Sunday, May 30, 2010

Cue 38 Special



And push play on "Chain Lightning!" because that's what I just escaped! I left home at about 7:30 in clear weather, nice wind out of the North, and headed out on my usual route. I reached mile 13 (ominously) and the beautiful sunset I had been enjoying (think Klein Sunset Fade, Tinker Juarez era) turned to distant lightning. No biggie, I rationalized, as long as it stays in front of me. Well that didn't last for long, and before you can say, "When the time is right, the sparks ignite," it was all over the sky. Left, right, above, behind. Everywhere! Since there was no thunder, I re-rationalized, there can't be any harm in dropping down to my last gear, using the sweet tailwind I had just paid for, and rolling on...right? Clicked off a couple more miles and the sitch got to be too much for my nerves. Flashes of fear fired through my brain. "How did those guys on Trans Iowa keep rolling?" "Where is the next bolt going to contact the ground, or something else?" You know when you can imagine the news anchors saying, " A 44 year old Boone man was struck by lightning Sunday evening, while, of all things, riding his bike on a gravel road," that it's time to get off the road. So I whipped out the trusty celly and called my awesome wife for a ride home. No shame for me, just plain smart I thought. The fact that I continued riding until I met up with her, not so smart, but meh, I lived. She even interrupted her chic flick to haul me home! How do I rate?
I have been doing some night riding lately, just works better for timing with work (2 long days from 9:00 am until 8:00pm) and school schedules for the kidlets. Hard to work the tan lines at night, but as Guitar Ted witnessed the other night, the moon has been bright! The miles fly by at night when you don't try to keep track of where you are on a familiar route. I was out Friday night from 10:00 to about 12:45, and I felt like I was only out there for an hour tops! Had an interesting experience too. I noticed a strange track of some kind in the gravel. It was a cross hatched trail, about a foot wide, that criss-crossed the road for several miles. I guess I didn't think too much about it until I stopped at the beer totem to down a quick Miller (love the new/retro labels)

and started to hear voices down the road. Well, the breeze was straight out of the South, and the night was otherwise very still, so I figured it could be from a few miles away. Somebody banging something metal with a hard object, voices in distress, then quiet. For a moment I considered going another mile over before heading home, to avoid whoever it was, but decided to finish my champagne and roll on the usual route anyways. Well, I crested the top of a roller and saw what was going on. Some kids had blown a tire, rolled the bead, and continued to drive on it for about 10 miles with the tire flopping around. They had parked it in the bottom of the rollers to figure out a next move. Those bits of fender lining and tire tread I had seen now started to make sense;) It didn't take a BP executive to figure out that they were drunk and road tripping, so I immediately squashed any ideas of stopping, and put the hammer down! I flew past them, tires crunching gravel, Light and Motion Stella blazing, and calmly said, "What's up," to which one dismayed kid replied, "What the FUCK!!!!!?????" Must have been shocked, huh? I made it home fine, sure they did too. They didn't seem too phased by having driven on their rim for 10+ miles! I guess you never know what you'll see out there. Happy rides. Later!

Thursday, May 20, 2010

*


Andreu
Vaughters
Hamilton
Heras
Beltran
Landis
...

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Me Likey!


The Scorpion, by ETON. I saw this in a magazine, Outside I believe. All I can say is, "Must Have!" Stored power for the phone or MP3, and a bottle opener, among other amenities. Weather permitting (read:Sunshine), a person might be allowed to use this on Trans Iowa? Hmm? Launches this month, but I can't find a retailer for it around here. We cut up our credit card :), so I can't easily order one on the web :( Oh Well, Later!