My apologies for the dry blog this month. Roller coasters aren't the best place to do your writing. I recently returned back West for a week long vacation, and still have to report on that. However, after the rest in the mountains I've found myself among the ranks of the bleary eyed metro commuters, and it's taken it's toll on me. I do intend on writing regularly again soon...

In the Patagonia parking lot...

This is from the Patagonia blog recently...
Climbers will understand, non-climbers will not. Very funny...

Calculate your carbon footprint...

at Native Energy's website.

Birthday # 26

My 26^th birthday went pretty darn well. I spent most of the day riding- no surprises there. I hadn’t ridden a century yet in ’07, and I skipped riding one at all in ’06, so I decided to celebrate another year with some big miles on the Lemond. 109.4 big hot miles. The temperature along my route (the Hovde house in Coon Rapids, MN to Taylor’s Falls, MN) was around 95 degrees most of the day. Sweaty. Not sure how many bottles of water I went through. It was definitely one of those outdoor adventures where you push right up to the line between what you can and can’t handle. So far in my adventurous pursuits, I’ve been cautious enough not to cross the line many times, and yesterday went well. I took a lot of breaks in air conditioned gas stations where the teenage clerks wondered what kind of freak I must be in my lycra attire and funny shoes, as well as an organic grocery store in Chisago City, MN, where the owner would have joined me for the rest of my ride if he didn’t have to finish the work day. I also spent a lot of time in shady ditches pouring water over myself to cool off. I kept looking for a lake to jump in, as we apparently have 10,000 of them here in MN, but all of the ones I passed were surrounded by a 1/8 mile of cat tail populated marsh that would be miserable to pass through to get to the actual dipping water. Shady ditches and a/c’d building worked fine. I’m also going to give a quick saddle and short review. I just bought a Specialized Toupe Team saddle for my road bike, which is a very minimalist racing saddle, and I was hesitant as to whether or not it would be appropriate for big miles, but I’m going to give it my approval after yesterday. The saddle was pretty comfy, supportive on the sit bones, and stays out of areas where it is not invited, preserving future young cyclists’ chances of being born, if you understand. My shorts, Pearl Izumi Attack’s, however, are clearly a horrible item to own. The chamois is tolerable, but not impressive. The stitching is where they enter the classification of a miserable cycling product. It is way to raised and overdone, and leaves an impression on your bum that none will enjoy. 109 miles of pedal strokes will guarantee that you wear the markings of such bad design for several days afterwards. Do not buy these shorts. Save up the money for something nice. But the ride was still a success, despite the heat and terrible shorts. The next century I see myself taking part in is the Headwaters 100 in September, which I missed last year while living in beautiful UT. I didn’t mind that much. J But it will be nice to ride it again.

In other birthday news, I need to thank all of you that contributed to my gift, which is very much appreciated. Alison got several relatives together to pick up the tab of what I was missing to pro-form a new mountain bike from the shop after the sales of a couple of my older bikes (the 8000 and the fixie have moved on). So the result was a ’07 Specialized Stumpjumper FSR Comp showing up mid last week, and I’ve already enjoyed a couple great rides on it. Thanks all!! I posted a picture of it for all to drool over. I also posted a picture of the above mentioned Toupe saddle. Enjoy, and thanks again!

Tubby children and chromies...

I had two little chubby kids on BMX bike come into the shop tonight looking for inner tube valve caps. I showed them the usual “chromies” (stupid chromed skull, eight-balls, and other ridiculous shapes of caps that kids dig), but of course they did not have enough allowance money from the chores I’m sure they ignore. So, being a softy manager like I am, I dug around in the back and found some used plastic caps we had laying around and hooked them up for free. They left excited. Half and hour later they show up asking for another set. I realized my mistake in creating a new set of local mooches that will now bother me on a regular basis. I told them the freebies were a one time favor, and that they’d be charged for any more. My sales guy on staff tonight joked with them that he didn’t know why they were coming in to see us when there was a parking lot full of cars that had the same kind of valve caps. Kids of course do not recognize sarcasm, and my sales guy does not know how to relate to kids. Ten minutes later I spotted our chubby little friends taking the valve caps off my own pickup (today was one of the very few days I actually drove in to work, rather than ride a bike.) Not knowing that I watched their little heist, they marched in later to show me how smart they were- that they had come up with some caps on their own. I asked where, and they said they “found” them. So I asked if they had happened to “find” them on the pickup outside, and how the owner might feel about their “find”. They actually determined on their own that the truck must be mine and handed over the caps. I gave them a little lesson, and they appeared genuinely sorry. After they left, I went out to put the caps they gave me back on my pickup, only to discover that they gave me back the free plastic caps I had given them, as I had chrome caps originally on the truck. Little bastards…

Short trip through a long time...

This past weekend, Alison and I took a very short trip through quite a few places. Adam and Jamie (my brother and his wife) drove from their home in Texas up to Minot, ND, where my parents live, so we decided to swing up ourselves to see everyone. The trip was only a couple days, but took me through quite a few memories of places I’ve spent a great deal of time. Friday night, we drove to Grand Forks, where we spent our first night at our friend David’s. I started getting the feeling that I’d never left last August, and that we were still Grand Forks residents. There were so many cues everywhere that were so familiar that it felt I’d never moved on. Green and tan Pipers overhead, UND campus, all my old apartments, the highways I’ve spent literally thousands of miles road biking on, Happy Harry’s (the dirty IV in the arm of Grand Forks), the list goes on. Even filling our car with gas at a pump I’d visited regularly on the way out of town (towards the airport) gave me serious de ja vue. Edward told me once on a visit back to GF after he had been gone a while that it was really weird to be back, and I sure felt it this trip. Everything was exactly the same, except that almost no one I know still lives there. Anyhow. Next up was Minot, where I grew up. That was a little less familiar, cuz it’s been so long since I lived there. The thing I noticed there was how “Minot-y” everybody is. I can’t quite explain it, but every location in the world builds a sort of conformity of feel to it’s residents. Everyone fits a sort of mold after enough time, and you don’t find it anywhere else. And when your town is located far away from nearly everything out on the prairie, it sure becomes it’s own world. Glenburn was next, which is the farm community my mom was raise near, and the family farm just outside of “town”. The people there are nothing like the suburban families I’m surrounded by here in the Cities. They live a life in the open, doing work completely foreign to those in the urban/suburban hustle. It seems to be a shrinking world with nonetheless deep roots. Interesting to see. We traveled through Bismarck on the way back to the Cities to attend a birthday party for my uncle Randy and my aunt Lynn. Once again, Bismarck has it’s own “feel”, completely different from any of the other places mentioned. I’d describe it as a the product of open prairie roots with Midwestern and Native values, combined with the modern suburban need to expand. Once again interesting. Basically, in even a short time, a traveler can pick up on drastically different “feels” of the place traveled, even if they are only a couple hours apart. The other places I’ve lived and traveled- SLC, St. Louis, Moab, Kenora, San Fransico, CO, WV, the Pacific NW, etc., etc., have such diverse living experiences. There are no two places exactly alike, and that makes traveling one of my favorite ways to spend my time. Too many experiences in life to sit in front of the TV.

On another note, I was also able to hear Adam play his trombone again during this trip. My aunt Avis in Minot, plays with a jazz combo call Java Jive Jazz, and they invited Adam to be a featured guest artist at their Saturday night show. Adam can manage to not play for months, and then get up in front of a venue and play a whole nights set of pieces he may or may not have ever seen. Impressive. And beyond that being entertaining, it was good just to focus on some music. Even though I don’t do much playing myself anymore, music has always been important to me. I’ve always thought of it as a sort of audible form of feeling. But I’ll save that for another day, this entry is getting entirely too long. As you were…

Return to rock?

Alison and I went out to visit Interstate State Park NE of the Twin Cities this past Sunday in search of rock climbing options here in SE MN. I'm pleased to say that the park does contain some decent rock for the midwest. I will be able to keep slightly interested in rock climbing during my continued time in the mostly flat lands. We are receiving a new rope from a good friend of mine (thanks again David!) in exchange for some bicycle overhauling, so we'll be able to dust of our other gear and get back on the real stuff. I'm out of climbing shape, but bike wrenching has kept my forearms and fingers in decent condition (beat up and calloused), so I should transition back ok.
In other news, I received the best tip I've ever gotten at a job yesterday. I sold a pair of Speedplay Zero Series pedals (friggin' sweet) to a local roadie, and he gave me his pair of Speedplay X Series pedals that he was upgrading from as a tip! Nice. I had to pick up a set of cleats for them, but thats a small price to pay for a $150 set of pedals. Not so bad. Al and I rode out in the Stillwater, MN area yesterday for the 4th, and they performs quite nicely. They're much freer than the Looks I've been riding in regards to the float, but that's the point (sorry to bore those non-cyclists reading). Anyhow, it was an impressive tip.
Alison and I are heading to ND for the weekend. Adam and Jamie are coming up from TX to visit home, so we decided to meet them there so everyone would be together for once. Doesn't happen much. We're pumped to see them, and Mullet too! We haven't seen our fat pet since we moved back from UT in January, and we miss him! Mullet, you better not die before we move to a place that allows pets again. I think he's got several years left if we control his fattening. The little guy's not fond of exercise. Anyhow, we'll be staying in Grand Forks tomorrow night (that will be weird), and continuing on Saturday morning for Minot, where I did my growing up. Well, part of my growing up. That seems to be a continuing project.
Well, I've got to rest up for another big shop day (today was 12 hours; more tomorrow). Don't waste the summer, get outside!

Pro Cycling Live...

Last night I got my first live viewing of a pro cycling race. The Nature Valley Grand Prix is going on here in the Twin Cities area, and I rode the fixie into downtown Minneapolis for the 4th stage, which was a criterium. I forgot my camera, which I was bummed about, but you can view some pictures of the event at it's website. I was amazed at the amount of wind stirred up by a peloton (the main group of riders). Every time the peloton went by, the flags on the building I was standing next to stuck straight out, and rested again when it had passed. Pretty cool. It was great to see such a good turnout for a cycling event in the States. People still seem to think that throwing balls is more fun, but cycling is catching on. If you ever get a chance to check out a race, do it. It's worth the trip. And if you're in the Twin Cities tomorrow, Stillwater is hosting the final stage of the Nature Valley Grand Prix.

FSR Test Ride

I got the chance to ride the mountain bike that I'd like to replace mine today. It won't happen, but a dude can dream. It's actually not that expensive of a machine as full suspension cross country trail bikes go, but it's more than a dude with college debt can swing. But that's why I ride is at work. Anyway, it's the '07 Specialized Stumpjumper FSR Comp, and I got so excited riding it I might have pee'd a little. Not really. But seriously, Specialized has their suspension design figured out. And they have had for the past 14 years. Many bike companies are using it (and have to list Specialized's name on their own bikes- it's patented) on their own rigs, and it's way efficient. The whole deal with FSR (future rear shock) technology is that the drivetrain's geometry is not effected by pedal or braking forces, and also does not change as the suspension is going through it's range of travel. This means a super efficient, comfortable ride over the whole mountain. If you dig mountain riding, and have a spare $2,200 looking for a home, buy the FSR.
2007 Specialized Stumpjumper FSR Comp

1,000

Bike Mileage Update:

2007 miles: 1,001
Total since recording: 7,522

Let's go another thousand!