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.