Saturday, January 29, 2011

Farewell for now my friend!


Some people judge their life's wealth on material things, others judge it by their family & friends, that's the category I fall into. Now if you judge my wealth by the number of friends I have, I'm very poor because I don't claim to have many close friends BUT the quality of those friends is VERY HIGH, making me a very wealthy man!


My friends are usually like-minded individuals with whom I share common interests with & the first time I met Dennis, we seemed to just click! I believe we met out at Potter's Pasture maybe in '04-'05 & this guy was rockin' a singlespeed bike, COOL, as I myself had my eye on one & ended up getting it in the spring of '06, all the while still meeting up with Dennis on occasions to grind out a few miles at Potter's, or perhaps some skinny-tired road miles up to Lake McConaughy & back or north to McPherson Co.

or perhaps it was a last minute whim to go race the Dakota 5-o with NO training on my part, but hey...hell yes I'll go as it was time spent with a GOOD BUDDY riding bikes, drinking a few beers & having fun! The real reward for that race was having Dennis waiting at the finish line with a cold PBR for a LOOONG time as, well, I think I hold the record for the longest finish time in the history of that race, BUT I FINISHED!


The gravel road rides, the last minute poaching of a day of RAGBRAI, didn't matter WHAT type of bike riding we did together as it's all good between friends.



Well, Dennis has pulled the plug on western Nebraska & was loaded up headed west yesterday & called me to meet up & say good-bye, ironically I was 10 miles west of home starting another one of my off the wall adventure rides so I waited for him to come by to say our farewells, was glad we could hook up one last time for sure, even if we didn't get one last ride in together.


I say farewell for now as Dennis says he'll be back to visit & ride more miles with me, but more than likely it will be ME that wants to go & visit him in his new digs, you see, Dennis has moved to Grand Junction, CO, NEED I SAY MORE! So, farewell for now my friend, but I can assure you we will spin tires together again & I wish you & your family ALL THE BEST!


Sunday, January 23, 2011

Today's gravel ride...


...not quite pudding, more like angel food cake!

this fencepost snowman was in his element as it was plenty cool

a new little windmill that I've probably rode by 100 times & never bothered stopping to take a pic, that dark line behind it is a UP railroad track so my next goal is to get a pic of a train going by the windmill

as usual youth kept the pace a little on the high side

I didn't do to bad to hold my own...for an old guy!

weapon of choice, the faithful Karate Monkey, tried & true

and now...our national bird!

had to stop for a fuel stop by the river bank & that little thermos full of hot chocolate really hit the spot, thanks to my folks for getting that for my birthday last month, VERY HANDY!

the perfect spot for a re-fuel stop, beats a Quick Stop!

a little less than favorable conditions for gravel riding again but worth trying again & bumped the miles up from yesterday & with Lane along for company it was another good day of memory making

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Gravel "pudding" road tour

this is basically the type of track I left today for the whole ride!

the backroads were LESS than favorable for riding today but I had to try it anyways

fenders would be good for this stuff

still working on that windmill/sunset shot, same windmill, different sunset!

the shadow shot turned out fair

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Happy New Year!

Let the miles & smiles begin!