The Life of Pizza John

I got to experience my first Florida Hurricane! They had a mandatory evacuation which I wasn't sure if people followed or not at first.  I planned on staying and everyone I knew told me I was stupid. I figured living in a newer built house that was not right on the ocean would be ok.  I spent time sandbagging certain areas and putting up the hurricane window coverings so I assumed everything would be ok.  In the end I did end up leaving. It was a weird feeling to leave my home and cute little town thinking when I get back it may not be the same. Everything ended up being fine (for me), but not everyone else had the same outcome.  Many people had their whole houses flooded.  And it wasn't just water, but with sewage as well.  As everyone is cleaning up and salvaging what is still left it is sad to drive around certain areas where everyone has piled up their lives and parts of their houses in their front lawn for the garbage men to pick up. I already liv...

What a fun time we had in Asheville!  We rented a house right on the outside of downtown so we could walk all over the place. We had to make sure AJ had a really fun weekend so he would understand all the great things we would be saying goodbye to once he gets married!  I also met some of his other friends for the first time and it was a fun group of guys.  We had a blast and meshed really well. We white water rafted down the French Broad River which was a new experience for me. They had up to Class III rapids and it was fun, but it was also a lot more relaxing than I thought it would be. If we did it again, I would definitely want to get on some crazier stuff.  The views were wonderful and the raft guide was hilarious.  He was full of all kinds of interesting jokes. We also did some mountain biking in the Bent Creek area and it was awesome!  Living in Florida, I forget how much fun mountain biking can be!  AJ's friend who lives in the area led th...

What an interesting day!  Actually, the whole trip was interesting!  Alia and I drove up to Maryland to begin the adventure. We took the route that goes over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge which was pretty cool.  It actually goes under water in two places for the barges to pass over.  We stopped a night in Ocean City before getting to our final destination of Cambridge. Ocean City was kinda a dirty place but we didn't have a ton of time to explore.  Almost the whole time we were in Maryland leading up to the race it was windy and rainy.  This made attempting to do any workouts challenging since we didn't know the area very well.  We spend most of our time indoors working and hanging out. This was the first Ironman event I have gone to that I felt was poorly organized.  No one knew what was going on and it was just poorly run.  I know a lot of this may have been due to the weather, but I have been at races where the course had to change and it w...