Stage 18 and Photos - Running Late Again

I'm running SO late. No real good excuse, just got caught up reading my daily group of emails and looking at some lovely pictures. But, I'll catch up here.

This stage is a beast, although probably not quite as hard
as yesterday's shorter stage. But with two HC peaks in it,
it won't be a walk in the park. Once again the peloton will
be blown apart passing over and up these mountainsides. 

Today is Stage 18 of Le Tour de France and it is ICONIC! Leaving Pau and ending at the top of Hautacam, this day through the Pyrenees marks the last day of the mountains and the real end of the harder stages of Le Tour. Sure there are still sprint points available, and sure the white jersey might still be in contention, but after today, the yellow and the polka dot jerseys should pretty much be in the bag. I hope you had a chance to see yesterday's stage. Bravo to the young Polish rider for Tinkoff-Saxo, Rafal Majka. This is the second stage he's won in this year's tour and he's a young rider. He'll be someone to watch in the coming years, a true GC contender.

Each photo had someone behind the lens, even those
of extreme sports and expeditions. Let's look at a few of these today. 

Now - I have to post quickly, so I'm thinking photos might be the key for today. Let's see where my wandering thoughts and fingers take me.

I'm in a mood for heights today, so how about rock climbing
in Dreznica, near Mostar. The thing is - someone had to be
perched just as precariously on a nearby rock to get this
amazing shot. 

Since I've been reading about extreme surfing, this photo is a good
one to add. The waters don't look like Hawaii, I'm going to say that
this is off California, but I don't know where or when. It's a great
shot, though. 

Of course where I grew up, the water was frozen, not liquid, and
skiing was the sport, not surfing. I never really enjoyed skiing, though.
I did do ice skating for many years, so at least I wasn't a total wuss. 

Just looking at this picture makes me a bit dizzy and totally frightened.
Freebase rock climbing is totally extreme and WAY beyond
anything I ever wanted to do. 

Do you have any glaciers around you? You can always go ice climbing
if you do, but be careful. Lots of nasty things can happen when you're walking
through ice cathedrals. 

And finally, to save us all from endless shots of rock climbers who have
no business playing spider, a different version of extreme sports
called "Get the Cheese". 

I'll be watching Le Tour and beginning edit #1 of my Ardor in August story today. I hope you have a really wonderful, calm, and beautiful Thursday. I'll try to be more talkative tomorrow.