Sunday Dirty Sunday

The need for the restoration of my sanity amongst muddy single track trails and days and days of rain led me to a 20 mile gravel ride on Sunday morning. I'm liking gravel rides more and more all the time. It sure beats the crap out of riding on the paved road, which I find slightly dangerous and extremely boring especially when bar stops are not part of the plan. Secondly, when single track trails aren't good for riding, at least you're out there in the country where strange and beautiful sights are plentiful. But the one thing I've found myself seeking out is Level B service roads. These roads are iffy in my 4x4 truck, let alone riding through them on a skinny wheeled cross bike. I rode down this one about 12 miles into my ride. I made it this far on my pedals. What you can't see behind me in this picture is the 1/2 mile worth of swamp I walked through to get back to dry road.






This little bridge provided a perfect place to take a rest. Lot's of critter tracks in the mud. Beautiful fall farmland lanscapes all around, and not a soul in sight from where I was standing. Like I said, I walked most of the way back to dry road, but I still tried. Wheels got so caked with mud they wouldn't even turn and the bike must've weighed 40 lbs. Those 1/4 fenders I have on the bike are pretty much worthless other than for the occasional mud puddle.


The rest of Sunday was a good day even though the Bears got their asses handed to them. Had some friends over to watch the game and enjoy some beers and pizza. Mara has a new friend down the street, and her parents like to drink beer and are Bears fans. Too bad they aren't mountain bikers, but 2 out of three ain't bad.


Potty training with Ellen continues to be an excersise in futility. Not sure what to do. Getting a little frustrated, but experts still say that the child has to want to. And she still has no problem walking around with a turd in her pants at this point.

The End is Near

Another riding season has came and went. I'm ending this season the way I have my last two. Happy I get to ride as much as I do, but wanting to do more next year. Again my list of places I wanted to ride but didn't:

Landahl, Kansas City
Levis Trow Mounds, Wisconsin
Brown County Indiana
Central Michigan

The first two should've been easy, the second two would've been a stretch. But the worst part about this year is that I did more riding alone than I ever have. It was a combination of situations where my friends are as busy as I am but at different times, and sometimes I just don't have the patience to wait for people. Either on the trail or working around schedules.

Again this year I have racing in mind next year, but like this year the time will probably come and won't want to do it. It eats up weekends and training is training, not riding. We'll see, but a couple 24 hour races wouldn't be bad at all.

We still have a few rides left this year, but after work rides require lights now. That's okay cuz night rides rock, but it's just not the same. Gotta get my winter riding gear out and get some studded tires on the way for ice riding too.

Decorah Trip

Heading to Decorah this weekend for some camping and riding. Gonna be fucking cold, but that's the way it goes. This is my only weekend to do it before the leaves start covering the trails. Hopefully will have some pics and some good stories by Sunday.

Daddy's little helper

I was supposed to be in charge of (partially anyway) a race at Beverly Park on Saturday and volunteering at a race on Sunday at Sugarbottom. I'm too fat and slow to think about actually racing right now, so I'll do the next best thing by facilitating. Unfortuntately, mother nature had other plans for us. We decided on Friday night to cancel Saturday and Sunday's events, which left the family and I with no plans. Turned out to be a good thing, because my yard looked like shit and I had some things to do around the house. As usual Ellen was up early and in good spirits, so she was my right hand girl for the day. I had a bunch of apples from the tree to pick up, leaves to rake, and recycling to take in. So Ellen helped me rake:



After that we loaded up the truck with our leaf bags and two months worth of beer bottles to take back to recycling. I get funny looks when I take my bottles back. Truth is, I do drink more beer than the average bear, but I also keep a recyling bin in the back of my truck for Moutain Biking events. Keeps the park clean and the bottles get recycled like they should rather than put in the trash.

I took Ellen's car seat out of the van and put it in my truck. She had never sat in the front seat before and absolutely loved being able to see everything in front of her. When we left the driveway, I gave the truck some gas. The truck lurched forward in a way the van is not capable of. Ellen loved it and put her arms up like you would on a rollercoaster. It was hilarious.


Here we go!



Bye Mommy!

After that Ellen and I headed to Menards. Had to get some caulk for the new door and windows, and we also figured out a way to block the hole Josey has been using in the neighbor's fence to get out of the yard.