Powwow

Betty somehow caught wind that I’ve been looking at carbon bike porn online.

I think we’ve compromised.

I guess I’m considering a carbon seatpost instead...

... .
.

women

..


- OB ...wait a minute....

Took All the Trees

Put 'em in a tree museum
- TOB actually, I bet these are headed for the CHIPPER

Triathletes on a Training Ride

I hear them
whirring in the distance behind
suddenly overtaking
swarming ‘round
I raise my arm over my face
jump to the side of the trail
they swerve every which way over the trail
and pass
like barn swallows

- TOB no offense intended to my tri friends...it’s just that...well, you know.

Don't it Always Seem to Go

that you don't know
what you've
got...




...'til it's gone.

- Ob they're takin' paradise....

Morning Commute

Shady Oak Lake, 6:30 am




- The Old Bag from a vantage point ya can't get to by car

Cream in my Coffee

I had not been as fired-up about road riding this spring, for some reason. There was virtually no interest in hitting the open road for 50+ miles. For the past two decades I’ve loved the long weekend road ride, but in the past couple years I’ve gotten more into utility riding (groceries, breakfast, beer run) and have also upped my time on the mountain bike. Everybody has always gotten along well...as long as the garage could hold all the rides I figured I’d keep on keepin’ on.

But I’d been finding myself, over the past month, perusing the Surly site fairly regularly...a Karate Monkey single speed...a Big Dummy for grocery and hardware runs...or maybe just the Xtracycle attachment for the old Raleigh that’s waitin’ for rebirth. Last fall’s hankering for a Bianchi road carbon dream machine was but a misty memory. What would I need something like that for? Total overkill. Had I become a steel-is-real, black coffee-drinking, car-despising, baggy pants-wearing, retro-bicycle-riding, lycra-phobic old lady?

Well, sure...

...until I tried my coffee black this morning...what was I thinking?

It wasn’t the coffee, mind you. It was the weekend. Today hit 70 degrees and the road bicycle came out to play. And I liked it. I liked it more than cycling to the grocery store and more than commuting that’s easy because, let’s face it, WORK is at the end of the commute and I liked it more than saving the world by cutting my emissions and I liked it more than the same as differently than riding singletrack.

I’m drooling over carbon road frames as I write. And my coffee, with cream, is next to the keyboard.

- OB isn’t likely to actually buy anything, but is having fun dreaming!

Whoa Betty

This past winter reminded me just how much I enjoy being out playing in the snow the snowy part, not the hang-on-until-friggin’-May part. It was the first winter in ages that we had enough snow in our metro area that we could ski close to home after the workday. And it meant that on weekends we had more time at home because we weren’t packing up the car for a day’s trip to find good skiing...with a mere 10-20 minute drive, we could ski and be home in time for lunch.

For the first winter in years I hung up the bicycle and didn’t look back. Sunny, blue days on the ski trails were a treat. I hated to see it end.

In Minnesota, if a person is a bicycle-head and a ski-head, it means s/he fits into one of two categories. One is either:

• a bicycle rider who skis in the off-season

OR

• a skier who rides bicycles in the off season.

I’d always thought of myself as the former, a died in the wool cyclist who skis because it’s something different to do in the winter, but this past season I started to wonder if I’m really a skier at heart who puts up with riding during my off-season. I love the skinny skis.

Could it be? I did ride the bicycle a few times this past winter, but could never find the endorphins I found while skiing. The studded tires coming off the ‘cross bike earlier in the month gave me a bit of a lift, but it wasn’t quite what I was looking for.

After work Thurs, we met up with a couple friends near Uptown for a quick spin around the trail network. Not quite feeling up to par, I figured I’d be dragging after everyone else, so at the last minute decided to give myself whatever advantage I could.

Betty came out instead of the ‘cross bike -- she’s light, she’s quick, she’s fun, and she fits right. It was a wow moment...

...I ski in the off-season.

- TOB

Arizona, March 31-April 5

Looking out the window of the Minneapolis/St. Paul Airport

Mountain biking in South Mountain Park, (Desert Classic, East and West Loops, Beverly Canyon) Phoenix, AZ.

Hiking the Brins Mesa trail outside Sedona, AZ

Hiking McDowell Mountain Park out friends' back door near Scottsdale, AZ

Outside the window, St. Louis Park, MN

- OB summer's too far away