Festival of Nations in Tower Grove Park

We had a great time today at the Festival of Nations in Tower Grove Park! The park itself is really neat, but the events and food made it even better today. They had food, dance and goods from just about every country you can think of. I had Ethiopian food for lunch and the girls had Polish. I couldn't tell you what my food was, but it was pretty good. I am still tasting it 5 hours later. The girls had a polish sausage sandwich and an excellent potato cake with apple sauce and sour cream. They also did some sculpting with clay as well as watching some Scottish Highland games, face painting, a top spinning master, and lots of dancing. We saw Ozark clogging, Congo dance and Hungarian dancing. The weather was in the 90's but not too bad in the shade.

I got in miles everyday except Tues and Wed this week. I rode the Ste. Genevieve roadrace course on Saturday getting in around 40 very hilly, hard, hot miles. I felt great, just not used to so many hills with high gradient. The second to last climb tops out at 22% for the last 30 yards, while the last climb of the day is a little longer than a half mile at a continous gradient of 9%. My new Mavics made a huge difference. They feel awesome and are as smooth as butter. I still don't think I will race them next weekend at the Gateway Cup, even though the 11x23 would give me a nice sprint advantage. I don't feel like ruining a new set of rims a week after I bought them!

A full week of work ahead.

tchuss