End of September - in a Nutshell

Today is the last day of September and the weather has finally started to cooperate. No more boiling temperatures at 9 pm, rain forecast is close to 0 percent, which is nice considering that Noah called, he wanted his Ark back, and I have vacation days to use. I could have used them during the summer, but it was just too damn hot. Now the weather is close to cool in the prime riding hours, a nice cool breeze on your back as I ride through the singletrack. These days are my favorite. I took today off partly because it is my birthday on Sunday, and partly, I looked at the weather forecast. I ate a light breakfast and headed out to the local racetrack, Shermans branch. Since it was during working hours there were only a few cars in the parking lot when I got there. It also means I get to ride as slow as I want to without anyone catching me. I have been having a problem lately when riding of my body overheating. One of these days I will get it checked out, until then, I just keep riding. Another fun thing about riding when it is not crowded is that all of the animals are out. I was lucky enough to see a squirell (one of many) who had a deathwish and decided to run on the biking trail. This is basically what it looked like.

Yeah, those squirells were about ready to go all West Side Story on me. I also managed to startle a deer while I was out there.

I didnt see a rabbit, but doesn't mean they werent working in pairs to get the next rider. And finally Bart was kind enough to give all the members of the team a Podium T-shirt. Since I will never get on the podium, I am just going to call it a regular t-shit and wear it as such.

Rocky went ahead and inspected it. He didn't pee on it so I assume it passed. Not a lot going on here much anymore, the summer has wound down, don't have any more weddings for the year (and as far as I know none next year either) so it is nice to get back into a routine. Hopefully I can guilt some of my buddies to go riding with me tomorrow, weather is perfect again, and well, I am going to pull the birthday trump card if they decide to wuss out because it has been way to long since I have been riding with friends. Hopefully I will have some good pictures for you from the celebration on Saturday. If you want to stop on by after reading this, party starts at 630. And if after reading this you dont want to stop by, well, just drop off the beer and leave.

Conclusion of Summer

Today it was 52 degrees when I woke up. Today is a high of around 71 degrees. This is cold for a lot of the southerners around here as they are started to get bundled up and starting up the heater. I am just happy to turn the A/C off after 3 solid months. I am sort of glad it is over as now I have excuses why not to ride. "Its getting dark to early, its to cold, it rained" anything just to not ride. In a way I am sort of glad this summer is over. All the traveling across the country is done. No more wedding gifts to buy (or receive). I get to sit outside and not sweat my ass off drinking a nice cold beer Friday after work. Yes summer has its advantages, but so does fall. My latest mis-adventure was up to New Jersey for a wedding just last week. Me and the burrower had a mutual friend from Charlotte move up there and then she found somebody and blah blah blah, another wedding. Instead of flying, we decided to drive there. Its only about 9 hours or so, a nice easy day trip from the Queen city. Driving up north and right when we hit the Virginia state border, it started raining. Im not talking about a little drizzle, but the hurricane rain just came down. It didn't stop until we hit Delaware.

Lets just say it made for a miserable 8 hour drive that took closer to 10 total. While we were up there we did have a few hours to kill before all the wedding type stuff was going on and decided to head into the City of Brotherly Love, Philadelphia.

And yes, I bought the Fanatic dinner before I touched him like that. I am a gentleman after all. We did all the historic stuff, walked were Ben Franklin walked. Sat in a chair that George Washington farted on...etc etc.

I licked the Liberty Bell. Tasted like Freedom.

Me in front of the first bank in the U.S. And yeah, I made it rain Benjamin's there. And finally something almost biking related. I know that it takes me a long time to warm my body up when I ride so I want to try to increase my anaerobic threshold (Yes I used spell check for those words). The burrower also wanted a piece of home excercise equipment so we compromised and got this bad boy.

I know its no replacement for hitting the trail, but hopefully I can drop a few extra pounds and learn to increase my heart rate for a longer period of time. Its all hopefully right? It just might be another expensive piece of exercise equipment that becomes a laundry rack, only time will tell. Later today is the Lake Norman Beer Fest up at the Galloway Hooker in Birkdale. I am sure I will have a few good stories and pictures to tell after visiting that.