Wednesday, July 7, 2010

R Avenue Ravaged!

The bank in the top picture is usually about 6 feet of black dirt and a little trickle of water. A sink hole ready to eat my bike, not tonight! And below, nothing better than a flask and a whole bunch of nowhere! All's well that ends well!


A storm popped up about eight miles North of town last night, dumping 5 inches of rain in just over an hour! Yikes! Kelli told me that there was a story on KCCI about how bad the roads were, and after seeing it on line at www.kcci.com, I just HAD to ride out and see for myself. Sure enough, the signs of high water were all around. One part of the story showed a father and son kayaking through the stuff. Wild.
Some of the roads were scoured down to the original dirt that lies below all gravel roads. I couldn't believe it. At least it was an intensely isolated storm and didn't dump all over the county with this Biblical proportion. Still riding gravel, just not Blogging about it much. Tried to get time off for Guitar Ted's Death Ride, but the "Boss" at work said no go:( Later!

Thursday, July 1, 2010

It's That Time Of Year Again

So peaceful and alluring that it draws people from all over just to stare at it.
Somewhere beyond that flask, beyond that water, into the misty beyond, the trails of Seven Oaks are waiting for a hero to come and ravage every rock and root. Will you answer the call?


A little exposure never hurt anyone, right?
Poor man's 9er, complete with 1X6 drive, clips and straps, and a set of floor jack- spread Cinelli bars on a Cinelli stem, rolling on 2.1 Notos XCs. Hummmmmmmmmmmm!
Safe-schmafe, just drive over it and pay your gas taxes. We know what's good for you, you don't!

Time for the river to flood out a major highway and foul up a lot of plans. Lord knows I don't need more obstacles in the way of people who might possibly be trying to get to our little furniture store. Close Hwy 17 for bridge repair, well, OK. I guess the good suburbanites of your western Des Moines areas will use their in-dash navigation screens to find a way to Boone to buy furniture. Close Hwy 30 so that all of our western Iowa advert audience has to pause before driving to Boone, not so good. Not funny how a few extra feet of water can screw up a solid 6 consecutive weeks, full page,(outside back mind you!) color advert in the major Western Iowa paper.
This water will be around for a "damn" long time, and we're barely into Summer. Oh Well...:( At least the gravel has stayed dry. Good old gravel. Give it an hour to shake off the rain and you're on the wheel! Later!