its done

the city bike project is finally complete. pic first, then important info...

older trek navigator 400

shimano nexus 3-speed internal hub/coaster brake

69'ed with a surly instigator fork

bontrager revolt ss rear tire

racing ralph 2.25 front

older titec ti flat bars

origin8 track grips

eastern platform pedals (the orange sucks but its all i had)

radially laced front wheel which cost about $20 in parts (all new)

race lite seatpost

big earl saddle

crap stem/cranks (which creak like mad but i'm too lazy to pull them apart)

burley hitch

it rides like a lazy-boy and the steering is terrible. oh well.

fathers day gravel ride

45 mile gravel tour with novian to see what road carnage could be found. plenty of road closed signs, amazing displays of the power of flood waters, farm fields turned into moonscapes, collapsed roadways and the stench of standing water in the fields. we're obviously past the worst of it...but to those who aren't, i wish you the best. had a lot of fun riding freewheel and felt pretty good considering i haven't hit the gravels very hard lately. anyway, plenty more euro 2008 to watch.

impassable gravel road leading into bluffton...looks like a bomb site.


novian bypassing a massive washout on happy hollow

fisty almost entirely swallowed up by what used to be happy hollow...this is not off to the side of the road, this is the trench on the right side of the road in the picture above.

Happy Father's Day

dad and i have been pretty cliche over the years. he was hard working, conservative, worked in a suit kind of a guy. i strayed off that path a bit, ended up with a fair amount of ink, a few extra holes, long hair, nail polish, pants that fell off my ass and made some choices that have been questionnable at best. to say we didn't understand each other oversimplifies things but will do for now. somewhere along the way things changed. a level of understanding was reached. i'm sure it helped that i kind of got my shit together without giving up who i was, but when that understanding turned into respect...a mutual respect for who we are and what we do...i realized i'd taken a lot for granted over the years. okay, avoiding getting as sentimental and emotional as this is about to get...i have two hopes for the future to share at this point. 1. i hope that i can be the father for larsson that you have been for me. to me that would be my greatest success, and i'm trying. its not easy, but i'm trying. 2. i hope that someday larsson can look at me the way i look at you now. thank you dad. thank you for more than i'll ever be able to repay. happy father's day. i love you.

larsson is the one truly benefiting from the father you've been to me.

chris and adam...keep doing what you're doing. payton, carter, maddux and caden are lucky sons. you, too, have learned from the best and both make incredible fathers. love you guys.

random pics from the week...

working trails after the flood on monday with jeff and jesse and checking out the new teeter ending to the log ride in north 40.
death valley...still raging like a river on monday. if you've never seen this on a normal day you can't understand.headed off to school with larsson, and yes, he's reading on the way.

solo saturday night ride and some carnage from the flood.

sometimes...

sometimes riding takes a back seat to life, like it or not. this has been a week that proves that. following my race sunday i worked trails two nights, fulfilled a promise to zack to ride motorcycle one night, spent time with the in-laws one night, and was just too exhausted to ride last night. so today was my first ride since my race on sunday...and it started out terrible. i felt like shit. then...finally...the off-season miles started to pay off. i've noticed this year a common theme in my rides where i start off feeling worse than i used to but i get considerably stronger throughout the rides even when i don't think its possible to get past how awful i feel. so, rode the usual loop through the van peenen trails and rode the log i crashed on a few weeks ago with the new teeter ending...nice work jeff and brian. it rides awesome and i don't have to worry about eating my teeth anymore. the knee is still bothersome. scary bothersome. i ride along with no thoughts about it and then it just grabs me and threatens to end my ride. very frustrating. so, for now, fisty's going freestyle. 8 a.m. gravel ride tomorrow rain or shine (kinda hoping rain for some reason). this will be my first gravel ride on fisty not fixed...should be fun. hopefully late fall i can take a long enough break to get the knee back in shape before training for t.i.v.5. g-t are you listening???? some of are already planning...

its on...

yes, the ballyhoo has been "canceled" but fear not...WE WILL THROW DOWN NEXT WEEKEND!!! camping in van peenen, tons of riding, possibly a fun enduro, way too much alcohol and an f-ing blast with or without vendors. bring your bike, whatever size and ride the shit out our trails. yes, the tornados and the floods have been bad but we have a great group of volunteers that have busted their collective asses to make our trails rideable and reclaim what we've lost. don't change plans just yet...we'll be doing our thing and we'd love for you to join us.

in case you haven't seen

if you're not familiar with decorah, this is the college drive bridge and the shop and the whippy dip are about 100 yards to the right of where this picture was being taken.
this should be a fairly small, gentle trout stream passing under 52 right by the campground.

regents center at luther is flooded and all of the athletic fields are under FEET of water. they say the river is higher here than it was in 93. sounds like we're getting out of this way better off than it could have been. i don't think it was far at all from being catastrophic.