Date: Wed, 8 Sep 99 16:52:00 CDT

From: matt_childress-novanet@nova.novanet.com

To: wayout@azstarnet.com

 

Dear Mary Ellen & CJ:

Thanks for your awsome hospitality before the company meeting out in Tucson! The folks here are still talking about the trip ya'll put together on the Saturday after the meeting. I arrived without a plan or a place to take them, and by the second day everything was mapped out. Talk about a taking load of weight off my mind. You guys made me look like a star! Still dreaming about strawberry margaritas in a hottub.

The amount of wildlife out there was amazing. Being face-to-face with a true longhorn on the open range was fun, but cows were old hat to this Illinois country boy. Now gila monsters, killer bee swarms and cute little baby rattlers, that's different! The flora was really awsome too, though I'm still finding a few stragglers attached -- learning clipless pedals in cactus land wasn't exactly my best idea, but effective. Beats my current mtb affliction; good 'ole Illinois Poison Ivy. I'll take cactus thorns anytime over that!

My Grandma's the birding person in the family -- I've never had her affection for 'em, but it's hard not to take an interest with the sheer number of birds around your place! My favorite has got to be the roadrunners.

My mountain biking skills improved dramatically while out there. One 3-day weekend of fun trail riding taught me more than 9 years of urban curb hopping. Still working on my track stand though ;-)

Hope everything is going well!

 

Matt Childress