Halloween weekend

Halloween used to be the weekend I knew Stacey was going to get drool on herself drunk and I'd have to drive home. That's before kids time of course. These days of course it's all about the kids. And me. The kids costumes were a little tricky this year. Mara wanted to be a dragon but a dragon costume was nowhere to be found so we settled on a lion. And Ellen of course was a princess. A snow princess as it would turn out. She didn't really care as long as it was a princess. Stacey and I went to the girls's school and daycare to watch them do little parades and fun Halloween stuff. It was really cool this year because they totally get the whole this is pretend thing. It's good stuff.

Saturday we didn't have much going on. We spent most of the day playing outside and just kinda hanging out. I had a LAMBA thing planned for the evening, a night halloween ride that I was really looking forward to. I left the house at around 3:3opm to get to the trails to get things ready. The leaves are almost all off of the trees now which means they are all on the trails. Our club owns the leaf blower of all leaf blowers that I got out with to clean up the trails a little. I made quite a dent until I ran out of gas. I took a costume with me that wasn't much of a costume at all really. It was some spandex fruity bike shorts and a white wife beater. Based on the temps last night, that didn't last long. Another thing I did before anybody got there last night was I took a bunch of beers and stashed them near an old barn foundation buried in the middle of the trail system. Made for a good stopping point to enjoy some refreshments.

Sunday was just plain awesome. The girls and Stacey went to church in the morning. While they were gone, after I got out of my first shower since Thursday I decided I'd take my Accounting book and head to HyVee for breakfast. When I was there, Stacey sent me a text telling me they were headed my way. We had a great breakfast together at HyVee and were ready for the Halloween festivities.

So after naps, we headed to an assisted living home near our house where we had been invited to trick or treat. Mara and Ellen were super excited to get into their costumes.

Ellen the Snow Princess:

Mara the Lion:

Stacey the Zoo Keeper:

We really had a nice time talking to the nice people there. They had trick or treating, games, activities, snacks and even a little hay ride:

After that we headed back home to do some trick or treating around our neighborhood. It was a lot of fun even though our neighborhood was kind of lame. The girls got lots of candy. I hauled them around in our wagon in my costume with Stacey tagging along:

We hit every house we could until the girs started to get really cold. Then we went home to hand out candy to the older kids. I had a fire going in the driveway with a cooler out there for adult trick or treating, but nobody took me up on it until my neighbor Chad and his family came by. I even had Michael Jackson Thriller playing on my stereo that I brought outside, but it didn't seem to interest most people and even bewildered a few. I hope to take things up a notch next year and try to bring our block together a little bit. All in all we had a great day and my Cousin Eddie costume was a hit. It took me all of about 3 minutes to think it up and put it together.

Hope y'all had a Happy Halloween!!

D E C O R A H

If you were to search the history of this blog, you'd see a few decorah posts. In fact, I think two of my last three posts were to tell a story of my decorah trips. It's more of a reflection of my neglect of this blog than the frequency of my trips to Decorah. Anyways, my buddies and I went there again last weekend. Again, I tried to talk my wife into joining me but the forecast called for nights in the 30's. Good camping weather for me, but a little beyond her comfort zone. So Josey and I made the trip.

I got up there late Friday afternoon after scouring NE Iowa for that ever elusive bottle of Templeton Rye but to no avail. So instead, I rode. I got there early enough to get a campsite and go for a little solo ride as I knew Saturday's riding would be stop and go. I find myself having a lot more patience on the stop and go rides when my legs already have the cobwebs out of them. Regardless, I got my ride in and went back to camp. It wasn't long before folks started arriving and the night around the fire ensued. Below is evidence that there was some carnage, but it paled in comparison to other Friday nights in Pulpit Rock Campground.

We got going sometime late morning but had to stop at a bike shop because Adam forgot his shoes. He was prepared to purchase a new pair of shoes and cleats, but luckily the owner of Oneota Bike Shop is one of the coolest people on the planet and just happens to be a mountain biker that had a really big role in the very existense of arguably the best trail system in Iowa.

This guy not only gave Adam a pair of shoes to use for the weekend free of charge, but he happens to be brewing 25 gallons of beer in the back of his shop. Does your bike shop have a giant vat of beer brewing in the back room? I doubt it.

It wasn't long and we were up in the bluffs doing some riding. We had a tour guide that I've known for a while now but until this day had never seen sober. Turns out Spinner is a hell of a nice guy and a damn good rider despite his size. We went up to the top of the bluffs and checked out the view on one of our breaks.

On our way back down one trail system on our way to another, we found a little skinny to play around on. There are bigger and more consequential ones that we rode, but this is the only one where the camera came out. Here Adam is showing me how it's done.

And then I joined in on the fun. This is the first quasi-technical riding I have done since August when I tacoed my front wheel. A mishap that will eventually cost me around $200 to fix.

After a few hours, we retired to T-Bocks for some PBR's and some chow. This is hands down my favorite bar in Iowa. Good beers, good people, and they support the local club and trails.

Later, the locals gathered at our campsite. We let Adam catch a nap and finish his IPA before we headed out for a night ride.

Turns out that most night rides in Decorah end at a spot I've mentioned before called the Glory Hole. Now, it was only recently that I've learned the true origin of the term Glory Hole. This both goes to display both my level of naivity as well as the juvenile behavior that I enjoy so much about mountain biking culture. The glory hole, as it is re-defined in decorah is a place to drink beer and have a burn barrel fire. The beer planted early and strategically and is kept cold in a bat cave and the fire is started using stashed gasoline and collected firewood. Good times are sure to be had when 12 people bring no less than 90 cans of beer, 20 brats, and plenty of bullshit stories and don't leave until all have expired.

The burn barrel is / was a piece of art at one point having some sort of demon face cut out of it where embers spit out of periodically.

A game of toss the scalding hot ember even took place. Even I wasn't stupid enough to get involved in a game where a red hot ember flies towards you hacky-sack style where you're supposed to catch it and toss it to someone else before it burns your fucking fingers off. I figured abstaining from such activities would make my mother proud. Peer pressure can be a bitch especially when preceded by multiple 30 packs of cheap beer.

Our day at Sugarbottom

We've lived here for almost 5 years now. I've ridden what I consider to be a top notch trail system called Sugarbottom probably in the neighborhood of 50 times in those 5 years, but Stacey and the kids have never joined me. It's not that I expect them to ride because I certainly don't, but it's cool to make something you love a family affair. So it took the Topps', whom we know through my parents and Clear Lake, to get Stacey to get the kids and herself to come and check it out. Jack sent me a text message Friday morning suggesting we meet at Sugarbottom on Saturday afternoon and that's what we did. The Topps and I arrived there earlier and Stacey and the kids joined us later. We had a great ride on the trails. It was absolutely beautiful outside and the sun was shining through the pine trees that make up the South side of Sugarbottom. Everybody made it through the trail system unscathed.

As is often the case, a great part of mountain biking is what ensues aspres ride. The kids and Stacey were at the trailhead in the parking lot along with our coolers full of beverages and food. When we rolled up Mara was doing the pee-pee dance and the bathrooms had been locked up for the season. Luckily, she was able to get past her natural Schwartz/Ritter born vanity and was able to drop trou and pee in the grass. She wasn't quite as proud of that as I was, but she sure felt better and went straight back to perfecting her sand volcano. Ellen on the other hand is quite content at this point peeing in the grass. In fact, I'm pretty sure she gets a kick out of it. Mara and Ellen played in the sand and on the swings at the trailhead quite literally until dark. They had a great time and had sand well embedded in their hair as well any other conceivable place. While Stacey took them home, the Topps and I kept working on emptying our coolers.

Anyways, a day at the trails is as good as it gets for me. And I was happy to share it with my family and some good friends.