Amber waves of HEAT

Steve Shepard in the new ABC club kit. Steve is the chief race offical around here.

Jenn and our guest rider. She's one of the Carve women's team. VERY strong rider. I think our ride was more of a recovery rider for her! HA!

One of our new riders in the yellow, Mark Rogers, Matt, Jenn and Chris cool down after the ride.

There has only been a couple of times that I can remember getting dehydrated to the point of chills and a starting headache. Today will go on the books as one of those. Yes it's summertime here in Arkansas and yes it was 95 degrees with the humidity up there. The ABC ride started as usual about 1 and we had a nice little group moving along about 18-20 and as we hit the road we upped it to about 22 and kept a nice pace. We did the usual slow down through the baseball fields then kicked it up on Cantrell and over the train tracks and into downtown. Of course we hit about every red light there is. Finally heading over the Broadway Bridge everyone was riding strong! The gang was all together. We pacelined on the road by the rehab center and Chris Shaw threw a little canjun mojo powder on the line and BAM! We were kicking it and loving it! Up Ft Roots we go and back down and pace it to Cook's. On the way to Cook's those young guys kept the pace up there and I slowing dropped off the back a bit. Jenn and I took turns pulling at about 19mph on in to Cooks. Everyone was drenced in sweat. We all talked and tried to breathe and cool off. The plan was to ride the triple bypass. We got heading back and the line was great. Lots of families so we made sure we slowed and said howdy to the families and young riders. We got to the road and cranked it back up to 22mph and As Mark pulled out from the pulling the group it was now my turn. I was eager to prove I could pull for distance today. I would glance down and we stayed at 22 and we continued until we banked the curve and headed to the side street to get to the bridge. We slowed a bit of course and as we got to the stop sign it was clear which is unusal for that spot. I was still pulling and took us over the bridge. I was feeling good about the distance then wind. Smack me in the face and call me Moses! Just as we crested the rise in the bridge the wind was hitting me head on. I dropped all the way down to 14mph. We all got on over the bridge and the light stayed green for us to turn and that was it for my pull. Not bad but not great. I'll vow to pull better next time. We were taking a bit of a break then speed picked back up and then slowed just before hitting the road by Alltel (Pronouced aww-hell). The pace formed and off we go then that weird sense of somethings wrong began to creep in. I was still with the group but I began to get big time chills. Oh crap! As I was dropping Jenn, who is fighting a sinus infection, was dropping too. I pulled the two of us for a while and I was honestly about to give out and speed was dropping to 14mph and she came around and pulled us on in. Thank you Jenn! A true friend. Chris, her husband, was sticking it out with the young whipper snipper group ahead of us. I drank almost all the water and GU2O I had left and sat on the tailgate and cooled down. I began to feel better fast but knew my body was telling me to take it easy back there. What could I have done different to prevent that I keep asking myself. Anyway, all in all it was a great ride and there were a couple of new folks riding with us. Patrick is still working in Boston and thank heavens otherwise our 22 mph would have been 26.

I told Terri I was going to be in bed by 9:30 reading.... with my eyes closed.

CARTI Tour de Rock

Bike racing. OK City Velo, Carve and Tyson riders

I started preparing for this ride last night. Went through the check list and got the ride ready. Woke about 6:30 got ready and had pancakes, a must pre-ride meal, and even went down to Starbucks for a Vanilla Latte. Research shows that coffee drinkers can sprint longer than non coffee drinkers. Trust me friends, there as no sprinting for me today.

Left for the ride about 7:45 or so and as I got over to Burns Park I knew it was going to be a great ride. Cars and bikes in a long line all heading to the same place. When I got to the starting area the lot was almost completely full. I was excited for CARTI. Last year there were about 300 total and there's no telling what this year was. Saw lots of friends. Got my number and headed back to the car to get ready.

Everyone began heading up to the start point and and I wedged in with my Fast Girls and Slow Guys club. Was strange having several missing. Chris, Christopher, Robb, Patrick and several others. Yale was there with his som Braxton for the family ride. Rob Lambert gave the here's what we're gonna do and where we're gonna go speech and out we go. Most started fairly slow and we picked up and picked up and picked up. On the river trail was fine but baby once we got to the open roads we upped it. I was rarely going under 22 mph. I hung on until the break with the rest stop where I had to cross the road and I bidded farewell and told Dean to go with the front group, which he did till the very end. Way to go Dean! I rode solo for a bit and kept a steady low 20 high 19 pace (with wind thank you). Had a chance to rest a tad and have a gel and water. About that time a couple of guys came by but I just wasn't ready to jump so I continued on. A few moments later a paceline came by and I recognized several of them and began drafting. Not sure who the guy in the Sierra-Nevada jersey was that pulled but he pulled through some wicked wind. We kept our pace and took it on in once we returned the the river trail. Good ride!

I picked up a drink from the FUZE tent. AWESOME STUFF!!! Geo, don't forget you just rode hard for 35 miles, slow down on the sweet drink. A few minutes later, "oh my tummy." I changed clothes and hung out on the back of the car for a little bit and watched riders come in and to let my tummy settle before walking over and watching the crit races. Met up with Kyle, Doug and Doug Pope. Oh gosh, Doug Pope knows Doug Childress... heaven help us! HA! We all watched a race and my tummy still is reminding me of my sin but it's livable. We all left and the guys headed for the food and I headed for the car.

It was a fun day and I hope CARTI will continue to do this and it continues to grow.

Other stuff. My bud Robb is now working at Arkansas Cycle and Fitness over on Bowman Road. I'm hoping they will let him work the Sherwood store too. He'll make there business soar.

Well, just I better get busy with the house chore crap. Big ride tomorrow at 1 and then again at 6:30 tomorrow.

It's the weekend already?

Just threw a few photos out there from last night's bike BBQ down on the river.

Robb

Christina, Jenn and Denise

Christina (yep, that's me in the orange shirt in the background)

Jo and Matt. Oh man are these two fast!

40% chance huh?!

The weather report says we have a 40% chance of showers today. Well it started raining about 11 and has been light rain since. I've finished my "have to do" list and pondering what to do after work now.

Can't ride. Club ride will cancel anyway.

Can't mow. However I did mow the front last night. I told the kids to get out in the back yard and clean up after their dogs. "We'll do it tomorrow." So now there's wet doggie piles in the back yard. I hope there's not wet doggies out there too. Nothing worst than a wet dog that is happy to see you! And Max (Sean's dog) is sort of like on the Flintstones when Dino greets Fred. Yep, he's getting big.

By the way, Sean is Emily's boyfriend. I think several folks thought Sean was one of my kids. He might as well be.

I'm already thinking about the weekend since the CARTI ride is coming up. Here's the website if you want to see it: www.tourderock.org It's a fun ride where you can ride between 2 miles to 33 miles. I'm excited about the 33 miler because you have to average 14-18mph. I'm hoping to ride with the big dogs on this one. The bigger dogs will be racing the crits so it sort of leaves room for old guys like me to stay up front a little longer. I'm hoping the course is cleared so we can hammer it out at times.

Oh well, back to work...

A weekend of hills

We got home from church and I had a quick bite since it was just Terri and I. Headed out to the river and knew I'd meet up with the ABC club ride before long. I rode repeats on Ft Roots and as I was going down for the thrid time the gang was working their way up. Got to the bottom and big ringed it back up. I was feeling good (compared to the last hill climbs during the ride yesterday). The club was gathered at our usual resting spot.

We all rode down and out to Cook's and more socializing. The plan was to ride back over the river with them and climb Overlook, and River Mtn and recovery speed on the way back to the car but as we kept the pace around 20-ish and slowing down for famlies and other bikes, I seemd to run out of steam. I knew it wouldn't be fun to try and keep up after doing repeats already. If it would have been a slower pace I would have done it but I'm not one to ask for a slower pace. So as we got to the turn off I bid farewell and headed to the boat ramp and the car.

Back up a couple of frames and let me tell you about Robb. He was riding along and started doing his hot dogging and I got so tickled I was weaving and laughing so hard I could keep the pace and breathe.

I put sweet tea in one of my bottles and there's just something about it that calms me down. It's funny that so many people tell people who are active in hot weather to be sure and drink some Gatoraid when it is really one of the last things we want. It makes our tummies cramp. Sometimes we slice it half and half with water.

The long way home

Woke this morning and knew I would head out for a ride. 65 degrees. Perfect start temp. I headed down to Cook's to meet up with a different club then the one I normally ride with. There were several folks getting ready to ride. Just as we get ready here's comes a car zipping in and Jenn jumps out and slaps her bike together and is ready to ride in record time! Chris, her husband is in Washington (and hating not being one his bike with us). We head out and started pretty fast. Now these folks are heading to Cabot and the country side and I've already riden from the house so my paln was to ride until we got to he backside of the NLR airport and drop of through the neighborhood and get back to the house. We made it to Remont road and headed out toward Batesville Pike. I was having such a good time that I just kept on riding. We stopped at a coffee shop in Caot that was great and vert bike friendly. Bike friendly to the point of filling out water bottles with ice then water. That's customer service first class in my book! I had a vanilla latte over ice and a cinnamon scone (warmed even!). We started back and I was feeling good but seemed to be dogging a bit. I had some major gear slipping and it would be my most comfortable gear too! Hills, did I tell ya we were in the hill climbing mood today? When we came back around and had to climb the Batesville Pike my legs started calling me ugly names. I was climbing at a very lame 5mph. The I had to do something I've not done in about 3 weeks and that was drop into the little ring. I was glad I was in the back now because I was embarassed. Just sort of a downer to have to do that but then again, that's what the little ring is for. When we got back to the top of the hill and at the turn off for Maryland St. I bidded farewell to all including a couple of new guys (Brad and Bob... both strong riders) and turned toward home. I flew down Maryland for some reason and came out on JFK and had to sprint in traffic to the Walmart parking lot and cut through and up through the neighborhood to the house. No one home and I've forgotten to change the code box to open the garage door so I sat up on the front porch with my water enjoying the nice summer breeze. I later let myself in with my extra key. When I punched in my ride it came to almost 4200 calories burnt! I can pig out now! WooHoo!

Funny story: One of the guy's that was supposed to lead the ride had knee surgery on Thursdaay and he was so bummed about not riding that he came out to Cook's and pulled out a lawn chair and talked t us until we departed. Doc told him he could be back on his bike in 3 days. Tomorrow is the third day! Bill Stewart, get well soon!

Going slow along the river

The world's longest bike bridge due to open Oct 1st for the ARKY 100

They're serious, don't ride over it yet. They'll call your momma if you do. Sign says so!

This is what the bridge looks like from further back.

This is one of the forest areas you get to ride through. It's not unusal to see folks with a nice bass or two on a stringer walking back to their cars. This is also where the deer walk through at sunset to get to water. I yelled "DEER" more than once on a group ride.

Look real close. The King was out on the trail this afternoon. That's Elvis the King snake.

Just one of our signs with flowers blooming.

You can get off the river trail a little and climb Ft Roots drive. This is the view from right in from of the engineers office.

Same spot as above but you can see the Arkansas State Capitol and if you look to the right and you can see the building with black windows? That's Arkansas Children's Hospital. My employer (and generous sponsor).

This is one of he old house at Ft Roots. Nice house huh?

And this is the view directly in front of the house above. Nice view huh?

...and this is the price is cost to build it in 1896... $2,890. Very nice price, huh? Wonder what this house would be worth as a regular neighborhood home in this location?

You could build a 12 bed hospital for the price of a cheap car!

This is a bunk house that slept 65 men built for $26,000.

Heading back down the hill. If you look close it' almost like one of those illusion pictures because it looks like it's going uphill.

A stop point on the way down.

One of the three switchbacks of Ft Roots drive.

And another switchback

The "long" wooden bridge on the river trail.

There is a water ski competition going on this weekend. I watched the hot doggers on their board doing those really cool jumps and stuff.

I fianlly got out of the house this afternoon and rode the river with camera in hand.

It least it's clean!

I had yesterday and today scheduled off for the NW Ark Challenge but had to cancel. Bummed out about that! I've been living the ride in my head. One of the guys I ride with a lot is up there and sounds like he did well yesterday. I had told him that the first day would be easy for him. I've riden that route twice and don't remember it being an epic. Now today he left Russellville and heading toward Harrison on Hwy 7, I believe, and that will be epic. But then again, Chris is in top shape so he'll really enjoy the climbs. Several others from our club are heading up to ride the last 2 days of it.

Oh yeah, about the title of the blog. Since I was off and bummed I started spring cleaning the house (part 2). I did some back in the early spring but didn't do the real scrub down as in moving the fridge and cleaning under it and all the stuff like that. I'll not bore you with details but the house is clean! Sometime during all of that I pulled a muscle or something in my shoulder/neck. I felt like it does when you sleep funny and wake up with a stiff neck. But today is much better! Might grab a ride later today.

It's nice to skip Monday!

All day long I thought it was Monday. Monday holidays do that to me. The day was good at the office and I slashed through it reminding myself that I get to ride after work. With Emily driving now and me not wanting to buy a new car (call me cheap, I don't care!) Terri and I are going to car pool. Hope it works out because it would certainly allow us to save a chunk of cash.

I made it over to Burn's Park and got the bike all ready. It was just a few minutes before 6 so I really didn't think I'd make it to the start point but I did with time to spare. We were going to do the over and back meaning we'll knock out 32 miles going over to Little Rock and back. We were keeping a steady 20 mph pace and slowing a lot around walkers and such. Only a couple of folks spinted the road between the skate park and rehab center. We rode over the Broadway bridge and the group was looking good. Brent was back out there with us. He's a strong rider but has been having some muscle weridness lately but I think he figured out what it was. Funny thing is that he is a doctor and sent out this email with an article explaining his pain. The article was over our heads for the most part. But it was good to have him back out there. We flew down the LR side looking good and I felt Overlook calling me so I broke off and climbed. Either they stayed at the turn around point longer tonight or I got up the hill faster because I spotted them further back then last time. The ride bak was fun. Nice little sprint across the Broadway bridge. I pulled an attack and got eaten alive right off the bat. Then as we were approaching the skatepark again the line sort of relaxed a moment then picked up and I'll be darned, I couldn't edge back into the paceline. No man, not the back again. Ugh! I sat on the back like lard butt for the rest of the ride and dropped off to slow and spin it out just before I got to the car. I was already in the car, left the parking lot and about to turn onto Championship drive before I saw the other half of the group. Someone must have had a flat because there is no way I'd be that far ahead of them.

The group was thinner than normal. Chris and Jenn Shaw were missing, Parick was racing in Carve crits, Chris Irons and Rebecca was resting up for the big NW Ark Challenge. Robb was missing and so was Wayne. We still has 12. Not bad at all.

Terri leaves for Fayetteville tomorrow so I'll be Mr Mom again. Talk about endurance training! HA!

Lots of talk about the HH100 jersey. I'll talk to Chris when he returns from the challenge and see what I can do to help. We have to move fast in order to get it by time for HH100.

Memorial Day 2006

Up at 6, showered, ate waffles, checked weather, and on the bike by 7. I took a few moments to watch a few of the soldier stories on TV this morning and told God thanks and to continue to watch over our guys.

My ride took me from the house to the river via North Hills Blvd. A very quite morning out. I think I might have seen 3 cars between my house and the river. Got down there and could see a couple of riders on the road and I figured the park would still be closed. The trailer for the NASCAR National Guard car was out there as was the SPAM truck. At the entrance of the North Shore park it was nasty! They were hauling everything out including trash and it smelled like a dump!

On down the road I jumped up on the river trail and for 7:20 in the morning on a holiday it was busy! I saw a group with the leader wearing a Chainwheel jersey heading around the bend and thought they might be headed to Scott but saw them again on the return. There were a lot of folks on comfort style bikes tootling along enjoying the morning. Most were without helmets.

As I was heading down the hill and into the forest I noticed a guy, actually noticed him a ways back, and he looked like a cyclist and I could tell from behind he was on one of the Giant OCR bikes with the cool red/black frame. He was in his big ring, big gear the whole time. He was moving along about 16-18mph but it was an interesting exercise.

I past a few others including some friends from church and shut it down at Cook's. Slurped down a gel and water then started heading back. I saw the rider on the Giant and invited him to ride with our group. Then I realized who the guy was. Let me rephrase that, I know where he lives. There is a cool looking house on North Hills that belongs to an Asian family and there are always hot looking cars parked there and one has a bike rack on top. That was this guy. I don't know who they are but the guy was friendly.

On the way back down the trail I just took my time and enjoyed the morning changing off to a detour here and there. I'd played enough and returned the the trail to head home. Saw Kyle coming my way. Figured he and the "brotherhood" would have been riding today. They don't seem to like to ride with me much anymore saying I ride way to fast for them, which is pure bagged cow manure from Home Depot.

Back through the nasty park entrance and headed toward N Hills again. There is a short stretch where I have to go through a lower income housing area and this morning several were sitting out on their porches. I gave 'em the big howdy and most waved back. Honest, I don't care about the type of neighborhood but when you say hi to someone sitting on their porch 9 times out of 10 they will respond in a nice way. That's what front porches were built for wasn't it? Not just cool looking stuff from Pier One.

Turned off on Justin Matthews Drive to enjoy the yards and beautiful homes for a moment. I have a coworker that lives in one of these homes but not sure where.

Came up to the light at the entrance of Lakewood Village. I love riding through here before all the stores open. Folks were dusting off their welcome mats, sleepy eyed workers getting out of their cars wishing they hadn't stayed out so late last night. Just a community coming to life.

Then I got to ride my favorite return home drop... yep, on North Hills. Nothing is more fun then getting to ride up to the red light, turn right and drop down the hill! There was a couple on the walking path at the bottom of the hill and as I hunched down playing "Mr. wannbe Pro rider gets areo dynamic" (HA!) they started clapping and cheering me! Buh-ha-ha-ha! I was laughing when I rode past. I looked down and had a nice 36mph ride going! Woo Hooo! Of course that dropped to about 16 by the time I got over the next incline. There's a short recovery area and then the road drops just enough to get a go 20+ ride going again that can take you all the way to the intersection at N. Hills and JFK. Usually by the time I get to that intersection I have some charge going on and if the light is not red, it rocks going through there. Another short drop and weeee around the curve and onto Oakridge we go. From here on it's uphill all the way till almost my house but it's a fun uphill. Once up there I get to ride level for about 100 yards to the house.

Got home and cooled off out on the front porch. A couple of neighborhood runners came by and waved. See there's that front porch waving thing going on again.

It was a good morning!

The Lollipop Ride

Yes this ride did include a camel!

Everyone getting ready to ride the Lollipop

Our beverage stop in Bigelow. Bad photo but look behind Jo in the middle and you'll see the good ole boys. They were funny.

Now this is a perfect photo. Shows the real side our of fearless ride leader and host. Children at Play and Robb. And dig that jersey!

Yes, we really did see a camel and ox and even water buffalo. Also I saw a dead raccoon, armo, 2 live snakes, 2 dead ones and Jenn and Chris Irons were real sure to "over" point out a turtle then had the nerve to both look back at me. My best friends can be so evil sometimes! HA!

Robb hosted a GREAT ride today called the Lollipop Ride. The course was like a lollipop and it was suh-weet!

About mid week we began shooting emails back and forth about this ride and Robb said he'd do it if he had 4 takers. He had about a dozen! He's one of those guys everyone likes to be around. Good solid rider with a sense of humor.

We met out at Lake Sylvia this morning around 8:30 and headed out for our ride. This first thing we did was climb a hill but then we were all fresh and it was a nice slow paced climb. Everyone in good spirits and feeling good. The road we were on is a 4 mile driveway for the Lake Sylvia Park. It's an over sized pond but a pretty little place with hiking trails, a little office, restrooms, etc.

First road: Hwy 10 north. We've all riden Hwy 10 before so no biggie. We climbed a couple of hills and then did what I think is one of the best rides down in central Arkansas... the drop into Perryville! By the time we got to the bottom I heard a couple of 50 mph drops. I screamed all the way down at 43.3.

Second road: Off to the left at the bottom of the Thornburg drop we took the rode that goes by the Heifer Project. Jenn and Parick were up front. I dropped out for a moment and rode up the drive to get a photo of the camel and ox. Pretty place and I'd like to go back again. I think the kids have been out there on school field trips before but that was years ago. Anyway I had to hump it to get back to the group who graciously waited for a moment at Hwy 10. And then again I had to hump it because a couple of dogs wanted to run with me a moment. One was a nice looking yellow Lab.

Third road: Hwy 10 again. We were just on it for a moment and then turned to go to Perryville and Harris Brake Dam.

Forth Road: Gosh, what was the name of that road? Anyway, we rode along Harris Brake and I think that's a place folks out to buy up as property comes open. Just outside LR and I've heard it's a nice little fishing lake. Lots of run down trailers though. I rode with Becca for a little bit, then Yale, then Jenn and Chris Irons. This is the road they pointed out the turtle. They're hethens!

Fifth road: I'm sure it has a name but by now I'm tripping on Hammer gels and hot Gatoraid. Anyway we rode it to some other road like 300 or 113. We began to see the markers sprayed on the road for the Tour de Toad from this year. Looks like the 40 and 60 miler routes came through here. When we stopped there was a small store and I went in to use the restroom and the lady said they didn't have running water right now. I think she just didn't want a bunch of sweating cyclist using her john. Everyone was riding really strong today!

Fifth road: There was a sign that said "Wye 4" so I knew it was about time to start climbing. We started out all together but Wye Mountain can break up any group. I was able to stay in my mid ring, mid gear so I felt good. There were several times I really wanted to drop the gears but this has sort of been my goal over the past couple of weeks to ride hills in higher gears. Got to the top about mid group. There was a nice breeze blowing... ok let me clear this up. There was a nice breeze blowing after I stopped. The same breeze was a pain in the butt only moments before as I was climbing the hill.

From here we rode to Hwy 10 and it started with rolling hills and then a long hill. As I was riding, Rebecca came from no where and smoked that hill! I'm not joking! It was like one of those chick pro riders. Whoosh! I hollared, You go girl! I could hear her laughing. Laughing while eating me alive on a hill. That's low ain't it? NOT! That's awesome!

The front group was at the Hwy 10 turn and they were leaving. From here on to the turn off back to Lake Sylvia I was solo. I could see them but I just couldn't catch them and the wind was picking up so I didn't have anyone to draft. This was no big deal because I slowed a little and played my "what's that dead mushed up animal in the road?" game. Oh man, there was one bloated deer on the side of the deer and the flies were having a family reunion like no other! Lord did it stink! I could see Matt dropping back from the group a little and I told myself as long as I can see him then I won't be left on the side of the road to be eaten by buzzards. He stayed about 100-200 yards ahead. It was funny because he would speed up a little and I would. He would slow a little and instead of me doing the right thing and get my lard butt up there and take turns pulling, I would slow down. We both finally got back to the road to Lake Sylvia and first thought was, "Thank God, only 4 miles." I guess God thought I needed a little endurance testing because that was the l-o-n-g-e-s-t, roughest 4 miles of my life! I kid you not, that road was not that rough when we headed out. And remember that hill we climbed right off the bat? It was nowhere to be found. I'm not joking, it seemed like it was 20 miles. I finally saw a sign with an arrow curved down like a bad Viagra advertisement! The wind was blowing and it seemed like I was having to pedal to go downhill. I got down to the bottom of the hill and rode in to the park and accepted the trophy... the prized lollipop which served as the finishers trophy. I honestly wanted to ride right past Robb and into the lake! And honestly, I think I'm not the only one that wanted to do that! It became hot and we were tired by the end of this 53 mile ride.

I still didn't find my swimsuit last night so I changed into street clothes and hung out a bit then headed home. Seemed like it took a long time to get to I-430 but it always does when you drive after a good long ride.

Home, showered and eating like there's no tomorrow! That's one of the great things about riding. You come home and get cleaned up and then log your miles to find to knocked off 2400 calories! So what did I eat this afternoon? Some more shrimp, 2 glasses of sweet tea, a Mt Dew, some Triscuits, a leftover chocolate dounut I found (Terri, when did we have chocolate donuts?) Gosh, that could have been from last year's Memorial day weekend, who knows! Then Terri got home and said "I was thinking abiut making shrimp poboys for dinner, that sound good?" You bet baby! And it was!

Tomorrow Ian and Holly Hope are leading a ride. Maybe part of the ARKY 100. Can't wait!

Chris Irons, if you are reading this, "Good Luck on the NW Arkansas Challenge!"

BACA in BENTON

This is where bikes go to die. It's the side lot at the Bike Doctor in Benton.

Officer Scott showing proper bike handling during the bike Rodeo.

Jenn Shaw had to make sure Office Scott's bike alterations were correct.

One of the courses used to check bike skills

Jenn and Monty adjust the new helmet for the rider.

Officer Scott and the safest bike riders in Benton

A good Friday! The office was very quite and I left a little after 3 so I could get down to Benton and work with our ACH Community Outreach and BACA to put on a bike rodeo. Sad to say there were only 3 kids but to see how just a short time with them improved their riding skills a lot. We gave them new helmets, checked tires, brakes, adjusted seats and these kids did great. If we helped them to enjoy their bikes that much more then it was worth it!

Tomorrow morning I'll head over to Lake Sylvia to ride a 60 mile ride. It's the Fast Girls and Slow Guys club. We'll get to climb 3 mountains and maybe picnic and swim afterwards. Come to think of it, where's my swim trunks?

Later that day...

Yale, Becca, and Wayne returning to Cook's Landing

after the 3rd trip up Ft Roots.

Robb talking about the ride we are planning on Saturday.

Or was he teaching us the song,

Pop goes the weasle?

Wayne wondering how he gets himself into this stuff.

Hey, this is the Wayne that did the perfect pull on our last ride.

Jo, Chris and Rebecca.

Part of the crew that championed the 3rd go up Ft Roots.

Robb warns the poppa-razzi to back off. HA!

The next 3 photos were ones I had to stop and take.

The sunset to the end of a great day riding with great friends.

The in-laws are here from FL and this is what I had waiting for me when I got home. Fresh gulf shrimp right off the boat from behind Habour Docks in Destin.

I got off from work and drove over to Burns Park to unload the bike and get ready for the Thursday night Fast Girls and Slow Boys club ride. The plan was to try a new electro replacement but the little tube was for a whole gallon. I asked a couple friends if they had tried it and Ian had and gave it a semi thumbs up. Said he put Gator in it to add some taste.

Starting riding toward Ft Roots and got to about the police union building and saw JBar and one of his friends and then a few seconds later saw Kyle McNeese. I was about 5:25 and I needed to be at the other end by 6. No problem. I passed John and told him i was just trying to catch up witht the juvenile that just passed them (referring to Kyle). Caught up with him and had a nice chat. Noticed his arm had the tattle tale signs of road rash. Yep, he was trying to get around a couple last week and ended up going off the trail. Just another badge of honor.

I had looked in my bag for gels or something but nada. So I rode with water which was fine but I think I would have riden better if I could have replaced some electros and food.

I think I heard Chris Irons count off 18 riders tonight! Big group.

We all head off knowing we'll stay on the NLR side of the river but climbing Ft Roots multiple times. You'd sort of think that the pace would have been a tad slower (I hear you all laughing!) but no way baby. We were rolling at 24mph at times and we are just out of the gate. I can see JBar pulling. Crazy man...strong rider. Everyone was riding strong and we hit Ft Roots the first time. I had stayed back a bit after one of our riders couldn't get around a couple walking and didn't want him to get dropped off the bat. So I had it in me to move on the hill. I felt great and kept in in the big ring and about 10mph. There's something about when you first start up the hill and you round the first switchback it seems to be tough but then from there on, I enjoy the climb. I keep meaning to get ahead of the group and shoot this hill so you can have a visual. It's, to me, one of the prettiest places in NLR.

We all regroup at the top and start to head back down and the first curve greeted us with on of the city buses. In most town the city buses are ruthless but I'll have to tell you everything I've been in NLR the buses are courtious to bikes. Thanks CAT! So everyone zips down the hill dreaming of going 60 while we'll going 30. Bottom of the hill everyone sort of regroups again. Some fat boys like me can enjoy the pull of gravity down the hill better than others.

We're back out on whatever the name of that river road is and riding along. I know that once we get passed the couple of houses someone will break into a sprint. It's an unwritten rule. I'm sitting pretty far back and I see Robb start getting antsy, then Chris Shaw stands, and it hits...Sprint time! WooHoo! I looked over to my left and there are no riders and the sprint has already taken off. Do it, don't do it. Do it, don't do it. DO IT!!!! I stood and pushed hard getting to 32 before shutting it down. I caught 'em but I'm very sure they weren't pushing their limits.

We swing around through a vacant lot for the return since the actual park is closed/blocked for Riverfest. On the way back, I got the honor of pulling so I kept it 19-20 mph.

More later...