Labor Day Weekend Recap
Saturday found me doing a whole bunch of nothing but relaxing until late in the evening when I decided to head out on the road bike for a little spin. Duma had been intimidated and nearly attacked by a wolf hybrid on a walk earlier in the day and my nerves were shot so I figured a bike ride was the only way to burn off the stress. Duma is a big boy and was a little scared himself and didn’t mind staying home while I went out for a quick ride. I decided to do my normal Big Willow route backwards and found the climbs to be much more gradual and the descents much faster and steeper. I’m feeling better descending on the road every time I go out and was really trying to see how hard I could push it. On a few of the steeper switchbacks my bike started to loose traction and was sliding sideways. I took that to be a sign I needed to slow it down a little and did just that. On the way back through town I had to deal with the Apple Festival traffic. I guess these festival goers don’t like bicycles because I got buzzed a lot and heard enough horns to last me a lifetime. I’m just glad they don’t sell beer there.
The plan for Sunday was to watch some sort of road race that was going on around Greenville, SC. Jonathon had invited a bunch of people over to his place for brunch and then we were all going to ride to the top of Paris Mountain to watch the riders as they went by. My plan was to do the only logical thing and ride my bike to his house and then to the race and then home again. Saturday night Jonathon called and asked if I wanted to meet him in the watershed and then ride on to his house so I had an escort and didn’t have to deal with the cue sheet he had provided at all. Sweet! It was a great morning to be on the bike and I left my house around 8 and was feeling good all the way to Traveller’s Rest. Once we got to Jonathon’s we hung out for a bit and had a good breakfast. Broussard showed up and called me an ‘over achiever’ - I guess he was feeling a little self conscious about only having gotten in about 150 miles on the road bike the day before! Jonathon eventually managed to load up the bob trailer with a couple of coolers containing a few cases of beer and we made our way up to the top of Paris:
The race was fun. We hung out, drank and ate and chatted. Then eventually a few riders came by really fast.
There was a beak away and all types of other extremely exciting stuff going on but I figured it was in my best interest to get on my way home so after a quick headset adjustment and attempted clarification of the directions home I made my departure. I was feeling GREAT going down Paris at 40mph with hundreds of people watching from the side of the road.Shortly after that I negotiated my way through whatever town it was we were in and quickly found myself getting turned around. I was trying to read the cue sheet backwards and trying remember all the subtle nuances I was told about the fastest route and made more than a few mistakes. And then it started getting hot. I’d ridden 45 miles in the morning and had to do the same distance home and was second guessing myself a lot and getting lost definitely doesn’t help. I was never very lost but made a few wrong turns along the way. Eventually I made my way to the watershed and the normally gradual climb just about killed me. My plan had been to leave the race early and ride home so that I wasn’t gone all day but in the end the 50 mile ride home took almost four hours and I would probably have gotten home around the same time if I would have stayed and watched the race and then caught a ride home with Dennis…. Whatever, 96 miles for the day. I’ll take it!
Monday’s to relax! Woke to the sound of rain coming down and laid around for most of the day. Massages and big breakfasts and movies were the menu for the morning. After polishing off most of the cake and ice cream Terri and myself had bought the night before we finally decided to get out for a quick hike so we loaded up Walks With Big Paws and headed for Pisgah. I picked a gated unimproved road I’d never explored before and we went for a leisurely stroll. The grass was high and wet and there was no question we were on the road less traveled so off the leash Duma went.
Duma ran and played and I chatted with Terri and we played with my camera. Along the way we found a network of old extraction roads snaking around and lots of open fields. Pisgah secrets that you’ll have to find on your own!
Somehow in the midst of it all I have made progress of building up the mountain bike. The fork has been getting lots and lots of paint (!!!) and tonight I went over to David Cook’s house and he helped me press the headset in. Looks like tomorrow will be the big build day!
