DougRNS

why not at nearby Mt Mitchell?

t2p

apparently they didn’t learn the lesson from this car back in 1988

t2p

according to Super Hunky there is no such thing as too much pizza (and beer)

LesterOfPuppets

I only rode 12 miles. Ate way too much afterwards: 4 tacos, 2 sides beans, cheeseburger, fries.

genejockey 

I had a fairly disappointing ride. I took the Ritchey, which felt okay, but I was really SLOW! Looking at my average HR, I didn't go hard at all, but the legs just didn't feel snappy at all. I guess this is one of those "Cycling Dog" days that pay for the "Cycling God" ones. Or maybe low blood sugar, since I'm feeling really empty atm.

datlas 

Time to ride!

abshipp 

Indeed. Would have liked to stop but we were definitely in the mood to get home.

Probably about 30 minutes sitting on I-40, then a 30 minute detour around the north side of Asheville that supposedly still saved us 20 minutes, and then another 20 minutes on the south side of Asheville.

abshipp 

We got back from Missouri last night at about 9:30.

Overall it was a fantastic trip. All the work I did on our new-to-us car held and it gave us no issues over the ±1500 miles.

Got to see some family I haven't seen since our wedding 5 years ago, and got to meet some more family that I hadn't before.

We had perfect weather in Doniphan, MO for the 4 minutes 12 seconds of totality. Very different vibe from 2017, when we saw totality on a bluff with a small group. There were hundreds at the park we watched at, but it was still an amazing experience. I took no pictures since I knew more talented folks like BillyD were out getting better shots than I ever could.

Afterwards we went to eat in downtown, happened to walk by a tattoo shop offering $60 flash art and my wife and I decided on a whim to get tattoos together.

We then drove in to Nashville and spent the night. Got up the next morning and went to the Parthenon in Centennial Park, then drove the rest of the way home.

My work alarm sure was early this morning. Thankfully it will be a short week.

BillyD

Five days, supported, lodging included.

big john

I remember the story where he and another rider had spent the day riding in the desert and they were famished and thirsty. So hungry he considered eating an old French fry he found in the van. He drank melted ice from the bottom of the cooler and "when the brackish liquid hit my stomach it felt like I had just swallowed a live rooster".
They scraped together whatever money they had and went to a drive through in Mojave and got a sack of fast food which he placed next to one of the bikes before getting on the road. When he reached back to get the food the bike had dripped gasoline on the bag and they drove home hungry.

Of course he told the story much better than I could.

BillyD

Thanks, but these are my friend’s photos, David W. of Gansevoort NY. I just regret I didn’t take a shot of his setup which did an excellent job on the spectacle. I might share some more of his shots today.

Velo Vol 

Yeah, unless you have a fancy camera setup, you're not going to get a great picture. There are plenty on the internets to enjoy.

Phone shots of our viewing.

terrymorse 

I rolled up on a guy yesterday. He was wearing a CA State Champion jersey.

I asked him, "In what event did you win that jersey?"

He replied, "Um, not sure. What's the date on the jersey?"

Me: "2015".

Him: "Then I think it was cyclocross".

The dude has too many state champion jerseys to keep track of. Big Dog problems.

seedsbelize2

Bob led me to believe he’d tried it and didn’t like it. He clarified himself this morning as we were repairing the flat he got while riding Gatorskins on chip seal. That guy has an unlucky streak. Also, while doing the flat thing, it was discovered rough trial and error, that his pump, which worked fine on Saturday, when his rim failed, didn’t work this morning. An HPX3. A virtually failproof pump. So I gave him the one I was carrying and brought his home with me. I suspect it will work just fine now that it is out of his possession.

seedsbelize2

After 20 minutes on hold with SSA they cut me off. My proof of address paperwork doesn’t arrive due to Mexico having a postal system in name only. It always happened electronically until last year. A friend told me Biden changed it to mail in only. So now I have to remember to download it and mail it in plenty of time ahead so I don’t get suspended, as I am now. I sent it registered mail and watch3d it cross the border a week or so ago, and then ‘Poof’! They were kind enough to point me to an electronic communication method, so hopefully something will come of it. SSA doesn’t like to communicate by email, so I have no clue as to half they might contact me.

datlas 

We had a spirited and fantastic ride. I believe there were 15 riders total. Temps warmed up quickly so I was able to pitch the gilet at the rest stop and finish the ride just with bibs/short sleeve jersey. I did not quite ride my new age of 59, but still a fine ride.

genejockey 

Wait - are you saying it's your ?

Well, , then, youngster!! Remember - 59 is the new 58!

genejockey 

It's supposed to be nice and warm the next two days, so I plan to make the most of it, or at least the most I can make of it after 5 PM. I checked the front brakes on the Ritchey, which were really close to the rim. I couldn't find any evidence that they were dragging, but the barrel adjuster was screwed all the way down and there was still only a mm or so of clearance on each side. I like my brakes to have short free stroke, but this was ridiculous! So I loosened the cable fixing bolt and TRIED to unscrew the barrel adjuster, which was basically stuck. I had to use vise grips and a lot of force to loosen it, but I managed. Now ther's about 1/2 cm of threads above the adjuster, and more clearance.

It would be nice if that were the reason for last night's slow ride, not the aging engine. Hope springs eternal.

genejockey 

I got an email from Canyon today. There's a new colorway for the Aeroad. Completely different from what anyone else is doing - very dark gray with black graphics. Boy, nobody has anything like THAT!!! It would totally stand out in group rides!

What got me, though, was they say you can finance it! As low as 0.00%! Gosh! I hope I manage, for the rest of my days, to avoid buying any bike so expensive that I can't just cough up all the money up front. But hey, that's me.

indyfabz

First volunteer shift at the Funny Farm in the books. Lots of cool critters there.

seedsbelize2

Nice that you have enough gilets that you can just toss them and get a new one out of the drawer.

genejockey 

I think that peacock is barking up the wrong tree.

datlas 

I am super thrifty bordering on hoarder.

Pitch gilet means take it off, roll up, and stash in rear jersey pocket.

datlas 

My friend who crashed sent his S-works SL8 to a place that apparently does ultrasound analysis on crashed crabon frames to test their integrity. Apparently his frame is fine but fork must be replaced. My other friend who is helping with this tells me sourcing a new fork from Specialized is very difficult and may end up costing almost as much and a new frame plus fork.

This does not sound right to me, but it’s not my bike and my friend with the damaged fork has plenty of resources to get this resolved.

TMonk

It's 74 degrees outside, a calm windless late morning. And I'm off work on PFL. Time to take Lilly on a walk. Gonna take care of baby as much as possible today before leaving her with Liz so I can go to jazz night.