Ok, so we are not really stranded, but we can’t come back to the U.S. yet.

Not that I hate it here, I love it here. Really!

Micks visa won’t be ready for another few weeks. We were planning on being back in the states by the 12th of Feb. , but that’s all changed. Oh well. We are making the best of our time.

We aren’t in Cairns anymore. We headed to Thredbo (I don’t know how you spell it, but that is how it sounds.) for the Australian national championship race. It is Beautiful there!!!

Michael hurt his ancle really bad a few weeks earlier while riding a dirt bike. So he was having a hard time with the track, because it was soo rough.
But with some pain killer action, he had a really good race………until his chain fell off. How that happens, is a mystery, and will always be a mystery. But still, he came in soo fast. He lost it at the very top of the track, and still managed to pull in a 6.17, and the winning time was 6.6. It was a super peadally course.

Trace won by like 25 seconds. It was pretty crazy.

Then we stayed in Sydney for a few days with the Australian coach. It’s always a good time there.

Now we are in Scottshead visiting Micks Grandparents and his uncle. It is cool here. They have a little skatepark in there back yard. Seriously. They hold youth camps here, so they have a lot of things going on through out the summer. They are all super cool people.

Well, we are getting ready to go walk to the beach. So you all have a wonderful day, and I will talk to you soon!

RIDE’N ON AND ON!!!
HANNAH LEIGH STEFFENS

Hey guys!

Hope everyones holidays went very well! Mine went Awesome! I’m not sure where they went, but they are not here anymore.

So, if some of you have not seen EARTHED 2, you will not know what I am talking about, so you better go buy it and see what I am talking about. Watch Mick Hannah’s section, and check out all the stunts. Most of the obstacles he rides off of in the movie, are not done the justice. We went down the trail the other day, and OOOHHHH MAN! The drops are scary and huge, one wrong tweek, and your going to be tweeked for a week or so. The lines are rediculously technical. It’s no hucking on these lines. It’s do right the first time, or just don’t do it. IT’S GREAT!!! Cole Bangart is up visiting us, and he and Mick cleaned the place up. It was soo AWESOME to see it up close and personal. They are both amazing riders! Trace did a drop at the beginning of the trail that is not on the video, but it was her first time trying, and she did excellent! It was a very cool day!

There was this lonely little/big rock that Mick climed on top of, and had us hand him his bike. He knows I like steep stuff, so he had me climb up and look at it as he rode off. I climbed up shaking some, with no intensions of riding off this rock, but he handed me my bike, and I didn’t want to back down now. He crawled up very carefully, one wrong twich, and we would both fall off the rock. He counted me down, and I rode off. It took a couple of countdowns, but I did it! It was cool!

When we got to the bottom, we both felt a little sick, so we decided to let David (micks dad) and Darrel (coals dad) take our bikes and ride down. We were using two vehicles to shuttle the run, so I got in the rent-a-car, and Mick drove his dads car and trailer. It was 4 wheel drifting the whole way to the bottom. The roads here are Awesome!!! I have always loved driving passes, and so this was a very good day for me! I would love to someday race some type of cars! Rally would be sweet!!!

Mick and I went out to hit some jumps for a few hours, then I was going to head to the gym. When we got to the jumps, it started to blow really hard. I had a bailing accident the other day, so I wasn’t too keen on having to bail again. So we tried to find some new jumps hidden in the trees somewhere. They could have been anywhere, but with Micks mountain man gift, we found them in a short time. They were fairly large BMX jumps. Mick cleaned them up, but I think I will practice a bit longer before I go for them.

I was ready to go to the gym. Everybody else was getting ready to go ride a track called Slipperies. I had found out earlier that no body ever comes down there first time on this track without wrecking a few times. I was pretty tired, and figured lifting tired would be better then riding rough dh course tired. Well, so much for that sound judgement. It flew out the window when I found out the gym was closed, and I didn’t want to watch everyone else go have all the fun!

Mmmmmmmm………they weren’t kidding. Only once have I ever been sent over my bars that many times. It was rediculous. I will say and stand on the grounds that Slipperies IS the hardest most tech/slick course you will ever ride in your lifes. You have to go soo slow, and if it is wet at all, YOU ARE OVER! If you keep picking up speed when you lock up your brakes, you might as well lay it over. Then to top it off, Mick, Cole, and Darrel all went up for a whole day, and put in the longest, slickest, most tech rock garden ever. Once your in, your in. There is no exscaping . It is surrounded by trees. It’s hard to walk up without falling a few times. Sooooooo…….. it’s a cool trail. The absolute most Credible part to this whole story, is that after we went and attempted to dirt jump, Mick decided he wanted to try it on his hard tail. So, I dropped him off, and sure enough, he beat me to the bottom, with only dabbing twice on his way down. I was in AWE after I rode the trial. The day before, they couldn’t even ride it without wrecking on there down hill bikes. How insane is that!!!? That is a VERY VERY GIFTED SOLID RIDER!!! I will forever be impressed by that hard tail action!

We went to the movies the other night to see fun with dick and jane, and I ended up spewing my soda on the group of people in front of me………….quite embarressing, I couldn’t stop laughing though. But it was the funniest movie I have seen in a while.

Well, that is all of my story for now. Stay tuned for more. It’s on ly going to get better and better, and better!
RIDE’N ON AND ON!!!
HANNAH LEIGH STEFFENS