber was extremely surprised to still see so many bluebonnets.  We did unfortunately ride through some of the areas impacted by last years Texas wildfires.  It is still heart wrenching to see the burned forest and foundations without homes or businesses on them.  The area is still trying to recover.

We also had one near miss.  There aren't many steep hills on the route until you get into to Austin.  However, there are several short steep hills right as you enter Austin.  We hadn't had much practice on shifting to the gears for those type of hills and weren't fast enough on the first shift.  We lost the chain and came to a complete halt.  If you can't see on the picture, our feet are clipped to the pedals.  Kirk is left handed and Kimber right handed so we each prefer to take a different foot out of the pedal first.  So I took my right and Kirk his left as the bike started to tip.  Ha, we wobbled like a teeter totter, but Kirk finally won.  Somehow we didn't fall.  It took some time and greasy fingers but we got the chain back on and onto the road with no road rash or bruises!  We learned to shift much faster.

We have already made our reservations for a hotel for next year's ride.  Haven't decided yet whether to replace our current tandem with the one in the picture (it was a rental) or something similar.  We rented this tandem and it was a real treat to ride.  Very light and comfortable. Easy to ride all day.

Kimber left to return to EG on May 13.  It was tough to leave with such a short break and knowing that she wouldn't see Sidney for nearly six weeks.  Her stay in EG was only 4 weeks but Sidney went to her Grandmother in Georgia right after school got out and was gone for nearly two weeks after Kimber returned home.

Kimber got to play a little golf in EG.  There is a new not completely built private course in Malabo.  11 holes are completed and Kimber rented a half set of clubs and had a great time playing golf.  She also noticed this pineapple plant in someones front yard on the compound.



Kimber also took a picture of Pico, the largest volcano on Bioko Island.  Because it was the rainy season, the views of Pico were great.  You could see all the reliefs in the volcano and details.

Kimber also walked out on the EGLNG Tanker Jetty.  We have posted a picture of the jetty before.  It is an engineering marvel.  It is a suspension bridge basically, support on one end on shore and the other on a tower in the sea.  It slopes downwards somewhere around 15 degrees from the land side to the sea side.  It is a beautiful walk, especially going down.  Very peaceful over the jungle, shore and sea.  The walk back up is a killer though.  It is long and steep.

You will also find a picture of our other cat, Mouser.  Mouser lives in Africa in the Fire House.  He has lived a long life for a Malabo cat. He is almost 5 years old.  When Kimber went for the turnaround, Mouser was missing most of his fur and very thin.  Kimber and the other professionals provided Mouser with a lot of food and combing and on Kimber's return he was looking quite good indeed.

Now Kimber has been going to Africa for several years now.  And on nearly every trip someone talks about snakes.  How poisonous they are, how big, etc.  Kimber has never seen a snake on any of her trips, and she looks for them.  She went for a walk on the last Sunday before she left and found this lovely fellow hanging out on the fence.  He was there quite a while because she walked past him and walked another mile or so before turning around to come back.  He was still there on her return.  He wasn't concerned with Kimber and Kimber thinks he is a small green Mamba.  He only wanted to hang out in the sun.  Kimber walked only another 200 feet and encountered

another snake.  She didn't get a picture of this one because he was on the ground and moved away quite quickly.  He was black or dark brown, smaller and had red or orange on part of his back.  So Kimber is now content that there are snakes in Africa and quite pleased that she has finally seen them.

Kimber returned to the US via Norway.  Agreed, not the most direct route but she needed to visit Norway for a meeting.  She didn't get pictures of the swan family we have watched since we lived in Norway but she did see them.  They have 5 healthy looking cygnets this year.  4 gray and one white.  She did grab a picture of this family walking down the trail at a Stavanger lake though.  Silly swans.








Kimber did finally make it home and so did Sidney.  They got to spend 30 hours together before Sidney went off to Girl Scout Camp.  Six days in 100 degree heat, swimming, eating, canoeing and sleeping outside.  Sound like fun?

On another note, our yard is maturing very nicely. Most of the plants survived the winter, and we were able to fill in the holes with a few other plants.  Here are some pictures of what it looks like now.




Kimber and Sidney and the yard work we had done were featured in a magazine in April.  We have included a copy of the article below.  The article was in the April Issue of Healthy Moms Healthy Kids.  We have included the article below along with a few pictures taken recently of the backyard.  Hope you enjoy the article.