Kayaking Dodge Street...

...well, not really but close. I've kayaked a few local lakes with Doug. Today was my first time on the water at Lawrence Youngman Lake. It's located just north of Dodge on 192nd Street. This lake has only been open for a few weeks. There were several fisherman. We are 99.8% sure that one of them was local weatherman Jim Flowers. The backwater at this lake is nice and full of trees to paddle around. One of the advantages of being low and maneuverable on the water is picking up snagged lures.

Dodge St - scraped our paddles on the bottom of a 6 lane freeway while kayaking north.

Then we came to a hard stop and had to turn around.

Here you can see the cars behind on Dodge St. attempting to pass me.



Nice afternoon paddle and I can feel the strength slowly coming back from last fall. Won't be long and we'll be heading upstream on the Elkhorn!

Cruising Sandbars

Yesterday I saw a video on The Biking Fools blog that reminded me of something we would do back when mountain bikes were just getting popular in the late 80's. This photo is from Two Rivers State Park in late August of 89. When the river got low we would ride from sandbar to sandbar.

My buddy Chris and I had way fewer cares and gray hairs back then.

I found this post that has some good photos of what my Bianchi Super Grizzly looked like back in the day.

Dodging worms

I love the smell of worms in the morning. It's the aroma of fishing at the edge of a good pond. The ground is saturated and we got more rain last night. I rode my bike to work on wet pavement this morning dodging worms on the sides of the streets. Fortunately it's not home and business debris that I'm dodging. Our cities and towns close by are not so lucky. Thanks Red Cross for the shelter and aid during this very severe weather season.

Busy Sunday

If you are going to ride your bike 50 miles, a morning like yesterday's was perfect for it. The temp was cool but we didn't really need jackets. The wind out of the West-Southwest was a challenge. But the tailwind heading back to Springfield was fantastic. We started the ride in Springfield and rode though, South Bend, and Murdock. At Elmwood, NE. we turned around. It was great to ride with friends to urge each other on. The last 30 miles of the ride were nice. I felt like my body and my bike were working great. However, the first 20 were making me wonder why I do this stuff. Heading into the wind into South Bend made me feel like this ride was going to take all day. Somehow after leaving Murdock everything felt just right. The ride ended up taking about 4 and a half hours.

I had a couple last minute donors and you guys are great! Thanks to my family and friends that supported this ride and for the help for those with diabetes.

In the afternoon we celebrated my youngest daughter Emma's High School Graduation with a family party. Nice day for a cookout, visiting with the family and seeing the kids playing in the backyard.

Wind at our backs!

Tomorrow at this time I'll be getting ready to ride with some friends on at 25 mile ride from Springfield to Elmwood, Nebraska. Oh yeah, then we have to ride back but that's only another 25 miles. Looks like we'll have the wind to our backs so that will be nice.

There is still time to donate and I'm a little short on my commitment. Just click the link if you want to pitch in. Paul's Tour de Cure Link

TNR at Tranq - May 19, 2011

There was a threat of rain all day this Thursday so the TNR was lucky to happen. The clouds and wind didn't scare these riders off. My level of participation was merely to ride around and take a couple pictures and a video. It's always fun to see the reaction from riders on the Ridgeline for the first time.

Great to see some familiar faces out riding on a blustery Thursday.


I hear Dale and some others have plans for trail work tomorrow. I hope the conditions are good for that and your weekend ahead will be good!

THOR Prez on IMBA Blog

Our THOR leader, Roxzanne Feagan, on the IBMA Blog...

This is a fantastic post on Roxy's outlook on trails and advocacy. I like this.

Also in local trail news…

Last night after work I did some trail recon to make sure the north side of Tranquility was not too soft to ride. I've been looking for conditions where riding would help smooth the trail a bit. But the new trail seems to dry really fast. Last night it was nice and soft like clay but not greasy. The pipe work we did in the gully bottoms was still looking great but that dirt was too soft to ride. After the "GO" text Mike and I met up on the north side of Tranquility at 6PM. With both of us riding it we got in a good ten or so laps of tread wear on the new section. I would say it's going to be a little smoother anyway. Thanks Mike. We found "maintenance by bike riding" can be fun.

Small Disturbance

It's hard to believe something so small and insignifigant looking could create such a disturbance.
This is the failed starter relay from my truck. After looking online this morning, I see it's also know as the Starter Solenoid Switch. Last Sunday I took a trip to Lincoln to visit family. Since I was a little early I stopped at Wilderness Park since I always wanted to check it out. When I got back the truck would not start. After lunch my brother Steve and I checked everything we could including taking the starter out to get tested at Oreilly Auto Parts. It passed. Then we arranged a tow to Tuffy Auto South in Lincoln. By the next afternoon they had it running. I want to thank Tuffy's for getting my truck right in on Monday AM and taking good care of it. But even more I'm fortunate and grateful to have a family that cares.