If you are a Scuba Diver and live in Texas or near Texas, I have an event for you!!! TRASH FEST 2008. It is a great charity project that caps off the diving season each year. This year the event is schedules for Saturday, October 4^th.

TrashFest is the nation's oldest underwater cleanup campaign bringing together scuba divers, businesses, government agencies, schools, civic and youth groups, scout troops and local citizens to improve the quality of the Comal River in New Braunfels, Texas. The Comal River became famous when Ripley's Believe It or Not featured it as the shortest river in the world. The 2.5-mile Comal River is one of the largest springs in Texas with 8 million gallons of water flowing through every hour. The water is pure, clear, about 73°F year round, and attracts thousands of tubers and tourists each year. After the tubing season winds down, divers from all over Texas and beyond gather to pull cans, shoes, sunglasses and other assorted trash and debris out of the river.

Since the first clean up in 1974, more than 9,500 volunteers have removed: 188,000 pounds of trash, 300,000 cans and bottles, 370,000 pop-tops and bottle caps, 6,900 sunglasses and shoes.

Registration is half the cost this year than it has been in the previous years due to the overwhelming success and number of volunteers over the previous years. An individual participating costs only $8 per person, and a team is $50.

You will be diving for about three hours from Noon to 3pm, and then in the evening there is a Barbeque dinner, and over $10,000 in door prize giveaways.

So go ahead and save the date, October 4^th in New Braunfels at the Comal River is the place to be. For more information and registration details go to www.trashfest.net

I am SO SO Sorry!!! It's been a while since I have written a blog, but so much has happened and so much is going on!

Where to start?

First, I want to tell you about my most recent ride, which was one of the most fun I have ever had. My husband and I did a 63-mile tandem ride in the North Texas area.

The ride started off at 7:30 in the morning, as most rides do and it was early!!! I wasn't feeling that great that morning but I stuck it out.

The ride began from Texas Motor Speedway, we would start off on the track and do a lap around the track and then head out onto the roads. Riding on the track was an awesome experience, and kind of scary. The turns were so steep, I am not a huge fan of NASCAR, but I have watched races occasionally, and there you just don't realize how steep those turns really are.

My husband was the captain on the tandem and I was the stoker. He of course wanted to go high up on those banks, but I wasn't quite as excited about that. So he only went up about half-way.

Majority of the race went really smoothly. I didn't have to work nearly as hard on pedaling and keeping up, and he was able to pedal as fast as he wanted and I would be right there with him.

Most people say that a tandem is a great way of testing a couple's communication, which I totally agree!!! You have to be on the same page, communicate often, and understand the other persons needs. Every time we would stop for a break people would ask us if we had our first fight on the bike yet, and truthfully we never did. I guess tandems can be a difficult experience for a couple if you don't BOTH want to do it. It worked for us.

As a suggestion, if you are a couple and both of you enjoy cycling, but one of you is faster than the other (the man, or more athletic person) then tandems are a GREAT idea. If you just want to get your spouse involved in cycling and they have never rode before, rent a tandem before you buy. You will find 100's of tandems on ebay because men purchase them wanting to get their wives into cycling and they think a tandem is the answer. It won't work! Bad Idea! That's my two cents.

The ride went GREAT. We didn't finish dead last as I did in my first 63-mile solo ride, which was great. We were actually the only tandem to even attempt 63-miles in this particular ride, the other tandems did 40 miles or less.

What made this ride even more significant, is that morning, prior to the ride, I found out that I am pregnant. My husband and I had all these goals of riding and preparing for the Hotter N Hell 100, which he is still going to do, but unfortunately I am done riding long distances. My training is now limited to stationary bikes.

Because I am pregnant, I am also restricted from Scuba Diving. So you won't be getting any dive blogs from me this summer. So my future blogs will likely be about the adventures of my husband, friends around me, charities that I am still involved with, events, etc.

I am traveling some this summer and my husband has several things planned to do throughout the summer that will be fun to write about, anybody heard of Zorbing?

Again sorry about the time it has taken me to get out another blog. I will be more consistent, but with pregnancy things to deal with, work and other activities I have been swamped.

Thanks!

Tiffany