For years, every month I did a Racking Up the miles post. I would log the miles and give a short review of the month. Somewhere along the line this year, I stopped. I have a rule. If I stop doing something, and don’t miss it, then I don’t start it up again. (Like the ONE year I ran a half marathon!)

So I thought about skipping the almost mandatory “Looking back” post, but as the day went on, I kept looking up info I usually include, so it must be something I want to do! 

First off let’s do the miles. This was a very strange year. I had only two 100-mile days all year! In 2015, I had a month where I did 4 centuries in that 30 day period. This led to a record number of miles for 2015, 4209.  With the lack of centuries, I had no expectations for this year. Surprisingly, after the last 20 miles yesterday, I hit 4470!!  Yep a new record!

But, this quote comes to mind every time I list miles.

And I gotta tell you I saw a LOT this year.

For the first time ever, I rode in 4 different states!

Washington of course:

Oregon (Crossed the entire state!)

California (yes I rode before I had the flat)

Idaho

Not to mention British Columbia!

Nature was amazing this year on the ride. Blue Herons were everywhere

There were also Bald Eagles galore

Whales

And once giant river rat! (OK Nutria)

It was honestly a great year with the bike and I. There were a couple of crashes, but over all, I loved it. Looking forward to the new year.

But life is not ALL riding (SHOCKING I know, coming from my mouth!)

When I am sitting, waiting in line somewhere, or working on falling asleep I am reading. I read once long ago that the average person reads less than 5 – 7 books a year.  I was shocked! From that time on, I have kept track of how many books I finish in a year. I don’t set goals, or speed read, but I like to count at the end. This year I ended at 46 books! just a bit over average.

Michelle and I had adventures as well:

Cannon Beach

Zip lining with the Manchild!

Gondola Ride at Crystal Mountain

Vancouver BC

The Ride across Oregon

As well as Thanksgiving in Langley!

Michelle and I love being together and going places, and we will be doing the same in the up coming year

The boys had great years as well.

The Mathmajor was accepted into Grad School at UW, working and studying in Genome Sciences (Genetics!) Damn that kid is smart!

The Manchild graduated from both high school and community college! He is heading back to Western Washington University today!

OH, and just while working on this I got the results of the yearly physical, Healthy as a horse! The cholesterol number is 107, and should be under 99, but that is nuthin! Other than that all numbers were perfect!

Folks, no lie, 2016 was a hard year in many ways but Michelle and I had a lot to be thankful for, as shown here by our grateful teapot (We write down things all year long we are grateful for. We read them New Years Eve and then burn them.)

2017 is here and full of some unknown scary crap. But the wheels will still spin, the pages will turn, the boys will do amazing things and Michelle and I will be together and  already have adventures booked! We can and will survive anything!

Welcome to a new year folks!