Thursday I needed to try (try being the key word) to catch up on the stuff that I neglected to do on Wednesday, so I opted for a short, foggy dirt road ride north of town. Knowing how slack I am I assumed that the ride would suck given that I spent most of Wednesday in the saddle traipsing through the Michigan woods–thankfully I was wrong.
With Brennan off on a camping trip with his school as of this morning and Wifey out-of-town on business again until late Thursday night, I pretty much had nothing to do today. So, after I got B off to school/camping, ate breakfast, drank 62.3 ounces of coffee, dumped out two to eight times and came to mental grips with the fact that I indeed had nothing to do, I decided to head down to ride some of the North Country Trail.
My last ride featured forty-seven miles of sandy roads, crap pavement, steady winds, unusually hight fall temperatures, dehydration, cramping and a semi bi-annual bonk due to suck. Fast forward four days of slack to today, and my ride featured ten less miles, firm dirt and gravel roads, little wind, perfect early fall temps, plenty of water and good legs. If last Thursday’s ride had me feeling like Fredwardian moron, this one had me feeling like a cycling god. Then I remembered that I only rode thirty-seven miles with about 800 feet of elevation gain. Whatever, for a few seconds I WAS a cycling god!! I’ll take that feeling over the bonked moron feeling any day, even if it does only last a few seconds.
While Wifey has been out-of-town on .gov business this week I did everything a proper father/person should do, and that I do anyway (for the most part): Made all the meals, did laundry, got B to soccer practice, made sure his homework was done, mowed grass, did the shopping, did the dishes, took the trash out, ate properly, didn’t drink booze, smoke crack, shoot up, kill anyone or solicit prostitutes.
Given all that clean living I REALLY thought that I was up for a larger than usual (but not THAT large) multi-surface ride today. Sadly, my want to putz around taking photos, an unforeseen detour, a lack of on the bike nutrition, wind, deep sand, and higher than usual September temps turned me into a gelatinous heap of bonked suck praying for a passer-by to shoot me down like a gimp dog.
A leaky pipe in the ceiling above the Stankment’s Man Cave (actually belonging to a boy) meant that my ability to leave the house was at the mercy of a plumber, and my Wednesday schedule (or lack there of) needed to be adjusted. Any time spent on two wheels would need to be moved to later in the morning/early afternoon, and mileage would be minimal. It was the perfect day to say I was too busy to ride, but I was not going to pass up the opportunity to ride in near perfect 75˚ temperatures and brilliant sunshine. Not when I know all too well that by this time next month the air will have a distinct chill to it, the winds will start cutting to the bone, and base layers and riding jackets will once again become the norm. A ride HAD to be done, even if it meant it had to be a mere 25 mile Better Than The Trainer Ride™ on dirt and gravel roads north of town.
Always dig a good farm truck.
Late August and early September it was gloomy as hell here in Michiganderburgh. I swear we went nearly a solid week at one point without seeing the sun. Most of the time our winters aren’t even like that! Thankfully that has change over the past few days have been it’s been gloriously sunny. Today it was more even glorious ’cause after four days of slack, I finally got back in the saddle for a ride.
In recent weeks I became increasingly unhappy with the performance of my trusty Canon s95 point and shoot digital camera. I’ve been using an s95 for years now and it was perfect for riding: small enough to fit in a jersey pocket, easy enough to operate one-handed in most cases, and used ones could be found cheaply on eBay. But since I started to do rides using my Nikon DSLR I found the quality lacking to what I had become used to, but the problem with a DSLR is that even though the DSLR Slinger from Porcelain Rocket makes transporting one on a mountain bike easier, you are STILL hauling around a heavy DSLR (often on an already heavy fat bike).
So I started looking into a new camera that is smaller than my D3200 but better than my Canon s95. In my research for a new everyday camera–for both on and off the bike–I kept coming back to a couple of different cameras: The Sony RX100 and the Fuji x100t. Sadly both where WAY out of my price range.
I hadn’t been on my “real” mountain bike for about three weeks due to a broken shock lockout and all the logistics that go into having a broken shock lockout, getting the part ordered, receiving the wrong part, getting the right part ordered and having it installed. But today, FINALLY, I was back on the Superfly for a ride on the trails at Mid Michigan Community College.
After thirty-six to forty-eight hours of thunderstorms and torrential piss downs, Ma Nature finally relinquished her soggy grip on central Michigan and permitted folks as myself to venture out-of-doors without fear of being washed away into a river ripe with E. Coli.
This morning I sat at the computer drinking coffee and mapping out a ride that I hoped would come close to yesterday’s mileage and have me in the 40 to 45 mile range. Then I walked upstairs.
