10 Days in Paradise

Not quite but the original goal was to ride 10 times in 10 days (December 22nd thru January 2nd; and no I didn’t quite make that goal. I did however have tons of fun on two wheels many times....like this:

• Ride 1: December 23rd, 2006: Rode the Heckler with the church group I’d mentioned before. Quite a bit of fun had with these guys; 2 new and 2 of us who’d been riding for awhile. The funny aside is that the day before this ride I was told that the other veteran rider had really put it on me when we’d rode before. I mentioned that I was actually at the back of the pack helping a newbie; trust me I’ll always admit an ass whoopin’. Anyway after being told he’d put it on me I chased him all over Turkey for 2 hours and then ripped it going down lip buster. When I met up with the vet later in the parking lot he said that he was impressed that I’d gone so fast down the trail. (Here comes my blunder.) I reply, and remember this is a church group ride, “Hah, you should see this mother fucker I ride with (Buddy); I couldn’t keep up with him going down this hill when he was on his rigid!” The old church vets eyes were aglitter with prayer for a moment and I of course apologized. Sorry Bob.


• Ride 2: December 24th, 2006: Rode the Bianchi for 35cold fucking miles. Neoprene booties were ordered upon my return.


• Ride 3: December 26th, 2006: 10 mile grocery store/neighborhood trail ride on the rigid Giant
  
• Ride 4: December 27th, 2006: Here’s where the fun begins! My first ride with Ralphie boy in almost a year and he did great. I wish I could ride a trail like he runs one. He takes the tough lines over all the big rocks and bunny/dog hops all puddles. He’s even got trail etiquette; he shit twice and both times was off to the side of the trail. Man the Heckler's doing me right; I love this bike.

• Ride 5, December 28th, 2006: Time for a little SS action on the Fetish with the Bro on his first off-road ride on his new bike! He was a little timid which is to be expected but I think he did great. I’m always wondering after someone’s inaugural ride if they enjoyed it. Bro says when done for me to call him when I’m ready to go again and I tell him to call me ‘cause I’m almost always ready; he replies back: “How ‘bout tomorrow!” Now that’s stoked.
  
• Ride 6, December 29th, 2006: More SS action w/Bro again. This time he gets him some of the Boner trail and back up ridge thru the rock garden. This guy has got some gusto. The little techie climb on boner got him fired up and he gave it a few tries, his first session! I tried to capture his first attempt at a jump (about 2 ft. drop) on my cellie but like usual it was a little slow. Good go at it anyway!



• Ride 7, December 29th, 2006: Rode w/Emma for almost two hours. (My longest time on the rigid yet.) We hit the trail in light and got back to the car past dark and she loved it. I’m amazed at the instinct to get out of the saddle when necessary. Last year when she rode she was only good for about 45 minutes so I was super stoked that she wanted to ride for a lot longer this year. Hopefully we’ll have tons more rides together this year.

Rides 8, 9, & 10 never occurred. After the ride with Emma the rains came and muddied everything up. And besides the wife had me out furniture shopping which by the way is much more expensive than cycling.

Sadly I didn't get to do my annual solo Greenleaf trip, but if all goes well I've got an epic solo trip coming in February. (I may take Ralphie though.)