After windy, crap ride on Saturday and a Sunday-Sloth Day, it was nice to start off the week with a ride on the dirt roads and not feel like I wanted to take a freaking hostage or lie down in the dirt and wait for a ten ton tractor to run me over.
The only challenge I faced on Monday’s ride was the game of dirt road Pac-Man I seemed to be playing with the county’s road grader trucks. It’s totally doable to ride on the fresh dirt they’re laying down with 35c tires; It’s not all that fun, but it’s doable. I am less a fan of riding on that same fresh, deep dirt as they are currently grading it. One slip and the you potentially wind up a mangled piece of lycra-clad deli meat covered in dirt and gravel.
So, I did my best to avoid the trucks altogether. Ducking and dodging them, taking short cuts to get ahead of them, the long way round to avoid them, etc., etc.,
Of course the county trucks weren’t the only vehicles out and about; there’s still lots of activity in the fields as the farmers rush to get the last of the beans and corn harvested before any prolonged wet winter weather moves.
I ended up hitting a few roads I haven’t been on in a while, a few paved ones that I usually avoid, and a few of my standards to make up the bastardized loop/figure eight. I can’t wait to see the scattering of random loops and lines that my Garmin file must look like.
Note “No Hunting” sign on hunting blind.
One thing that greater Michiganderburgh has plenty of is hunting blinds. I had never really seen hunting blinds back in Pennsylvania. I am no hunter, but what I had gathered from friends and family who hunted back home was that it was a lot of hiking around in the woods, maybe finding a hill to perch on top of or maybe a tree stand. Here it seems to be more of getting in your blind at the ass crack of dawn, wait until you see a deer walk across the field, and then shoot it.
Some of the hunting blinds are hand crafted things of beauty done up by the Amish wood shops; others (like the one seen above) are so jank I wouldn’t even trust climbing the ladder to get in the damn thing. Whatever floats your deer killing boat, at least their off the couch and doing something outside (unless of course they’re laying on a couch, watching TV in the blind… then I guess that changes everything.
I think I could hunt, I’m pretty sure I could kill a deer, and I know I can eat one. It’s all that stuff that needs to happen in between the killing and the eating that tells me to let other do the hunting…. maybe I’ll just gather and cook.
A big ass pole barn that I ride past quite a bit has now burnt down twice in the past two years or so. Above is apparently what happens to a pickup truck that you leave parked inside said pole barn. Hope they have better luck with their third barn.
So that was Monday ride. Nothing that great, nothing that bad. Just glad to squeeze some ride time in.
Then There’s Tuesday
I woke up Monday to some unexpected rain and 40˚ temps. So, I started working on some new website stuff and figured I’d wait and see what was happening in a couple hours. Thankfully it stopped raining and I squeezed in a Better Than The Trainer Ride (Paved Edition)™.
Things were still a little damp but it looked like the rain was done. Sadly when I went to throw my fender on the Boone for the first time, I realized that the clamp will not fit the oversized carbon post. Damn… I love that fender. I’ll to look at it more, there may be some way of swapping out the rubber padding. If not, I’ll need to look into a new one.
There’s not too much to say about the Better Than The Trainer Ride (Paved Edition)™ other than it’s a short 26.5 mile ride that looks like a long rectangle on a map and that despite its name, 2.06 miles of the ride is on dirt.
I did get the pic above along Beal City Road today. I know it could have been better, but it’s one of my faves of the week so far. I used my no longer that new (to me) Fuji X100s and some VSCO Lightroom presets in post to help soften it a bit. I keep thinking since I now have a Fuji X-T10, I should just sell it, but it’s such neat and classy little camera I can’t bring myself to sell it. Plus it not having a zoom makes me work a bit more on shot and get closer to subjects, etc..
Wifey’s off for Veteran’s Day tomorrow, so I’m not sure if we’ll be doing something or if I’ll be taking advantage her being around and getting out for some extended time. OR better yet, taking advantage of her and getting out for a short ride.
Later.