vacation

Still closed.

It was actually a collaboration of ideas from my branch managers to give me a week off from spinning the wrenches. Ahh, hard work does have its rewards. Thanx guys!

meet the management

Having a desire for dust free singletrack and good pizza, I hopped on a plane and headed to the east side of the US of A. Yup, back to the motherland... Pennsylvania. Friends, family and Yuengling Lager. But first, I gotta get there.

Flying really sucks. I mean, it DOES beat driving across the country in a car by a long shot, but the typical experience during a day of air travel is horrendous. United Airlines claims to have 11,000 people per day working on its customer service to ensure you have a pleasant flight. Well, I'm here to tell ya.... they need more. I find it a bit redonculous that they rush you on a plane - close the doors - require you to power down all electronic devices and then mention that the reason you're not moving anywhere for the next half an hour is because their waiting for the fuel truck to arrive. Huh?? Don't get me wrong, I'm all for having gas in the plane but can't they get that shit handled before people get on board? Then there's all the broken promises. Like this one:

Clearly there's supposed to be a baby tickling station somewhere here, but damned if I could find it.
Although it'll probably be much later than the promised arrival time, you make it to your final destination and celebrate the small miracle that consists of your luggage having somehow actually making it to the same place as you... most of the time.

Eased into vacation today with a nice road ride with my Dad. The road riding in this part of the state is pretty good. Road surfaces are usually nice and there's a plethora of routes to choose from. Farmland dominates the landscape once you get a mile or so from town.

It wasn't too far from where this picture was taken where I had one of my worst crashes on a road bike to date. 1985. Pine Rd. I was an eager 13 year old on a 24" wheeled Gitane' road bike that my dad had built for me. (sick bike). The wind was to our backs and I was on my dads wheel like Mark Cavendish getting the lead out for a sprint finish. As we spun down the road I looked back to see if any cars were coming up from behind (there weren't) and when I looked forward again I was on a collision course with a 3ft high "ROAD WORK AHEAD" sign. Sheeeeiiite!! A split second later.... BANG!! Over the bars. Front wheel tacoed. Skin on the road. Blood on my clothes. My dad, assuming I was still on his wheel, had drifted out towards the center of the road to avoid the sign.... I did/could not. My dad probably felt like shit that day. Meh. Lesson learned... you can never look too far ahead. Some high school kids gave me a ride home. Epic.

Later on our ride I had a chuckle when I saw this.

See that power line cut in the trees going over that ridge line in the distance. I remember a late/crazy night many years ago when Jerry Shughart and I drove my first car (1969 VW beetle) up and over that power line. Scary. But that's a story for another time.

This little beauty hangs in my Dads basement for 51 weeks of an average year. Only then does it leave the comfort of its corner parking spot and get to see the light of day. That bike's ridden some of the trails in the area so many times it can damn near do them by itself.

I usually like to do a little "shakedown" ride around town to re familiarize myself with its ways before hitting up the local trails. It's also neat to ride around on the streets and alley ways that I used to terrorize as a kid on a BMX bike. I always ride up by my old high school.


Yeah. Man. Lots of memories.
I rode up along the front of the school and had to stop and scratch my head a little when I saw this:

Geesh. I didn't exactly like school all that much, but I didn't think it was THAT bad.