Birthday well wishings, long rides and fire arms ? WTF ?

I had one of those fast and furious weekends that so often pop up in my life. Either it continues to make me stronger or it will kill me. Either way were all going away sometime, so I just cram it all in and do the best I can.
From Friday at 5:00 it was on for 2 days of go,go, and more go.
I picked up my son at 5:00 and we headed home to meet up with all the family for yet another birthday. This one is a special one for sure, it was my grand daughters 8th and they drove in from Las Vegas to make it all happen with us.
A couple months back when we were in Vegas we asked what she waned to do, and she replied a Chucky Cheese party ! "OH JOY" I can't wait.
For me Chucky Cheese ranks right up there with Walmart for me. (not so much). But hey it's what sh wanted.
This was great for the kids and we endured with pizza, (bad pizza) and salad bar festivities.

Birthday girl all smiles.   
The one thing I can say about her is, no matter what she gets, it's like the greatest thing ever. It really make it enjoyable to watch her open gifts. She happens to be a huge Taylor Swift fan and my wife went all out. Getting her some new brown cowgirl boots, a cute little dress, she bought her this pink sweat outfit and did a picture transfer of Taylor Swift on the back, made her a pillow with a Taylor Swift picture on it, and so on, and so on.
She loved it all and it was worth enduring the pain of the CHUCKY.

We finally got out of there at about 10:00 and This little sign caught my eye. Now I think there is some questionable people in there, but this seemed a bit over the top.

No fire arms allowed ! REALLY, does this have to be told ?

So from there it was home and I finally weaseled my way to bed at midnight.
I was behind on sleep time and new I wouldn't sleep that well anyways with anticipation of the next days club ride scheduled at 44 miles plus an extra 6 I would tag on to and from.
I was meeting Patrick from http://www.theroadmultisport.com/a  for the ride. It would be with his bike club and my first ride with them or any real organized group in a long time. Although I have done many of these rides in past years, will just say it has been a while.
We meet up right on time and made are way to the club meet up spot. On the way we talked about going the "B" ride,which would be the shorter of the 2 rides at 44 miles. We both had are following day long runs in mind and trying to be realistic. I was a bit relieved when he said this and came to that agreement.
We meet the crew and got the ride hand out of the days loops and headed out. It was a fun yet brisk pace and it felt awesome to be in a larger organized pelaton ride again. Coming from an original cycling back ground, to me this is living.
Somewhere along the line after stop one for regroup the short ride got blown off. First thought oh shit, I'm not really prepared for a long ride. But the one thing I can say is, I never felt unwelcomed or uncomfortable. So I figured it was on, just do what you can do with the fuel you have and suck it up.
Over the years I had ridden most of this route in bits and pieces anyways. So I just figured trust your fitness and rely on past experiences.
There was some easy flats, fast flats, short climbs, and loooooong assss climbs. One climb was off the hook vertical and besides going into lactate overload and 02 depletion, it was super rewarding to do it and not get cracked. It was equally rewarding to find out only 2/3 of the club did this climb, the other 3rd went around it and we regrouped a couple miles away.
 I'm glad I didn't catch on that there was an option. I truly believe it's things like this that build our character as athletes to a different level.
Even after this climb we had roughly 25+ miles left in our ride and had already traveled almost 50, of which a large portion of that was climbing.
I was pumped to finish this ride hearing that it had been one of there toughest rides in a long time. It was great to put in this many hours and miles with Patrick and even though there is not a ton of chat time, there is still that comradery building.
After I got home and checked my bike trip, I had traveled 79.6 in just at 5 hours.
I was no shining star, but I have to believe they would have me back.I look forward to it and look forward to more long distant rides. On a side note I got to meet another EAP member Nan on that ride. She was super friendly and an accomplished athlete in her own right.

Sunday consisted of a long conversation with my future son in law about training and his amazement of my passion and transformation over the last year. It was refreshing to hear someone that knows me, yet doesn't see me very often to make that comment and actually motivate him to want to start running.
I encouraged him to pursue it, and start slow. I could help keep him motivated even from a distance, and suggest he link on to http://www.enduranceathleteproject.com/ for further info and possibly finding like minding athletes in the Vegas area.
They headed back to Vegas at 12:00 and me and my wife thought we would enjoy some outdoor shopping at a farmers market for a couple of hours.I was more than glad to stretch my legs for a couple hours of walking. I blew off my Sunday morning run for fear of hurting something.

I woke up this morning and ran 6.2 miles in 1:01:06 not fast by any means. In fact, for the first mile I was a bit shocked at how drained I was. But I quickly gained inspiration off of the great weekend I had just had. I also realize I was not the least bit sore, which was also motivating. My cold is 100 %  a thing of the past. I have the HB 1/2 in 16 days and couldn't be more exited about running 13.1 miles.
Thanks for reading this lengthy blog today. I just felt it was all important.