Wants and Needs

Being that it's the end of the tennis season, I will come into a bit of cash/debit card, probably to the tune of around $200-300. Seeings how I busted the budget on SeaFoam this Spring, this cash will be my summer fun adventure $$. I need to use it wisely and would love any insight, reviews, feedback, opinions or just good ol' grousing.

Here are some ideas with justifications:

• 2-man tent- I've been running the 1-man Alps coffin tent. It's small but lightweight, but it's not freestanding and I think I'd like a freestanding tent. Alps and some other makers have some good deals. Deal is, I would like to keep the weight down for bike touring purposes.
• Bag liner- Silk or fleece. Obviously this maximizes the uses of the 45F summer bag or can be used for a summer-weight bag. This seems like a good idea, and an affordable one too.
• Bivy- Again, I'm thinking of summer touring. I know bivys have their limitations, but for an S24O I can't think of a much better solution.
• Small handlebar bag- I would like a bag for SeaFoam for a camera or/and my small binoculars. Along with the liner, I think this is a must-do, but I'm sort of picky. SeaFoam at present will have the OMM lowriders, so it has no front rack AND I doubt I'll mount one at the moment b/c I like the dynolight crown placement. I looked at RBW doesn't sell a BrandV handlebar bag anymore, and the bar tube won't work for binocs. A quandry.
• Compass 26" tires- $150 for fancy 26" road tires for SeaFoam. That bike rides fantastically so needs some good road tires, something the Marathons are not; they're effective tank tread. That said, I have other road bikes, so why spend yet more $$ on another damn pair of tires.(Loveless convinced me that Paselas can get the job done for a fraction of the cost at the moment)
• New pad- present BA "Iron MT" has a tiny hole that I can't find. I've boxed it up and it's being sent for inspection tomorrow. If that gets adequately fixed, I don't need anything new, but one of those fancy, superlights look juicy. Too bad my fat ass needs a Therafoam or whatev those expensive-ass mattresses are.
• SPD touring pedals- instead of the Dura-ace roadie pedals on My Precious. The time will come, eventually.

I think this list does the trick for the moment.

Commute

Fancy that. Transporting myself to my place of employment via a self-propelled two-wheeled vehicle.

I took the long way home.

Covered Bridge

#SCS #SummerCyclingSeason has begun! Tennis, save a couple parties and meetings, is put away in the attic for next year. The boys' soccer is in the final death-throes for the Spring season, so now it's time to be selfish, human and newly fit. Last night I took the wife out to dinner and a movie (strong thumbs up for Silver Linings Playbook). This morning I needed to pick 'L' up from an event at 12, so I planned a ride leaving from PJ's, who lives quite close to the required destination. I'm sure we were cute in our Rivendells, he on his A. Homer Hilsen and I on the (tennis-paid-for) Atlantis. My fitness is truly abysmal, but I have the time now to do something about that. I consider this morning to be the first ride of many to get my fitness back up for some summer adventures, whether they be tours, gravel rides, hundys or S24Os. Anything to keep the body moving.

This route is a standard one for many Louisvillians and for PJ, who has easier access to the OldhamCo area than I do, or Dave for that matter. We both knew up front that my fitness is garbage, so we just did the pace we could, he extended on the climbs and I made forward progress. Funnily, I uploaded to Strava and found that my pace on the stair-step Covered Bridge climb was only a few minutes slower, but the steeper Sleepy Hollow showed a markedly slower pace. Who the eff cares!?!?

We stopped in Stepford, er, Nortons Commons for a coffee and then finished up with the jagged profile of Wolf Pen. You know, the legs weren't there and the cardio was even more pathetic, but it was as good a ride as I recently remember. Great, simply Great to be out there.

 

Hell Week

I've not had much fun coaching tennis this season. The modern kid isn't as motivated to "do it for the team", so instead of managing known planetary orbits, you're chasing meteors pinging to and fro. They're still in the solar system, but you never quite know their motivations other than that their motivation is certainly individual.

My metaphor is questionable.

This week has been labeled "Hell Week", at least where my life comes in. I'm not reflecting on what I am doing; I am simply doing due to the lack of space-time to think, reflect, or really even opine.  It's Wednesday, so I consider myself through three days of the 8-day Hell Week. I find it lamentable to live a life of important or fun activities and not experience them, to wish them away like days of a prison sentence. Yet, that's what I'm doing because the pay-off, which will mostly be my health, will soon approach.

Sunday- 200 miles of driving to Richmond, KY for Z's soccer on Mother's Day. He scored! Honestly, it was the most pathetic club soccer game ever. He won 6-0 but could have been 12-0 had they not called off the dogs in the second half. And it was played on a soupy goat pasture.

Monday- Work then drive 160 total miles to Lexington, KY for the state tennis tournament seeding meeting. I got home around 9.00 or so. We got some good seeds, which can be unfortunate because that means you have to stay at the tourney and "coach" kids that are as disinteretested as their coach.

Tuesday- Work then teacher interviews then drive almost 100 total miles to a rain make-up soccer game in E'town, KY. We got home at 10.00. To be fair, I did a little bird watching during the pre-game and saw bluejay, robin, female cardinal, red wing blackbird, crow, two rabbits, identified a Common Yellowthroat, a Hairy Woodpecker, a Killdeer and couldn't ID a swift of some sort,  little very grey sparrow thing nor a solid black sparrow-sized thing.

Wednesday- Work then teacher interviews then catch L's last middle school game of the year then drive 3 players and a coach for the 80-mile trip to Lexington again for the state tournament starting Thurs. (I'm actually about to leave, but a majority of the waking day has ended, as have the first two activities listed) The first day is at two different sites, so coverage is complicated. And modern bus/bus driver salaries are such that you just about have to beg the assistance of parents. Teaching tennis isn't so bad. Moving armies is more complicated.

Thursday- Ky state tennis tourney. Again, multiple locations, time, rain, meals, 12 kids, drivers. I find that I get tired of being in charge. p.s. We had rain and had to travel indoors in Richmond, adding 80 total miles to my weekly total.

Friday- Ky state tennis tourney. Based on seeds we'll be done by Friday's quarterfinals and will roll home. 85 more miles.

Saturday- Z's got club soccer season-end Cup in Versailles, KY, for another 130 miles of driving. Two games worth and apparently there is construction, so the pretty easy less-than-1-hour is now more complicated.
p.s. Day went off without much of a hitch. The team won and tied a team from the upper division and instead of traveling some construction on US60 we took a detour through some horse farm country. Seems like I'm going to have to do a ride there this summer.

Sunday- Z's got club soccer season-end Cup in Versailles, KY, for another 130 miles of driving. I only watch one game and then I roll back to 'Ville for the girls' season-end party, which my pushy Booster mom was insistent was this Sunday although now we get to drive two cars. I just realized that I'm turning in a gas receipt for that.
p.s. Well, I didn't have to suffer the last day, as the wife decided to drive down to the game and I stayed home with #2. I picked him up, and dropping him off again at 4.00 and picking him up later still. And to boot, I got about 30 miles of riding in today. Better. Getting better.

And then I rest. Actually, And then I ride.

(Notice that there is no riding in there. I have done a couple purely restorative walks in the morning on Monday and Tuesday. I even did bike errands on Sunday and rode with Dave the previous Saturday. I could barely do a 20-miler. I'm exhausted, fat and entirely out of shape. #SummerCyclingSeason)

...

There is no spoon.





There is no bici.

Bike Walk

Busy, busy, busy, but yesterday I had a quick match (girls won 60-3 total games!) and in lieu of disappearing on the couch for the post-work swoon I jumped on SeaFoam to get some vitamin D and endorphins.  The 65F sun helped enormously as well. Not feeling aggro or even sprightly, I did the BeargrassTrail/Frankfort/Cyclocross park out-n-back mostly to try out some new binoculars I recently purchased- Zhumell 10x42 Short Barrel Waterproof Binoculars- along the cyclocross park bridge where I had previously seen kingfishers, herons and other. Yesterday's bird bounty wasn't so opulent with a cardinal, some mallards, and a family of swifts under the River Rd. bridge.

Mellow, relaxing, invigorating and damn pleasant. More, please.

Lexington Not Quite

Long Short? I intended to ride from home to Masterson Station Park in Lexington, KY for Z's soccer game at 3.00. I left quite early and met up with PJ close to his home, along our route to Shelbyville where he would turn around for a 50-mile day. Instead, what I found on the 9 miles out to meet him was steady headwind exactly in my day-long direction, and not just a headwind, but a cold, cutting headwind. While we've broken through to Spring-like temps, this morning started out in the upper 30s and it was just cold. And I was pretty miserable.

We briefly stopped at a gas station so I could buy an extra pair of jersey gloves and then followed our tour through Anchorage. Aside the wind and cold I just had *nothing* in the legs. Empty. On the far side at LaGrange Rd., not quite 15 miles from the house, I pulled the plug on the full 80-mile route. What was to be on a free Sunday morning was cooking up a pot o' whoop-ass and was making for an anxiety-ridden death march. Why bother? We extended down Aiken Rd. and turned left at Ash Rd. to make a loop back into Anchorage where we ate- for the second weekend in a row- at The Anchorage Cafe, where a cup (or two) and an egg sandwich seemed to lift the spirits and the legs. I dropped PJ in his neighborhood and then found that headwind from the morning, this time blissfully at my back, propelling down Westport. I raised the tempo and felt good enough, whether be wind or eggs, to turn towards the river and do a second spirit spin down River Rd. before turning back up the Beargrass Trail.

  

If you read this blog enough you know of my occasional sightings of 'Ol Blue. You would think that repeated sightings would make me tired of it, but in ways I like it even more. At the time I should have been prowling somewhere between Shelbyville and Frankfort, instead I was taking a pic of the bird before rolling through Cherokee for home.  SeaFoam gave me a very favorable ride, but in the future it needs some road-ish tires instead of the 2" touring behemoths it has presently.

I was disappointed for a while with my abandon; it seems to reflect a questionable and weak character. Only later did I come to appreciate the 50-mile effort in the cold and breezy. It was certainly more invigorating than a morning on the couch.

NENARY

Sunday Ramble

It's that whiny time of year for me, so any mileage I can steal is the better. Saturday provided an all-day tennis tournament where I could stand around and build frustration. Saturday evening Lithodale came to the rescue with a night-time ramble where we put in a casual hour during which he spun and jra'd and I worked a bit harder to burn off some pizza.

This morning was more the main event, a Sunday morning roll to inspect the doings at "The Parklands of Floyds Fork", the name belying the location of these new parks in the 'burbs where they always contrive ridiculous names that sound like a subdivision that has razed many an attractive meadow. The first of this string of four large parks- Beckley Creek- opened recently enough, so ErosPoli and I used TaylorsvilleRd. and outer J'town to link to the "Egg Meadow" ("Lawn". Whatever!) portion of Beckley Creek. I'll skip all the headwind false flats that made the first third of this ride a grind. Once at the park we found that it's all very tasteful and new so it looks great, but Mr.NegativeNed had two thoughts jump out. First is that much of the road and path (that is part of the LouisvilleLoop 100-mile loop) is going to have the same high water problems as the Riverwalk does. It runs right along Floyds Fork and it *will* be flooded at some point. It's obviously specious planning. The pic below shows how close it is to the waterline. Secondly, and it's something Poli and I discussed at length, is the total lack of connectivity. Our exit along Beckley Station Rd. provided us an opportunity to asses how one might travel from your home to the park. BSRd, instead, is a very narrow, dangerous road that no one in their right mind would travel with children. At the northern end at the exit of Miles Park you run into Shelbyville Rd. a 4-lane main state highway. You *have* to drive there, further befitting the contrived 'burb name. Recently the 'Ville scored poorly- 1 bench out of 5- in nat'l urban parks rankings, aka ParkScore. I thought this was ridiculous; our Olmstead Parks are beautiful and highly-used. The rankings, although they do include acreage, also include investment and...and...and...accessibility. The northern-most strand of the PoFF couldn't be a more obvious example of this. A third thought which I had forgotten, was my contention that the new parks would siphon off resources of the urban parks in the downtown area. It's only natural. 'Burb money will talk, and the competition for resources will pull investment away from basic services like bathrooms and potholes in current parks to maintaining flooded for wealthier surburban dwellers accustomed to getting their way. That's my pinko analysis of it, which I arrived at before taking a look at ParkScore, which agrees with me.

IF at the silos on the northern end of Miles Park. The yellow and green thing is a symbol of  the new parks effort.

Along the concrete! path connecting Beckely and Miles, part of the long-term Loop. What will it looks like when the creek floods. Not pretty.

After the Beckley/Miles exploration we linked through the largest suburb in JeffersonCo and later gnashed teeth with overly-eager churchists to eventually link to Anchorage where we stopped for a delightful cup (and quiche. Real men eat quiche!) at TheAnchorageCafe. ErosPoli's day was almost done with the short connect through Sawyer Park. At that point from all the headwinding I suffered earlier in the day, I took the opportunity to bomb down Westport with a solid tailwind and put together my quickest laps of the day to finish up with 42 miles of clement, sunny, 'Ville-drenched cycling. *Much* better than watching other people's children play tennis. (Don't forget SeaFoam!)

p.s. I had a LouisvilleLoop discussion a couple years back with a former classmate who works in some capacity for the city and the Loop project. My complaint at the time was that is seemed like a LONG liner park with very little thought to it being used to GET places. My 2-mile window on this new portion recently added confirms my opinion as strongly as possible. It's a toy, not transportation.

Adios Sr. Troll

With the arrival of SeaFoam, my previous touring rig- the Surly Troll- needed a new home. And a new home it found today, off to Colorado where I'm sure it's 26" fatness will find favor.

I'm convinced that bike is a good one, but not for my own full touring needs. As present, SeaFoam has been rock-solid and I look forward to giving it a workout sometime in the future.

The Adventures of SeaFoam

I've named it SeaFoam. I don't consider it a "him" or "her", b/c then I would be riding "him", which is not my thing. And if I were riding "her", that would seem a bit inappropriate, so I'll just go with SeaFoam.

Dave and I met up for not terribly early coffee and a plan to do the 50-mile or so Riverwalk/Levee full loop. Patrick had hatched plans to ride to in his in-laws in Danville 90m away and did his best to incorporate me for part of the trip to Taylorsville before I would turn home. Problem is, as of last night I just didn't feel it. He knows a bit more but I'll just keep it at "not feeling it". Our coffee ride would include a shorter route and far fewer hills to contend with, and it could get me back to civilization for L's soccer and the remainder of Saturday. To get ready I awoke pretty early and hit the garage: mounted IQ CYO (easy, no rack to contend with), mounted RBW Banana bag, mounted flashie on bag loop, mounted top tube "bento" bag for sundries, taped cable housing and wrapped bars. It wasn't/isn't my best job ever, but it does the trick.

The short ride up to Breadworks suggested that SeaFoam- a little big but well within the RBW philosophy- fit nicely. The mileage later in the day would sort things out there. We left to become enveloped in a very foggy landscape, something quite unusual for this part of the world. Having dynos and flashies made traveling all a bit easy and assuring that we were making out best effort. Our route took us via Audobon Park, Floyd St along UofL and then a dismounted cut-through off Hiawatha over the train tracks. That has been the standard 'Out' route that I use to travel to places southern. Dave knew of it before I, but they're closing Hiawatha and building a large wall, thereby blocking off future access. Bummer.

Shortly thereafter I suggested a stop at the Woodlawn Sunergos, and shortly thereafter suggested we bail on the full 50 because I wasn't feeling it. SeaFoam was good, the weather nippy-but-good, the company good, but I'm a little physically low so "cut short" was the plan. The day was helped by what I believe was one of the best cafe au'laits on record. Merci Sunergos! After our second coffee stop we meandered towards Iroquois where we ran across the remnants of the Saturday morning LBC ride. A bit up the hill we encountered a gentleman struggling with a tire change. I have a sneaking suspicion he really didn't know what he was doing, but, of course, the club had left him. Shock. Funnily, while waiting there (Dave is the one who helped), I heard a "Hi, Son!", and there on the Iroquois Hill was my mom on a jog with a friend. She's training for the Mini-marathon, so it was good to see her out there.

We goofed around the top of the hill as the fog burned off and then descended where Dave took a bit of a flyer. As we headed north on Southern Parkway he remarked that his tempo was *easy*, but I wish I could've said the same. I refuse to blame SeaFoam and just say that I was tired and weak, but I was certainly enjoying the bike and the finally warm weather, enough that we headed west at Algonquin for more "dumb", "empty" miles. At Shawnee Park I/we sat on the concrete bench at the water fountain and I just relaxed and soaked things in; I could've taken a nap. Maybe I should have. From there we worked out way back east on Chesnut instead of through Portland b/c I was ready to be home. I had just enough time for one more stop before heading home for soccer so we stopped at Quills for a third cup. I rested a second and then decided to meet the fam at the soccer complex, thereby freeing up time for a snack and a cup (decaf, all decaf at this point).

That damn floppy top-tube bar will never be on this bike again!

I had to turn east for Mockingbird Valley and stopped by OYLC for a short spell where I talked to the boys and to a gentleman I had met months ago who toured SE Asia with his girlfriend on his IF Independent. Good stories there. From there I arrived at the soccer establishment feeling it in my legs and glad to get a ride only only to find that the wife hadn't driven the bike-rack car but rather her own, which made perfect sense. Subsequently I tagged on another 8 miles or so taking it easy on the way home to total just short of 45 on the day, a tiring day, but a good one on a good mount. Now I'm keen on some fancy lighter tires for SeaFoam. The Marathons are great for commuting and touring; the Compass 1.75"s would be very juicy on such a sporty touring bike.

More to come on the Adventures of SeaFoam.