I'm so excited!

[Veronica]

We love this place! Can you tell. We're going back to the Big Island tomorrow to do a family tour with Thom's parents and an aunt and uncle of his. While I'm looking forward to the trip, I wasn't as excited by it as our other trips to the islands.

The other four are not in great shape and that has kind of put a damper on my planning.

But I just got off the phone with Josh from Kona Coast Cycling who is putting together a custom tour for us to do on Saturday before the others show up. Yeah - I'm planning the ride totally last minute and they're willing to do just about anything to get us on bikes! Gotta love that!

So - our plan is to ride some of the island that we didn't do on our tandem tour last year. It should be fun. And now that there is a bike involved, I'm excited.

V.

[aka_kim]

So, it's *all* about the bike, right?

Where will you ride? You guys didn't go to Hawi last time did you? That's a funky little place, and a 112 mile round trip from Kona. You'd feel just like an Ironman if you did it.

[Veronica]

The plan is to leave our hotel, go up near Waimea, go down Kohala Mountain out to Hawi, then out to the Pololu Valley Lookout. Finally back down the Iron Man route to our hotel. It looks to be about 65 miles with 4,000 feet of climb. And of course a head wind coming back down the Ironman section.

Yes, it really is about the bike. :)

V.

[aka_kim]

That should be fun! Kohala mtn is a beautiful climb, about like a Diablo junction ride in terms of difficulty, and the downhill into Hawi can be a blast. Have a great time!

[Veronica]

We'll take lots of pics (naturally.)

AND Thom has his first professional photo shoot. He's actually going to get paid. He's going to do a shoot for Riv on the new blue Rambouillet - probably while you and I are Yellowstone. They're going to go to Pine Canyon and get water crossing shots.

V.

[aka_kim]

Wow, congrats to Thom. His action shots are so good, he's already a professional, at least in terms of quality.

[Veronica]

He says, "Thank you. Would you like to buy a picture?"

V.