birthday claus

got to take adam a couple new toys when i headed down to des moines earlier this week. first off was a present from his wife...

adam's new jabber...we'll get some better pics once its covered in mud

next gift was really just a loaner from me cause he gets to take a trip out to ray's (insane jealousy boiling in my veins)...

my trusty steelhead...this thing has been beaten, crushed, welded, neglected, dropped, thrown, abused, ground, modified, torn down and rebuilt and just comes back smiling and begging for more.

had a great time with family while i was down there and looking forward to trail weather to really start riding with adam. the enthusiasm of new riders is so contagious...you can't help but remember why you fell in love with riding in the first place. kent even joined later in the night for some highly important philosophizing and world problem solving. looking forward to my seemingly regularly scheduled monthly trips down to the area...especially since the next few times i'm down there i get to put a number on my bike and try to ride it really fast.

one more picture of it just cuase i really like this one. seems i've gotten even with it for what it did to my leg a couple years ago.

happy birthday bro

larsson and i are heading down to des moines later today to celebrate adam's birthday with the help of heather, amy and kent. the visit was supposed to be a surprise but that never seems to work out so we'll see if i can come up with another surprise or two just to keep him guessing. no heads up here though even though i'm sure he's working way too hard to check today...anyway there'll probably be a recap of it eventually. other than that just resting up a bit after saturday night's after bar raged until 7 a.m. had to take a few days off the bike due to this weekends parties at the bar. the owner hosts a 50-team volleyball tournament that brings in teams from all over the country. its hands down the biggest party i've ever seen in decorah outside of nordic mess. so, i'm just a bit rundown from the weekend. lots going on coming up with adam's birthday, probably a day or two missed with the new ink going into the leg, larsson's birthday next week and recently signed up to coach larsson's biddy basketball team. there'll still be plenty of time to ride, just need to get a bit more organized and start getting caught up on sleep.

valhalla

stopped and talked with brock today. i'll be heading in for some more ink next thursday. 3-4 more hours of work on my leg. he told me they've got a new site up with some pics of my leg here after a couple different sittings.

awesome weekend

scotty got to town friday night so i ducked out of the bar early and we spent some time getting caught up at t-bock's. the rest of the weekend looked something like this...

larsson getting ready to start his second year of the barnelopet kids ski race/walk

check out the form...the concentration...

there was a bit of this but his stubborness kicked in and after a few falls he wouldn't let me help him up as he was determined to figure out how to stand up on his own

obligatory medal ceremony...followed by a second lap and a trip around the "big kids" loop

scotty and i took off from larsson's ski think and met up with kent, bill and jesse for a bluffton ride. the warm temps had melted everything and it turned into one of the sloppiest rides i've been on in a long time.

the bluffton bar, jesse, bill, kent, scotty

headed home

mmmm...sloppy...but we try not too think about how much manure is mixed into the slop on the gravels

wild bill

after a late night at work and meeting up with some yahoos at t'bocks saturday night, scott and i headed out for a metric on sunday. awesomely warm temps and a lack of wind made for a beautiful ride. 64ish miles through bluffton, locust, sattre and a jaunt over into allamakee before heading home.

elk farm just east of bluffton

scotty

countless number of donkeys, burrows and asses seen this weekend. surprisingly only one of them let loose a hee-haw directed at scott. we thought we were going to lose him to the donkey for a bit but an epic amount of will power kept his eyes on the road and we got him home safely.

in other news...apparently the birth certificate says today makes 31. so it goes.

friday's ride

same as the first half of thursday night's ride, then turned around and rode it back the other way.

had to climb up thisto get to see this

"the hounds of hell...

were nipping at my heels and my friends were nowhere to be found!" so sayeth the unicorn upon its return from the depths of the snow covered abyss. last night's ride was an absolute riot. wes joined myself, spinner and ogara as we headed out for some snowmobile trails on the advice from a guy who just knows. the trails started out absolutely perfect. the closest i've come to true mountain biking in the winter. crazy hard climbs, super fast decents, squirrely stuff, drops, small jumps, lots of bike handling skills required. eventually we got into some stuff that really kinda sucked though. a fair amount of walking and then we had to make a decision...we knew it was time to be heading back to town and we had a general idea where we were so we thought we'd be smart and NOT follow the snowmobile trail signs and rather follow some tracks that we thought would prove to be a short cut. and this is the point in the story when we first meet the hounds of hell. the opening quote of this post was copied word for word after one of our companions ventured down a path that apparently we weren't meant to go down. more wandering, more wondering...when are the dogs coming, when will the shotguns come out, should we turn out the lights and sneak through this christmas tree farm, how do i keep from crashing every ten feet and falling down through three feet of powder, why didn't i top off my flask before the ride, how can we be lost when we can actually see town from here? anyway, hoping to get back out on the same trail again today if i have time before work. looks like scotty's gonna be here all weekend and kent will be up tomorrow so plenty of gravel this weekend and its likely to be sloppy if the weather does what they say its going to. and lastly...yes, jeff's new bike is stupid light. almost under 16 lbs. here's a picture of jesse proving just how happy he is for jeff...

about this weather...

seriously. sunday i put on 60-some miles. i headed straight west and i think i stood for the first 25 miles (damnedtootallfixedgear)...BUT...on the way home i took my balaclava off for the first time in god knows how long. i rode in sunglasses (no goggles) and swore i was getting a sunburn. took monday off then rode tuesday in a nasty wind and cold and swore i was getting frostbite. today jeff and i sprinted to bluffton and back and it was cold but the wind was damn near non-existent. tomorrow its supposed to hover around freezing then something like a week of near 40's with some shitty rain/snow mix. you know the gravels are going to thaw/melt/freeze/melt/freeze/thaw/get sloppy/etc. not that i'm complaining about the warmth, this winter's been cold enough. its just this erratic weather and the unpredictability of the gravel conditions that's getting annoying. excuse the rant. it was that or bitch about a-hole drunks that always want to fight like the d-bag that took a swing at me saturday night when i tried to kick him out of the bar. rednecks, meatheads, thugs...whatever you are or whoever you think you are...most of us party to have a good time. why drink to fight? go be an asshole on your own time. one post, two rants. guess i feel better now.