Trailday this Sunday

Do it. Because the more people we have to help, the faster we get to ride! Tranquility at 1:00pm is where we'll be at. RSVP on facebook if you plan to go. I would say check out details on the THOR blog, but the THOR blog seems to be lacking. Anyway, see you guys there!

Last week's Taco Ride

Kellan was once again able to provide us with the entertainment for the night. But we'll get to that later. Last Thursday's Taco Ride was a good one. The weather was perfect. Not hot, not too cool. And best of all, the rain stayed away! It was Jena's first time riding the Taco Ride and riding in the dark for that matter. Same goes for her brother and her sister-in-laws first time riding the T Ride. Virgins no more!

It was wine and cheese night at the Taco ride. Also had a live accoustic singer in Mineola 

So getting back to Kellan. Last time we went to Silver City, he did the "Trailblazer Wing Challenge" and succeeded. This week, while in Margaritaville, he smashed an empty 12 ounce can on his forehead. Left this huge red mark on his forehead! Too bad I didn't get a picture or video of that. Then once in Mineola, Krista's food didn't come out for 45 minutes. So we asked two servers about it. Out comes double the order. Why wouldn't it? That place is so chaotic sometimes. Anyway, Kellan grabbed a soft taco and put some hot sauce on it. We watched him eat it. Not bite by bite, but he stuffed the ENTIRE taco into his mouth and just started chewing. I was like whoa. I looked over at Cody. His mouth just dropped and his eyes got huge. His face was frozen in time for about 5 seconds. Hilarious because we couldn't believe our eyes! Then Kellan started coughing because the hot sauce went straight to the back of his mouth. So funny! Thanks for the entertainment Kellan and thanks for riding everyone! Till next time!

Not this again! 

Storm pics

I was sleeping on the couch when I heard the sirens going off. This past weekend's festivities did me in. Three straight nights of partying down at the CWS is a bit much. But anyway, grabbed my camera and snapped a few pics as the shelf cloud rolled in.

Some photos

HDR, fisheye, and regular photos. Taken two weeks ago. I seem to be taking more photos than I have time to process. It has been my goal to take pictures of The Children's Hospital ever since they put those statues along Dodge Street. Finally took the time to do it on a nice evening. I was hoping for some interesting clouds, but unfortunately no. I was hoping the photos would turn out a little better, not what I had in mind.

Test ride...

Stopped into The Bike Way after Cody told me that they had two of these. I likey!!! But I think I want the drilled Rolling Daryl rims and a few upgrades over the complete build kit which seemed only so-so. Salsa Mukluk complete build seems to be the better deal. Think the aluminum frame could save a little bit of weight too.

Last Weekend: Out and about!

We played, we biked, we hit up the Summer Arts Festival, we saw some flooding at the casino. All in a good weekend! Not sure if it was my allergies, but I was having serious trouble catching my breath. Not only while biking, but even long afterwards. Anyway, riding out at Swanson was a good time. Awesome job THOR on the new entrance and exit. Thanks to Todd and Cody for waiting for me. I kept messing around with the settings on my Go Pro. If I were to have some input on designing the Go Pro, I would ask that they make each mode have a certain number of beeps. There are about 5 different modes when you hit the main button. Problem is that you can't tell what mode you are on unless you stop to look at the LCD front panel. So maybe one beep on video mode, two for the still camera mode, etc. With my old Canon Elph on top of my helmet, I knew exactly how to switch between camera and video without having to look.

 

These pictures of us at Fox and Hound are all from Kristen's camera 

With that said and out of the way, I STILL didn't get the desired angle with the Chesty Harness! Still pointed down too low, all I see are my legs pedaling and the tops of the handlebars in the videos. Next time I will get it right! Hopefully.

Ummm...no explanation needed for this!

After biking Swanson, Jena and I hit up The Summer Arts Festival downtown. Some pretty cool artwork, photographs, and sculptures. Definitely gave me some ideas, most of the styles would be pretty easy to do. Lots of pieces centered around bicycling.

Todd and Cody coming out of the north side prarie loop of Swanson 

I hear the chirping of a bird... 

Love the green plush prarie with the singletrack trail built into it! 

Then we cruised on past the Santa Lucia Festival, crossed the pedestrian bridge, and made our way over to Harrah's. The flooding is a sight to see over there. Nothing like the aerial photographs that I've seen floating around on the emails, but bad enough.

Some pics from downtown and Harrah's:

Click the picture and check out this guys' artwork. All photographs, manipulated to look like paintings. He said he's a big fan of biking and his artwork shows it!

Kinda freaky looking

 The trail was closed north of the pedestrian bridge. Kind of by the waterfront condos.

 Hmm...I need to pull an old picture and see where the old water level was on the bridge. This is the June 2011.

This picture I scrounged up from 2008. Not exactly the same view, but you get the picture. In the 2011 picture, the water covers the ground at the far end. Click and compare the two. Quite a difference!

The wildlife was having a good time!

Harrah's parking lot. 

I had heard that they took out the glass on this side of the building. Yup, glass gone! 

Remember when we took this route through Harrah's parking garage in the wintertime?

I keep on bumping into this guy 

MNR

Mosquitoes Never Rest! MNR now has a dual meaning. Ever since hearing that the ticks were out on the trails, I've been spraying my legs, arms and neck as usual with bug spray. Keeps them and the mosquitoes away. Or so I thought. Today at work, my back was itching like crazy. Stupid mosquitoes were biting me through my jersey! Got me at least three times. On your exposed skin you can at least feel them and swat them away or kill them. But when they land on your jersey? Are you kidding me!!!???

 

I used the seatpost mount for the Go Pro in a rearward facing direction for the first time last night 

Last night's Monday Night Ride was a good one. Number of riders decreased slightly. About 10 I would have to say. Most of the ride was spent playing cat and mouse with the crew. I arrived late and decided to play catch up. I rode the north side by the creek first, looking for any recognizable rider. Turns out the crew was on the north north side first. It didn't cross my mind until halfway through and by the trees on Fort Street. I eventually made it over to the newer north side and I talked to Steve and he said the crew had already headed back to the kiosk side. Dang! Eventually I met up with the guys.

Beware of the black bear that roams on the trail with no leash. It was the first thing that crossed my mind when I saw something jump out onto the trail about five feet in front of Dave. Luckily he's got some good brakes, otherwise him and the dog would have been hurting!

Rode some more, made the usual pitstop at Paul's, then made a quick exit out and biked home at dusk to do laundry. Thanks for the good MNR, thanks for the beers (I owe you guys a truckload of beer, and that is an understatement), and thanks to the mosquitoes for making my life miserable!

Last night I decided to play around with the seatpost mount for the Go Pro. I had the camera pointed backwards during the entire ride. The camera was either taking still pics while riding or video. Pretty cool when people are riding behind you. Pretty boring when you are just riding alone and trying to find the crew. But either way, it definitely gives a different point of view!


Seatpost mounted Go Pro - rearward view from DJ Chi Wai on Vimeo.