I’m back!
January 8th, 2009
OK, I know it has been a long time since I’ve posted. I’ll do a better job in 2009, promise!
Georgia State Cross Country Championship
November 8th, 2008
I am so proud of Terry and his cross country teammates! They advanced to the State Championship. Here are a few pics, results to follow…
Tsali!
August 24th, 2008
It’s been way too long since I had been riding at Tsali. If you’re not familiar, the Tsali (sah-lee) Recreation area is located near Bryson City, NC. There are four loop trails for mountain bikers and equestrians. The bikes and horses are kept separated by alternating use of the trails. Each day two of teh loops are open for bikes and two are open for horses.
Before we left, we had a bit of maintenance to do on Kerry’s Litespeed. He was having some shifting difficulties, and we discovered he had a nine speed cassette but eight speed shifters (long story, he sold the bike to a friend, who sold it to another friend, then bought it back after it had changed parts a few times). Luckily, I just happen to have a spare eight speed cassette laying around. A few years ago I was trying to talk another friend into riding with me. His cassette was not made for climbing mountains, so I bought it so we could replace his old one, but we never managed to get a ride scheduled. Lucky for Kerry. So with the new cassette and smooth shifting we were ready to go.
The trip up there is not too bad. Only two hours, and there’s great scenery along the way.By the time we got to Blue Ridge, GA, we were getting hungry. El Sol took care of that.
El Sol Mexican Restaurant
After a couple mushroom quesadillas I was ready to ride. We hit the road again, listening to some Blue Collar radio on Sirius 103. I was surprised by how well we were receiving the satellite signal when we entered the Nantahala Gorge. We hardly lost the signal at all! We followed the Nantahala River until we reached the NOC. We stopped in to check out some of the new items and pick up some things we hoped we didn’t need (a spare 29″ tube, CO2 cartridges). They had a hammock-type chair that I had to have (more on that later).
Five minutes later we arrived at Tsali. There were a few other riders there, so we spent a little while chatting with them while we got ready to ride. I had a few video capture devices to test. After everything was attached and adjusted, we were ready to ride. As I mentioned earlier, the trails alternate between cyclists and equestrians. Today, the Thompson Loop and Mouse Branch trails were open to cyclists. We decided to ride the Thompson Loop today.
Kerry is ready to ride
My Niner Air9
Kerry's Litespeed Owl Hollow
We had a great ride, no crashes or mechanical problems. The weather was perfect for riding. We did encounter one hot and humid spot where we came out of the woods for a minute or so.
After loading up, it was time for some food. Instead of driving all the way to Bryson City, we just headed back to the Outdoors Center to eat at the River’s End Restaurant.
We started off with a localish brew, the Highland Brewing Company out of Asheville. I had the Black Mocha Stout, Kerry had the Kashmir IPA. His was the pink label.
We both got the angus burger, cheddar on mine, swiss on Kerry’s. We enjoyed them quite a bit. Before heading back we sat and took in the fresh air and river scenery. Even in the great outdoors, we were reminded to say no to crack…
All in all it was a great day. We plan on scheduling a monthly trip to Tsali, so if you’re interested in going, let me know!
MTB Ride
August 18th, 2008
It has been about 2 months since I broke my wrist, and I have been dying to get back riding. Today I got my chance. Kerry and I had made a pact that we’re going to start riding regularly (like we used to) with no lame excuses allowed. I was up late last night and only got about 4 hours of sleep. When I got up, the last thing I wanted to do is go ride.
Then I remembered the pact.
I knew I would feel better once I started riding, so off to Kerry’s I went. When I got there, another old riding buddy, Darren, was there. Apparently Kerry conned him into coming over with his bike. We loaded up and decided to go to Raisin Woods. The other choice was Red Wine Cove (with that awful first climb), but Kerry needed to run to the bank, and the bank was closer to the Woods. Nice.
We arrive at the Woods and get bikes and gear prepped. I thought my rear tire was a bit low, but then decided it wasn’t. Big mistake. As we got started, the temperature was 89 degrees. At least we would be out of the direct sun while riding under the trees.
Overall, we had a pretty good ride. I had a little trouble with my rear wheel feeling like it was coming out from under me due to the low pressure. We rode at least 7 of the 8 sections. Some areas aren’t marked well, so we may have covered them all without knowing it.
Click the link for the ride data.
And oh, Darren didn’t puke, so we must not have ridden hard enough. Maybe tomorrow :o)
How to ruin a kid’s movie for an adult…
August 8th, 2008
So the other day we went to our local (crappy) movie theater. The girls wanted to see Space Chimps. Being a good daddy, I joined the family and went along. The entire movie was predictable, for an adult at least. There were 2 things, however, that I really couldn’t stand and therefore ruined the whole movie for me.
1. There was a female chimp named Luna. She looked just like Michael Jackson. In the movie poster, she’s the one in the spaceship on the left (like I needed to state the obvious). It was just really strange.
2. The voice of Titan. Patrick Warburton did the voice for Titan. He has also done the voices of lots of other characters, including ‘Lok’ on Tak and the Power of Juju. In Juju, Lok is the stereotypical stupid jock type character that has a really annoying voice. Couldn’t stand it in Tak, and now can’t stand it in Chimps. You would think that there was enough voice talent out there that they would not have to keep using the same voices over and over. Apparently this has been going on forever…
Speaking of using the same voices, Cartoon Network has a new channel called Boomerang that plays older cartoons. The ones I used to watch when I was a kid. I watched an episode of Spiderman. The voice for the Silver Surfer is the same voice as Fred from Scooby Doo. There have been several others I have recognized as well.
The movie producers do realize what they’re doing. At the end of Cars, there’s a little parody from other animated movies that John Ratzenberger did the voices for. That was kinda funny…
Wish me luck, the girls want to see Space Chimps again!
Sleeping Angels
August 7th, 2008
Thirty one years ago today my dad was killed. He was caught in a storm with his brother and another friend when they were struck by lightning. To this day I can still remember waking up the next morning and being told. I was only 7 years old. I can’t believe it has been 31 years. Where does the time go?
Goodbye, my friend
July 28th, 2008
This morning I had to do one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do…
I got Copper back in 1994 from a family in Appling, GA. I picked him because he was unique - he had one brown eye and one blue eye. Why name a dalmatian Copper? Well, at the time, Terry watched The Fox and the Hound all the time. The puppy in the movie was named Copper, so…
Copper was a great dog. He loved camping, swimming, and chasing my old shoe. I used to wear out before he did. Lately, he started slowing down a bit, slowly rising to his feet instead of being up instantly. We started him on some arthritis medicine, and it seemed to help a little. Over the last couple of months he began losing weight, even though his eating habits hadn’t changed much. He was still himself, just a slower, thinner version of himself.
Last week he really started having trouble getting around. It was difficult for him to get to his feet. He stopped eating dog food, so he started getting lunchmeat, which he absolutely loved. Last Thursday he even stopped eating that. I tried every food I could think of, but he wouldn’t eat. He had continued to lose weight and looked like a bag of bones at this point. Over the weekend he stopped drinking water and could no longer get to his feet.
I’ll miss everything about him - his bark, the way he wagged his tail in a circle, the way he moaned when you would scratch him on the chest. He was a good dog and will be missed dearly.
Where does the time go?
July 22nd, 2008
Off to Roots!
July 13th, 2008
As soon as Anna and Zak’s reception was over, I headed out to Cape Cod for the Roots Workshop. The plan was to drive as much as I could during the night and stop for a few power naps during the day. I knew there were no Starbucks along the way that were open at 2am, so I had to formulate a plan.
I stopped by Target and bought a small cooler. Filled cooler with a bag of ice. Stopped at Starbucks during regular business hours and ordered 2 venti quad iced white mochas, minus the ice. Put these in my cooler for use during my time of need.
Route Map - Atlanta to South Yarmouth
I got into the first iced white mocha about 2am. That kept me fully awake and alert until I had the second one at around 7am. Up for 23 hours and feeling fine.
About 9:30am I passed a town that made me laugh a bit…
Shartlesville
If you don’t get it, let me see if I can help you out a bit. Ever burp and have a bit of vomit come up? That’s a vurp (vomit+burp). Using that as an example, ever let a fart and… well, you get the picture by now. Hence the reason Shartlesville was funny to me. Yes, I’m 5 years old, ha ha.