Happy Birthday / Anniversary

September 21, 2007 on 7:52 pm | In Hayden and Laura | No Comments

The MS 150 was this past weekend.  The ride is 75 miles from Graceland to Tunica on Saturday and then 75 miles back on Sunday.  The ride on Saturday went fantastic.  We left Graceland at 7:30.  By 12:30 I had already checked my bike in and was on a shuttle bus to my room.  5 hours for the ride including rest stops and lunch.  Not too shabby.  I felt great after the ride, too.  Definitely ready for the next day.  Laura came down on Saturday night and we stayed in Tunica together.  We made our donation to the Grand Casino in the form of roulette bets and then hit the seafood buffet.  We are definitely getting old.  Both of us were ready for bed about 8:30!  We went back and played some more, but it didn’t take too long for us to find our pillows.

The wonderful (cough, cough) thing about the casino is that there is never a lack of smoke.  Unfortunately, we were put in a smoking room.  The smoke smell was so thick you could cut it with a knife.  Laura said I was caughing half the night.  When I woke up on Sunday, I felt like I’d been hit by a truck.  My chest was congested and my throat was raw.  Why the casino sponsors an athletic event and then puts those atheletes up in smoking rooms is beyond me. 

I made the decision to ride back with Laura rather than ride the bike back to Memphis.  I was pretty unhappy about the whole thing.  The second day is really a lot more fun than the first day.  I know I could have made it, but I’d have been sick all week.

This week marked our third anniversary (on the 18th) and my 29th birthday (on the 19th).  Quite a time for celebration!  We celebrated our anniversary in Tunica.  For my birthday, I got one of the coolest presents ever.  So if you have read this at all, or are around me much, you know that I’m into photography right now.  I took my camera to the last MSU game with my 500mm lens and got some pretty “decent” shots.  I say decent because for the location I was in when taking them (our seats), they looked pretty good.

Well, after this weekend, we’ll see what I’m made of.  Part of the present my wonderful wife gave me was sideline and media passes to the Mississippi State game this weekend.  I’ll be out on the field with the newspaper guys!  I’m stoked!  I’ll post some pictures once I get back and get through editing them.  I’m like a kid in a candy store right now.  I’m going through my checklist in my head over and over.  Compact flash (check), Monopod (check), lenses (check), batteries (check)…..