Life is what you make of it.

A year ago to the day, Benjamin and I were driving to Colorado Springs after spending the weekend in Taos, New Mexico. The tour was on, and normally I would be in Portland for the AVC, but this year I decided to skip it. Turns out they were rained on and some of the racing was canceled or delayed. Instead of pushing a fixed gear with my muscles, I brought my new 29" Kona hard tail mountain bike.

The riding in NM was not as good as we thought it would be. The recent fires closed most of the killer areas that we scoped out. So we headed back to COS and I packed up my bike to ship it home. When I went to board the flight, United overbooked the flight and were looking for volunteers. Volunteers would be comped $400 in travel vouchers and could go home anytime they wanted. My hand shot up.

A quick trip back to the FedEx where I dropped my bike off and a quick rebuild of my bike and I was off to Buckhorn trail and down Captain Jacks. At the top of the trail, just before turning down to make the descent - I made the decision that this was the place I wanted to live.

Flying home the next day to dumping rain in Seattle confirmed that decision.

And now here I am, a year after making that decision in a beautiful home with our two sweet puppies, in an amazing relationship with the man of my dreams, catching the Tour on the tele and working for a kick ass company who believes in me and understands my pedaling passion.

Life is what you make of it. And being the master of your own destiny pretty much rules. YES!!!