↓Friends in Low Places
From Races:
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To Sledding:
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To Spectating:
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And chill horse back riding:
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We packed a LOT of activities into #pirtlefest2k15
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And made memories with some of the people we love the best
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Special Thanks to Behrmann for the below Pirtlefest video:
Clarinda, IA is the theme of September. Between Clint and I, we have been in that little town every weekend, whether together or separate. It was suggested we “just move back already“.
Um. Nope.
🙂
While we DO love Clarinda, we DON’T love it enough to move back any time soon.
We both have our careers based in or near Omaha. We love being near the city. What we both miss is the country living. If my adult country home could have been moved 90 miles closer, I’d still be in it. 🙂 What we plan is to move to the country again someday, but staying near Omaha will be our thing.
So, ya, about that weekend recap.
Friday afternoon Clint and I took off on the bikes to Clarinda to help Kayla work on her new salon she has been tirelessly working on for a few months now. Getting closer to opening day and it’s looking AWESOME! (Pssst… Check out Wild Fire Salon and Spa Facebook page).
The girls painted and the boys hung the air ducts.
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Megan and Nikki were even back from Colorado so it was actually a lot of fun painting and catching up with those two crazy chicks.
Saturday
Kayla and I started the morning off right with a walk around the boulevard. It was a crisp, GORGEOUS morning so we took advantage of it before starting work for the day. After our walk and a quick stop for breakfast we made our way to get more paint while our husbands, being the ever-jokesters, picked up roadkill and left it for us. Thinking they were so cute, they parked across the way to watch our reactions. We simply laughed and hopped in. Jokes on them since they had to pick it up twice to move it. Those boys.
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The rest of Saturday consisted of more painting for the gals and sign removal for the boys.
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They have a VERY short attention and work span sometimes…. after the sign was removed and this photo taken, they mysteriously disappeared for the remainder of the afternoon. 😉
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Around 4:30 I had to ditch the work to get ready for the evening. Clint and I had professional photos scheduled with the Harley’s. Jade so graciously rode my bike to our first location so I could have somewhat volume in this thin hair of mine.
Once our first photos were taken – it was game on.
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Our photographer had us do several shots riding and then she took us to two different locations around the community. This dirt road was location #3 and a perfect spot to close out the night. ❤
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We had such a fun time with our photographer, Heather. I am STOKED to see what she captured. Her artistic mind and imagery is incredible.
Clint was all smiled out for our end of the night selfie. HA! What a cheeser.
After our photos we headed back to the Hagey’s to get our trailer and warmer clothes, loaded up, headed to my dad’s for about an hour chat and made our way back to the city.
We were in our garage safe and sound by 11:30pm! It was a chilly night, but the riding was great (as always) and the moon was INCREDIBLE!
SUNDAY
I have done laundry, run errands, practiced Round 66 TK and am now finishing up this blog entry so I can get in a run. I will close out the night studying and making my outline for Saturday the 3rd.
What’s Saturday you ask?
My FIRST OFFICIAL training as a Master Trainer Ambassador. EEEKKKK!!!!! After this certification I will earn my Master Trainer title.
Dudes…. I am freaking. More to come on that.
Friday
A little dinner and VFC Fights with friends at Stir Cove. Hello fall weather and sweatshirts! It was chilly!
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Clint loves taking selfies with me. Adores it, y’all!
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An easy, breezy Friday eve!
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Saturday
Full leathers, Harley time, Girlfriends, Memorial Poker Run and a whopping 352 miles round trip for this girl. It was a legit day on the bike!
Stop 1: Emerson, IA
Our stop in Emerson was to support Sara at her first annual JunkFest. Check her out at SW Iowa Primitives, Antiques and Furniture. It was also Emerson Days and they just so happened to be lining up for the big parade while we were there. We contemplated jumping in on it, but sadly we had to get rolling before the parade actually started. But, that didn’t stop us from first getting distracted by big shiny firetrucks, apparently. Good thing the Fire Chief in town is fellow biker sister, Liz. 🙂
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Stop 1.5: Villisca to pick up Tina and on to Stop 2: Clarinda to sign up for the Shane Scroggs Memorial Poker Run. Shane is a Clarinda native who passed away far too soon. His family started this Poker Run in his name 6 years ago and all donations go to Scholarship Funds for Clarinda graduates.
This is also where we met up with a few more sista’s before hitting the road!
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Stop 3: Hayloft, Grant, IA
Can’t be on the bike without Tootsie Pops. It’s a rule, folks. A Jordan Rule.
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Stop 4: Huffy’s, Anita, IA
Stop 5: Marne, IA
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Stop 5.5: Avoca for Fuel
Stop 6: The Back Forty, Macedonia, IA
Where the staffing was short and two of our Biker B’s hopped in to help.
#onceabartenderalwaysabartender
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Nice work, Liz and Tyree!
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We hung out at this stop for quite a while. Food was the common denominator.
And becoming SnapChat friends was critical.
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This stop is where some of the gals bounced. Some to Missouri Valley, one to CB and the other to Omaha. The rest of us motored on to…
Stop 7: Stanton, IA and then on to Stop 8/9: Clarinda, IA
Final Poker Hand Drawing:
This guy rode his bike the entire Poker Run Route: 180 Miles.
There were three men total. One guy make it 130 miles. One made the whole run but bounced home instead of coming back to the bar. Can you imagine?! That is a lot of miles… but for such a great cause. Good money was raised.
The last group event of the night was a loop through Clarinda led by Shane’s brother in the truck he and his dad were rebuilding 6 years ago. Cars, bikes, loud pipes through the town of Clarinda.
A very touching tribute and tradition.
Then it was back to the bowling alley to leather up for the chilly and dark 90 mile road back home.
But, not before a butt shot and Ski trying to steal Liz’s bike.
Those silly girls…
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Back to Omaha and in my driveway by 10:30pm. 352 miles and 14 hours of awesome. Night riding remains some of my favorite times to get out there. Your senses come alive.
It’s exhilarating.
Sunday
A lazy day. Lash appointment, grocery store and an entire afternoon sitting in my back yard reading, blogging, enjoying the fire my husband has started and love from this guy:
Yet another perfect weekend.
Three. Day. Weekend. It’s like music to my ears. Or was, anyway. How does it always go by so fast? Sigh…. and thus we begin our “Working for The Weekend” grind again.
Friday started with a Harley ride to work, as those opportunities are rare. Being a girl, in a professional work environment, with 20 miles between home and work plus the need for gym attire, Harley attire, work attire… blah blah blah. You get the picture.
Friday was a jeans day, with a fun Division meeting for the first two hours of my day (complete with t-shirt design competition), a few hours of work and an hour of Wellness Promotion (shameless plug for my fitness classes I start offering to staff on the 14th too)
😉
FAW (Friday After Work) I was able to meet up with my girl Heidi for an impromptu early evening ride to Waterloo for some cocktails, live music and girl talk. It was the perfect Friday night.
Saturday
Clint was in C-town doing more Pirtlefest preps, so I decided to take on a few projects around the house.
Project A: Choose a new front door color.
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An early morning trip to Home Depot and I was well on my way.
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… with the Iowa game on and dogs monitoring my work, of course.
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Before | After
I am in love!
Champ digs it too.
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I’d love to change the hardware and light fixture above the door as well, but maybe another day.
In between coats of primer and paint I also spent a great deal of time trimming up all of the rose bushes and random crap growing in front of our house (Project B).
…And by trimming, I actually mean cutting down.
Oops.
Have I mentioned I hate clutter? Guess that transfers outside too. I hate rose bushes.
Project C: String patio lights over our unfinished back patio.
:p
Earlier this summer, Clint and company poured a sidewalk and half of our patio in the back. It wasn’t intentionally done this way, but measurements were a little off… NBD. Eventually it will extend to where the dog houses are and curve back around. Our fire pit (which is sitting on top of the ground for now) will go in the middle.
I thought patio lights would look sweet over the top of this, so did a little mock-up, made a trip to Target for lights and started stringing.
So, how about a little math?
$48 of lights + secure starting point + connecting point for the four strands + a little too tight of a stretch on the last strand = a big glassy mess.
Just add it to my pile of trash for the weekend.
Nightfall came quickly so the dogs and I had to call it a night. Clearly they were exhausted after all that work.
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Sunday
An insanely humid morning equaled a less than enthusiastic start to my day. 5 miles sounded daunting in that heat, so I pulled out my witty tank to garner some laughs out on the trail. I always wave/nod/acknowledge anyone I meet while out on the trail, so figured adding a laugh would help keep me going, if not them too.
Side Note: Please excuse me while I hop on my soap box for a sec. I rarely wear this tank, along with a few other “wordy” tanks due to how low they sit on the chest. I have to roll it into my sports bra a gagillion times to get it pulled up. I think showing the girls while working out is just weird. I know – this is probably all just me as I find boobs annoying (anyone feeling awkward yet) but I just find it a little odd to have cleavage showing when at the gym, running, teaching a group x class, etc. Are we there to get a helluva workout in, or to get looked at? Mmmmhmmm… that is all. *Hopping off my personal opinion soapbox.
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After my long and disgustingly hot run, I hopped in an ice cold shower… hello happiness… and then Clint and I stupidly (influenced by my stupidity) went back out in the 100 degree heat for a ride to Lake Ohana.
A few ice cold brews and we made our way back to Omaha. Moonshine was producing, which is a very manual project, so you can’t leave it unattended for long without risk of ruining an entire batch. Not cool.
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We ended the night with fire grilled grub and a few more beers. Pretty great Sunday, if you ask me!
❤
That fire pit sure works great sitting awkwardly out of the ground. 🙂
MONDAY | Labor Day
Clint was gracious enough to bring an entire grocery bag full of apples back with him from Clarinda, so I filled up my day with baking.
Three batches of Apple Pie Bars with Salted Caramel (all made from scratch) and a large batch of Apple Crisp smelled up my kitchen. One batch went to our neighbor, Carol, who broke her leg a few weeks back. Another batch went to our neighbor, Harold, who hands-down, might be the coolest cat you could meet. He is an older gentleman, with a love of old cars, rolled white t-shirt sleeves and strategically combed and slicked back hair. Harold and Clint have become quite the garage companions when talking old cars and tinkering on old trucks.
Recipe coming soon!
Another hot-as-hell evening short run followed by dinner and blogging has me thinking bed time soon. Back to the daily grind tomorrow!
Hope you all had a wonderful three day weekend with family, friends and doing whatever the heck you wanted to do!
Harleys and Heels 