Cycling weekend....

Lunch....

Cautoin..... Ummmm? Caution?
The Queen of Cross....
Ready to roll....
Bicycle "art"....Ms. Rhea.... In her carriage....

More art.... The area code is 319, if you want to hire them....

Sunday afternoon's ride....

Riding with Jackal on Saturday....

East on Beaver Valley Road....

We got in quite a bit of riding so far this weekend. Jackal called on Saturday and asked if I wanted to ride out to New Hartford with him. I said "sure", why not? I had gotten home from a ride through the parks about midnite on Friday night and my legs were like lead. We called it a recovery ride. :) Thanks, Buddy....

It looks like the Deer Run area of New Hartford is in the rebuilding process. All cleaned up and ready to go. It's still strange crossing Beaver Creek and climbing Cemetary Hill without the houses and trees that used to be there. I suppose that the residents of New Hartford will get used to it and so will I.

Went to lunch with Jackal, Amy, and The Queen of Cross. I went out for a couple hours on the CX bike an hour or so later. Super! I was home for about 5 minutes after a pretty good effort when I pulled the Surly out of the basement and hooked up the Burley to go out with the crew. The Queen of Cross stayed awake the entire time tonight! Woohoo!

We waited by the RR crossing by Gateway Park as a train went by and she got a kick out of waving to the engineer and him waving back. Doesn't take much to excite a young 'un.... We rolled around Big Woods Lake and then back into Cedar Falls where we stopped by the festival in Overman Park. Lots of music and noise and the beer seems to be flowing pretty freely.

I hope the weather holds for one more day, at least. It's been sunny and warm but I can tell that fall is just around the corner.... The leaves will be changing soon.

I hope everyone is having a safe Labor (Labour) Day weekend.

Ride safe.

Peace out, yo!

A picture's worth a thousand words....

Tagged....

Brother of Jackal and I went out on the CX bikes last night....

I've been tagged by G-Ted. Since I happen to like G-Ted, I'm going to respond to his request.

What was I doing 10 years ago?

Well, at work I was managing the largest, most profitable department in the corporation. I must've done alright because I'm now managing the entire Iowa facility. It keeps me busy!

For fun I was playing Hockey on an adult "B" travel team with a nearly 40 game schedule, plus plenty of practices, as the only goalie on the team. It was fun. Oh yeah, we won a lot of our games. Something like 85% of them. It was good but my shoulder and my old, tired body won't take it anymore. I'm not sure I could even tie my skates anymore.... :)

What are 5 "non work" things on my "to do" list today?

1. Ride my bike

2. Create this post and read some blogs....

3. See what's for sale on eBay

4. Eat supper

5. Relax

Snacks I enjoy

Popcorn, Guinness, Canadian Club, Chocolate

What would I do if I were a billionaire?

Travel and share some of that moldy money with my friends.

Places I have lived

Waterloo, Iowa / Bellvue, Iowa / Racine, Wisconsin / Friedberg, Germany/Bad Nauheim, Germany / Fort Hood, Texas / Killeen, Texas / Schwaebisch Gmuend, Germany / Degenfeld, Germany / Durlangen, Germany

Jobs I have had

Farm hand... (Hog, Dairy, Turkey....) Grocery Bagger, Tank mechanic in the Army, Infantry Squad Leader, Printing press mechanic, printing press operator, management in the printing industry for the last 20 years. I never could get a job as a beer taster/tester though.... :(

For those of you who feel like playing along, consider yourself "tagged".... It's all good. (Don't make me call you out on this one, boys and girls. You know who you are)

Have a FANTASTIC Labor Day (Labour Day, for our Canadian friends, eh?) weekend....

Ride safe.

Peace out, yo!

Riding with the boys....

With Jackal and Brother of Jackal....

I got home from Florida about midnight last Wednesday. I was pooped! It rained on Thursday so there was no riding for me. I went out for a spin with the boys on Friday after work. It was the first time in two weeks that I'd been on the bike and it felt pretty good. I can't say that it was a hard effort but it wasn't a slacker ride either. I went with Jackal to the State Crit Championships on Saturday in Pella. Great racing! Lou Waugaman from Rassy's took off and lapped the entire Pro/Cat 1 field. It was absolutely awesome to watch. He put on a great show. Jackal raced as well as he's raced all year. A last lap crash by two others directly in fron of him put a damper on his chances after he'd led a very strong field for quite a bit of the race. That's the way it goes, I guess.

I went out on the CX bike about 9 Saturday night for a 20 miler through the parks. The Cateye Double Shot really lights up the night! It was a great ride followed up by a hard effort on Sunday morning that made me a bit sore. I probably should have rested yesterday but, other than being quite sore, I felt good. Another hard effort on the CX bike and I'm a hurtin' unit this morning. That's what two weeks off the bike will do for you, I guess.

I'll probably take it a bit easier this afternoon. We'll see.

That's it for now.

Ride safe.

Peace out, yo!

Disappointed....

The toll booths have been abandoned....
Just a little wind and rain....

This hurricane business is boring. Seriously. I 'spose it will get worse this evening and overnight, but up to this point it's been boring. Probably a good thing.

They closed down our Florida plant today because we expected a big storm. I went in anyway with a few others. The only other businesses that seem to be closed are the government offices and schools. I know that's hard to imagine. :)

We're supposed to fly back tomorrow from Orlando but that could still change, I guess. We'll see.... Hopefully Tropical Storm Fay runs completely out of steam and we have clear skies and nice temps.

I will say that the temps are much nicer today than they have been. Almost cool.

Fat Albert is getting to be a pretty popular guy up in Canada.... Lily and the Wooo Hooo's are doing their part to promote the tour.... You'll have to check it out here....

I think that's about it for now....

Ride safe.

Peace out, yo!

I went to the front desk....

....to buy some detergent. The night manager asked if I've ever done my own laundry. I laughed out loud. That was funny. I told her "since we got an automatic washer when I was in 7th grade" Then she laughed. It was good.

Plans for the weekend in Florida? Don't know yet. If the weaher is good we may run over to the east coast somewhere. I've never swam in the Atlantic....

I'm sure I'll get some "touristy" pics and put up some Fat Albert stickers.

Have a great wekend.

Ride safe.

Peace out, yo!

Some things never change....



Remember me saying that the bike had been broken the last two times I was here? The bike looks fine now..... Go figure. :)

Ride safe.

Peace out, yo!

Help wanted....

Fat Albert, I thought of you. It would be a great summertime gig....

You tending bar, me drinking Guinness....
Yeah, whatever....

Little Punk....

The crew.... Well, part of it.

The trip to Florida was a potential comedy of errors that turned out just fine. Got up at 2:30 in order to leave for the airport at 3:30 for a 5:50 flight. We arrived at the Cedar Rapids airport at about a quarter till 5 and got checked in, no problem. Perhaps a bit too smooth? The Delta "dispatcher" said we'd probably leave 10 minutes early. Hey! That's a first! We proceeded to the designated gate area to wait.

At about 5:20 he came up to the holding pen, er, I mean Gate C1 to tell us that we'd be a little late getting off the ground because we were waiting for an FAA certified mechanic to come put in "$7.00" worth of hydraulic oil and sign off on it. Comforting. He made sure to let us know that the flight would be quick today because of a nice tailwind aloft. I like tailwinds. No worries yet but, but, but we only had 50 minutes to make our connection in Atlanta and I just knew we'd have to change terminals. Bound to happen. We stated boarding at 6:30 and rolled from the gate at 6:40. Nice.

The flight to Atlanta was ungodly fast and uneventful. We landed with a half hour to make our connection to Orlando. It could be done! We had hope!

When we rolled in to get to our gate the pilot came on the intercom and apologized and then told us that we were going to disembark at gate C42. He also told us that "the company" had let us down because there was another plane at that gate and we had to wait for it to leave. I almost gave up hope then but the other plane was moved away in just a few minutes and we rolled right in. 16 minutes to get to A17. Crap. Not going to happen.

Well, we made it to the train to go between terminals and thought to look to see if we were still at A17. Nope. A24. Further. Crap. We got to the gate with 2 minutes to spare, just as they were calling our names for the last time before giving our seats away. We made it. I wondered out loud "how are they going to get our luggage to us?"

The pilot took off in a crosswind and the plane behaved like the plane I flew for flying lessons did the first time I took off in a crosswind. Not too pretty. The rest of the flight was good. Up until the landing. Again, a crosswind. Again it felt like the first landings I made in a Piper Tomahawk, a long time ago..... (I actually got better at it as the lessons progressed. Good enough for the FAA to issue me an aviator's license)

We got off the plane in Orlando and headed to the baggage claim area planning to fill out the information sheet so that our bags could be delivered to Lakeland later this evening. Or tomorrow. When we got to the baggage carousel the first thing I saw was my old kit bag on the track. No way. It couldn't be. Oh yeah, it was. Dave's bag made it too. Awesome!

We headed outside with our bags in tow and got on the waiting Hertz bus to take us to our rental car. How perfect is that?

Anyway, it's been a very long day and I need some sleep.

Ride safe.

Peace out, yo!

My bags are packed, I'm ready to go....

Rode the Finchford loop with Jackal this morning. The first 45 minutes or so of the 35 mile loop found me with a base layer under my jersey and arm warmers. The base layer stayed on. The arm warmers came off.... BEAUTIFUL weather! When we got back to Cedar Falls we rolled through Big Woods Lake Park and ran into John Fisher on his recumbent. Jackal and John took a loop around the lake while I sat and watched the world go by. It was good.

With the exception of the candle lit night ride, it appears that the Cedar Trails Festival went well. Jackal and I ran into Scott and Sara Gall on our way back home this morning and Scott said that they had 80 people show up for the tri this morning. Pretty sweet for a fairly new event! The night ride? Well, it appears that the 20 minute downpour that we had about 6 last night soaked all of the thousands of illuminaries that had been set out. That's really too bad because it's a very popular activity. Another tme, perhaps?

Well, my bags are packed for the Florida trip in the a.m. I'm taking my laptop, so I'll try to post something from "down yonder" while I'm there. I suspect my exercise will consist of long walks and short runs. There is an exercise room at the Residence Inn but I don't hold out much hope for the spin bike. It's been broken the last two times I've been down there. We'll see.... Oh yeah, plenty of Fat Albert Fan Club stickers are making the trip with me. :)

Congrats to Kerkove and to the Bike Tech crew on their Leadville finishes yesterday. Too Cool!

That's it for now.

Ride safe.

Peace out, yo!

Saturday....

It's Saturday and it's all good! About 81 F with a slight breeze. I just got back from a 5 mile walk that should help get the legs stretched out for tonight's "after dark" ride through the parks, which is part of the Cedar Trails Festival. It should be good! I'm planning to pull The Queen of Cross on the 10 mile ride in the Burley with theSurly . I know that will be fun! The organizers are getting ready for tomorrow's triathlon. It includes kayaking or canoeing, an off-road run through Hartman, and a bike ride. Looks like they're about ready to go....

While checking out Lily's blog a few minutes ago I saw that she got herself a new bike for her next adventure.... A triathlon! Nice bike! Good on ya, Lily! She's also the Canadian manager of The Fat Albert Fan Club and is doing her part to promote the Fat Albert Hugs and Kisses Tour 2008. She may even have a picture of some of our promotional material on her blog, so go check it out.

I plan to get up bright and early tomorrow so that I'll be ready for bed about 8 p.m. Gotta get up at 2:30 to get ready for the trip to Florida on Monday morning. My plane leaves Cedar Rapids at 5:50 and I have to be there an hour early to go through security. It's about an hour and 10 minute drive to get there so we'll be out of here by 3:30. Yukkkkkkk....... I wish we could have flown out of Waterloo. Oh well.... Ya gotta do what ya gotta do, I guess. It'll be fine.

I wonder how Kerkove and our friends from Bike Tech are doing out in Leadville? Big race today....

Ride safe.

Peace out, yo!

Mini Tour....

Brother of Jackal and Clay Bertram....

East on Beaver Valley Road....

Doug and Fat Albert assured me that both deserve some sympathy after yesterday's canoe trip with Tony. Tony wasn't at the group ride tonight to defend himself so I'll reserve judgement, for now. I think the words Doug used were something like "Tony is a 6 foot 2 inch, 210 pound kid". Yes, they got wet, and yes they had to swim after coolers full of beer. Sounds like it may not have been accidental after all.

There were about 11 or so who showed up for the group ride tonight and they were kind enough not to drop me until we were well out of town. The pace picked up rather quickly and poof, I was off the back. I tried chasing for a bit but soon realized that it was an exercise in futility so I just settled in and pedaled. The temps were nice and the wind was out of the north at about 10 mph. About a mile or so after I was dropped I saw someone up ahead so I picked up the pace to try to catch up and found Clay and Brother of Jackal waiting for my happy ass.... Cool! We went out to the end of 27th Street then headed north to New Hartford. The place still looks sooo different after the tornado and the flood but it is clean. I know that a lot of work went into that because it was in bad shape the last time I rode through there. Piles upon piles of wreckage all over the place. They have cleaned the cemetary up really nicely and it looks like there is some rebuilding activity going on at Deer Run. There is hope!

We ended up with 35 miles and felt really good. Clay is a motor and pulled me over the hills. He kept a good 20 mph pace most of the ride and it really felt good. Brother of Jackal is getting stronger and smarter with every ride.

That's it for tonight.

Ride safe.

Peace out, yo!

Sweet....

Brother of Jackal....

58F this morning! Glorious!!!! Woohoo!

I rolled down tho The Thin Man's shop last night for the group ride not knowing if the "B" group would ride or not. When I left the house Brother of Jackal wasn't home from work yet so I went alone, hoping he'd show. I went east to start and caught the South Riverside Trail and then headed west toward Cedar Falls on the bike path through the woods. When I got up to Pfeiffer I saw Jackal rolling onto the trail so I rode the rest of the way to the shop with him. I was a little bit suprised when I got there and saw that Chad Juehl was at the shop from LaCrosse. Good seeing you again, Chad!

It looked like there was a pretty fast group showing up so I went back inside and asked Brent if he was riding. He said "sure" so I went back outside to wait for him. A few seconds later Brother of Jackal showed up. Good. Better than going out with the fast guys and then riding alone... LOL. (I really don't mind doing that, ya know! It's good for me) Trust me, I don't ride alone because I end up so far off the front that they lose contact with me....

Tony, Doug, and Fat Albert rolled in and the usual banter began. Fat Albert had left a voice message on my cell over the weekend stating that the Guinness brewery in Dublin had burned to the ground and that production of the Nectar of the Gods would have to cease for the forseeable future. He had me going for a minute there. When it got brought up last night the subject quickly changed to Tony. Fat Albert claimed that Tony had eaten an entire pizza and drank six beers at 1 in the afternoon. And he showed up for the group ride after that? I would have been sleeping. Tony confirmed, with a smile, that it was true. Extra cheese too. And they are going canoeing today. With more beer. Be careful, guys.

Anyway, that group rolled at a few minutes after 6 and then The Thin Man, Brother of Jackal, and I went out a few minutes later. We headed north into the wind on Union Road with the intention of hitting C57 and then heading over to the old highway and back home. We made really good time pace-lining it to C57 and then decided to keep going north to cross the river at the Winslow Road bridge and head into Janesville. It was good! Once we hit Janesville and turned back south we rolled back to Cedar Falls in short order. The tailwind was nice.

It was a good ride.

Now it's time to get the day started. You have to love that. Plenty of low fog on the way into work this morning. I hope this weather holds for awhile. 70s during the day and mid to upper 50s at night. Awesome! Next week in Florida is going to suck. Oh well....

Have a great day!

Ride safe.

Peace out, yo!

A little attitude?

Queen of Cross....

Breaded meat on a stick....
All is good....

Let's go, G'pa!

Nice bracelets....

Ride safe.

Peace out, yo!

State RR Championships....

The Iowa State Road Racing Championships took place in West Branch on Saturday....
Not your typical racing bike....

Pete Basso on the front of the 3s....

The 4s at the finish line....

Jackal rolls across the finish line....

A little post-race chit chat....

Pro 1/2/3 at the end of lap 2....

Jake says "Hey!"

The Queen of Cross in her coach....

West Branch, Iowa is more famous for being the birthplace of President Herbert Hoover than for it's bicycle racing. That all changed this weekend with the State Road Racing Championships being held there. It was a sunny day (I managed to get burned again....) with temps in the mid 80's and a bit of a breeze. A great day for racing!

With most of the Bike Tech crew out in Colorado preparing for The Leadville 100, Landon Beachy and Richard Gilmore, both Masters racers, were the only ones wearing the red and white. 3 laps at 27 miles each in the heat and the hills. Brootal. Some would call them big long rollers, with the exception of the climbs out of the Cedar River valley. (Two times per lap.) Brootal.

Jackal punctured at about 18 miles on the first of 2 laps that the 4s had to race. He was on the front when it happened and it took some time to get the wheel truck up to him and get the tire changed. He was left to chase solo and wasn't able to get back on. He kept pedaling and passing those who had been dropped and still finished, though back a bit. Good on ya for keeping at it! He was having the race he had hoped and trained for and was feeling good, right up to the time he flatted. Bummer. It happens and he seemed to accept it just fine.

Jackal and I went for a little spin down to Hudson this morning. The wind was out of the south and east and south south east at somewhere between 15 and 30 mph. It couldn't make up it's mind which way it wanted to blow or how fast. It was a good ride though.

I took The Queen of Cross for 15 miler through the parks after lunch. Pulled the Burley with the Surly. It was great! We rode around Big Woods Lake then stopped at the shelter and watched the sailboats for awhile. She really liked that a lot! We then headed into Cedar Falls and did a little xc on the way to the Little Red Schoolhouse. She was laughing and yelling and carrying on. We stopped at the little park there just as a train was coming by. She went out and waved at the engineer and he waved back so that made her happy too. We rolled along the river and under the bridge. When we started cimbing the dike I had to get out of the saddle to make it to the top and she yelled "go-go-go" to keep me moving. Same thing when we climbed over the dike by the golf course. She's a hoot! No, we didn't do Lookout Park hill. No, no, no....

Anyway, that was my weekend. It was good.

Next Sunday night I'll be staying in Cedar Rapids to catch a commercial flight to Orlando at 5:50 on Monday morning. 10 days in Florida for work. Florida in August sucks. If you've never been there that time of the year you haven't experienced brootal hot weather. Yukk..... Oh well.

Ride safe.

Peace out, yo!