This past week has been packed with celebrations.  Courtney and I had a very nice Thanksgiving dinner at my parent’s house on Thursday.  My mom cooked way too much food, as always, but it was great and was one of those rare times that my whole family gets together.  We also were celebrating my grandmother’s 94th birthday!  I can’t even comprehend what turning 94 will be like, but she seems to be as healthy as ever and still pretty sharp.

The next night, Courtney cooked another amazing meal for her family at our place.  When I met her three years ago I doubt she could even make cereal, but now she has some serious skills when she puts on an apron.  This Thanksgiving dinner also doubled as a surprise birthday get-together for her dad and was a huge success.

With the weekend came yet another birthday, this time with a boys night out to celebrate Rich Hincapie’s.  A big night of drinking some great wine followed.  Not sure if there is any better way to celebrate. Although, it took a solid three hours of mountain biking and sweating the next morning to start feeling normal again!

Time for some blog housekeeping here. As some of you know I’ve been keeping my blog on & off for like 5 years. The reason I gave it such a big facelift is because in 2010 I plan on being more reliable than ever before in terms of writing about the season and snapping some good photos.

With my new commitment to blogging, I want to find a new name for it. “Journey of a Pro” has been the subtitle here for all 5 years, and I’m looking for something snappier, though for the life of me I’m stumped to come up with the new name.

So it’s time for a contest: Can you help come up with a great blog name? Submit your entry to namecraigsblog@gmail.com with your name and mailing address. My one request is that the name has no more than 16 characters (including spaces!)

The winner will get a few cool tokens of appreciation: I’ll send a signed ‘09 Team Columbia-HTC jersey, my race numbers from the ‘09 World Championships RR in Mendrisio, and the official race book from what’s maybe the prettiest race of the year: Giro del Piemonte. Also, my friends at Competitive Cyclist are donating a $100 gift card too. So it’s a pretty good stash of goodies.

The contest ends on Friday, December 4th at Noon EST so please get those entries coming!!

On Thursday, our last “work” day with Right To Play was spent in Huaraz at the Antamina headquarters.  Antamina is the largest mining company in Peru and they have made it their passion to better the country. They completely fund the Right To Play program in Peru and we have been their honored guests all week.  Antamina has been very hospitable, really going out of their way to ensure we have a wonderful time.  It’s amazing to feel and see the impact they have made on this region as far as providing stable jobs and better schools for the kids.  Yesterday, during the Right to Play parade in Llata everyone was chanting “Antamina Antamina…” so the whole community is obviously pretty happy with their work.

Our final activity with the children was a bike ride around the Antamina private community. They created a gated, self-sustainable community high above Huaraz that provides housing, hospitals, schooling, and much more for their employees. The kids, and parents, were so excited to get to go on a bike ride with us. Some even took taxis from the village below, with their bikes hanging out of the trunk, to come up and join us for the ride.  After posing for what must have been hundreds of pictures, each one claiming “the last one,” we rolled out with the kids following.  Immediately there was a crash as the kids just wanted to get as close to us as possible. Even the kids that did not have bikes to ride, ran next to us on the sidewalk for the 2-mile ride to not be left out. After a few laps around the little village we returned to the start again for more photos, but with about half the number of starters.  Some were bloodied and bruised, others with mechanicals, but all eventually made it back with smiles on their faces.

Yesterday was such an epic day in the Andes. The night before we were told that there was a protest for some cause and so a group took down a bridge on our route to Llata. This turned the normally three hour drive into seven hours over multiple mountain passes, awesome. This also meant that we would not make our morning school visit, so we could only hope that they would wait for us.

What happened when we arrived is something that I could never fully describe with words. We stopped at the entrance to Llata and met up with the local officials. After some hand shakes, hugs, fireworks and pictures with them all a boy holding a torch, like the Olympic one, led us through town. We were then met by a large marching band that followed us the rest of the way. The whole town was out in full force. Signs everywhere with our names and pictures of random cyclists.  We must have walked by thousands of people, it was really unreal. They were so happy to have us there. One guy even came up and grabbed me, picked me up and gave me a huge bear hug. He was almost in tears!

Once the parade concluded we moved on to the school. The kids had stayed an extra two hours to see us. We played a few games with one group in their town’s stadium and then visited many of the class rooms to see what all they were learning by working with Right To Play.  We closed out our visit with lunch with all of the teachers followed by some speeches and several dances. The feeling I got was that they didn’t want us to ever leave, but we had to. We had another five hours in the bus to get back to Huaraz.

A very long five hour bus ride over the Andes brought us to Chavin. The roads are the worst I’ve ever seen and we were rarely going over 20 mph. They were once paved, but are now a mix of rocks, leftover asphalt and mud. It basically felt like we were driving through a dried up river bed.

As soon as we found our hotel, we dropped off our bags and headed to Chavin’s World Heritage Site for a rare lighted night time visit. It’s similar to the famous Machu Pichu, but dating back even before then. We spent around an hour walking around and inside the pyramid that was built over 2500 years ago. It is such a unique feeling being in a place with so much history.

The next morning we had our first school visit.  Actually, all of the schools in the area sent students so we had a big group. I was shocked at how well prepared they were for us. Signs with our names and hundreds of Right To Play logos everywhere. They just couldn’t express enough how excited they were to have us there.

Such an eye-opener for me personally. In my opinion they live very tough lives. Some of them walk over two hours each way to be at school, and seeing how it’s the rainy season now, I can’t even imagine doing that. Keep in mind, these kids are as young as five!  Yet, here they all are with smiles on their faces and laughing with each other. It’s obvious they love their lives, so maybe its not so tough for them.

I arrived at the early hour of 1 AM, spotted my name on one of the many signs waiting outside of baggage claim and basically just went where I was told. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t a little worried about putting my life in the hands of people and culture I knew nothing about. I really started to questioning my situation when we turned down a dark alley towards the pacific ocean and the driver locked all of the doors! At this point I started making mental notes of where police cars were located, and if I decided to jump out of the car, how long would it take me to run back. It was about as helpless of a feeling that you can get. The only thing keeping me from panicking was how friendly the Peruvians actually are.

The next morning, on the drive back to the airport for a flight to Huaraz, I couldn’t help but notice how poor Lima really is. It seems the whole city was rebuilt 50 years ago with buildings only made to last half of that time. Just picture an abandon industrial area and that’s the way every area looked. Another first impression was that pretty much anything goes when it comes to driving. Sure there are lines on the road guiding you in the right direction and forming lanes, but those area complete waste of paint. If you feel you can fit through a gap or even over the sidewalk then you might as well join everyone else and go for it.

The flight to Huaraz was more of the same. A ten-seater, propeller plane waited for us on the runway. With only a curtain separating us from the pilots, we flew straight up to 11,000 feet where the town sits. Huaraz was all but destroyed in 1970 by a massive earthquake. Over 10,000 people lived here then, only 91 survived. It doesn’t look like they have done too much to rebuild since then.

Today is mostly a travel day for us. We have a press conference on Huaraz to talk about why we are here, and then it is a long drive to Chavin to visit some schools over the next few days. Our goal is to bring sports to the schools to help them learn basic skills from interacting with each other in a positive manner to promoting a healthy lifestyle.

Are we halfway through November already?  When I think of the off-season, I think of a time where I am basically doing nothing.  Just recharging the body, the mind and catching up on a lot of missed time on the couch.  Yet, each year I seem to pack more and more into the winter months and this year I seem to have over stretched myself.  There has not been one dull moment and I feel about as tired as if I was coming home from a race.

When I am home, I am cooking, cleaning, shopping, running, riding and playing some tennis here and there.  On my trips so far it has felt like a stage race, with hotel transfers and with activities planned from sun up to sun down.  Unfortunately, during the winter months I can’t use my “I need to rest and recover for my next race” card and my wife knows it!  Guess it’s payback for the rest of the year when she is taking care of me.

If I looked back to the summer months I was already looking towards the off-season and making plans to do this and that.  Trying to pack in as many fun things that I could.  The possibilities seem endless at that point.  Once the off-season finally arrives you realize that the more you have planned, the faster it goes, and that is the case for me this year.   But I can’t say that I would do anything different.

I really have had a great time so far.  I was able to be part of so many cool experiences in Texas, our annual tennis tournament is coming up this weekend, which will be a great chance to catch up with some friends and then on Sunday I am off to Peru for a week with Right To Play (www.righttoplay.com).  I can only assume the Peru trip will be a huge eye opener.  We will be touring different villages and schools, giving talks and playing games and other activities with the children. I have no idea of what to expect, but I am sure it will be something I will always remember.  After Peru, it will already be Thanksgiving and then off to the first Team Columbia-HTC training camp.  It really does go so fast, but you only live once…

The main reason Courtney and I were in Texas was to be part of the Beretta Clay Shoot.  It benefits Bobbie’s Speedway Children’s Charity, and a number of “celebrities” got together to help raise money.  There were around fifteen celebrities, ranging from baseball players to bass fishermen.  It was quite the crowd, “The Bass Assassin” himself even showed up.  Each of us were joined by five “common folk” to make up a team of six and then we headed to the shooting stations.  There were ten stations in all, with each person shooting eight clays.  The goal is, of course, to break all eight, and then add up all of your totals at the end of all ten stations to get your overall team’s score.  My team, made up mostly of my family, did pretty well in the end.  Out of eighteen teams we came in eighth.  Very respectable considering we hardly ever get any practice.  The charity also had a very successful week, with this event, along with a few others, raising over half a million dollars!

The week was rounded out with NASCAR three ways.  On Friday night we toured the garage, very cool, and then watched the truck race from a suite overlooking the finish line.  On Saturday we watched the Nationwide Series from a condominium overlooking turn two, a great spot to watch all of the crashes.  Bill and I snuck out early and went for a bike ride with NASCAR driver and huge cycling fan, Bobby Labonte.  We really enjoyed riding with him and learning all about his sport.  It also made watching his race the next day a lot more interesting having that connection.  And finally on Sunday we watched the big race from the stands and had an awesome view over the finish line.  The cars were so loud you had to wear ear protection the whole time, and you could forget about trying to have a conversation.  Overall, I was blown away by how big this sport is.  Thousands of campers were parked there the whole week, and the fans are as diehard as they come.

Courtney and I have been going non-stop since we landed in Dallas. Courney’s aunt and uncle, Bobbie and Bill, invited us out to be part of a charity clay shoot and to attend the NASCAR events at the Texas Motor Speedway this week. We have been on a few trips with Bobbie and Bill this year and they have all been amazing, and this trip has lived up to that standard so far.

From the airport we headed straight to The Mansion, a very nice spot in the city, for pre-dinner drinks, then off to Charlie Palmer for our actual dinner.  I have never been to any of Charlie’s restaurants, but have heard great things about them and it certainly didn’t disappoint. Charlie was even there, greeting us and even signing bottles of his own wine. That really made it such a cool experience.

Then next morning, after a quick run with Courtney, it was off to the Rough Creek Lodge for some more activates. As soon as we check in it was time to go horseback riding, then Bill and I headed to the shooting range while the ladies checked in at the spa.  After hundred shots and, for me, a pretty sore shoulder we all met back at the lodge for a great dinner to close out the night.

Now we are all driving back to Fort Worth to try to squeeze in a quick ride while my parents and Courtney’s are flying in for the rest of the week’s events. Should be some good family vaca times ahead.