Iron Horse Bike Ride - Memorial Day in Durango

David decided that he wanted to ride the Iron Horse again this year.  He convinced a bunch of friends to do it with him.  We were so excited for this weekend!  It would be especially great to spend one last fun weekend with the Merediths before they moved away, and also the Rauchs, Reynolds, and a few others we would run into.

The girls and I made big plans to do Durango Mountain Resort (alpine slides and stuff), some horse back rides, the aquatic center, and cheering on Daddy and his cycling friends.  The women had been working especially hard to train for the ride.  They were all set.

Finally, school was out, and the weekend and summer lay stretching ahead.  Then, we looked at the forecast.  Cold and Rainy for the weekend.  Ew.  Summer is for swimsuits and shorts, not jackets and warm shoes.

In the end, the course was shortened by half and the race ended at DMR.  (SO disappointing for the cyclists.) The stables were all closed (no horsey rides for us), and DMR became a difficult option to have fun, with the race ending there and no time to really do it during the ride, since the ride was only a couple of hours long!

The girls and I got up early and went out into town in our PJ's to cheer on the cyclists as they started and take a few pics.  We could not see David anywhere, so I took about 500 pics on my phone.  When we got home, we sifted through them and saw that I caught him in one shot, part of his head was showing behind another cyclist.  Bummer dude.

our friend, Tim, is there near the front in blue and black

Tim's wife, Sara, is there in the lavender jacket

(Sara and Muffin make me look like a loaf.)

David is the teeny tiny sliver behind the guy on the left in the bright yellow jacket and then

Dave and Muffin Meredith are behind them in red and black.

Since the ride was only 25 miles up, they decided to ride back into town instead of having me pick him up at DMR like usual.  So, we waited at the hotel for him to come buzzing up.  He still finished his mile count, just half of it was downhill instead.

After the ride, we spent a glorious "last" afternoon with the Dave and Muffin Meredith, eating pizza and stumbling into an adorable little newsstand that sold delicious gelato.  We talked for hours and could have talked many more.

Too bad we didn't get to do half that we had planned, but  still, we did have a great time eating at our favorite places, swimming at the hotel, bumming around our favorite shops, and we did head to the aquatic center with the kids where they have a climbing wall and a pretty sweet pool.

Some day... Hattie will be brave enough to climb to the top.

Thanks for another fun weekend, Durango!