Contraflow routes opened on I-37 for evacuation

For the first time the I-37 contraflow evacuation routes will be opened... southbound lanes will be reversed to carry two lanes of northbound traffic in addition to the three northbound lanes.

The troops arrive in Corpus Christi for hurricane Ike!

C-130's are flying in almost every 90 minutes to bring troops and to evacuate people with medical needs and disabilities. The National Guard is rolling in as well with troops to aid where necessary with medical triage or evacuation.

It's getting serious.

Ike strengthening and getting bigger...

Landfall now slightly north of us... still in hurricane-force winds though... go north, go north, go north...

Schools closed...

The school district has announced that the schools are closed the rest of the week. No evacuation ordered by the city yet but hotels in San Antonio, two hours inland, are almost full Friday and Saturday night. The Naval base is evacuating thousands via ships and planes.

For anyone interested the best updates are here:

http://www.caller.com/

Hurricane Ike: the preparations begin!

With most computer models predicting Ike to become a category 3 or 4 hurricane and striking within a few miles of here, water, canned foods, generators and plywood are flying off the shelves. The navy base is evacuating and the schools are planning closures. Having been through five hurricanes myself I'm waiting until it's closer until deciding whether to stay or evacuate.

Stay tuned!

Cone of uncertainty narrows

Much worse!

Worse!

Not good!

Kiersten's Epic Xterra Video

I was playing around with the new beta version of Picasa 3 and discovered it has a cool feature where you can make a "video" with pictures... here's my first attempt (although I'm going to have to try to find the clean version of the song!):





I think it turned out pretty cool... and really captures the spirit of the race!

Another one!

Dang... three models have it heading straight for us! Now we gotta watch Ike too!

Prodigy

Friends of ours have a house in Whistler, and trust me... it's one of the coolest places in the world! A couple of years ago the kids and I visited them and had the best time of our lives riding the mountain every day and enjoying their hospitality and Tina's cooking every evening. Their son, Max, has become a slopestyle mountain bike prodigy... check out this "Suicide" at Whistler! That's a pro move and he's only 14!

1st XC meet

Kiersten ran unattached at the first XC meet since her school didn't race and she wanted to get out and see where she was and try some different things in her race strategy. She started out a little faster and paid for it in the second half. She finished in the top 20, but that's a bit off of her top 10 finishes last year so next race she'll go a little easier on the start and see how that works.

On the Volleyball Team!!!

Kiersten decided to try out for volleyball... a sport she's never played before... and made it as an alternate on the 8th grade team! Only three girls made it... one as a starter and two as alternates. Not bad for someone who just this year hit 5' tall ;-) Go girl!

So... now it's 7am volleyball practice for 1 1/2 hours... school from 9-4... then cross country practice from 4:15 to 5:30pm... or 7-8:30pm... looooooooooooooong days ahead!

Hill repeats!

Kiersten has been training with the high school girls, but since the heat index was too high they didn't run today so she waited until early evening and did some hill repeats in Cole park by the bay... Kees did his hill repeats on the bike ;-)