3,000+

I managed to do it. After putting in over 62 miles in two separate rides today, I have achieved my early-year goal of getting 3,000 miles on the bike in the first six months of the year! Now this is not a lot compared to some of the guys I ride with who do a lot of heavy training miles (I'll bet some already have 5,000+) but I never had this many miles by the end of June EVER. Even when I was racing a lot back in the late 90's and early this century...I got most of my miles in late spring and all summer. Yeah, big accomplishment.

Tonight's ride at Tuesday Night Worlds was one of my best so far. The speeds were high and I even took a couple of pulls but mostly sat in, with an occasional move toward the front. The main thing was that I didn't get dropped the whole time and things were looking good until Daniel crashed. We were flying toward I-49 from a rough side road and I was sitting mid-pack when Jason attacked from the right side. This opened up a nice gap up the right and I immediately thought about taking advantage of it to move quickly to the front. Well, there were about 3-4 other people thinking the same thing and they were closer to it so they made the move...I stayed where I was and let them have it. That jammed up the right side and Daniel (who had done a Half-Ironman Triathlon just three days earlier in Texas) bumped the back of Mary's bike and dropped off the edge of the road into a rough patch with gravel. His wheels slid back to the left, kicking up gravel into the road and down he went into the ditch on his right side. I was never in any danger of getting caught up in all that although I did have a ringside seat to the whole thing. As the group slowed I yelled out to everyone to ride straight and not turn their heads to see behind them or we'd have another crash due to stupidity. As it turned out, Daniel was fine though scratched up a bit and was shaken up enough to want to throw up (he didn't). All but four of us went on, including his wife because he told her to go ahead and keep riding. Jason, Jeffrey, Tony, and I stayed back with Daniel and rode back in with him. After a few miles he was back to riding normal and we were speeding down the road again. He wasn't looking forward to washing/scrubbing the road rash on his arm in the shower tonight!

And it was my birthday, too!!

Today was the first of three 40 kilometer (24.8 miles) time trials I hope to do this year. Jonnene and I were up in Galloway, Arkansas for the Arkansas State Time Trial Championships where I wanted to get an idea of my fitness level at this point. I have two other TT's coming up: the Texas state championships on August 8th and the Louisiana/Mississippi district championships on August 23rd. What I want to do is work toward breaking the hour mark, the same goal I had last year but didn't get to try for when the LA/MISS race was canceled due to one of those pesky hurricanes that came blowing through about the time it was scheduled. I did set a Personal Record of 1:02:01 at the Texas time trial a few weeks before so 2008 was not a total loss.

We drove up Saturday afternoon to Little Rock and checked into the Residence Inn which was about 4 miles from the race site...nice and close. After taking a short time to unwind after the long drive we went to Carino's Italian Restaurant to meet up with some other racers who had driven in from Monroe and Oxford, Mississippi. It was a fun dinner and soon we were back in the hotel just relaxing before getting some shut-eye. The nice thing about a time trial is that you don't have to do a lot of pre-race prep...just have the bike ready, your pre-race eats, and your racing gear (helmet, uniform, shoes, etc.). For an hour or so on the bike you don't need much.

Sunday morning we were at registration around six o'clock, signed in and got our stuff together. However, the event starts at 7 am sharp so it didn't leave us with much time to get in a good warmup. Both of us were able to go a couple of miles down the course before we had to turn around to get back for the race....you can't be on the course once the TT starts. The juniors and women were the first to go, in 30-second intervals, and I was scheduled to start about 7 minutes in the Masters' groups after Jonnene began her trek. I was able to get about another mile of riding in before I lined up on time and set off. I didn't have much of a goal in the ride today except to see where I needed to improve over the next eight weeks and to try to finish in under 65 minutes. I wanted Jonnene, who was doing her first 40K, to come in under 75 minutes.

The start was good and I only topped out the speed at 26 mph, deciding I was going to do a steady ride to test my endurance and not blow up early. I actually felt pretty good and finally found a cruising speed around 23-24 mph that I was comfortable with. That's slower than I want to go at Texas and LA/MISS in August but I'll work on that during the rest of the summer (I'll have to average more than 24.8 mph to break an hour in 40 kilometers!). Did the first ten kilometers in 15:20 and that was nice but I could tell I was starting to slow a wee bit, staying at 23 mph most of the rest of the next 10 kilometers. I caught all three guys who started ahead of me before we got to the turnaround but was also caught by two guys who started behind me, including my teammate, Tim, who had come up from Monroe. We call him the Time Trial King but he had missed his start time and had to start a few seconds later. It didn't seem to be hurting him too much! I held him off until 2 kilometers before the turnaround which I considered a moral victory of sorts.

The turnaround happens at a large curve in the road which is only a disadvantage if you don't play the downward slope of the road correctly as you turn 180-degrees to the left. Not a big problem for me and I started to push the pace a bit. I hit the 20K mark at 32:10, way too slow, and I tried to make up for it by upping the pace to a 24-25 mph rate. Again, I wanted to stay steady and stretch out my endurance as best I could. The speed dropped back down to 23 again but I passed three more riders on the way back, including Jonnene who was pedaling well and looking good for the distance (she would end up averaging around 20.6 mph and finishing with an 1:11:55 time...great job, wife o'mine!).

I had carried a small water bottle with me but I never touched it...not that I didn't want to but I didn't want to make the movements to get it and, as a result, get slowed down. I usually don't drink during a TT anyway anymore. A fellow racer told me once that you should be able to go hard for at least an hour without drinking (but not much more) so why take a bottle with that extra weight? Well, I carried a bottle this time just in case and never used it even though I had cotton-mouth nearly the whole ride. The last 7-8 kilometers seemed to take longer than I wanted but I was glad to see the One Kilometer to Go sign and took it in to record a 1:03:20 time for the distance, for a 23.49 mph average. That got me 5th place in the Masters 50-54 age group. I was fairly satisfied, knowing I was only 1:19 off my personal best time and I felt I could work hard enough before August to surpass that time gap.

My pal, Paul, came out to take a few pictures (which I hope to post soon) and, after we got the results and watched a bit of the awards ceremony, we went back to the hotel room to get cleaned up and pack away our gear. Then we walked over to the Cracker Barrel restaurant for a late brunch and catch up on things. Saying goodbye to Paul, we headed back to Shreveport, returning in the late afternoon.

I was somewhat happy with my effort, knowing that I can definitely improve on it over the next 6-8 weeks. Can I break an hour? I'll get back to you on that!

Can't Think of a Title Here

Dad and I went to CiCi's Pizza yesterday for lunch. He was ahead of me and asked for the Senior Citizen Discount from the guy behind the counter which works out to $5.44, about two bucks below the regular price. He paid, got his glass, moved on, and then I come up to the counter. "That'll be $5.44, sir," the guy says. Do I look like a senior citizen already? He didn't even ask for an ID. I can ride a bike at 30 mph, do trail runs, and multi-sport races! I have plenty of people who tell me I look way younger than I am!

I took the discount. I'm not nuts or that vain. There are advantages to getting older with all these discounts. I already get hotel rooms at the 50+ rate (sweet!) and our car rental in Colorado was acquired the same way. It's still hard to believe, though.

Started running on a regular basis again. This morning was a short 2-mile effort and I decided to take it easy. I must know nothing about taking it easy since I ran a 8-minute mile pace! I was looking for a 8:30 pace or slower so I could reintroduce the legs to the pavement. The humidity was ridiculous...about 91%...and I was dripping with sweat when I came back in.

I'm starting to drop some weight, getting close to 10 pounds under my heaviest earlier in the year. Most of it is eating fewer snacks, trying my best to moderate the amount I eat in a single sitting, and the heavy workouts in this summer heat. I can lose quite a bit in a training ride but that's mostly water weight and I'll gain a lot of that back in 12 hours. Of course I still eat some things I should be ignoring but that's me being WEAK!! What I'd like to do is be around 160 pounds when the district road races come up in September and have less weight to haul over that hilly course. The trick is keeping the muscle strength during all this and not lose the weight too quickly.

Taz, the cat, came in this morning not looking too good. He has a small gash across his nose and I think he has some aches and pains going on, too. Obviously he got into something with another cat last night. I'll take him to the vet today and see if there's anything else going on with him...it's time for his regular checkup anyway.

Concise...or Not

• Plumbing is okay in the house! Yea! But the shower knobs now turn in different directions...gotta get used to that. Already blasted myself in the face twice going in the old directions.

• Knocked out 90 miles on the bike Saturday. It went pretty well but my legs were pretty sore that evening. Lost six pounds, mostly water-weight, even though I downed almost four water bottles during the ride along with a decent amount of eating to keep my energy up. Gained three pounds back as the day went on after the ride.

• Took Niece #1, Ashley, out shopping late Saturday afternoon and evening. She was finally spending two years worth of birthday money and worked out some time to come over. She ended up with some quality makeup and dresses while we were over at the Louisiana Boardwalk. Ate supper at Saltgrass (we have half our dinners in the refrigerator for later lunches).

• Volunteered at the Sunrise Triathlon #3 this morning, working the swim part of the race. Jonnene kept track of swimmers and I was at the end of the pool helping them get out. It was fun. Afterwards both of us got in an hour on the bikes to keep our legs loose...mine were just sore. The rest of the day was us just being lazy!

We're All Good

Well, the shower is fixed. I had tried to make repairs myself to the faucet valves but kept getting leaks. Finally decided to bring in a plumber because I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong...I've made these repairs at least a dozen times and they've turned out fine. So the plumber came by this afternoon and got things back to normal. The good thing is that I found out it wasn't my fault...apparently these particular valves are used in old houses like what we have and replacement valves aren't quite long enough by a few millimeters to completely shut off the water when you close them. The plumber has been coming across this problem a lot lately and has been hoarding parts off the old valves he's replaced to aid in repairs. He can't get enough of the "good" parts from supply warehouses! So he replaced a part in the hot water valve with one of his stashed parts and used one of my replaced valves (that I'd kept) for the cold water side. Now everything works! And for now, things are normal.

We're staying in town this weekend. We could have gone to New Orleans to race in the Tour de Louisiane but my legs aren't up to it and Jonnene wants more rest. I plan to do a 80-mile ride Saturday morning but it won't be at race pace...more of an endurance tempo ride. She's going to stay more local but spend time on her TT bike. We're thinking of doing a 40K time trial in Little Rock, Arkansas on the 28th (my birthday!) and we need to spend time getting used that aero position. I put 33 miles on my TT bike last night, about 12 of them on a more-than-spirited ride to Frierson...and I hung on this time!

We're keeping a couple of dogs for a friend of ours, Jamie, while she's in Las Vegas to attend a USAF class graduation for her husband. They're usually a little rowdy but they've behaved themselves so far, probably because they're around different "humans" and haven't figured out how to work their way around us. I tend to think that Jonnene and I are a little more strict with our animals so "Chip" and "Rosie" can sense that and react with a bit of caution to us.

Got a lot done today. Seemed I was really busy getting the Centenary Bike Day planning off the ground plus a few free-lance jobs started. One of those busy days where you really can't show anyone what you've done!

A Lovely Song, A Couple of Nice Videos

Discovered this song recently, "The Book of Love", written in 1998 by Stephin Merritt and originally performed by Magnetic Fields (which I've downloaded to my Nano). In the links below it is performed by Peter Gabriel with full orchestration. Just click on the links and turn the sound up.

VIDEO ONE: This video was submitted as a school project and was very well done.

VIDEO TWO: Same song used as background for the season finale (and supposedly last episode of the series) of "Scrubs". This was probably one of the best endings to a long-running TV series.

Enjoy. I did.

Top One Hundred Places To Stand

Unusual website: www.stoodthere.com
A list of the top 100 places to stand. Apparently it changes depending on how important a location is at the time.

The full list of The 100 Greatest Places in the USA as of 1am on Wednesday June 10, 2009....
Yellow is where I've stood, light blue is where I'd like to go. Nothing against the other places, I'll get there if I can.

1 Hoover Dam, Arizona/Nevada USA
2 The Lost Sea, Craighead Caverns, Tennessee
3 Niagara Falls, Canada/USA
4 Statue of Liberty, New York
5 Waimea Canyon, Kauai, Hawaii
6 Empire State Building, New York, USA
7 The Grand Canyon, USA
8 The Alamo, San Antonio, Texas
9 The Bean, Chicago
10 General Sherman Giant Sequoia, Sequoia National Park, California
11 Times Square, New York, USA
12 Space Needle, Seattle
13 Carlsbad Caverns, New Mexico
14 Dinosaur National Monument, Colorado
15 Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, Philadelphia
16 Kingda Ka Roller Coaster, Six Flags, Jackson Township, New Jersey
17 The Chicago Theater, Chicago, Illinois
18 Sears Tower, Chicago
19 National Memorial Arch, Valley Forge, Pennsylvania
20 Monument Valley, Arizona
21 Aerial Tramway, Palm Springs, California
22 Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, USA
23 Fallingwater, Pennsylvania
24 Hearst Castle, San Simeon, California
25 USS Arizona Memorial, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii
26 Harley-Davidson Museum, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
27 Mount Washington, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
28 Old Faithful Geyser, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming
29 Churchill Downs, Louisville, Kentucky
30 Museum of Modern Art, New York
31 Totem Heritage Center, Ketchikan, Alaska
32 Emerald Bay, Lake Tahoe, California
33 Texas School Book Depository, Dallas
34 Bodie Ghost Town, California
35 Four Corners Monument, USA
36 National Air and Space Museum, Washington DC
37 Moody Gardens, Galveston, Texas
38 El Capitan, Yosemite National Park, USA
39 San Miguel Chapel, Sante Fe, New Mexico
40 The Mission, Carmel, California
41 Hollywood Sign, California, USA
42 Everglades National Park, Florida
43 Graceland, Memphis, Tennessee, USA
44 Gettysburg National Military Park, Pennsylvania
45 Alcatraz. San Francisco, USA
46 Louisville Slugger Museum, Kentucky
47 Henry Ford Museum, Dearborn, Michigan
48 Bourbon St, New Orleans
49 Clingmans Dome, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee
50 Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, West Virginia
51 Grand Central Station, New York, USA
52 Fort Clinch, Amelia Island, Florida
53 Fort Sumter, Charleston Harbor, South Carolina
54 Mowich Lake, Mount Rainier National Park, Washington
55 Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona
56 Castillo de San Marcos, St. Augustine, Florida
57 Carhenge, Alliance, Nebraska
58 Glacier Bay, Alaska, USA
59 Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Washington, DC, USA
60 Needles Eye, Custer, South Dakota
61 Navajo National Monument, Shiprock, New Mexico
62 Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Florida
63 Grand Ole Opry House, Nashville, Tennessee
64 Bingham Canyon Mine, Salt Lake City, Utah
65 Taos Pueblo, Taos, New Mexico
66 Aspen Mountain, Aspen, Colorado
67 Ocean Drive, South Beach, Miami
68 Lincoln Memorial, Washington DC
69 Bryce Canyon Ampitheater, Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah
70 Mesa Verde Cliff Dwellings, Colorado, USA
71 Beverly Hills City Hall, California
72 Death Valley, California, USA
73 Gateway Arch, St. Louis, Missouri
74 Wall Street, New York
75 White House, Washington DC, USA
76 Mount Rushmore, South Dakota
77 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Cleveland, Ohio
78 Badlands National Park, South Dakota
79 Ground Zero, New York
80 Las Vegas strip, USA
81 Mount St Helens, Washington, USA
82 Hunter Museum of American Art, Chattanooga, Tennessee
83 London Bridge, Lake Havasu City, Arizona
84 South St / Whitehead St, Key West, Florida
85 Lake Placid, New York
86 Area 51, Nevada
87 Point Barrow, Barrow, Alaska
88 Sundial Bridge, Redding, California
89 Jenny Lake, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming
90 Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, North Carolina
91 Roswell UFO Museum, Roswell, New Mexico
92 Universal Studios, Orlando, Florida
93 Amish Country, Intercourse, Pennsylvania
94 Monterey Bay Aquarium, Monterey Bay, California
95 Ulysses S. Grant Home, Galena, Illinois
96 Grafton Museum, Grafton, Vermont
97 Oglethorpe Square, Savannah, Georgia
98 Sea World, San Diego, California
99 Plymouth Rock, Plymouth, Massachusetts
100 Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah

Fun at Home

I just spent half an hour standing in my shower tonight holding back water shooting out of a busted faucet! My hands and arms are going to be so sore in the morning. I can confirm that the water pressure in Shreveport is pretty darn good and powerful!

I was taking a shower after our evening bike ride, getting ready to turn off the water. The hot water knob turns just fine....the cold water one just spins, and water keeps coming out of the shower head at full force. Okay, just great....I turn the hot water back on so I won't get too cold but there's no way to stop the water unless I can get the knob to seal back up. Otherwise we have to get the city to come out here to turn the water off...we have an old water valve outside that defies the use of any commercially available "keys"...you will only destroy them if you use them. Only the city can do it.

So I'm trying to reseal the knob and it comes off. And out shoots this solid horizontal geyser of water all the way to the opposite wall...and, boy, is it loud! It reminds me of that Seinfeld episode where Kramer is getting blasted against the back wall of his shower the same way, but it was funnier then. Well, now we have to call the city to come out and turn off the water (it's almost 9 pm now). Jonnene makes the phone call after finding the number in the phone book and I have to wait, standing there holding the faucet knob in the pipe the best I can to minimize the amount of water pouring in so it doesn't fill up the shower basin and spill over into the house (and turn off the hot water). Jonnene quickly fills up a couple of buckets so we can still use the toilets later and waits for the city crew to show up. Eventually they do show up, the water is turned off, and I can finally towel off. I'm going to be tired in the morning!

So I'll have to see what happened with the faucet and replace it...or get a plumber out here instead. My plumbing skills are adequate but not perfect. Then get the city back out to turn the water back on. On top of that, we're getting our new blinds installed in the morning!

Couldn't ask for a better way to start the night.....

Racing Rapides Stage Race

Here's me going around one of the corners in
the stage three criterium on Sunday.

Jonnene and I went down to Alexandria, Louisiana over the weekend to participate in the Racing Rapides Stage Race, which consists of three race stages: Stage One - a 3.1 mile time trial Saturday morning; Stage Two - road races of various distances later that day; Stage Three - criterium races in downtown Alexandria on Sunday morning. This would be Jonnene's first real foray into bicycle racing and we kept the expectations realistic since she had pretty much no experience at this. This was my first stage race in almost a year (with a 3-year gap before that) and I was just hoping to survive in a respectable fashion. Both of us are still not up to full-speed yet health-wise which has limited our training...I've only been back on the bike for the past two-and-a-half weeks since I was sick and I can still feel some gunk in my lungs. But we decided that we had to dip ourselves into the races and this event seemed to be one that we could both do.

We stayed with my brother's family starting Friday night, got up early to be at the TT location by 6:30 am so we could pick up our numbers and sign in. I was familiar with the course but Jonnene went on a recon with one of her teammates, Elka, to look it over by bike (we drove the course the night before). Her TT ended up with a 8:23 time over the five kilometers (3.1 miles) placing her 20th out of the 22 starters. My run left me with a 7:24...my best was a 7:04 in 2007...which put me 13th out of 17 in the Masters 45+ division. Both of us had someone who finished of us by one second!

Louise, Mary, Elka, and Jonnene wait
for the start of their road race.

Jonnene and the rest of the ladies had under two hours to prepare for their road race stage, a distance of 29 miles...not really long but probably the right distance for her first road race. About 8-9 miles in she lost contact with the main field on the first big hill on the course but later began to pick up some other ladies who had difficulty hanging on. Eventually they worked up a nice little six-woman group of their own for the rest of the race. At the end she ended up getting fifth in the group sprint at the line but I was really proud of her for taking this on and doing well in her first road race.

In my race I had only one goal and that was to hang on for at least the first lap of our three lap 44-mile race. Over the last few years these Masters races have become intense events with guys who are Cat. 1's and 2's entering because they're old enough. Thing is, they're still fast enough! I wasn't anywhere close to being in shape to be a factor in the race so it was essentially a training ride for me. I wasn't able to get enough of a warmup in so when our 24-man field started it was like a rocket launch. We were barely a minute into the race and already going 32 mph...I was thinking I would be spit off the back much sooner than I planned, like right then! But I hung on and the first 9 mile stretch to the main hill was rarely below 25 mph and often above 30 mph. I was feeling better than I thought I would but I knew the hill would tell the tale of how my race would go. We went up this quarter-mile-long hill at 25-26 mph and I was sticking with the pack, even passing a few riders on the way up. The rest of the way I sat at the back, hanging on to the draft and even trying to move up into the field a few times but I wouldn't stay there for long.

I grab a water bottle from Louise in the feed zone and
start my third lap on the road race.

But as we came thru the feed zone finishing our first lap, I was still there and I heard a lot of cheers for me as Jonnene and other friends saw me dragging along with the pack. We covered the first lap at a 24.8 mph average and I was exhausted! Right then some guys attacked and really stretched the group and I lost contact. I chased for over a mile, getting within 20 meters of the back of the group but couldn't close it and finally had to give it up. I rode the second lap and most of the third lap by myself. The Cat. 4 field caught me early in my third lap and I took a 5-mile ride sitting in their draft...that was actually quite fun to sit back and let them do the work! I let them go eventually and just kept pushing to the finish. Officially I came in 15th place in the Masters 45+ and got a single point for my omnium total.

That night we met up with some of our teammates at Outback and replaced some lost protein. BTW, I had chicken and ribs...yum!

Sunday morning was the crit and Jonnene's legs weren't quite there. She fell off the pace early but kept going and finished her first criterium and stage race. It was so cool to watch her do this bicycle racing thing for the first time and I think she'll try it again eventually. I think she enjoyed hanging with the other girls on our team, too. She wasn't able to help them during the races but I think they liked having more friends and teammates on the road with them.

Lined up for the criterium.
I'm in the white helmet, listening to the pre-race instructions.
I was ready for the weekend to be over!

My crit wasn't really much to write home about. I was hanging on the back of the pack in the first lap...like the road race it started FAST...and as we took the fifth turn, a right-hander, the guy in front of me started having problems. His name was Pitt and he rides for the S3 team...he's been racing for a number of years. As he leaned into the turn his bike started to wobble and he suddenly fell on his right side into the pavement. My momentum wouldn't allow me to go to his inside (the safer route) and I had to head for the outside of the turn while watching where his sliding bike would go. I ended up having to shoot a 2-foot wide gap between the opposite curb and his bike at 24 mph. I didn't feel any panic at all during this and just did the only thing I could do. The result of this was I got separated from the pack and couldn't catch back up. I ended up catching a guy named Michael from England who rides for Absolute Racing and the two of us just finished out the race. He let me finish ahead of him since I pulled him the last three laps which was very sporty of him. Like me, he had been sick over the winter dealing with an embolism in his circulatory system and had only been back on his bike for a handful of weeks. Very nice and courteous fellow.

Now we're home and the gear is put away. Time to rest!

Riding Hard Sorta

My detailed analysis of tonight's effort at Tuesday Night Worlds:

I've done a lot of bike rides in my life...and tonight was one of them.

Monday

An Air France airliner was lost over the Atlantic Ocean last night flying from Rio de Janeiro to Paris. The Aerobus 330-200 was carrying 228 passengers and crew when it went down in bad weather about 4-5 hours after it left Rio. As much as I like to travel to Australia (five trips so far and I'll do it as often as I can) this is the only thing that can creep me out about the trip...something going wrong and literally disappearing somewhere out over the blackness of the Pacific Ocean. My philosophy about flying has always been that once I'm on the plane everything is out of my hands and my control. I leave it up to God and decide to just go enjoy the trip. My feeling is that the pilots have plans for the upcoming weekend, too, and are just as interested in getting to the destination safely as I am. Mutual interests are always good....


I still miss Farley. I'm getting used to him not being here but his sleeping spot in the living room continues to have that empty look. I sometimes catch myself dodging around there when it's dark and I'm heading off to bed. When he was alive I always had to make sure I didn't accidentally kick him in the nose, head, feet, or butt (depending on how he was laying) since I usually couldn't see anything after the lights went out. So I'd make these exaggerated movements around him to avoid any contact and then bend down to pet him goodnight. Like I said, sometimes I find myself still doing that, and then I'll stop to squat down for a look as if he's still there. Jonnene told me that she finds herself doing that every once in a while, too. Who knows? Maybe he IS there for a short visit from Up Top to check on us and that's why we make that move? Maybe we can feel him there?

I checked on his grave at the Bossier house earlier today when I had to let a technician do a maintenance check on the A/C and heating units there. I talked to him a bit and admired how the grass has really filled in...you almost can't tell where the digging marks are anymore! The ground has settled some so next time I'm there I'll throw some more dirt to fill it in. I wonder what he chased up in Heaven today?

We had a large group for the 5:50 morning ride, eleven of us and it was a little faster than usual. I took the first pull on the parkway and kept it at around 22-23 mph to give everyone a chance to hang on and not get dropped. So I pull off and it's off to the races after that! My apologies for going so slowly! I got home almost 10 minutes sooner than I usually do and that was with some added hill repeats as I got back into the neighborhood. Jonnene and I are thinking of doing the Racing Rapides Stage Race down in Alexandria this weekend...well, I'm thinking....she's pretty much decided to suffer thru it.