Tour de Yorkshire 2019

In 2014, the Tour de France started in Leeds and continued south through England before going into France. There was such a positive response in the North here that the Tour de Yorkshire was developed the very next year.

This year, the Tour de Yorkshire took place in the first weekend in May, and the route went right past the kids' school as well as our house. I don't know much about cycling, but I thought I would test out my good camera if I got a chance to see any of it.

The women's race came through in the morning, and once they closed our road I headed out to watch. And I waited, and waited. I knew they were getting close when I saw the helicopter, so I kept waiting.

If you look close you might see people watching from the windows

Then, about 600 police motorcycles went by, and finally I saw bicycles!

It went by pretty quickly, but it was cool to see.

Now, every car on our street was previously instructed to clear out the night before. Most people had listened, but there were still 2 cars that I could see before the women's race. They had race volunteers standing next to the cars with yellow flags to warn the cyclists.

Before the men's race, they had the cars towed, which is something I've not seen here before. Even when they were resurfacing our road last year, they just went around the cars that remained.

I was having a Mrs Kravitz moment

The men weren't due to arrive until well after I had collected the kids from school. Since I had moved my car, I walked to pick them up, and on the way home we saw several sponsor cars drive by.

Once we got home, the kids had snacks while we waited outside.

I had the timing all wrong, because we were way too early. After a while, the kids got tired of waiting and went inside to watch television. I made myself a drink and kept waiting. A crowd gathered down the street to watch as well.

There were a lot more men racing than women, but it was over just as fast.

This race was just a taste of what's to come in the fall. The UCI Road World Championships will be held in North Yorkshire, and will take up an entire week. So our area will be crowded, and parking will be severely limited. Not to mention road closures. It's just after school starts, so we will be walking to and from school each day. I have to admit that I'm not looking forward to that race as much because of the huge inconvenience. But we'll get through it, and I'll try to get more pictures.

US Trip 2019 - Day 7 and Trip Home

On our last full day in the US, we took the kids to Meemaw's shop for haircuts. Clara and Miles just had a trim, but Lily opted for a more dramatic change.

I think this cut really suits Lily, and you could tell she felt sassy with her new 'do.





We then went back to my parents' house to hang out, and had a drink while it started to snow a little. Bigger snow was forecast, but luckily it arrived after we left.

Pretty soon, CiCi came to see us all (well, mostly the kids). We had a fun and relaxing afternoon catching up.

A bit later, the kids had a visit from Miss Raben, who was Aunt Connie's best friend. She came bearing gifts and had the kids make a huge mess chocolate fondue. I don't know who had more fun - the kids or Raben, but all of us enjoyed the fruits of their labor.

Then we sent the kids to bed and packed up for our flight the next day.

We did have a nice send-off in the morning. Lesa and James came over on their way to work and school, and Pawpaw also stopped by. We had to get a few last group pictures, of course.

And just like that, it was time to leave.

One last shot of the Mississippi River

We breezed through the St Louis airport, which was nice because Clara insisted on dragging my suitcase around.

We also saw one of the remaining birthday cakes from the city's celebration a few years ago.

We had a short flight to Philadelphia, and had a few hours to kill before the overnight flight. Luckily there was a play area, so the kids were able to get some energy out before we sat them down for hours.

Clara thought this was Peppa Pig's car, and was upset that I wouldn't let her drive it

Our last American meal

The flight back was overnight, and we were hoping the kids would sleep. Cue the laughing. Clara did sleep for a good portion, but the older two, not so much. Miles was too distracted by the in flight entertainment, so I'm not sure if he even napped at all. Matt and I barely slept as well, making it really difficult to get adjusted to our time zone again. We had one day to recover before getting back to work and school, and I think it took a good week or two to get over the jet lag. But the trip, quick as it went by, was all worth it. 💓