Of freewheels and folly.

...or something like that.

Melissa went out of town to the beach with her mom this weekend which left me lots of bike, grill, and beer time. Care in prioritizing these three past times was crucial and I messed it up.

I went to my buddy Danny's Friday night for a St. Pattys party which is like every other party that exists except people wear and drink green. Genius, right? The plan was to limit the intake so I could get up early and ride Saturday. After five minutes inside the place, some car bombs appeared and my judgement making prevented me from doing anything other than eating green cookies and drinking some very dark beer all night. Ahhh, oh well.

I woke up dehydrated Saturday, rode dehydrated, and stayed dehydrated all day. Effin' dumb. I have done this before and the last half of the ride is always bad. Saturday was 87 degrees here and I ran out of sweat an hour in. I knew the ride would suck heading out the door around noon but was determined to test my new gear choice for the Nature Boy, a 39 x 19.

56 gear inches. I did the same 50 mile ride as the week before on the 39 x 17 and was just as fast despite the sloshy alcohol belly...the 19 stays and the 18 will remain unopened and get sent back. Feels good to have settled on a gear for Iowa. The current issue will be finding someone to go crew for us...know anyone? Basically they would get a free trip, eats, and beer for the weekend. Holler at me if so.

The cookout never happened. Next weekend.

I hit trails at Oak Mountain for seven or eight hours Sunday, something like that. Nothing fast, just enjoying the ride. I got in 63 trail miles and it felt easy. I guess that is good. I rode part of the ride with a couple of my friends who are just getting into mountain biking and enjoyed it. Obvious as it is, trails look way different depending on your speed. Duh. I think I enjoyed the slow riding (normally I would be bored and inpatient) because they were riding well and having fun. I think the hardest part of learning to ride a trail is where and how much to brake, although someone getting into it might say the climbs? Who knows.

Michael still races autocross and I used to. We agreed it is wayyyy easier learning to drive a car fast. There is just so much more shit to think about on a bike.

The house is weird, empty, and quiet right now...very ready for my girl to be back. The dogs miss her too, I think. The six o clock batshit freakout is still in effect even though nobody is pulling in the driveway. It is crazy.

But yeah. Iowa. Gotta find someone to go with us.