October 31, 2005
Halloween Hike up Blood Mountain
Ruthie took me on a nine mile hike, mostly along the AT, up to the top of Blood Mountain. The weather was an unseasonable high 70's, completely calm, clear blue day. Normally the trees would have all changed and been bare by this time of year but everything is still green and flowers, bees and butterfies are all around.
Here's my collection of photos from the Halloween Blood Mtn Hike.
Windows Media Video clip 6.5MB
October 30, 2005
Indian Springs Cyclo-Cross
photo: Trish Albert www.southeasterncycling.com
The results of my race? Just look at the podium photo from last week's race. This course was way too much climbing and running for my body type (I'm too big to win on a course like this). Technically I rode ok but Lamar, who is a more lean runner-type, took second place in this race and moved into second place in the overall series as well.
Gerard, my teammate who has won all three races so far, is solidly in the leader's jersey and will win the overall series barring unforeseen circumstances. Being number 1 is new to him. In the sport of road racing I am usually the more dominant. His new found confidence has lead to some cutting comments directed my way, regardless I will continue to improve at cyclo-cross and be proud of his achievements.
I took a bunch of photos while at the race venue. Here's my photo gallery of the 2005 Indian Springs Cyclo-Cross Race featuring the Dam(n) Hill!
October 28, 2005
Miles Davis
My inital exposure to Miles' music came in the early 1970's with records like "In a Silent Way", "Bitches Brew" and "A Tribute to Jack Johnson". Later, I discovered the 1950's Miles and fell in love with that too. I was fortunate enough to see Miles perform live a couple of times between 1980 and 1985.
Here's a list of some of my favorite Miles Davis recordings. In chronological order and divided into some of the different musical genres he pioneered.
Charlie Parker Story - 1945 (age 19)'Round About Midnight - 1955
Workin' With the Miles Davis Quintet - 1956 (age 30)
Cookin' With the Miles Davis Quintet - 1956
Steamin' With the Miles Davis Quintet - 1956
Relaxin' With the Miles Davis Quintet - 1956
Milestones - 1958
Porgy and Bess - 1958
Kind of Blue - 1959
Sketches of Spain - 1959Seven Steps to Heaven - 1963
Four & More - 1964
E.S.P - 1965
Miles Smiles - 1966 (age 40)In a Silent Way - 1969
Bitches Brew - 1969
A Tribute to Jack Johnson - 1970Man With the Horn - 1980
We Want Miles -1981 (age 55)
Decoy - 1983
Amandla - 1988
October 27, 2005
Ready to Race - Again
Had to replace the guts in my shifter, that was $50, but it works again thanks to Grant and Addictive Cycles. Due to my chain dropping off the inner chainring twice at last week's race, I installed a Third Eye Chain Watcher. I've had one on my old cyclo-cross bike forever and never had the chain bounce off one time, so hopefully this will solve that little issue.
October 25, 2005
Macon Cross
Gerard, Lamar and Dan enter the beach area together on the first lap. Lamar's bike stopped abrubtly in the deep sand and Dan jumped off his bike to avoid bulldozing over Lamar. The handlebars on Dan's bike plowed into the beach packing sand into the shifters/brake levers. Gerard and Lamar took the lead while Dan struggled the rest of the race with limited shifting and braking, yet held on for a third place finish.
October 17, 2005
Synchronized Cyclo-cross
Gerard and Dan dominated the Masters 45+ event at the Fort Yargo Cyclo-cross race this past Sunday.
The Masters 35+ started one minute before the Masters 45+ but before it was all over Gerard Remery (GTC) had caught and passed all but one of the 35+ riders. Dan Coy (GTC) who had sat on Gerard's wheel for most of the race, had caught and passed all but three of the 35+ riders.
October 10, 2005
Flying Museum
Saturday afternoon, while doing 4x6 hill repeats (ouch) on Capitola Farm Road with Theron, we spotted this B-17 flying fortress flying overhead. Theron instantly identified it correctly and the next day I read about in the local paper.
Also found on the front page of the very same newspaper was yet another article regarding gas prices and bike sales, this one specific to our neighborhood.
October 07, 2005
Wedding Reception
Here's a photo I found online of Mack and Dan playing at a reception on September 20, 2005
October 06, 2005
Walk and Roll celebration
This is from an article found on the front page of our local newspaper today... "[walking and riding bikes]...new alternative forms of transportation". I salute Principal Nancy Hammond for promoting this project, but the newspaper staff writer states that walking is a "new alternative form of transportation". I don't know whether to laugh or cry.
October 04, 2005
Good News
The price of gas continues to rise...
Bicycle sales boom in US amid rising gas prices
I can hardly wait until this country runs out of gas and the roads go back to the cyclist. Yes I said "back to..." because guess who lobbied for all the paved roads in this country starting back in 1880, not the motorist (there were none), and not the horses? You guessed it, the League of American Wheelmen, currently known as the League of American Bicyclists.
Nonmotorized transportation worked for people for about a million years, it's only been in this last century around here that folks have decided walking (and bicycling) is not a viable transportation solution.