“I consider it a tremendous honor and a privilege to serve my peers as president,” he said.

But he said he has complete confidence in his successor, Mustang-area developer Robert Crout.

“Robert is a fine man,” Dinnes said.

“I couldn't have asked for a better first vice president and somebody to take over our association. I think Robert has strong leadership skills and will continue to take the baton and move it forward.”

In a year marked with success, though, Dinnes managed to mark a milestone of his own, high in the Colorado mountains.

The avid cyclist made it through three mountain passes and 121 miles all in one day last summer, a longtime goal of his.

“And I did it in sleet,” Dinnes recalled.

“It sleeted and snowed at the top of Loveland Pass. It was brutal — they were pulling people off for hypothermia.”

Dinnes made it through unharmed, though the ice-coated roads made the descent treacherous.

“All you would do was look ahead of you trying to go slow enough to keep from wiping out,” he said.

On a grade when he'd normally let gravity kick in and pull his bike along at 30 mph to 40 mph, Dinnes said he struggled along at less than 20 mph just trying to keep the bike upright.

He got past the bad weather once he reached lower altitudes, but the memory of it sticks with him.

“I was so cold,” he recalled. “I cannot remember ever being that cold.”