Olympic bike

Are you getting ready for the Summer Olympics? I guess this guy is!

Meeting any certain time?

Are bike bloggers, MS150-ers or Team FAB-ers meeting up tomorrow night at a certain time at STI for vittles and our information stuff / handing in pledges?

Tag .......

If you could have any one — and only one — bike in the world, what would it be? Not sure. I am guessing some sort of custom bike made just for me or a bike that would have some sort of special significance like one of Lance Armstrong's bikes from the TDF.


Do you already have that coveted dream bike? If so, is it everything you hoped it would be? If not, are you working toward getting it? If you’re not working toward getting it, why not? NOPE, to many other priorities at this point.


If you had to choose one — and only one — bike route to do every day for the rest of your life, what would it be, and why? I have not ridden that much but I do like the bike path out by Lewis and Clark Lake even though it is short it is great smelling the food and campfires as you ride and also the view of the lake is great.


Do you ride both road and mountain bikes? If both, which do you prefer and why? If only one or the other, why are you so narrow-minded? I ride both. My mtn bike is pretty much my commuter bike and I do feel more comfy on it but I do ride it a lot more than my road bike.


Have you ever ridden a recumbent? If so, why? If not, describe the circumstances under which you would ride a recumbent. I have never ridden one. I have heard they are hard to ride (you go Mr Mayor) I guess I might give it a try at some point but just not sure. I think I would rather try and tandem.


Have you ever raced a triathlon? Nope...I swim like a ROCK so that part is out for me.


Suppose you were forced to either give up ice cream or bicycles for the rest of your life. Which would you give up, and why? I like both and it would be hard to give up either. So, guessing it would be ice cream but I would have to cheat and have some once in a while!


What is a question you think this questionnaire should have asked, but has not? Also, answer it. Do you wear Lycra shorts or baggy mtn bike shorts? I wear lycra even thought this wonderfully shaped body looks marvelous in them. They are just comfy!



Why is tagging someone legal? Because killing people with words does not work at times! (hahaha-sorry ridevermillion!)


What is my favorite thing about cycling? Seeing things that people take for granted while riding in a car.



Now, tag three biking bloggers. List them below.
Team Welliver (yup niecie-poo you are it)

Hellimat

Hooterville Mayor

MS150 this weekend

It is FAST approaching and I have not ridden enough miles. I think the longest ride I have done this year was 30 miles on my own so doing 75 miles two days in a row will be tough, but not much I can do about it now. It is not about doing the ride it is about raising money for a great cause. People struggle with the disease every second of every day. Thank you to everyone that have made a donation so far!

By the way it is not to late to donate either. Click on the MS150 logo on the right of my blog page and it will take you right to my MS150 page.

Anyway, I guess I need to start thinking about what I need along for this ride. Of course my cytomax powder, Gu, chamois butter, sunscreen, water bottles, sunglasses, mirror, camelbak, rain jacket, cash, change of clothes, shoes and toiletries for Saturday night. Oh ya a tube, multi tool, helmet, gloves, cycle shorts, cycle jersey, cycle socks, and cycle shoes. Anything else I am forgetting?

Should be a good time and I am looking forward to meeting up with a bunch of the local bloggers at long last!

Brief top?

I guess this is a new way to save a few bucks and buy your tops in a three pack!

Pedal vs Metal

New road rage? Read about it here.

Weekend recap and a random thought

So, this might be one if the longest between post I have had in a LONG time! Work has been nuts as always and it looks to be that way for some time.

Last week was busy and so was the weekend.

We hit Yankton and of course Charlies for some great pizza (carbo loading for saturday morning ride). Saturday morning came and it had dark nasty clouds heading into Yankton so we opted to get on with our other duties. We headed to Wausa, NE to pick up more beef out of our locker.
I love their beef sticks from there so we picked up a few of them also and then we found they have smoked pork chops. I have had these before from another locker but not the Wausa locker. We purchased a few of them and headed to do more errand things in Yankton. Let me say that the people that work at the Wausa locker are very nice and I would do business with them again.
Got back to Yankton and went to the Riverfront Grill (oops, I guess it is Waterfront Grill -thank you for the correction, Ben). This is a place I will not be going back to. We had ice tea, 2-burgers and an appetizer and it was $36! The food was ok, not all that special but the service, plain and simple SUCKED. It takes a lot to get me not to go back to a place so you know the service was bad.

We got back to the townhouse and started in on the bathroom again. Ceiling is all painted, walls all painted and touched up, exhaust fan all blown out, shower all polished, new shower rod (curve type) and shower curtain all installed. Boy, does it look nice. It has a spa fee with the beige color and white (at this point) accents. The curved shower curtain rod makes the shower feel so big, almost like another room! Feels good to have this all done but we were very tired from our running around and interior design jobs. Decided it was time to hit the food prep for supper. We of course had to have some smoked pork chops, sweet potatoes and peas. We did buy a salad but forgot about it. Guessing that will show up on the menu tonight some how. Anyway Kris broke open the whiskey! YUP, we had high balls with our supper! I am a crown and seven girl and Kris is a Jameson and seven girl. We each had two and that was plenty but ooohhh so good. Needless to say I was asleep in the recliner by 9:00pm.

Sunday we had thought about hitting the road for a bike ride but we still had to do house cleaning and laundry at the clubhouse plus the temps were nasty in Yankton and also the humidity or as I overhead one guy at the RAGBRAI first day calling it stupidity. We had a few more errands and tried to check out a place for brunch at the Marina but seems they do not have brunch there anymore as it was closed so off to Minerva's it was and of course it is always good there. Rose came over to check out the bathroom and gave it a thumbs up and then we sat and had a beer with her. We got all our work done and loaded up the truck to head out. I got in the truck to turn it around and the temp said 107. It was parked in the direct sun in the driveway but man it was hot. The temp did drop to 101 after I turned it around...still HOT!
We headed home and noticed the temp really dropped as we got closer to Sioux Falls.

I did a few work things and then we watched the final of the the Tour De France. Yankton of course does not have Versus (at least our cable package does not have it) so I had been getting updates from my texting boss on Saturday about the time trial. Glad to see that Christian had a good time trial and if he would not have had that one bad day he would have been on the podium but there is next year! He did really well considering he was not even mentioned in any of the prelim press as favorites. Way to go Christian! He also needs a stronger team around him.....my opinion only!

Well, I better head back to work. Hope everyone is doing well and has a great week. Tonight with the impending weather AGAIN I will be riding the trainer for a bit....OH GOODIE!

Oh ya, I also have a questionnaire to fill out since RideVermillion tagged me. I am guessing I will fill that out tonight.

Things to ponder......
Why do they pronounce the town name as Viberg when it is spelled Viborg? The same with the Norfolk / Norfork. Regionalisms?

Another challenge...I pledged!

Take the Trek 1 World 2 Wheel Challenge.

Relay for Life, RAGBRAI, Biking and Painting.....

Hit Bridge City Friday night for the Relay for Life. Ok, let me just say this is a very cool and moving experience. If you have never been a part of it you should help or donate luminaries ($10.00 a bag) in honor of a survivor or in memory of a loved one.

The Yankton group has a great venue down at Riverside Park along the Missouri River on the walking path. The path gets lined with the luminaries of survivors and ones that have passed away from cancer. After all the luminaries are lit they have a local guy lead a lap while he plays the bag pines. WOW, it is so powerful. I was told this year there were 106 survivors that walked and last year their was 101! Very cool the there was on increase in number and I am proud to say that my Godparents are two of the survivors!

It was so very hot down there and humid at the park we decided to make a slight detour to the Ice House for a couple cold ones. As it turns out a few of us had the "Champagne of Beers", Yup, Miller High Life. I have been into trying the retro-beers so this was fun. Not sure if you know about the Ice House but it has a long tradition and you can read about it here. Very fun evening. The picture below shows us at the Ice House from LtoR me, Rose, Kris, Joan and Luther with their survivor shirts on.

Saturday we got the newer beverage (beer) fridge switched over and filled up. She is looking real good! We did some painting and then headed out of town to Missouri Valley to meet up with my sister and brother-in-law. Of course I am sure a few of you know that this was the start of RAGBRAI (Registers Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa) this year. Kris had never seen this before and she was AMAZED. If you have never seen it there is nothing like it. There are tents, bikes, buses and people EVERYWHERE! Any spare open ground has tents on it. It is like a giant moving city of 10,000 (I think) that moves everyday! Saw some neat things. Cannondale and Trek had their own booths that you could "rent" one of their bikes to ride for a day in the tour. Really cool bikes that they had to rent also. I am sure they hope the "rent" would turn into "buy" but still a good way to promote their products. Cliff Bar challenge had a fun booth with free samples and stickers. They also had an interesting bicycle with what looked to have its own generator on it to power whatever. (see pic below) I think it was the Trek booth that had this very interesting weight to hold up their canopy. The bucket was full of old pedals! (see pic below).

We buzzed over to a place for supper before heading out into the NASTY WEATHER! There was a line of bad storms moving through the area on Saturday night and we got caught in a pretty good down pour for about 10 miles. Got home around 11:30pm and hit the sack!

Sunday I painted the walls in the bathroom and then I ventured out for a bike ride while Kris finished cleaning up and doing some more trim work painting. I headed out of Yankton on old hwy 50 to Mission Hill and headed north to valley view. Lets just say this part of the ride was not fun as it had just been "chip sealed" with the pink crushed rock. It made for a noisy ride and I ended up with some tar on my water bottles, plus I forgot to put on sun screen so my arms are a little red. Hit Valley View and headed east to Volin and then took the lower bluff road to the road that heads south to Meckling where I met up with Kris in Toby's parking lot, 27.03 miles, loaded up and headed to Sioux Falls. We then met a friend that was in town from Colorado. It sure was good to see her and her life is going in a different direction. I think she is the happiest I have seen her in a LONG TIME! YOU GO GIRL!

So as you can tell it was a busy weekend and I am bushed today.

I forgot to tell you all that I am an owner of another Cannondale bike. My brother-in-law gave me his old Cannondale from the mid-late 80s for parts. It has Shimano components and my Cannondale has Suntour which is not made anymore so I can switch parts over to mine if I like or whatever I want to do with the bike. I will have to ponder some thoughts about it yet and see what can be done. Kind of fun adding to the stable! THANKS STAN!

Be careful out there.....

More bikes on the road mean more accidents. Read about it here.

Tour De Dope...AGAIN?

Here we are at stage 12 of the tour and what do you know. More riders have been "arrested" because of doping allegations. The big one of the group is Riccardo Ricco. He has won two stages already and was holding the white jersey (best young rider) and the polka dot jersey (king of the mountain) plus their team Saunier Duvel was in 1st place. What gives? Do they really think they can get away with doping? The frustrating thing for me is that I believe he tested positive at stage 4 of the tour and we just now have the results and today was stage 12.
Saunier Duvel decided to pull their whole team from the tour because of the allegations. So I guess Riccardo joins Manuel Beltran (Liquigas) and Moises Nevado (Barloworld) as kicked out of the 2008 tour because of doping.

Ok, so here is the bad thing, not that doping isn't bad but, say you have a rider that has a great day and rides with "no chain" as they say. People are going to automatically think they have doped even if the test comes back negative there will always be people that think that individual cheated the system some how...especially a non-French winner or some disgruntled ex-tour winner that is American (Clearly, my own opinion, Mr Lemond!) and of course you still have questionable lab testing practices out there. I assume that someday the testing will be kicked out faster so that these individuals do not go 8 more stages before they are found allegedly guilty and that the labs practice better techniques so there are no more questions to dopers being positive.

I am sure glad the MS150 does not do doping test!.......excuse me while I go sleep in my oxygen tent. Oh, ya and if you want to hear a catchy little EPO tune check out this from Biking Brady's blog.

Recreational Trails Receive Funding

Recreational Trails Receive Funding PIERRE, S.D. – Bicyclists, hikers and motorized trail users will soon have several new places in South Dakota to enjoy their leisure time.
Gov. Mike Rounds recently awarded Recreational Trails Program (RTP) funding to several communities and organizations across the state. The federal assistance program provides up to 80 percent reimbursement for trail-related development and maintenance projects.
“These project sponsors have shown a strong commitment to improving their communities and making South Dakota a great location to enjoy the outdoors on our trails,” said Gov. Rounds. “Their efforts will benefit future generations of South Dakotans.”
The following local sponsors were awarded grants: Black Hills Mountain Bike Association for purchase of trail building equipment; Black Hills Nordic Ski Club for purchase of trail grooming equipment; City of Box Elder for trail construction; City of Custer for trail construction; City of Dell Rapids for trail construction; City of Mitchell for signing of the bike trail; City of Rapid City for trail work at Skyline Nature Area.
The following State Recreation Areas were awarded grants for trail improvement projects: Angostura Recreation Area, Lake Poinsett Recreation Area, Mickelson Trail and North Point Recreation Area.
The following motorized trail projects were awarded grants: Black Hills National Forest for signing of authorized off-highway vehicle (OHV) roads and purchase of trail building equipment; Black Hills Snowmobile Trail system for purchase of trail grooming equipment; Revheim Bay OHV Area for the purchase of a new vault toilet; SD Snowmobile Association for a snowmobile safety ad campaign.
The Recreational Trails Program is funded by the Federal Highway Administration and administered in South Dakota by the Department of Game, Fish and Parks. The funds come from the Federal Highway Trust Fund, and represent a portion of the motor fuel excise tax collected from non-highway recreational fuel use: fuel used for off-highway recreation by snowmobiles, all-terrain vehicles, off-highway motorcycles, and off-highway light trucks.
Examples of trail projects funded by RTP include hiking, bicycling, in-line skating, equestrian, cross-country skiing, snowmobiling, off-road motorcycling and all-terrain vehicle use. For more information on this program, contact Randy Kittle, Grants Coordinator, Department of Game, Fish and Parks, 523 E. Capitol Ave., Pierre, SD 57501-3182.

Trainer...Breaking Away

With the pending weather out there last night I opted to ride the trainer last night for 50 min. UGH...I am not a fan of them but it went ok. I started out watching the Tour De France recap of the first 10 stages but decided I needed to watch something I had not seen before so I popped in a Christmas present DVD from last year, Breaking Away.

Pretty silly biking movie, but entertaining. Amazing to see how young some of the actors looked, clothes they were wore, and of course the old bikes. Dennis Quaid and those short white shorts are pretty funny. At least now I know where the name Cutters comes from. Speaking of them, I have not seen them at the tour yet this year!

Oh, well. It was an ok movie but I liked American Flyers much better!

Ciao..........

Many hats....

Work is nasty busy at this point. Perhaps you read in a previous post that one of our office co-workers is out and in the hospital and will be for sometime, so we are wearing more hats in our office than usual! I even got to wear an accounting hat for a bit last week which is a scary thought in itself.

So what kind of hat would an accounting person wear anyway?

A capuchon which is a cone shaped ceremonial hat. I am guessing this would not be worn unless it was the end of the fiscal year or IRS taxes are all done and submitted.

Maybe they would wear a war bonnet during any sort of audit process?

Maybe the normal hat is the Bowler or the Derby..who knows!

As for me, my hat is really at the very least nothing but at the most it would be a baseball hat for all occasions that a hat would need to be worn or a bike helmet when riding. The only thing I would have in common with the hats pictured above is the inevitable hat head. When I take my hat off, I have been told, I look like I have a hair net on.....guess I should be serving food instead!

Hot, Wind, Beer and Pierre.......long version

Headed to Pierre this past weekend. Got out of town after dropping off a couple of sponsor donations (checks) for MS150. We were told that there was road construction on the indy and in Ft Pierre so we took back roads. I do like taking different routes to places but this was not so fun. The wind was blowing straight out of the west and the temps were rising as we headed west.

We left Sioux Falls and it was 94. Headed straight out west 41st street to the Wall Lake road headed north then hit Hwy 42 and headed west to Hwy 37 north on Hwy 37 to Hwy 34 and headed west all the way to Pierre. We stopped for gas in Wessington Springs as we figured that was the last big town to fill up unless we wanted to stop in Ft Thompson. I have stopped in Ft Thompson to fill up the truck before and didn't much like it so stopping at Wessington Springs was the option. So we fill up and of course I had to use the facilities at the Hum Dinger. Yup, the Hum Dinger was the name of the convenience store in the little berg. As I found out it was not only a convenience store but a , liquor store, video store, coffee joint, gas station, and get this tanning salon! Now that was a Hum Dinger of a stop....wow! We did note that the temp had climbed to 101...YUCK! This would be the least expensive gas on the trip at $3.99/gallon and with running the air and driving into the wind the mpg SUCKED! Heading west to our eventual destination we found the road rather interesting as they were not exactly smooth but it made it exciting. Then comes the driving over the hill seeing the Missouri River. Very neat views along there that is for sure.

We hit Pierre, temp had dropped to 88 and the wind was still blowing. We unloaded and headed to Ft Pierre for some grub at McClelland's. Good walleye at this place but the best thing of all was I got a Schlitz! We have been talking about trying some of the retro beers and since I saw it in the cooler I figured why not order it since this was a bar / bait shop turned restaurant it seemed fitting. The waitress kind of chuckled when I placed my beverage order and of course Kris and Jay, the other two grub eaters for the night, were very surprised. I have to say it was not bad but seemed really light tasting with more carbonation. It was ok but there are other beers I like better still it was fun to try and given the chance I might just order one again. My next retro beer was going to be Hamms, from the land of sky blue waters, but our waitress was a bit late getting back to our table so I opted for Newcastle back at the house. Lots of chatting and laughing before bed time.

Saturday brought MORE WIND..UGH! We walked down to the coffee shop and picked up bagels and coffee for breakfast and then walked back. Of course the dogs, Abe and Millie (Liz and Jay's dog) went with the three of us and of course the dogs do want they do by peeing and pooping. One very nice experience was that Kris picked up Abe's poop to find a hole in the poop bag. She washed up in the Missouri River and then the comfort station to find no soap but at least she was semi-clean. We got back tot he house and Jay made a WONDERFUL breakfast. Scrambled eggs, cut up green olives stuffed with garlic, cut up onion and then cooked in in egg rings. They of course were put on out bagels with a piece of cheese...YUM-O! I took a look at Jay's old Giant mtn bike. He could not get the repaired tire back on it. It was just a simple thing of releasing the brake and putting on the tire. I filled up the tires with air, lubed the chain and we washed off the bike and it was almost like new! We then decided on taking a bike ride. Yes, it was still WINDY! We headed out and I of course had an advantage since I was on my road bike. We hit the trail and then over the bridge. The bridge was nasty crossing over with the wind and the draft from the traffic. We got sucked and pulled every which way on the bridge. Once off the bridge it was better until we got out in the wide open prairie! I stopped as I was hauling the water for Jay and figured he needed a drink. We then notice Kris had stopped behind us to get a drink. She started up again and went maybe 50 feet and stopped and of course had the "something is wrong with my bike look" so we headed back to see what the problem was. Her chain came off the small chain ring so I got it back on and then she said she was DONE. I explained to her that out goal was within reach just around the corner but she said go ahead and go but she was DONE! Ok. Meanwhile Jay was turning his bike one direction to finish the goal then back around to not finish the goal. Needless to say "I am Done!" was the saying for the weekend. We stopped and headed back to Pierre. The wind was REALLY bad out there. I decided to fly back so I hit the pedals hard and stopped under the bridge to wait for Kris and Jay. Once all of us re-hydrated we headed up on the bridge again. This time was not as bad but there were a couple times that the gust caught us a bit. Of course we had a pretty good hill to go up even thought it was short it was hard. Kris did a good job and got 3/4 of the way up before walking up it and I was a bit nervous since the last short uphill like that I had been on was the "Mayor Slayer" and my calves cramped up. Well I was happy to make it up the hill no cramping and no walking although I did have to get out of the saddle to get up it. We only went 6 miles but better than nothing! Saturday night it was hitting the Cattleman's Club for supper...YUM..and then back to the house with one more little walking trip to Zestos for ice cream. I proceeded to drop my vanilla cone and Kris was kind enough to share her raspberry / vanilla cone with me. Lets just say the raspberry was wonderful!...thanks Skip!

Sunday we had a great lunch with roast, mashed potatoes, gravy, salad, corn and banana bars for desert...Oh ya and some wine! We loaded up and headed back to Sioux Falls and decided to take the indy home. The construction was no so bad. Lots of motor homes and motorcycles on the road. Stopped in Kimball for gas $4.09/ gallon...UGH!

It was a fun weekend with lots of great food (scale did not like me this morning), laughter and company!

End of the week for me!

My week is OVER! It sure was a long with with the roomies mom having surgery, only one bike ride, co-worker in the hospital and just work in general. Glad the weather is warm so I don't need to cut the grass yet!

Heading to Pierre for the weekend. This is usually the 35 and older state softball tournament in Pierre weekend but we could not round up enough old able bodies so we decided to for go the tournament this year. Kris and I still decided we would head there to visit her sister and brother-in-law but with her mom's surgery plans kind of changed...no big deal. We are taking the bikes along to do some riding in the HOT weather but not sure how long we will ride.

Commuting this week SUCKED! I just didn't know what it would hold with the co-worker in ICU. She is staying pretty much the same but not getting any worse which is good. Still very scary with pneumonia and sepsis (blood infection) the sepsis can be fatal. We of course hope they got in to the hospital in time to get it taken care of. She was given 70% change of survival as of Sunday.

Not all that much happening and so I will be off grid for a few days.

Keep watching the tour. It is getting exciting!

Have a good weekend everyone! Ride on........

A kiss on the head from a stranger.......

I did forget to report on one very peculiar thing that happened to me last night. There was a lady in the restaurant that was from Texas and was speaking Spanish to the wait staff because she had missed speaking Spanish so much when she moved to Sioux Falls. This particular lady was also VERY LOUD when she spoke. Anyway she got up to leave and told our table to have a good night and wished a happy birthday to the person having the birthday, which I raised my hand and said it was me...mistake number ONE! She came over gave me a hug and a kiss on the head for my birthday. Mistake number TWO, I pretended to care as I am a kind and caring person, don't choke on that last statement. So, she then felt the need to tell us about her and introduced us to her adopted daughter who is a mentally challenged girl. Yes, she actually introduced her daughter like that to us and then proceeded to say that it was ok as her daughter knows everything about where she came from and the way she is. I could not help but think maybe her adoptive mother was mentally challenged? WOW, she was an interesting sort that was for sure.

Sore calves.......

No bike ride today as my calves are still very sore. I had the resident PT massage them and now I have bruises on them and a little pitting edema...go figure. They are feeling a bit better tonight which is good.

The day was a bit crazy at work. We are going to be down an employee for a few weeks as she is in the hospital, so all of us will have MANY hats to wear at work for a while.

We hit Puerta Vallarta (sp?) for supper with some friends. Good food and laughter was had by all!

Kris's mom is having surgery on her wrist tomorrow so that will be a lot of fun. I guess a plate and screws are in order.

Oh ya...today was my 44th birthday...where do the years go?

TDF Stages 1-3 (spoiler if you have not heard about stage 3!)

Well, the TDF is off and running or should I have said riding! Seems like a lot of folks have given up and are not watching since there are no real dominating Americans racing this year. To that I say "WHAT?" For the, I think first time ever we have two American sponsored teams racing that have a good chance at putting riders on the podium. Not so sure about in Paris but there is still a chance. Team Garmin-Chipotle which up until a few weeks ago was call Team Slipstream and Team Columbia which was Team High Road a couple weeks ago and last year was T-Mobile.
These two teams have the potential to place someone and win stages.

So, Stage 1 of the TDF was won by Alejandro Valverde. He is one of the favorites to be on the podium in Paris. He would wear the yellow jersey (race leader) in Stage 2.

Stage 2 was won by my Norske man Thor Hushvold, ok, then there, don't ya know! He had a great lead out and won the sprint! This still left Alejandro Valverde in the yellow jersey.

SPOILER............Don't read if you do not want to know what happened and would rather watch the recap show on Versus tonight!
Stage 3 was something! I of course follow along on the work computer, while working! As many of you know there is ALWAYS a break-away group and usually the break-away group gets caught at some point during the end of the race but NOT TODAY! Four guys broke out and an American was one of them! Yes, you heard it.....Team Garmin Chipotle had William Frischkorn in the break-away. Romain Feillu won the stage, Frischkorn was second and Samuel Dumoullin was third. This takes the yellow away from Valverde and puts it on Dumoullin's back which means leads the GC (general classification) at this point and Frischkorn jumps up to 3rd in the GC! Valverde drops to 4th. Frischkorn is only 1m42s back from Dumoullin. The other top American GC overall standings include George Hincappie (Team Columbia) and Christian Vandevelde (Garmin Chipotle) both 1m52s back and in 19th and 25th spots respectively. Way to go guys!

More news.....Garmin Chipotle leads the team division and Frischkorn was named the more combative rider after stage 3, no this does not mean he likes to hit people, but it means he was the most aggressive meaning attacking or pushing the lead and riding out front.

There is a lot of tour left so this could be a fun one to watch unfold!

FABRAD and receap

The 4th was a good time. We went out to Kris's aunt and uncles for a family reunion. It included family stories, good food and a tour of her cousin's dairy farm. An amazing operation! They milk 1425 cows!

Saturday was the annual FABRAD ride. I chose the 30 mile route. The wind was blowing pretty darn good from the south as we headed out of town. Got out by Spring Creek Golf Course and I hit the "Mayor Slayer" it is a nasty steep short uphill but it is a KILLER , plus I ran totally out of gears! I made maybe half way up then had to step off as my calves went into spasm. I hoped back on and just a bit further down the road I heard a noise in the ditch and a BIG buck jumped out and ran across the road about 20-30 feet in front of me. I looked back to see another buck about to do the same. All I could say was WOW! I made it to the half way point for some fig newtons, beverages, TDF update (thanks Matt) then hit the road again. I pretty much rode by myself as people are a lot faster than me but I was not the last of the group either. Made it to Harrisburg to use the facilities and chatted with a mechanic from Harlan's about my bike and I found out what year it is. 1990 Cannondale 3.0 road bike (could not remember when I purchased it). Ends up he had almost the same frame on the bike he was riding but it was a years older and of course had much better components since mine has the old Suntour Blaze. Suntour is not even made anymore. Anyway, the fun was about to begin as I headed back north to Sioux Falls with the great tailwind. I did end up dropping my new Camelbak water bottle but it did not split open which was good only a little scuff on the bottom of the bottle and dirt in the spout....no harm. I hit Sioux Falls and for some reason I had it in my head that we turn at 41st street which I thought was strange but I was looking for the signage also and missed it, anyway I ended up FLYING down Cliff Ave hill...36.3miles per hour! That is a record for me. I then decided I had missed the turn so headed back to the bike trail and around to Cherry Rock park and road the bike trail to finish with 30.04 miles for the day. The trail was BUSY! Lots of people with NO HELMETS, lots of families out biking and stopping ON THE TRAIL! I did meet a couple out walking their Newfie, Frances. He was a pretty 1.5 year old cool guy.

So, this was my longest ride of the year and the factoids were not so bad given the walking of the bike and the wind from the south. 30.04 miles, 2h34m46s ride time, 11.95 ave speed, 36.3 max speed.

Once back at the park there was food and music provided. It was a good club ride with, last I heard, 106 riders from the area.

Ok, so today, my calves are mooing pretty bad! Guessing it was from the "Mayor Slayer" I have to stretch more and the roomie is going to massage them again tonight!

All in all it was a good holiday weekend. Today was spent out at the farm and then we hit Dell Rapids for the cheap movie theater and saw Wall-e. It was cute but not the best Pixar movie.

Hope everyone had a good weekend also!

Happy 4th of July!

HAVE A GREAT AND SAFE JULY 4TH!

Margarita's anyone?

Check out this ultimate margarita blender here.

Bikin' and rolling music!

What a night....

Usually, Wednesday evenings are my golfing nights and last night was to be pretty much the norm but then a phone call changed all that in a hurry. Kris's mom called about 5:20 and had fallen. Seems she was tripped up while chasing a cat out of her garage and fell on the concrete. Kris was working late with a patient and was not able to be reached so the golf game was put on hold and the trek out by Crooks was made to pick up the wounded and take her to ER. I could tell right away her wrist was broken as the swelling was around the bone and not the wrist joint like a sprain would be. We made it to ER and met Kris there for the diagnosis and yup, it was broken. For all you medical people out there it was a distal radial comminuted fracture which means that it has a lot of bone fragments with some go into the joint area. After a splint and pain meds we were out of there. Seems the ER had a special on wrist fractures last night as a little guy in the next room also had a wrist fracture so the ER doctor, who by the way likes kolaches (sp?), Czech pastry, long story, anyway he was getting his wrist splint making down pat last night.

We split up and with Kris going to get Joan's meds and me and the injured one headed for food and taking her back out to the farm to meet Kris there. We got to the farm to be greeted by a nice big buck with velvet antlers standing in the front yard of the home place. He sure was pretty standing there and of course as we pulled in the drive-way there was the cause of the accident, THE CAT. We got Joan in the house and we all got food on board then preceded to get some things moved around in her house to make it easy for her to sleep and to get things ready for this morning and for company this weekend. Joan is to call the ortho doctor this morning and set up an appointment to see what the next step will be for the wrist. We are kind of thinking surgery but will know more today.

It was a late evening to say the least when all was said and done. By the way the Avera Mckennan new ER ROCKS! I hope you never get to see it but if you do you will know what I mean!

On a good note, my Aunt Goobie had surgery to remove a spot of lung cancer yesterday. I think they took her upper lobe of her right lung out, anyway all was going well from the last info I received....yeah!

Road bike.....virgin ride - this year!

I rode the old Cannondale 3.0 road bike last night out an a "training" ride. Man, I can really tell that it has been a while since I have been on a road bike. I am more comfy and confident on my mountain bike but that is what I ride a LOT more. Took off from home and hopped on the trail at statue of David and rode around the south end of the trail then over to Madison St and then home. I do have to say that the BIG cracks in the road are very scary for someone on a thinner tire bike than a mountain bike. I was worried about crashing and could not avoid some of the holes because of traffic. Some holes were so bad my chain was slapping pretty good after hitting them. First night also with the mirror. It didn't go to bad but will take some getting used to and also finding out the right angle for me to see what is coming up behind. I did notice this morning the mirror was easier to use but I wasn't riding into the sun either which was an issue I had last night and I was on my mountain bike this morning so different riding angle.

Lots of people out on the trails last night. Every one was good about staying to the right and I was even thanked numerous times for saying, "on your left!" Dog walkers were good about keeping their dogs on a short leash and or even pulling off the trail until bikes went by.

Got home and took Abe out just when the mosquito patrol was out spraying! All of a sudden the fog was rolling in so we headed inside. I was on the bike trail one year when they were spraying and ended up with a respiratory infection. Now, I have no idea if I would have ended up with it without being around the fogger but I didn't want to take any chances hence the heading indoors!

Last nights factoids: 14.10 miles, 1h4m47s ride time, 13.48mph ave, 24.2 max.

Could have ridden a bit further but wanted to get home before dark since no lites for the road bike. I got a late start heading out for my ride.

Going to be HOT today so not sure what the day holds.