nice commute...

Hey folks. I'm sittin' in the good ol' Tabula coffee house in between work at the sim lab. Mmm...coffee. I rode the Surly to work today, as I am carless. It's not so bad. Inconvient at times, but really only when I don't plan well. If you plan out your day ahead of time and give yourself realistic time frames to get things done, biking to work can be great. The wind is howlin' from the south today as it does often in Grand Forks, so the ride to the lab was super easy. Not sure how the return trip will turn out, but I can work it and get sweaty going home if I need to. I might go out for some more riding tonight too, but I'm not sure yet. I'll see what's going on. The bike forum is starting to get going, with more people signing up. We're up to six, which is very small, but every fire starts with a spark. Just looking at the bike racks as I commute around campus, I can see some sweet bikes, and I know that riders are out there; the word just has to get out about the forum for it to be sweet. Sunday should be good, as I posted a Turtle River State Park ride, and got some people together for some singletrack. Might take the singlespeed for a few laps, but I think I should ride my poor Trek 8000 that has been suffering from a hard case of prarie-induced lack of riding. Someday I hope to take it home to the moutains. Anyhow, stuff to do; more later...

Short cities trip...

Well I ate like I’m spoiled this weekend. Steak for free, good coffee, and I even experienced a “chocolate fountain”. Yeah, didn’t know those existed, but I’m pretty sure I want one. Alison and I went to a fall banquet thinger at the place holding our wedding reception, in order to decide what everyone will be eating. I expected little samples of various food options, but nope, I get to my plate and wham!, a whole New York strip steak as just one of the things to eat. A the chocolate fountain- it’s this crazy heater fountain machine that cascades warm chocolate down three tiers, and you dip fruit or pretzels or cream puffs or whatever into it, and it’s mighty tasty. You might just see one of those at the wedding, but we’ll see. I think I should just buy one and go into the chocolate-dude industry, cuz they rent for a pretty price. Anyhow, the food tasty was delicious. Then today Alison and I had our engagement pix taken at a waterfall in the cities, which was really cool as the leaves are all fiery this time of year. And to top things off we did make that trip to REI and did their gift registry thing, and that was fun. So yeah, I felt spoiled this weekend, but, , I had sure had a good time…

Sorry for the delay...

Wow, I need to get on the ball here with the bloggin'. Lazy month. I've actually been doing some work at the airport, and my van has needed so much attention that I've been lazy with other things, such as this site.
I think my van situation can be compared to a game of Jenga. We're on the last few block pulls, and it's all gonna come apart soon. I've had motor/transmission mounts failing, a nasty power steering leak, a bad thermostat, a bad radiator cooling fan motor, and now I'm getting random indications of alternator problems. Time to push it all into the river, I tell ya. Vans are supposed to be retired before this kind of 200,000 and beyond mileage. It's time to start building a van retirement fund, so it can stop working after all the years of service to society. And my word has this van served. Here's a photo showing you just how hard.

Not many vehicles can handle six bikes, three full packs of camping and climbing gear, plus an Edward full of Krispy Kremes. Impresive.

On the bike front, I've decided to try and be proactive in getting more group rides going in Grand Forks, in order to try and make the town more interesting for those of us who ride. I found a sweet free forum site, and started this:
http://gfbikeforum.suddenlaunch3.com/index.cgi
Hopefully people will use it and it'll get things rollin' here on the prarie, even through the winter. I know there's some more crazies out there who ride snow. More on that project later.

On the wedding front, Alison and I are doin' well, getting everything going for the big day, which is Feb. 4th, 2006. Not to far to go. We're heading down to the cities tommorow to sample reception food and get the engagement pix taken. I think we might do some window shopping at REI too, so that should be fun. MMM....toys. I can't spend though.

Anyhow, it's off to work a while, then hopefully get some fall weather singlespeeding at the end of the day.

55 degrees, rain, and almost seven hours of riding...

Such was the Headwaters 100 this year of 2005. Some might think this would not be called fun, but some are quite wrong. 700 riders registered this year, although I heard only 600 rode. Rain is just water. Water is life-sustaining. And 55 degrees is not cold when you're riding. The only times I got cold on the ride were when I stopped at the food stations to eat way to many cookies and linger too long while talking to the old folks of the little towns that the stops were in. Nice folk. I'd have taken pictures while at these rest stops, but because of the rain, my camera stayed in my van, which, in other news has been sick. 208,000 miles sick. I feared the worst, but through some wrenchin' and feelin' manly, I've got 'er up and running again, at least for a while. She's got to last a bit longer, until I get a job that pays me. I'll let her retire someday, after all the great trips she's driven. Anyhow, I'm always blogging when I should be sleeping.....

Airport Sittin'

Well I'm currently sitting at the airport doing nothing, waiting for a late flight, so I thought I better shoot an update to the ol' blog. Last weekend was quality, as you can see from my picture. I spent some valued time in the woods with my lady and three other friends. There was much hiking and paddling, and I even got cussed out by a beaver (paddled too close). I was stunned to see how much beavers look like a creepy wet version of my cat Mullet. The leaves are changing in Headwaters country right now, and let me tell you, it's beautiful. I'm going back tommorow night to sleep in my van, then get up Saturday morning and hammer a hundred miles on my Lemond after not training. It'll be wonderful. Who needs to be in shape when you have great scenery and fresh air to keep you going (and tons of food provided by the ride officials). I'll have to try and take some pictures, but I don't know if I can lug Al's digital camera with, as it's a bit huge, and both my cameras are in craptastic shape, working about half the time. I'll see what I can do. Anyhow, I have a lot of nothing to do for a couple hours, so I'm going to get going on that. There really should be some free coffee out here.

Whoa! Big month!

Hey all. I've been terrible at blogging this month, cuz there's been sooooo much going on. First off, everyone reading this probably already knows that I asked Alison to marry me, and it's happening this February!!!! Yeah, so my mind hasn't really been sitting in front of my computer blogging. Sorry. Also, we've both been working hard at the flight instructing scene, and that's always frazzeling. It's been crazy. I've got 6 students there, and I'm working for the bus company too. There hasn't been a lot of road biking in towards the end of the season like there should be, but what can ya do? But, in road bike news, Al bought a sweet Specialized Dolce for herself and has joined the road scene, so that' s exciting. I don't know how much riding the ND weather has left for us, but we'll see. I'm heading down to the Itasca region in a couple weekends for the Headwaters 100. I haven't gotten in a century yet this year, so I need to go stop slacking. Time to push it and stop becoming a soft-bellied old man. (No offense to any soft-bellied old men reading this.) Anyhow, back to the busy rush of work.

Back in town..for a bit..

Back in ND. 57 degress this morning. Ahh. No more TX heat. However, the trip was great, and watching Adam and Jamie get married was worth all the hot temps. I thought I'd make it through the cerimony without tearing up, but I leaked a bit when Jamie came through the doors for the first time and Adam and my dad teared themselves. It's always when other people lose it that I do. Oh well, right venue for crying, and it shows I'm not a robot.
Now that I've sat in a vehicle for two days straight again on the return trip home, I'm going to drive to the cities this weekend for Alisons birthday and graduation party. It will be well worth the extra travel though. And speaking of her, she just got her first flying job! She'll be working with me at UND, teaching all the youngin's to land. (Not that we weren't in the same boat a few short years ago.) Should be fun.

Meat and Air Conditioneers

Yeah, it's hot here. I'm in Denton at my brother's apartment now. We just managed to fix his air conditioner in his car so Texas doesn't kill him before he even gets to his wedding on Saturday. It was a good time. Dudes workin' on machines, grunting, drinkin' stout beer, well actually ice tea, but all the same. Fun project though. We'll be running last minute wedding errands around Dallas tommorow, and then traveling a bit more the next day to Gilmer, TX which is where Jamie, my bro's finance is from, and consequently where the wedding is goin' down. I'm exicted to see Adam and Jamie get hitched, and also for the tasty food at the reception, since I think of event food with much anticipation. :) We ate some mighty tasty Texas pork ribs today at a BBQ joint, which included hot sauce, country music, and a huge EAT MEAT sign on the wall. Cool. They even had a poster of a cow, diagraming where all the different cuts of beef come from. Now I know where brisket is from, and why round steak is so inexpensive (it's ass meat). Well, that's all for now, I need to hang with my family that I don't see enough. Good times.

OK City

Trip's a go. I'm sitting here in Oklahoma City. Wireless internet has been added to a great number of hotels, so I can blog away from home. We've traveled very very far, and yet the scenery has not. I think I've almost driven the entire expanse of the midwest, and it's all corn. Corn corn corn (and the occasional wheat or sorgum, whatever sorgum is. I'd probably eat it though). Bicyling magazine has kept me going during my turns away from the wheel. I haven't gotten out on two wheels during the trip yet, but still plan to. I think it'll have to be in the morning, cuz it's flippin' hot here. I saw the van's thermometer hit 104 a couple times. Sick. Won't be moving here, let me tell you. Anyhow, I'm gonna catch some rest before the final drive to the Dallas area in the morning, that is if I can get to sleep after the all day jelly bean bender I've been on in the van. Aahh.

Quick trip home

So I find myself in Bismarck, ND tonight, which for at least a little while is still home to my parents, before they move back to Minot, ND. Tommorow starts the Texas road trip for Adam and Jamie's wedding. I took the long way home today, skipping the interstate highway route that I take most, and drove the backroads instead. I'm gonna have to say they take you through some beautiful parts of this state. I took highway 200 over so I ended up coming in to Bismarck from the north. I even included some gravel action to drive through the buttes that drop you down into the Missouri River Valley (this town actually has a valley to go with their river- Grand Forks just claims one). They river was lookin' sweet, with people kayaking out to the many sandbars to camp. Mist was forming in the valley at sunset, and I felt like building a campfire of my own. It even smells great here. I'm too used to the smell of processing sugarbeets and potatoes. Fresh air is something to cherish. If there's time amist all the packing tommorow I need to spin a short ride on the Lemond, which of course came with me on this trip. Bismarck is officially a nice town in my book.