Monday Night Ride - 11/30/2009

Big turnout for a night ride on the last day of November. Super nice chilly weather with almost no wind. Here are more photos.

Night Ride on a Thursday

Greg stopped by with a helmet light for me to try last night. It worked great but now I'm going to have a hard time night riding without one. My bar mounted light is ok but it's nice to be able to look around turns before you start turning. We rode up on a skunk not far past the kiosk at Tranquility. It didn't let it's stink go on us. But after that I was really happy to have some extra light ahead of me. Greg and I rode half a lap and found Mike and Todd. Then, as we rode up the Central Trail, Mike yelled "Skunk". Again no bad smells were smelt. So it was a really good ride...
Cold but not windy, kinda damp but luckily not stinky. The only sad part was when it was over and I had to give the light back.:)

Wisconsin Cyclists Win

Wisconsin Cyclists Have Been Heard! This means my favorite trail up in La Crosse, Human Powered Trails, will be able to continue it's mission of developing shared-use trails.

Armored Second Dip - North Creek - Tranquility

A report was sent to THOR about a cement block dropped into the second dip of the North Creek trail. It didn't seem too bad in the dark Monday night but as you can see from the before photo it was a hazard. For some reason there seems to be a newly formed spring above this spot leaving the dip damp with mud. Someone placed a cement block in there but was not level with the trail. I found a few more cement blocks and sunk them in level with the trail. There should be enough of a slope to keep the water moving over the spot.
BEFORE...

AFTER...

I rode over it several times to make sure it was solid. Take a look next time you ride tranq and let me know how it's working.

Monday Night Ride - 11/16/2009

The rain held off for our fat tire ride at Tranquility last night! There was a group of 5 riders leaving from Bike Masters. The Fort St. parking lot was empty. I was overdressed and had to pull off a layer after the first lap. Even with a north wind the temps were not as cold as I expected. We didn't take many breaks either so that kept my heat up. Owl didn't make an appearance last night. Bryan came through with some Fat Tire after the ride. Thanks again Bryan!

Cranksgiving Omaha 2009

Today was the third annual Cranksgiving Omaha. The Brothers Neef (Chris and Dave) and I rode a blazingly relaxed pace. It was required to shop 10 different stores to win. We decided three stores and about a 16 mile ride was good. We rode down the Big Papio Trail past Center St. and got a few items. I got stuck behind a price check at ShopCo with three bottles of shampoo so that took us out of the running for sure. We saved the big items like turkeys for the Target store close to the shop. We even got a little Tranquility single track into the ride on the way. The weather was much nicer than last year's Cranksgiving. It was a real good time for a great cause. Thanks for organizing this Bryan.
http://cranksgiving-omaha.blogspot.com/

I had a reuse moment

I had a major sidewall blowout last week. I'm happy to say it happened while airing up not riding. About the same time I needed to get the leaves off the lawn and into bags. As I was looking around the garage for something to hold the leaf bag open I found the blown tire. A few cuts and some duct tape and this tire is resurrected with a new use...

I got some trail today.

Got some paved with Lori, Mike, Jim and Dennis.

Got some dirt with Todd.

Can't be inside on Nov. 7th when the temp gets over 70.

Buena Vista University Visit

Cali and I took a little Iowa road trip today. Our mission was to visit Buena Vista University in Storm Lake Iowa. Cali heard about a major they have called Arts Management. This major blends business and art eduation. We learned about that and got a feel for the campus. There have been several college visits we have taken in the past year. Cali was hoping this one would either be horrible or fantastic because the choosing is getting difficult. I think this one was closer to fantastic. Anyway, I thought the food was pretty great.

We had a nice road trip. The court house in the center square in Logan, IA is always an amazing building to me. Mo Valley had some wierd scare crows tied to lamp posts on main street so Cali took a few pictures of those.