RAMHADAB Vol 3! (....part 3)

So... after wandering around in Carolina we finally came out in the giant cornfield. For the last two years we had gotten lost trying to find the correct way through. This time we tried something crazy... we followed the signs. BBW liked it better the old way and decided to express himself:



After some more riding we ended up in Burlingame North, some quick hills over fire roads and we were on the home stretch.

So far so good.. no accidents, no mechanicals, even no flat tires! CTLP was starting to lose it after all the roots and rocks in Burlingame:



When we were about to head out onto the final dirt road FlatTiresFink and his brother McFink were wheely-ing through a huge mudhole when FlatTires dumped it right in the middle! We didn't get a picture of that but man you should have seen it!

Maggy and Mom headed down to meet us at the lake for a swim. By then the wind from Ernesto was howling out on the lake... we all went swimming anyhow.



After a quick trip back up to the CTLP's ranch we had a killer barbeque then some fireworks. We had a minor malfunction and we came pretty close to blowing ourselves up.



We were all pretty tired from the ride and decided to spend all of Sunday recovering. I'll write more on that later. -40

RAMHADAB Vol 3! (....part 2)

The trip had its ups and downs... here is a short and loose uphill that we all had to walk on the Sand Hill Trail. Go figure why they call it that:



The group made it to the first planned rest stop everyone and all the equipment intact. Of course we had to pose once again for a picture:



Before long we made it to the midway rest stop where Mrs CTLP brought us food, h20, and of course, beer. Nothing to keep you going on a long grueling ride like this than some beer.



Of course, it wouldn't have been a rest stop without at least one suggestive pose. Here is GUDG with his now traditional pose:



After rolling through the easy parts of Carolina we found this old beat up car on the side of the trail. Us being who we are, of course we figured it was a good photo op. This picture was taken 7 seconds before we heard a shotgun being racked by the owner about to pursuade us to get back on the trail:

RAMHADAB Vol 3! (....part 1)

Sorry this took me so long to pull a report together. Mrs 40 and I sold our house, packed, and moved to a new house over the last few weeks after RAMHADAB. I just got my computer set back up, and a few spare minutes from working/unpacking to write this up.

So... after what seemed like a very short summer, Labor Day Weekend arrived. Thursday night Greased Up Deaf Guy and I got out to BJs(*snicker*) to buy the food for the weekend. I was busy packing that day and dropped a box of bike handlebars on my foot....right on my toe. It hurt like h*ll and looked horrible. I didn't care, I figured I was going to ride anyway.



The keg of choice was Flying Dog, Doggy Style Pale Ale. This was to keep with our theme of Mount Up and Ride! It was an exhausting choice to pick this beverage, but all the hard work was worth it. It was a fine choice of ale with a good blend of.. um... hops, barley, and liquidy goodness.

The riders began to arrive Friday night for the traditional pasta dinner and keg tapping. We made some last minute bike adjustments in CTLPs garage and made the t-shirts(the design is at the top of the post).



The next morning the crew assembled. The forecast was for Tropical Storm Ernesto to spoil the party, but we weren't going to let a little rain stop us. The trails were dry for the past few days of sun, and the weatherman was 50-50 on rain during the ride. So.. off we went...(as much as BBW wanted Maggie to ride with him for "company", she stayed home with her mom)



:

Strange talent

My ex runs her parents nursery and they have the typical sign out front. It normally says what plants they just got in, or what's on sale, or reminding people what to plant now. A couple times a year, someone has been coming around and rearranging the letters to make funny sayings. They don't steal any letters, or add more letters in. They use every letter that is already on the sign to say what they want to say. I think this is a pretty neat talent. Here is the latest edition, both sides of the sign.

RAMHADAB Vol 3 Sept 2!

Hello!

We're now about a day away from the ride! Plan on
being ready to ride for an 8:30-ish departure Saturday
morning.

We've been watching the weather forecast, and we're
going to ride unless it's an absolute deluge. Right
now Saturday's forecast is a 50% chance of light
showers in the afternoon.

If it pours before the ride we'll detour from the
sensitive singletrack in Arcadia to fireroads (Don't
want to be irresponsible pr*cks and screw the trails
up). Yes, riding fireroads is boring but they'll get
the job done.

So, come prepared to ride in any conditions. Bring a
poncho, slap some cheap walmart fenders on your bike,
and bring your drinking shoes....The keg has been
delivered and is cooling down in the kegerator for
post-ride. Bring a bathing suit for an after ride swim
down at the lake.

We're getting food tonight for the after-ride
bbq/bonfire. Hopefully Mr and Mrs CTLP can control
themselves and not drain the keg before the weekend.

The souvenir t-shirt is complete and turned out nicely
horrific.

See you Saturday!

40-

Why Aluminum Sucks

I went riding the week before last with GUDG, CTLP, FlatTiresFink, and the Doctor.... I was feeling pretty good, and had just converted my bike back to a 9speed. Instead of our usual loop, CTLP and I convinced everyone to take a ride up Mt Tom. I fell twice before we even got there, then I biffed it a couple more times scrambling over rocks. The last time after i fell I sat back down and the seat post fell off the bike!



Now, I would usually say that this is a fluke, that i didn't have my seatpost far enough into the frame(which admittedly I didn't). Except, I have a SECOND, Raleigh M80 in my basement with a broken frame. In the same place. CobraKai busted one last year. Yup.

Here's my three word blurb about why aluminum sucks: Finite Fatigue Life. A fatigue failure is what happens when you bend a paper clip back and forth until it breaks. Steel is much easier to use for a frame to prevent failure.

RAMHADAB was only three weeks away, and I was crushed my bike was busted. I went on ebay to find another frame, any frame. I found a black Surly Karate Monkey, 18" frame. It was built up as a single speed, perfect for me. So, I put in a bid and won! Whoo Hooo!

I pestered the seller into shipping on Monday, and got the bike on Friday! I swapped my seat over, changed gearing a bit, and rode it a ton this weekend. Two ghettotrack rides out to Stump Pond, one long dirt road/road ride on Sunday(it had poured the night before so no singletrack sunday).

So far i'm digging the 29" wheels through loose trails, but they aren't nearly as swoopy on the bumps. Check it out... this is out at Stump Pond:



Don't forget, RAMHADAB is now less than two weeks away. The official beer sponsor has been selected from a large pack of hopefuls. Don't worry if you haven't been riding much... nobody has except for maybe Bald Boy Wonder. Most of us can barely ride 50 feet without stopping for a beer so... don't sweat it... it's going to be one of *those* rides.

The Beermuda Triangle

Sorry I haven't been posting much lately. Mrs 40 and I sold our house in WhiteTrashLand and (until yesterday) didn't have any place to go. Of course, I've been stressing, searching, bothering GUDG with questions about land, and generally freaking out. Big Time.

This weekend we finally found someplace to live...hopefully. We're moving west and south... all the way to the backwoods of Exeter RI. Now, to those of you who don't live in Rhode Island, a 20 mile move might seem short, but to us... it's like moving to another planet. From our old house I could see a good 15-17 other houses depending on the time of the year, out there we'll see none. Zero. That should work out well for us.

The house we're moving into is much closer to CTLP and FlatTiresFink. I thought I was going to be really clever and call this the "Beermuda Triangle" until a websearch returned no fewer than 8 pages of Beermuda Triangle references... one to BeermudaTriangle.com. Oops.

One reference was to a post over at the very cool SurlyBlog (from the freaks at surly bikes... ). Recently (this weekend) they organized a Beermuda Triangle ride! They rode from brewery to brewery to beer stash in the woods... no less than 100 people. OMG.. this sounded like a mix of a Critical Mass ride (back when they were fun) and one of our Beer Fueled Bike/Kayak/Beer Festivals.

Don't forget, we are about three weeks from RAMHADAB Vol 3.

If you haven't gotten in your recommendation for keg choice please email me, CTLP, or GUDG. Tastings will take place starting tomorrow night.

BTW, This will be the last event planned in the original Pandapas Skunkworks whiteboard.... I'm sure planning the weekend will be as big of a party as the weekend itself. (who am I kidding? the weekend will be ridiculous).
RAMHADAB Vol 3 is looking to have the highest turnout ever... come on out!

Try to make one of these upcoming 'training' rides:

(By training I mean some riding, eating cheeseburgers, and drinking beers).

Tonight:
The West Warwick/Coventry Ghettotrack. Flat easy ride. (email me for details)

Tomorrow:
Arcadia Ride, starting at CTLPs@ 5:30pm

Cya, 40-

Physical activity: The only thing to do in a heat wave...

As GUDG already alluded to- we had quite an eventful bike trip Wednesday.

The plan was simple enough- it is hot, so biking down to the lake and back would be a nice trip.

So- off we went. Then- it looked like a tornado was going to come down. Seriously.

I'm no expert- but I am pretty sure that this is what the 'Wizard of Oz' effects people were going for...

GUDG seemed undeterred, so we continued on using our sophisticated 'looks like the storm will stay off to the East' technology and all of our patented 'I don't think the heavy stuff is going to come down for a couple of hours' Caddyshack rhetoric to push on and get in the woods.

"Don't worry, I heard that being connected to metal bikes in the forest is the safest place to be in a thunderstorm"

Seeing as it looked like it was going to open up completely, the camera went away for the bike ride portion. Considering it was pretty dark, I am pretty out of shape, and we were moving pretty fast, I am kind of surprised that we did not biff a ton of times as we headed towards the lake. Once we got there, we were treated to a beautiful sunset. GUDG pointed out to me where the Pilgrims once landed at Beach Pond Rock, and claimed the 'Alps of RI' for Albania:


Our swim might have been more enjoyable had the area we jumped in not been so rocky, had the water not been so warm, and had there not been such a bold and unmistakeable smell of poop eminating from said body of water.

But did I mention the sun was pretty?


We just took 165 back as the sun was pretty much down and it was getting dark. As we came to my road, we were greeted with two police cruisers and Tanker 15. Man am I gonna take some for showing up late to a fire call (basically at my house) because I was out biking. And I did during the 5 fire calls today... Turns out a tree from my property was blown over onto the power lines, creating a real mess:

It is pretty much too dark to see- but the dots around the left-center are the power lines burning and all the way to the left is one of the two lines that snapped and draped to the ground. So instead of quaffing a couple of brews and enjoying pork products, we sat around waiting for National Grid to show up and taking side bets on whether or not the juice was off while the tree crew sliced the tree down... On the plus side- I got to use my generator for the first time last night and again today while the power was out!

The finish

Good enough for a spot in the top 40 out of 400-something. I don't know that I will ever see the top 25 again... One of these years I may opt for the time-saving wet-suit maneuver that everyone else goes for. This was a record year for participants and for money raised- Save the Bay is expecting it to top $150,000 this year!

Save the Bay 2006

This was the 30th anniversary for the swim, and my 5th bay crossing.

The weather was beautiful... Water was pretty calm, and very warm at 72 degrees. What is really freaky is that the water temperature has risen to 79 in the past week and a half- it has gone up 5 degrees during the heat wave this past 7 days alone. That is absolutely crazy. Guess now we know why all the clams are dying...

Okay- before I get TOO off track- this is about the swim. Beautiful weather, check. I decided to have some fun with Naked Guy when he arrived. Seeing as he is 100% Portuguese and there was a lot of fuss over the Portuguese Man O' War being in the bay, I decided that I should make sure that everyone who swam could tell people that they saw or touched one of the creatures during the swim:


That's right- a real live PeteChewGeese ManOWar. Lethal...

Our coach approved, maybe I should fill out one of those art school pamphlet thingies:


I barely made it to the start on time thanks to an incredibly long safety briefing (I actually heard part of it this year for the first time!) followed by a few team pictures. Okay- here is a fun game- let's play 'where's CTLP'! I'll give you a hint, my race number was 1-6-9 *snicker* Okay- so you don't need a hint b/c I am the most lilly freaking white human being on the planet not afflicted with a pigment disorder:


Then we were off:


Once the group separated some, I was feeling pretty strong so I passed the group I was swimming with and struck off on my own. About half way across I guess I was pretty delusional as I was thinking I had a shot at a personal best time- even as out of shape as I am- because the conditions felt so good and my stroke was feeling fairly strong. Then I hit the channel about 2/3rds of the way across and that screwed me all up. It was choppy and there was a slight current- I just got off my game. Coming into Potter's cove I was on the southern end of a line of swimmers heading for the finish. I kicked it into as high a gear as I currently posess and managed to finish before all but two of them in 47 minutes and change. The photo of the finish will be on my next post, I think I reached the limit on file size!

*h/t to other swimmers from the team and Save the Bay for some of the photos on the previous, this and the next post*