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Thanks Austin

Torelli Zona CX Bike

So recently Bob Semonian was able to hook me up big time with a brand spanking new 2011 Torelli Zona cyclocross frame. I have had the bike built up for about a 2 weeks and just now realized that I haven't posted any pictures. So today I got up early before my classes and took her out for a little ride. The ride was great I only had time for about 25 miles, the temperature outside was about 25 degrees with a 10 degree wind chill. But all things considered the bike looks great and performs just as an steel Italian frame should; stiff and REAL. Here are a few pictures from my ride and bike.

Hare Krishna

This weekend Miriam, Emily (aka Janira) and I decided to take a short trip down to Utah to clear our minds before finals week and to participate in the Festival of Colors in Spanish Fork. We left Friday afternoon and arrived in Layton just in time for my Grandma Maughan to take us out to eat Korean food at a restaurant called “Best Teriyaki”. Ty and I put the hurt on the food while Miriam and Janira took more of a conservative approach to the gluttony (after all this was there first time eating Korean). All and all they did very well and ended up quite enjoying it. Upon returning to the house Grandma put the girls through an intense tour of the house along a grueling history class on all of her “junk”. We settled in for a good nights sleep.

We woke up slowly on Saturday and got prepared for the festival of colors. None of us really had any idea of what to expect so we did the only reasonable thing Miriam and I decided to put of the responsibility on Emily’s shoulders. And might I add that she kept us on the straight and narrow. After finally finding our way to the temple  due to a crazy detour provided in courtesy of Google Maps. We arrive at our destination we had to park about 2 miles away from the temple due to the crazy amount of people there. While we were walking there was a steady stream of people coming and going the grand majority of the people returning from the festival were covered completely from head to toe in a chalky paint-like substance, and then there was us. I guess they were jealous that we were clean and they weren’t so they quickly covered Emily’s face and shirt with bright orange. When we entered the temple I was a little intimidated because the band was doing so crazy chant about and I quote “how we need to get the monkey off our back and how we were going to burn the witch”. Don’t ask me what it meant but I suddenly felt a lot like Derek Zoolander when he was in the top secret brain-washing cult revival. After the leteral burning of a rag doll witch the lead singer of the band envited us all to join in on the count down and then throwing of the colors. We started off at 10 and when we hit 0 it looked like we were being dusted a crop duster plane. It was incredible to see thousands of people all throwing colored chalk paints into the sky to celebrate the coming of spring. There was so much paint in the air that it was hard to breath. The funny thing was there was a band playing and the band would play all genres of music but the lyrics were always the same. The singer and choir of the band repeated this:

“Hare Krishna Hare Krishna

 Krishna Hare Krishna Hare

Hare Rama Hare Rama

Rama Rama Hare Hare”

It was quite entertaining; to hear and watch a bunch of college students sing and chant this Hindu phrase. The festival was an awesome experience and defiantly something that you need to experience at some point in your life but consider this your warning don’t wear anything that you like or treasure. Also it is impossible to just spectate and not expect to get covered from head to toe in paint.

            But I must say that the highlight of the trip occurred on Saturday evening, Emily was tired and decided to go to bed early. Miriam and I were still up when all of a sudden we heard shouts coming out of the room that Emily was sleeping in. Miriam ran to the rescue and returned a few minutes later laughing histaricly. When she entered the room Emily was screaming “please don’t drive my car please”. We aren’t really sure what that means but I’m pretty sure she was having a night terror. When she woke up in the morning Emily stripped the bed of the sheets and proceeded to wash them when I told her she didn’t need to do that she told me that it was the proper thing to do. Between Miriam and I we decided that the dream must have really freaked her out!

Recap

-Great food

-Hare Krishna

-Night terrors

-Good times

Thanks for reading XOXO Tate

I love Cats

So I came across this video today while stumbling and decided that this is one of the best videos about kittens I have ever seen.

Salt Lake City Trippin

3-11-11

This weekend Nate, Austin and I headed out for an adventurous weekend in Salt Lake City. I was going to be racing on Saturday, Nate had a companion from the mission who was getting married and Austioperosis had a hot blind date on Saturday night. With a plan in mind he headed out from Rexburg Friday at about noon. Our drive to SLC took longer than expected because when we got to Blackfoot, Idaho we realized that the skate park was dry. After Nate and I attempted to shred for a bit Austin decided to show us what a real skater was capable of. He was able to get three pieces of footage in a matter of an hour or so and I’m sure he would have continued to get footy if we didn’t have to keep a schedule.

            We arrived in SLC at about 6 p.m. just in time to eat some of the worst Mexican food that I have ever tasted before going to see the reunion tour of a now non-existent record label called “Elephant 6”. The band put on what could have possible been one of the strangest shows I have ever seen. At one point there was a total of 10 people on a stage big enough to hold 5 people at the max. I believe that the average age of the band must have been 40.  They played ever instrument imaginable including a tuba and a saw. It was fun because this was the first time that Ty had seen Nate in almost 2.5 years. We were also able to meet up with our friend Lara, which made the evening even more enjoyable.

            Saturday morning I got up and was ready to race. Ty and Austin went with me to the RMR racetrack to be my moral support. I was stoked because Grandpa Maughan was able to stop by and watch me race. When I went to registrar the race organizer decided to put me in with the C racers instead of having me race with all of the beginners. The race consisted of approximately 50 racers, and would last for 35 minutes. We were racing on an oval track, which was cool because it meant that the turns were banked. The race was extremely fast and intense, we kept an average speed of 28 miles per hour and over the coarse of 35 minutes we rode 15 miles.  I planned my attack perfectly and with 2 laps to go I moved from about 16^th place to the top 10, and then we dropped the hammer the place increased by a few miles and the field was virtually split in half. Overall I finished in 8^th, which is really good considering I didn’t have a team to help and it was my first race in over 2.5 years. It was funny once the race ended I rode up to Ty and Austin and they freaked because I had dried blood all over my teeth. They were like “what happened man”. It took me a few moments to realize but while I was racing some idiot came off his line and busted me in the suck hole with his elbow. But it was an accident so no big deal. After we got done eating L.L Hawaiian BBQ with Austin for the first time we decided to take it easy and just chill at Ty’s apartment and watch a movie and play COD.

            This weekend was a total success I was able to chill with my Brother and some good friends, see some family, eat delicious sushi, skate, and race my bike. Does it get any better than that?

xoXOXOxo Tate Litchfield

Italians

This is a funny interview done with master bicycle builder Dario Pegoretti at the Handmade Bicycle Show in Dallas.