1-2 Real d. Zenit

Who again? Why, Ruud of course. Real hadn't won away from home in the Champions for something like 4 years, but tonight earned an efficient 1-2 victory over Moscow's Zenit with Euro star Arshavin. From reports it sounds like Zenit outplayed los Merengues, but who cares? An away win is just that. I was surprised that, with all the talk of Higuain and Raul, Real played Ruud up top as normal, and behind him, Robben, Higuain and VdV. For those 3 were substituded Drenthe, Saviola and Javi Garcia, with only Javi Garcia getting any real playing time. Oh well Sr. Astro Raul, times change, and if the team can keep on keeping on, then it's alright.

The Dharma Wheel

Date: September 30 Tues
Weather: 71F sunny again
Mileage: 33.5
September mileage: 400
Year to date: 2167

Needing to do 33m today to meet 400m for the month, I took advantage of yet more sunny skies to do a long afternoon on the Trek400SS. After a normal morning route, I did the Algonquin/Riverwalk loop to start my afternoon. I was feeling it in this section. It's dead flat so I was able to really get the single speed rhythm going. My title refers to that, I would say, contemplative zone of just turning the gear and watching the surroundings. I had a 15min zone there when my mind was clearer than at any other point in the day.

I had to dodge workers on the Riverwalk chipping tree detritus from the storms. We'll be digging out of that for months, I think. From there it was up Spring to Mellwood and then the Frankfort corridor. Frankfort Ave. provides only one of two hills on this route, another goodie for the SS. Do you think that was planned? In St. Matthews I stopped by Lotsa Pasta for a new bottle of oregano-infused oil. Yummy, damn yummy. That's a really good addition to dinner. After my stop I did a flat loop and into the park and home, coming up Millvale for my other hill. Great ride. I needed 33 and I rode 33.5, and that without having a computer. That gave me 400m for the month, something I'm pleased with. I'm thinking that 3,000m is reachable for the year.

2007- 2,777
2006- 2,573
2005- 1,418
(1999- 2,514)

As we see, an upward arc. I like it. I like riding. I need 300m a month to get 3,000 with no problem. 300m/month is very doable with not too much pressure. We'll see. I'm horrible about making goals and not meeting them. It's that psychotic part of my brain. So better is to ride and ride and see how it comes out. I did it today, though.

Peace.

Date: September 28 Sun
Weather: 79F sunny again
Mileage: 32
September mileage: 367
Year to date: 2133

Went out this afternoon with DG, an old softball and Lucero show bud. He's saddled with many munchkins now so we don't get out as much. No, I'm not going to saddle him with the blame. He's tried to get me out rockin' but I fall asleep too early. He's been doing a lunchtime training ride now for 2 months and is enjoying stretching the legs, so we tried something different for him today. He stopped by and we did an East 'Ville meander. First was the St. Matthews flats, then Indian Hills where we took in an extr climb for good measure. From there we went through the parks, ending up at the attractive Casselberry. On Norris we decided that, instead of going home via Valley Vista, we would go through Germantown and Audobon Park, which we did. The full day gave us about 32m, all of it under yet again great conditions. I'm completely impressed with DG's machine. When did a steady 14-17mph, me on the Blueridge- titanium terror that it is- and he on a Schwinn (or something like that) early mtn.bike/hybrid contraption. Let's me clear that DG matched me pedal for pedal and maybe finished stronger. He's got fewer miles in the legs, but I think he's got more quality intensity miles. I was impressed and hope he can find a good road mount b/c I think he would do really well at pace. He needs a 58". If anyone has a used 58" lying around, let me know.

I also took in a bit of the Tour de Louisville 'Cross race today. I only caught part of 2 races, but the course looked tough, with lots of ups and downs. I was sort of depressed leaving, knowing that I am in no way in shape to do an actual race like that right now. The ride this afternoon helped clear the cobwebs out though. Maybe next year, maybe not, but nothing to dwell on. The # of riders out there was quite impressive, so good for the local 'cross community.

'Van Gol' celebrates a fantastic and fortuitous goal in the 91st minute for a 2-1 for Real over Real Betis. It was an edgy game with Marcelo sent off for an obvious foul in the box. Real played well down a man and then Betis lost one late as well on an obvious takedown of Drenthe on a breakaway. Van Nistoolroy, though, comes through in the last minute as he is so apt to do.

I'm liking this incantation of Real. Iker, Pepe, Sergio Ramos and the mix of Heinze, Canna, Torres, Marcelo etc. are solid in the back. Losing Guti and Gago hurts a bit, but De la Red and Robben seem to be doing well enough in the mid and up front 'Van Gol', Raul and Higuain are scoring opportunistically.

I see this plantilla, though, as one for La Liga, but I'm not so sure it has the horse power for Champions. Let's hope it does.

And both the boys scored today. 'Z' scored on a clean-up goal in his 6-1 win. 'L's team lost both, 8-3 and 4-2, but he scored a golazo- in his dad's esteemed opinion- with a strike just outside the box that went top shelf with some umph. We're done with futbol for the day.

bike

Nice bike from Chris Fly's stash.




to be honest, I found this several days ago and I don't remember what the context is. I like bikes.

Riverwalk

Date: September 26 Fri
Weather: 79F sunny again
Mileage: 31.5
September mileage: 334
Year to date: 2101

After some middling rides, I did the westward Riverwalk route with 'BB' on the LHT. How couldn't I? 79F, sunny, breezy, the sycamores giving off that "It's fall" scent, no water probs. I'm tired from going too slow, but it was as good a 2hrs that I could imagine.

SS Commute

Date: September 25 Thurs
Weather: 83F sunny again. Other than a 1-day wind storm we've had the same weather for 2 weeks straight, with another week to come
Mileage: 16.5
September mileage: 302.5
Year to date: 2069.5

An out-and-back commute today via Millvale, Cherokee, Cherokee Pkwy and Grinstead/Winter. I had a blissful golfcoursehill scene today, with a very clear crescent moon dangling to the E while Orion, Sirius (and the Hare), Tauras, Gemini and the Pleiadies floating in a dark blue sky. It's wonderful to get such clear skies in our smog-infested city. Today's was the first single speed commute on the Trek. I've made some modifications- well, had them made- to have the Trek 400Elance as a single-speed commute: fenders, 30c tyres, seatpost rack w/1 pannier, oldbecomesnew Niterider TrailRat. It went great today, only to find a substantial headwind in the p.m. Guess I wasn't so strong as I thought in the a.m.

Peace.

Kwik Komute

Date: September 23 Tues
Weather: 90F
Mileage: 24
September mileage: 286
Year to date: 2053

After yesterday's icky ride I was hoping for a peppier commute today. Although I woke up a bit earlier than I would like, I nonetheless got going pretty easily. Something I did recently was get the Blueride ready for more multi-tasking duties, including commuting. With a few of these bikes I'm ready to either ride them or sell them, even for a substantial loss. On the Blueridge now i have silver fenders, an older B-17 with some sag in it, Panaracer 32s and the Carradice Longflap. I also have a Serfas front flashie and rear Krog. I'm pissed at myself that I just bought a new Planet Bike flashie, but I've already misplaced it. Dang!

I did some extra miles this afternoon on the Blueridge to help give myself a better feel for the bike after so many rides on the LHT or CC. The BR has a more slung over roadie feel- long and low stem, very rear saddle position, clips instead of platforms and cork tape. I'm not too comfy on it anymore after riding the upright Bleriot (or LHT), but the other insight is that it feels fast, much faster than the LHT at least. I know that on the LHT if I'm cruising at 15mph I'm working pretty hard. On the BR today I did a solid 10m at 16-18mph, which is plainly faster than I'm used to riding. I did peter out after a while, especially after climbing MockingbirdValley/GreenHillLn. From there I came home pretty reasonably and finished with a mid-14mph avg, which I don't think it too bad considering stop signs and such. I wonder what the result would be with a slightly shorter and angled stem? That said, I've spent too much on bike crap lately and intend on only waiting for bday/xmas bike bag possibilities. It was fun to be on a "fast" bike for a change, but my left ankle felt like crap and I wouldn't make the BR my permanent. If I sold it, I don't think I would miss it.

'Cross and Commute

Date: September 21 Sun
Weather: 88F
Mileage: 20+2
September mileage: 249
Year to date: 2016

Date: September 22 Mon
Weather: 90F
Mileage: 13
September mileage: 262
Year to date: 2029


My Monterey/Escondida entry took me quite a while b/c of the pics, so I'm feeling less wordy, but on Sunday I did my first 'cross ride in quite a while. I dropped 'L' off at youth group and took a warmup ride to RiverRoadCC/ChampionsPk to the 'cross venue. There I rode pretty damn hard for a good 45min, much of it pushing intervals with an occasional recovery spin. That course is so great for outofshape monkeys like me b/c there are no climbs, only all out flats with plenty of sand and some run-ups to boot. I felt great after finishing the ride, but today the legs and shoulders are both wearier than usual. I'm going to try and get a 'cross training ride in per/week with thoughts of racing the final 'cross race of the season in late Oct. or Nov.

Today I commuted on the LHT with 'BB' both trips. I was tired in the morning both from a tough 'cross session Sun. and a funky night's sleep. I was no better, if not worse in the p.m. Neither 'BB' nor I had much in the legs and I did the shortest commute possible.

Cali ride

Date: September 20 Sat
Weather: 85F, breezy and sorta warm
Mileage: 37
September mileage: 227
Year to date: 1994

With 'L' at a futbol torneo in Winchester, KY, I did my best to make use of the time and fit in an excellent and adventurous bike ride in between the morning and afternoon sessions. Winchester is smack dab in the middle of the gorgeous Bluegrass region, a region I don't visit as much as I would like (well, on a bike), but one that just screams for bike riding. I've dubbed this ride the Cali ride in honor of the interesting blogs and reports that come out of the SF mixed . While they do epic rides in the hills around SF, I came up with a route that touched on two towns, Monterey and Escondida, that sound decidedly California and not Kentucky. Winchester is 15m east of Lexington but is still very much the Bluegrass region. That means lots of small farm roads, wooden or stone fences and low traffic. I was also taking in completely new roads, so I was very excited and the ride satisfied all my expectations and the some.

The first portion of the ride was classic Bluegrass riding. With a stiff breeze coming from the south I made steady but unaggressive riding. I found these following pics that nicely represented the area.

Van Meter Rd.

Kansas anyone?

Best jerky in KY

Concerning Mingua Bros. jerky, I've been eating the stuff for years. Every time I'm in Lexington I grab a bag, so I was quite pleased to run across their operation in Bourbon Co. At this point I was using the small roads to work north towards Monterey and Paris (pronounced with 1 syllable and almost sounding like the word "purse" with an elongated 'er' sound). In researching the route I found that Monterey is a pretty interesting place. It was the site of an early freed slave town just after the Civil War. Road-building projects unearthed some ruins and more digging has been done on site. As much as I wanted to make this the northern goal of my route, I missed a turn near Paris. I have a feeling that, as suburbs have encroached, "Farm Rd." was changed to another appellation. I rolled into Paris and stopped at a mini-mart, but made the decision to not head to Monterey; its location is nebulous and I would have to venture a busy 4-lane road to find its nebulosity, so I turned south and continued, finding more pleasant scenery.

Southerly Farm (or something like that). A half mile past there was a nursery of the same name.

The ever attractive Bleriot with a bottle of Tigerade upside down in the bottle cage. I only had 1 bottle. Oops.

Once I turned onto Iron Works/Escondida I was greeting my favorite road of the day. Many of these shots are similar: fences, rolling terrain, quiet country lanes

This is officially 'Escondida'. On the other side of this RR tunnel I found 5-6 houses or trailers grouped together. I would call it a small town indeed.

A sign to prove the road brethren town to Cali.

The KY countryside is full of these historical markers. Some folks make it a goal to find them all. I found this interesting site with digital version of the novel.

The bucolic ride turned into an adventure when I needed to turn south from 57 to Austerlitz Station Ln./Renick Rd. As I've found before, my Kentucky Co.s map and googlemaps sometimes have discrepancies. I find it difficult to decide whom to trust b/c the county maps are a good bit older, but they're generally more in tune with what locals know. My old map showed Renick Rd. as having a gap in it, but every other map showed it reaching 57. When I got to the intersection, I found no road, only what looked like a driveway. Just to the left I saw the makings of a "road" into the woods, which really was more a double-track path going up to the railroad track, obviously a service road. With no other options than to trace the long route west to get back to my start on Van Meter, I decided to have a little adventure and see if I could find my way.

The service road reaching the tracks.

Once up on the service road I found the track to be rideable. The rocks weren't too terribly large and if I avoided the rut near the tracks I found that I could find the line. At this point, the Bleriot was tracking really well and I even found it "comfortable", with the Grand Bois doing their job. I made steady progress with my map indicating that I was heading towards Renick and towards Van Meter.

Early track, not too rough

later track, very very rough

Concern, though, arose. The further I got from my entry road the rougher the path became. Instead of pea gravel and dirt I instead encountered rocks, real rocks, and I began to really worry about a flat. I had the necessary wares to fix it, but I was starting to run a bit closer on time and moreso I didn't know if I could escape this road. Much of the tracks was built up well above the terrain and climbing down would've been very challenging. And I really had no clue where I was save a general directional idea of "south". The map showed some type of junction at Renick, but did it exist? The original road didn't although the maps showed it was being there. I had to walk a while as well b/c the rocks, no, stones began beating the Bleriot like a baby seal. As an aside, the Bleriot was simply amazing. I was on a road bike, a dandy road bike, and I was pummeling the rocky service road like Merckx or DeVlaeminck. My mind was convinced on this day that I never, never ever, need a "road bike" to take me where I need to go; I only need a well-built "country bike". Grant has been right all along.

Soon after having to walk I found an escape. To me left I saw a farm fence, and in the distance a group of barns or something. I can honestly say that I've never wandered through the field of a random farmer before, but my in-laws are dairy farmers and I hoped my interactions with my fatherinlaw would help. I hopped the gate and started walking up the hill towards the barns.

Blue gate, escape clause

Barn in distance. The worrisome part? Dogs, bulls, really mean rednecks.

At the top of the hill I found a group of Latinos- Mexicans I presume- working around a tractor, and crossing a farm road a white pickup. I hoped for the best. I greeted the Mexicans in Spanish and found the white farmer guy to ask for directions. "Sir, I'm a bit lost. How might I get to Van Meter Rd.?" "Well, you go up the road here and take a right" "Thanks, I got lost up on the railroad service road and I'm sure glad for your help." "Well, at least you got some extra ridin' in." I was worried about whatever kind of interaction a solid 5m from anywhere to speak of, but everybody there was really nice and I found my way back.

farm road leading out and towards Renick Rd./Van Meter Rd.

The famed Renick, as situated on the map. It's an old-ass wooden trestle bridge over the tracks. If I had continued, I would've seen the bridge above me at a good 20ft+. I had exited at the right time.

The elusive Renick Rd. as heading towards 57.

I was running late but I sure wanted to explore that road. It continues down a bit; you can even see the pavement on a googlemap. After that, for some reason the road just ends even though a roadbed is obvious on googlemaps as well. On a different day it would definitely be worth some bushwacking. I had a soccer game to watch, though, and heading back down Renick to Van Meter and to the soccer complex.

The combo of perfect country roads and a "mixed" adventure made for a damn good cycling day, and one I won't forget soon. I hope everybody could be so lucky.

Nighttime ride

Wednesday's ride was an errand ride that became a night-time ride after supper at Irish Rover.

The good wife doesn't know this, but after 2 Guinesses and 3 glasses of water I personally made water down at the end of this overgrown alley. Classy, eh?

LHT #1 leaning against Seneca Pk bathroom, getting rid of more of the 2Guinness/3waters. I like the reflective tire thing of the Contis. I hope it works on the street as such.

#2 LHT for no apparent reason.

#1 Sky. This is the best of several sunset pics taken on top of golf course hill. I was pining for a tripod.

#2 Sky, all blurry like, but I sorta like it, even if it looks drunk.

Proof that I was on the ground trying to steady the camera for the night shots.

Bowman Field lights at night. I love the 'Red Shift' of this one.

los americanos

A somewhat 'down' article from FSN about the disappearance of Americans in the Prem this season. Although not implicitly, it does beg the question of why there aren't more world-class players coming out of the States these days. The WC struggles beg the same introspection. Por otro lado, Jozy has stepped up a bit.

Yikes, It's Ike!!

Here are some 'Ike' pics. They are merely a snapshot of an entire city that looks basically like this. As I previously stated, every home is either picking up the sticks and leaves or more grandly putting their homes back together. We have power, but many still don't. You can now tell by the tell-tale signs of the 100ft. orange extension cord crossing the street from the generous to the electric-less.

@ home via tunnel. Neighbor 'E's tree fell across his porch roof and came to rest across our driveway. I cut this tunnel out to get to the backdoor.

front yard w/ many leaves, but no big sticks

We move to my Mom's area. Sunday was set to be a celebration of my papaw's 82nd birth day, with my Mom's whole crew (30ish entities) at her house. We all arrived amidst the furor. After church 'Z' and I were playing ping pong when the winds really rose up. We were walking to her house when the wind stopped us in our tracks a couple times. By the time the family all arrived the 'hood was engulfed in fallen trees, branches, the violent crunch of nature and of a concern both for our own well-being and for that of all the other folks as well. I actually took 'L' to a bday party in the middle of it all and picked him up later. It was wild and very stressful, but he had a nice time. yippee!

Looking south on Mom's street. The fallen tree hit the Honda van and the story gets worse. It was a family visiting from ?Chicago? and they were to leave late afternoon. Instead the front end of the car was rather damaged and I don't know if it was driveable.

Just down from Mom's house. This was the most damaged.

It wasn't hit by one but rather by TWO trees, north and south.

You can just see in this pic the 'V' in the roof pitch from the roof damage.

I try to get good nature pics, but I'm not very good at them, but I like this Moon pic, a full moon after the storm.

These are from a ride on Wednesday, 3 days after the storm. This is a major street in Seneca Gardens, a regular cut-through I take. I'm amazed that no one had touched this tree after several days.

Again, it was trying, but my truck came through unscathed while this poor unfortunate chap got it bad.

Sunday morning pics

These were taken last Sunday during that delightful, pre-Ike ride. Things went downhill from there, at least for a while.

Morning sun above Pee Wee Reese Dr.

Bleriot w/ RBW Banana Bag instead of Longflap Nelson. I think it's headed for a lil' Loafer at some point.

Click on pic and look to left of fire hydrant. It's a "rafter" of turkeys.

Single turkey silhouetted against morning sky.

Big House along Louisville CC

I like paths. This one cuts between Jarvis and Penruth.

Campin' Out

Date: September 17 Wed
Weather: 75F, sunny
Mileage: 17
September mileage: 182
Year to date: 1949

Date: September 18 Thurs
Weather: 75F, sunny
Mileage: 8
September mileage: 190
Year to date: 1957

We got power back at 6.00p.m. after not having any since Sunday 1.00p.m. or so. That's the longest, I think, since we moved here. It was very trying, but 2 things come to mind. First, although it was inconvenient, it was in no way as difficult, as miserable, as all those poor folks in Texas. To think that they don't have enough food while we are throwing it out or are trying to grill we can. Ademas, it wasn't all that bad except for how to deal with food. We had hot showers (gas). We could buy ice. We spent plenty of time outside on a week when the weather was 75F and perfect every day. The cooking, though, was complicated. That's the part that felt like camping, every meal on open fire. It was an experience, but I'm glad it was an experience in the past and that we now have the juice of modernity.

I have some pics to load at some point, but tonight I intend on going to bed early under the blissful power of the Cpap machine. Ah, heaven. Wednesday's ride was to an errand, to the Irish Rover for a non-grill meal and then a noodle around Crescent Hill, St. Matthews, Seneca and then home in the dark. Today I did some hot laps during 'L's soccer practice. I'm thinking about doing a 'cross race in October just for kicks.

The Storm

Date: September 16 Tues
Weather: 75F, sunny
Mileage: 19
September mileage: 165
Year to date: 1932

I'm sitting here in a Heine Bros. Coffee shop borrowing their wi-fi. It's the first time for me using the school laptop to do the local wifi thing. Unfortunately, the crux of it is that we had hurricane-force winds on Sunday afternoon- 75mph of fury- and it has decimated the city. Every, every, single yard has trees down or at least parts of trees down. To the best of my knowledge, perhaps 50% of Louisville households still don't have power. We're out of school and increasingly it looks like it could be an entire week of "vacation". We're now at the point when the food is all going bad and we had to buy batteries for the flashlights today, aside from buying our 8th bag of ice. I love my boys but we're all stressed and out of sorts and they're driving me CRAZY!

This morning I took a ride to fetch the laptop from school, and my iPod was there too. From there I took a ride downtown and found a nice large granite "tumbler" (i.e. paving stone) lying there, so I loaded it in the pannier and brought it home for the garden. It made for some good weight training, dragging a 20lb. stone across town. I intend of doing a ride each day the rest of the week now that the hard-core work is finished and it's all time spent with my wonderful children. FWIW, Monday as spent cleaning up and helping the neighbor cut down the tree lying across his roof. Bummer, but we came through it completely unscathed. The big maple that I've been maligning for years held up with nary a branch lost.

Gonna be a long week, but maybe an opportunity for some extra miles and a project or 2. Hope everyone out there has "weathered the storm" better than we. Peace, and more so to my family b/c I'm one cranky #$!%$.

Sunday morning Ride

Date: September 14 Sun
Weather: 75F, windy and sunny
Mileage: 17
September mileage: 146
Year to date: 1913

1 groundhog/whistlepig/gopher
1 raptor (or other bird of prey)
1 possible chipmunk in mouth of raptor
5-8 wild turkeys (hens)
assorted squirrels and birds
1 beautiful blue sky with wispy stratus clouds and sunrise colors

'Ville Biz

Commuting article in recent Business First, a rag I rarely, rarely read. What's funny is that I read it at my mom's (a realtor). Didn't ride today. Sleepy strange morning. I had to pick up 'State Champs' jackets this afternoon, so it all worked out. the trip to Shively Sporting Goods would've been an adventure on a Big Dummy, but it would've been an adventure.

A fully speced (sp?) Big Dummy is what, $2000? or can one be stocked for less?

Perchance to Dream

(courtesy of SouthLakesGroup via The Epicurean Cyclist)

Commutes

Date: September 8 Mon
Weather: 88F
Mileage: 25.5
September mileage: 81.5
Year to date: 1848.5

Date: September 9 Tues
Weather: 68F
Mileage: 17
September mileage: 98
Year to date: 1863

Date: September 10 Wed
Weather: 82F sunny
Mileage: 17
September mileage: 115
Year to date: 1882

Date: September 11 Thurs
Weather: 85F
Mileage: 14
September mileage: 129
Year to date: 1896

A few days of straightforward commutes. All 3 mornings I've ridden with 'BB'. She's having a devil of a time with her rear derailer/mech. It's been "adjusted" several times, the last time in early Aug to the tune of $35 and it hasn't held past 3-4 weeks. I told her to look into buying a new one. Rear mechs are pretty cheap and would give her tons of use. Tuesday was a rainy day in the morning and a chilly day in the afternoon. The northern winds brought in a brisk feel that's the first of the season. This morning it was only 59F and I was underdressed. I had on cycling shorts, a tshirt, arm warmers and sandals. I never did warm up really. Tomorrow I'll have to get out the lightweight jacket and some gloves of some sort. My whole basket of gloves and headbands smells terrible, but I'm reticent to wash them, especially the funky ones like the lobster gloves. They're rancid, though, so I must prepare for the season.

I had opportunity to do some distance this afternoon, esp in the nice temps, but I just didn't have the legs and poked home. We have a strong forecast of rain for the next several days, so I'm moving over to the Blueridge, at least for tomorrow. By happenstance I bought a pair of SKS mudguards from the LBS and mounted them on the BR. I figured a never-rust titanium bike can go in the rain, right? I also moved the seatpost rack from the Trek b/c I think the bottom bracket on the Trek needs a bigtime overhaul. It's creaking something terrible. I haven't commuted on the BR in forever. I figured "why commute on the most expensive bike I own", but the BR needs some usage or I'm going to sell it. I have sort of the same prob as Doug. It's a great problem to have, too many bikes. I was shocked to see, though, on my cyclinglog.com file that I have 2 bikes, the Blueridge and the RB-1, that I've only ridden 1x each all of 2008. For comparison, I've been on the LHT 54 times. Once each? That's pathetic. I fear, though, that if I sell them I won't get squat for either of them. I've seen in the past that RB-1s only bring $200-$400 and I have no clue what the Blueridge would bring. Originally the BR was to be the "do everything" bike, but the Bleriot has truly answered that question. The only allure of the BR is being titanium/unobtanium and that fact that it's way lighter than my other rigs. The smart and resonsible thing to do would be to unload the BR, the RB-1 and maybe the Monocog to help fund a Big Dummy. My garage is filling up too, but if I moved my grandmother's table/chairs, I would have more room for bikes. :-) A problem that Doug doesn't encounter is that we also have 3 kids bikes in the garage too. And the wife's. It's pretty full in there.

Political blogs

Date: September 5 Fri
Weather: 80F, rainy
Mileage: 26
September mileage: 56
Year to date: 1823

I had written a big, long superfluous entry bashing another blogger's entry for its political content without actually knowing the intention of the author. I can sometimes take a joke, but I'm really, really tired of this cynical, evil and corrupt batch of assholes (Dick anyone?) who have sold our economy to China, have gotten us into a miserable conflagration in the Middle East and have ruined our reputation abroad, much less the offered a complete lack of effective governmental support at home. Blogs and the online world are strange beasts b/c it's so easy to hide behind a digital moniker and also hide one's true ideology behind a "I took a bike ride" entry. We can agree to disagree, but the present party is lock stock and barrel bad news. All politics is personal.

And I still have a nasty hack.

Commutes

Date: September 2 Tues
Weather: 95F, hot
Mileage: 14+3
September mileage: 17
Year to date: 1784

Date: September 3 Wed
Weather: 90F, sticky again
Mileage: 13
September mileage: 30
Year to date: 1797

I've managed to pick up a cold or virus or something. I willed myself to work today on the bike, and really didn't feel too bad except that the mileage reflects my lack of ambition. Yesterday I went to Krogers for an errand only to find that I had a lock but no key. I ran home and retrieved a key and returned on the fixie. Today was about as short as possible, 13m with the extra mile in the morning and straight home in the p.m. I took a "sick" day on Friday, so it figures that I am sick now after the "sick" day. And tomorrow is parent/teacher conference, which basically means a miserable 7a.m.-9p.m. day with a petit respite in the middle.

And the weather sucks. 90F+ and humid is getting old. But I'm alive and kicking and have only my mind to blame if I'm too cranky. peace and tailwinds.

Danville/Yosemite

Date: August 29 Fri
Weather: 90F
Mileage: 21
August mileage: 327
Year to date: 1754

After a morning 11m doing errands, we loaded up the truck for our family camp trip. I've often thought of riding to Family Camp on Friday and meeting the family at the site, but this year wasn't able to muster the necessary whatever to do the entire Louisville/Yosemite century. Instead, I compromised on Danville/Yosemite, which is typically the final leg of the trip. We usually stop in Danville for supper at Fazoli's before completing the trip to Wakon' Da-Ho. After a plate of chicken/broccoli past and an extra breadstick, I changed into some cycling gear in the restaurant bathroom and away we went. I don't say "I" just yet. The intersection at 127by-pass/127 is a multi-lane hairyfest. If I had to cross it, I could, but this time, I instead had the family drop me off about a mile south on the other side. From there, I had a very straighforward route that followed old 127 through Junction City, Moreland and into Hustonville. From there I headed slightly east to meet road 518, which the locals know as Mt. Salem Rd. I would challenge any of my dear cycling readers to find a more pleasant cycling road that Mt. Salem. After a short climb out of the creek valley, this road followed ridgetops for 7-8 miles, overlooking farms, fields, knobs and cows. There was absolutely no traffic and the road wasn't too easy nor too difficult; it was just right. By this time it was around 8.00 and the light was beginning to fade. I brought the LHT b/c of the SON, and I included my helmet w/ light too. I didn't want to be stranded in the "boonies" without adequate coverage. As the light disappeared I pulled into Yosemite- pronounced "YO-suh-mite"- up the hill and into camp. It was nothing more or less than a perfect 21 miler.

The LHT with the OYB multi-bag. I bought this a month or so ago and have been using it as a "man purse". It is sold as a 5-way bag and this is the first time I've used it as a handlebar bag. It's a little goofy fitting and sometimes hit the switch on the B&M, but for this ride it held my camera and maps and I can't complain. It doesn't do as well on the Bleriot; it rubs the brake cables.

Field with trees and fence. I couldn't get one without the wires.

Driveway

The entire ride I had excellent light coming from the west. At this point it was a golden beacon. Later the colors turned even more vibrant.

Downtown Hustonville. This could be anywhere USA, coudn't it?

Hustonville also seems to have an affinity for haunted houses. In addition to this one, there is a "haunted castle" just outside of town on the new 127. BTW, I hate by-passes. They seem to have killed small towns and given rise to the pernicious Wally World.

Top of a shaded hill on Mt. Salem Rd. This was a great cycling road.

I don't have a good enough telephoto to do this justice. The sun was peeking out the clouds and washing the landscape in hues of pink, lavender and violet. It's like the entire landscape was sepia-toned, but by natural light.

More power lines bothering my pink cloud pic. I might just crop this to prove a point, even though I never adjust my pics.

OYB bag in action while on the move. I really do like the cockpit of the LHT with the Nitto Rando bars, cloth tape and interrupter levers.

Middleburg Rd. Panda. You can almost get a feel for the rosy tint of the light with this pic. And, damn, I sure am handsome.

Yosemite 1m from Wakon' Da-Ho. More rosy tint, more clouds, more goodness.