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Westpac Helicopter Mountain Bike Bash 2011

2011-10-05T16:15:00.001-04:00

On Monday I arrived home after spending time in Australia participating in an eight-day mountain bike ride supporting the Westpac Rescue Helicopter. This year was special as the ride was held in memory of my father-in-law, Brian Birchall, who was a board member and huge supporter of the service as well as a driver of one of the support vehicles for the past 8 years.

I got off the plane Thursday night in Tamworth, NSW after 36 hours of travel, had dinner with my mother-in-law and was on a bus heading to Rylstone, NSW the next morning. On Saturday morning we set out on our 8 day ride over dirt, gravel, some technical single-track, a little tar and a bunch of hills.

My borrowed bike and me on the first day of riding in Rylstone, NSW

Views of a typical dirt road near Rylstone

Stopped for a rest on a section of fireroad

Dunn's Swamp where we had lunch on Day 1

An Echidna.

Saw this little guy crossing the road and had to stop for a crappy cell phone picture.

Lunch stop on the way from Rylstone to Mudgee

Cath and Scott

Steve "Deadrock" Livingstone and Andy Dowe

Barry "Baz","Bazzaaaa" Walton, our fearless leader.

Deadrock cools off

Starting out on our wine-tasting tour of Mudgee

Pieter van Gent Winery & Vinyard

A toast to Brian. "To Birchy!"

Bush vine Zinfandel at Lowe Wines

Lowe Wines

USA vs. Australia

More wine tasting

Yet another vinyard

Lawson Park Hotel in Mudgee

Between Mudgee and Gulgong.

Deadrock's dinner in Gulgong

Gulgong

Rest stop between Gulgong and Dunedoo (I am NOT making up the names)

A few more riders

Dunedoo

Bikes!

Between Dunedoo and Coolah

Coolah, and yeat another Pub/Hotel

Exchanging of the jerseys ceremony

Day 7 Between Coolah and Quirindi (our 128km day)

Start of Pandora's Pass

Coming up near the top of Pandora's Pass

Me at the top with my new jersey

Breakfast at the other side of Pandora's Pass

A causeway. Notice the stick on the left indicating water depth.

It's what passes for a bridge in most of Australia

Morning tea stop in Werris Creek on the last day between Quirindi and Tamworth

The stock route on the way to Tamworth

An iconic Aussie windmill

After 8 days of riding it's best not to ask

Sadly, I don't have any pictures from the awards ceremony held on Saturday night in Tamworth.

Before and After

2011-04-20T08:43:00.002-04:00

Puppy Part 2

2011-03-13T10:22:00.003-04:00

Meet "Sanorka's Buckley's Chance" aka: "Buckley," the latest addition to our family. Buckley is a Samoyed and we've had him for about 2 weeks now. He's 11 weeks old now and growing fast.

In this series of photos, shot over two weeks, you can see how fast he's growing by looking at his ears. The first day we had him, his ears were quite floppy but sometimes pricked up. And when he ran they flapped like a butterfly's wings. Now they are permanently erect and hardly move at all when he runs and jumps.

New Puppy - part I

2011-02-05T18:03:00.004-05:00

We won't be able to take him home until February 27, 2010 but here he is (we actually don't know which of two males will be ours but to me they all look pretty much the same so it could be one of these (actually these could possibly be all the same dog; but I digress)).

New York Thanksgiving, 2010

2010-11-30T09:13:00.006-05:00

First stop: The American Museum of Natural History

Kerry and Alex with a couple of Anatotitans

Alex being attacked by a Deinonychus

A favorite from the movie "Night at the Museum"

Origami decorations on the Christmas tree at the AMNH

Origami Dinosaur

On the streets on either side of the AMNH they inflate the balloons for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade:

Sponge Bob, not quite ready for prime time

Shrek secured in netting before the big day

Snoopy getting ready to lead the parade

Next, a quick stroll through Central Park on the way to lunch:

Bow Bridge

Balto
"Dedicated to the indomitable spirit of the sled dogs that relayed antitoxin six hundred miles over rough ice, across treacherous waters, through Arctic blizzards from Nenana to the relief of stricken Nome in the Winter of 1925. Endurance · Fidelity · Intelligence"

We got up a bit late and this was the crowd that greeted us in Times Square for the parade

Is that Shrek?

Spiderman hovers over the crowd

Hello Kitty prepares for deflation

Skaters in Bryant Park after the parade

Black Friday shopping in Chinatown

Guggenheim interior

10-image stitched panorama of the Guggenheim

Uperville Horse and Colt Show

2010-06-20T22:25:00.001-04:00

Paris la Nuit

2010-05-29T20:41:00.001-04:00

Various Views of Paris

2010-05-23T12:12:00.003-04:00

Deck Update

2010-05-01T18:25:00.003-04:00

New porch furniture matching...

...our new deck furniture. Notice too that the lattice work is done.

NYC 2010

2010-04-25T21:51:00.003-04:00

South Beach 2010

2010-04-02T00:25:00.006-04:00

My new job has me traveling a bit. My first trip is to Miami, Florida for three weeks. Here's a view from the hotel's terrace.

After Miami is New York, then Paris in mid-May and Chicago in June.

snomageddon - 2 Days Later

2010-02-08T19:36:00.003-05:00

After the clean out, Monday afternoon.
31 image panorama

For comparison, the original panorama:

Snowpocalypse 2 - The Dig Out

2010-02-07T16:46:00.004-05:00

We got some help clearing Mohawk Court.
It's nice to have neighbors with friends in the right places...

He was there to clear out around the fire hydrant but was nice enough to help dig out several homes that would never be able to get out otherwise. He also cleared the snow from in front of all our mailboxes. Thanks, Bob!

8 image panorama from the front porch.
Those piles of snow are over 10 feet high from the road.

SNOWPOCOLYPSE 2

2010-02-06T15:18:00.003-05:00

A 22 image panorama of Mohawk Court

404 Before the clearing

Todd with the monster

404 after digging out the first time

Contrast

2010-01-31T13:50:00.000-05:00

We left this...
For this...

NSW PDML

2010-01-20T08:41:00.009-05:00

Still a Pentaxian at heart I couldn't let a trip to Australia go by without meeting up with a few online friends from the Pentax Discuss Mailing List (PDML). We decided on the Australian National Maritime Museum in Darling Harbour near Sydney's CBD.

The usual suspects showed up (Silver gull Chroicocephalus novaehollandiae)

And some pentaxians too! (l-r: Brian, Rob and Anthony)

Cape Bowling Green lighthouse

A bark canoe

True aussie boat

A bathing cap for CottyBell from the USS Canberra

Cook's ship Endeavour

8-image stitched panorama of Darling Harbour. The weather wasn't cooperating

Rob

Hey, Rob, the pano is gonna come out badly distorted...

With respect to Bill Robb

From the Ferry on the way back to Circular Quay

Kiribili

Nundle

2009-12-28T17:45:00.003-05:00

On the way out of Tamworth

The Pub in Nundle where we had lunch

Inside the wool mill

Sydney - Harbour Bridge

2009-12-24T00:12:00.002-05:00

Antipodean Holiday - Part 2 End of the Odyssey

2009-12-22T16:07:00.003-05:00

(Sunday, December 20 - I think; 38,000ft above the Pacific Ocean)
Kerry and Alex fell asleep before takeoff. I fell asleep just after dinner was served and woke up 5 hours later. Not too bad for someone who doesn't sleep well on planes.

(Monday, December 21; Sydney, Australia)
Finally arrived at our hotel for the night. Exactly 47 hours after we left Purcellville. This is the longest trip ever to Oz. 1 rental car, 4 flights and a short train ride. We left what turned out to be a record snow storm with 21 inches reported and arrived in sunny, 80F weather. Had a nice walk to Circular Quay and dinner at a random resaurant.

(Tuesday, December 22; Tamworth)
Kerry's parents picked us up after a short flight from Sydney to Tamworth and drove us out to their house. It feels great to have arrived, finally.

Antipodean Holidays 2009-2010 - Part I: The Odyssey Begins

2009-12-19T22:08:00.002-05:00

(Somewhere over middle-America at 35,000ft)
Everything was ready. The bags were packed. The reservations were confirmed. And the three of us, Kerry, Alex and myself, were dreaming of Christmas down under. Well, Kerry and Alex were sleeping. I was wide awake watching TV… and the snow.

At around 10:30pm EST I got an automated call from SouthWest Airlines informing me that our flight from IAD to LAX via MDY was canceled. I sat on hold for a good 20 minutes and a helpful agent heard my story of needing to be in LA to catch a flight to Australia. She said ALL flights
out of Washington were canceled due to what was looking to be a record storm. She was willing to switch the reservation to the next day, Sunday. While she had me on hold I called American Airlines through whom we booked the flight from LAX to SYD. He listened to my story but said the only thing he could do was give us the earliest flight available… on Thursday. I told him I’d call him later if I wanted to do that.

Panicked (as usual) I woke Kerry up and gave her the news. We checked everything out of BWI, DCA and IAD and nothing was moving. Then, a crazy idea popped into my head. The storm was mostly East of I-81 and Ohio, Indiana and Illinois were not supposed to get more than an inch or two of snow. What if we found a flight with Southwest out of, I dunno, say Columbus, Ohio. We could rent a car and drive there over night, getting there with plenty of time if we left before 3am. After all, the worst part of the storm was supposed to hit early the next morning and afternoon.

Kerry saw the crazed look in my eye and said, sure… So we called Avis at IAD and secured the car while at the same time making the flight booking. We’ll deal with the original flight, now scheduled for Sunday, later.

We woke Alex up (poor kid, she is such a good sport and a great little traveler), bundled her up in the Subaru and sped off for IAD. Well, sped is not quite right. The roads were completely untreated and already had a nice layer of close to two inches of snow. The conditions were
just awful. Some of the worst I’ve ever driven in (up to this point). I drove as quickly and carefully as possible. Down Route 7; down the Greenway and finally the airport. Kerry got in the driver’s seat and went back home as I waited in the wind and snow for 20 minutes for the Avis bus.

At Avis I managed to get some sort of Dodgmobuickolet-crossover-minivan-SUV thing with all wheel drive, traction control and anti-lock brakes. I took off out of the parking lot for home
and was very pleasantly surprised with our transportation for the day. It took to snow like a husky! Ok an exaggeration but really, it drove very well in the worsening conditions. It was a full blown blizzard by the time I got back home.

Quick shower, change of clothes, pack the car, grab some water, snacks and coffee. Off we went.
My exact words to Kerry as we headed up the Berlin Turnpike: “This is either the smartest thing we’ve done… or the craziest.” Also notable was my description of the first road we took:
“This will be the worst part of the trip.” Ummm, WRONG!

To describe the conditions we drove through the best thing to say is Virginia does a poor job of clearing roads. Maryland does a slightly better job. West Virginia doesn’t even bother to plow.

For the first 5 hours we didn’t see a hint of pavement. What was amazing was the number of people out driving in it. We saw and maneuvered past several conga-lines of plows, several jack-knifed tractor trailers, several cars in the ditch and one car with its wheels pointing skyward.

I knew things HAD to get better the further West we ventured. I made a point of telling Kerry this at least every 5 minutes. The snow was so bad going through the mountains of Maryland and West Virginia that our speed barely crept above 40 mph. We had our new GPS “Gladys” giving us directions and she was also telling us our ETA… which kept getting later and later. Our flight was scheduled to depart Columbus at 12:35. When Gladys showed that we would arrive at 12:22, I felt sick.

Eventually we got to Pennsylvania where the roads were showing signs of improvement and the speedometer was registering higher speeds. We had another dash through West Virginia before hitting Ohio finally. 140 miles to go. Gladys showed 12:19pm, then 12:18, 12:17, 12:16…

My sister called (we were supposed to meet her in Chicago Midway for lunch). She jumped on her computer and checked our flight status. Delayed! 30 minutes! We have never been so
overjoyed by those words.

We got to the airport just on 12:00pm EST. 9 hours and 6 states (WV was twice) later. I practically brought the steering wheel in with me. I had to pry my fingers loose. White
knuckle driving had never been so real.

(LAX International Terminal)
The rest of the trip to LAX was uneventful- almost anti-climatic. No issues with the connection in Midway and arrived here at 4:40pm local time. Booked in to Qantas without a problem and now killing time at the food court in the international terminal. I haven’t slept since I woke up 5am on Friday and, except for a quick chilidog in Midway haven’t eaten all day. It was an epic journey on the level of John Candy and Steve Martin and I am totally, utterly, spent.

Bailey

2009-12-13T18:37:00.002-05:00

My neighbor's puppy, Baily, the Boxer

Purcellville Christmas Parade 2009

2009-12-13T17:52:00.005-05:00

Deck - Week 11

2009-12-01T17:33:00.004-05:00

This weekend I finished all the railings including the stairs

All that's left is the cleanup of all the debris under the deck and the installation of the lattice-work privacy screen above one side of the railings and all around the base of the deck.

Here you can see the landing at the base of the stairs.

Deck - Week 10

2009-11-23T09:27:00.003-05:00

Installed a few more railings this weekend. Including another stair railing. Only 4 more to go.

The stair railings are getting a little bit easier but are still really mickey-mouse in the way they go together. The screws they come with strip immediately and I've had to use a hacksaw and start over on several of them. I won't be using the provided screws anymore, instead opting for stronger coated exterior screws. At the bottom of the stairs you can see the landing I poured Saturday.

Deck - Weeks 8 and 9

2009-11-16T14:36:00.003-05:00

No real work happened on week 8 except for adding a couple of railing sections. Dad came out on weekend 9 to help with the stair railing. Those turned out to be very frustrating to install and we only got one section completed.
We did manage to get all but one railing post installed and we set up the form and frame for the concrete landing.
If the weather holds for next weekend I might get the remaining level railings in place and maybe even some more stir railings. Plus I'll pour the landing and clean up some minor details.

HNY rolls 200k

2009-11-12T13:08:00.002-05:00

My 2000 Civic hit the 200,000 mile mark last Friday. I had the camera in the car and couldn't resist marking this milestone.

Deck - Week 7

2009-11-01T17:57:00.002-05:00

Starting to plank the other side

Saturday started out nice so I planked the other half of the deck and also finished the step from the kitchen door.

Saw setup on the deck

Having the saw on the deck made things go much faster. Less up and down the stairs saved a lot of time.

Completed step and second half of the deck

Sunday started out rainy (typical I can't seem to get two full days each weekend) but cleared after noon so I finished up some fastenings along the center line, step and outer frame.

One lonely railing

I installed one railing as a reference and also as a test to see how they go together. The railing system we chose has very vague instructions. Now that it's in place, the rest can be built using jigs developed from this first section.

Deck - Week 6

2009-10-25T19:55:00.002-04:00

Picture frame completed

Once again Saturday brought rain. Fortunately it was only intermittent showers so I was able to get some work done. I laid out the locations for the railing posts and finished the outside edge of the picture frame boards. I also added another joist to provide a place to attach the board that runs up the center of the deck.

Starting to look like a real deck

Sunday's weather was beautiful (seems like a trend that's going to continue next week-end). I got half the deck planked. The CorectDeck CX is really easy to work with, but because of the picture frame, every board is custom fit and time consuming. Next week should go a bit faster as I'll have the saw on the completed part of the deck so there will be a lot less up and down the stairs.

Deck - Week 5

2009-10-18T20:54:00.004-04:00

Miter saw setup

It rained all day Saturday so not much was accomplished. Actually, it pretty much rained all week putting a serious damper in any progress. I manged to get a tarp setup underneath the deck to protect the new saw while I cut stair planks. I got a few stairs installed before the rain became too miserable to continue.

A few stairs done

I'm using vinyl trim for the stair risers to match the railing. It didn't rain Sunday so I was able to get all the stairs done plus the framing for the step off the kitchen door. I broke 3 T15 bits while screwing down the CorectDeck CX decking. That stuff is crazy dense. So it was off to HomeDespot to get more T15 bits and a new set of drill bits and a quick release adapter. My new 12" sliding compound miter saw is working well. Kerry said Merry Xmas, Happy, Birthday, Merry Xmas, Happy, Birthday, Merry Xmas, Happy, Birthday, etc. for the next few years for that one. The weather is supposed to be good this week, so I should finish the blocking and kitchen sliding glass door step and be able to get started on the picture frame before the weekend. Forcast is showing rain for Saturday again... Blah.

Deck - Week 4

2009-10-11T18:43:00.008-04:00

First 8 joists in place

On Thursday I took a vacation day to get a headstart on the deck before the weekend. I managed to put in 8 16 foot joists by myself. It was slow but satisfying.

First 8 joists as seen from above

All joists and ends done; stair stringers set up

On Saturday, the wife's friend, Tim came over to lend a hand for the day. Dad came for another weekend of hard labor. We managed to get all the joists up and also setup two of the stairway stringers. After Tim left in the afternoon we poured the concrete footers for the stair-posts.

Stair stringers

Stair posts set in place and center-line stringer added

On Sunday Dad and I added the center-line stair stringer and set the stair posts in concrete. We also bolted the face boards on and bolted the tops of the stringers to the joists.

Beam-ends trimmed

Also on Sunday we trimmed the ends of the beams. This week I'll finish fastening various bits that are only temporarily tacked in place. I'll try to finish the blocking for the picture frame deck boards and build the step from the sliding-glass door. The deck has been a great excuse to accumulate more toys. The latest is the 12" sliding compound miter saw that will be used extensively for cutting the decking which will be laid on a 45 degree angle.

Deck - Week 3

2009-10-04T19:58:00.005-04:00

First beam clamped in place

On Saturday I was able to put up the last post and use a couple of straps to locate and level the first beam. I cut the post notches with a chainsaw which made a mess and turned out pretty uneven and very rough. I told the wife I needed a new toy and ran out Sunday morning to buy a reciprocating "Sawsall." I was also able to complete the flashing on the ledger boards and put in the last few bolts securing them to the house. Also Saturday I put up the rim joist so I could locate the outside edge of the beams which would go up Sunday.

Three beams in place

Sunday, thanks to JTB and his son I was able to get all three beams bolted to the posts. The new saw greatly helped the effort and made the cuts much cleaner and neater than the chainsaw. We also managed to get the center-line double joist square to the house and use that as a reference for squaring up the rim joist and a couple of other key joists. Next: joists and more joists, blocking for the picture-frame deck boards trimming the beam ends and possibly adding the stair posts and framing.

Deck - Weeks 1 and 2

2009-09-27T22:03:00.002-04:00

Above: 3 first post holes dug and 11 more waiting.

The first three post holes were dug by hand to avoid hitting the gas line (yellow flags). Luckily the gas line was not seen so the post hole locations did not need to be modified. The remaining 11 holes were dug with the assistance of a post-hole auger. It made the job easier but I still had to pry out several hundred pounds of rocks by hand. All in all it was a weekend's work to get the holes dug followed by the inspection later that week.

Above: Ledger boards in place.

The second weekend saw the ledger boards installed after removal of the siding. Dad stopped by to help out and teach me the right way of doing these things. I've always been his manual labor and never really paid attention to how things are supposed to go together. I was just told what to do and when and how to do it while I was growing up. This project is all about me really learning about how to do things right.

7 of 8 posts in place.

Sunday of weekend number 2 and we were able to get 7 of 8 posts in place with lots of temporary bracing. I still need a ton more concrete to fill the holes to the top and I still need a few more bolts and flashing on the ledger boards.
Next weekend: Post number 8 and 2 of 3 beams. All I need is some muscle...

Purcellville, VA 4th of July Parade

2009-07-08T10:04:00.002-04:00

Commuter Upgrade

2009-07-02T15:49:00.000-04:00

Check out the new 27x1.125 Vittorias on the '83 Takara. It changes the look completely from the 27x1.25 Kendas with the gumwalls.

Scenic Western Loudoun County

2009-07-01T19:25:00.003-04:00

Crappy cell phone shots during a typical 30 mile ride around the county. Top: 5 image panorama. Bottom: 3 image panorama.

1984ish Takara Deluxe Touring

2009-05-31T10:07:00.005-04:00

This bike was my 16th birthday present in 1984. It's either a 1983 or '84 model. I just completed installation of new brakes, brake levers, bars, bar wrap and saddle. Original paint. Bottom bracket, headset and hubs have been completely rebuilt but still have original parts. It will be used as my regular commuting bike

Olivia

2009-05-24T16:31:00.002-04:00

Alex rides!!!!!

2009-05-11T18:08:00.001-04:00

Finally Work Completed

2009-04-15T07:55:00.002-04:00

Additional Pictures of Work Done on Outside

2009-04-15T07:53:00.003-04:00

Beam replacement - Almost done

2009-04-13T09:40:00.003-04:00

Beam replacement part 5

2009-04-10T07:19:00.003-04:00

Detail of new post

Beam replacement part 4

2009-04-10T07:16:00.003-04:00

Joist hangers secured and new truss being rebuilt

Post being rebuilt where the old one had suffered water damage

Beam replacement part 3

2009-04-10T07:11:00.004-04:00

New LVL in place

LVL completely removed

Beam replacement - part 2

2009-04-08T15:18:00.003-04:00

More details of extent of rot (corner post has been removed)

LVL being cut out piece by piece. Most of the roof truss has been removed

That's siding visible here.

How to Replace a Major Load Bearing Beam or How I Spent my Spring Break

2009-04-08T14:56:00.006-04:00

Removing drywall from wall and ceiling

Detail of damage once drywall was removed

Friday

2009-03-29T14:16:00.001-04:00

Classic Cosmo

2009-03-27T21:15:00.003-04:00

Cosmopolitan (how the wife likes them)
2 parts Absolute Citron Vodka
2 parts Cointreau
1.5 parts unsweetened organic 100% cranberry juice
1 part fresh squeezed lime juice
shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass
repeat
fall down

Downy Woodpecker on the Feeder

2009-03-02T14:09:00.000-05:00

Wren in the Snow

2009-03-02T11:56:00.002-05:00

World Wide Stout

2009-02-26T20:04:00.004-05:00

World Wide Stout
"YES! This is the beer you've heard so much about. Dark, rich, roasty and complex, World Wide Stout has more in common with a fine port than a can of cheap, mass-marketed beer. Brewed with a ridiculous amount of barley. Have one with (or as!) dessert tonight!"
18+% ABV

Perfect Margarita

2009-02-25T18:01:00.003-05:00

The perfect margarita
2 1/2 oz Tres Rios Anejo Tequila
1 1/2 oz Cointreau
Juice from 1 1/2 limes
Shake with ice and strain into a festive cocktail glass
Garnish with a lime wheel

Bijou Cocktail

2009-02-24T17:27:00.004-05:00

Enjoying a Bijou after work

2 oz Plymouth Gin
1 oz Martini and Rossi Sweet Vermouth
1 oz Green Chartreuse
1 dash orange bitters

Stir with ice, strain into a cocktail glass
Garnish with twist of lemon peel and a cherry

Bird Feeder

2009-02-22T12:04:00.006-05:00

Finally Set up the bird feeders in the backyard.

American Goldfinches (Carduelis tristis)

House finches (Carpodacus mexicanus) Goldfinch (Carduelis tristis) Black-capped chikadee (Poecile atricapilla)

Downy woodpecker (Picoides pubescens)

2009-02-11T18:26:00.000-05:00

First real snowfall 1/27/2009

Foreclosure - Part I

2009-02-11T17:50:00.003-05:00

The house we moved into at 404 was a foreclosure. The good thing about buying a bank-owned property is that the price was right (well below anything else for sale in the neighborhood) and we were able to take advantage of incentives like a lower interest rate and, in effect, no closing costs. The bad news? Well foreclosures are sold "as-is" so there is no negotiating repairs or upgrades etc. No big deal right? When we looked at the house and had it inspected there was a water stain on the ceiling of the family room... Looked like it was just a slight roof leak and sure enough, when we had a roofing guy take care of it problem solved. Until we had the painter come in and paint the entire house. He did a great job and when it came time to repairing the damaged ceiling our trouble started. The little roof leak? It had basically destroyed one end of a load-bearing beam. We tried making a claim on our home insurance policy: bzzzzzzz - pre-existing condition. We tried contacting the builder: bzzzzzz - Thier warranty is for the first two years from building. We tried the extended warranty company - 10 years for Major Structural Damages): bzzzzzzzz - the damage is the consequence of a (uncovered by the policy) water leak. So apparently we are on our own to get this fixed. Updates to follow.

Happy Holidays

2008-12-24T18:12:00.002-05:00

A Cold Winter's Ride

2008-12-20T17:12:00.004-05:00

32 degrees Fahrenheit when I set out this morning towards Leesburg.

Hamilton Station

Purcellville Christmas Parade

2008-12-13T17:34:00.005-05:00

Big Al

2008-12-10T09:33:00.003-05:00

Rudolph, the red-nosed Allosaurus. A Holiday tradition.

Dark

2008-11-21T14:38:00.002-05:00

Well, the first ride home from work was.... DARK!

It started out well enough riding off into the sunset on the W&OD. Starting on mile marker 24, heading for 44. The sun set fast and I switched on my little headlamp and rear, red blinky. The trail is pretty much a highway for deer at night and I must have seen 50 or so. The tend not to move out of the way until you are right up on them and then they faint right and jump left. today at work I heard stories of deer-bike accidents on the trail that ended unpleasantly for all involved.

Once the sun was down the going got a bit colder too and the wind picked up. And it got really, really dark.

First Ride

2008-11-20T10:22:00.000-05:00

We've been in the new house for 20 days and I finally got my first ride-to-work day. One of the reasons for moving was for me to be able to ride into work a few days per week. Today was a proof of concept. The house is a bit further than originally planned. The original Idea was to find a nice house in a nice neighborhood in Leesburg about 16 miles from my office. As with all great plans, this was modified when we drove through the town of Purcellville, you know, just to check it out. Well we both sort of fell in love with the town and the house we wanted to check out was in a perfect community with a million kids on a cul de sac.

So we end up 23 miles from my office. What still makes it ideal is that the route to work is almost all on the W&OD (Washington and Old Dominion) trail; a dedicated, paved walking/jogging/biking path. Today's ride, at a decent pace, took 90 minutes. Pretty much what I expected given my current level of fitness. It was cold. I have all the appropriate cold weather gear... except... shoe covers. My toes were ice blocks for three quarters of the trip. I was miserable. I'll be going to the store to get some covers during lunch. Tonights ride home should be interesting in the dark.