"Thirty Miles Per Ham Sandwich, Sir!"

I'll get to the headline quote in a moment.

Yesterday was Memorial Day. I think I ended up making three separate trips to the grocery store due to one count of broken-down communication and a count of stupidity. I saw these evil twin police cruisers at a local cheesesteak shop. Mind you, I might ride a bike, but I have a soft spot in my heart for sharp-looking cars, and I happen to think that these are some seriously sexy police cars.



At least one of those grocery runs was made on my way home from the Monday Night recovery ride, so it wasn't a total disaster. Speaking of the Monday Night ride, I saw this and lol'd.


Then there's Dora, who is not amused that "I stoled her yarm."


I cheated and took the bus this morning. A whopping two miles ridden. I went to bed late, woke up late, and was expecting a storm when I woke up. Instead, I just got wet pavement that my fenders would have made short work of. Lame.

So, here's what happened. I was cruising down Southwest Boulevard, just about to enter Johnson County. I approached a stop light at a pretty good clip, probably 25 MPH or so. There's a huge pickup behind me. The light changes, and there's no way I'll make it. I downshift, signal my stop, and start braking. I also move over to the right. The pickup pulls up next to me. F-650 Super Duty dually. Nice. Triton V10 or something like that, who knows. Noisy as hell and reeks of Diesel fumes. I hear the passenger window roll down, and glance over. Two hard-workin' American guys inside. Just about what you'd expect. I'm ready for "Git off duh roawwwd" or something. The ensuing dialog went something like this:

Passenger: "Hey there, what kinda mileage ya get on that thing?"
Me: "Thirty Miles Per Ham Sandwich, Sir! Trying to make a living."
*Some huge belly laughs come from inside the truck.*
Driver: "Right on. Be safe."
Me: "Thanks, guys!"

Not all is as you would expect. It's why I don't judge until it's earned. Condition Yellow, I suppose, keeps me cautiously guarded with 360° situational awareness and ready for almost anything. I'm willing to accept adversity, but I expect kindness and adversity alike, ready for both.

Later on during my homeward commute, I quite literally ran into some chalkwork on Turkey Creek Trail. Outside the spectrum of kindness vs. adversity, it was, in fact, unexpected.




Nearing Aristocrat Motors, I saw these two guzzlers in the overflow parking lot. I can tell they're jealous.


Sorry, you really have to admit, that Porsche has some voluptuous curves and seductive lines. Sitting next to that bricky made-over GMC Yukon, she seems even more sleek and gorgeous.


Great Scott! 1.21 Jiggawatts!


Miscellaneous Photography


I dropped a pair of oldsters. :P Naw, these seniors were just out for a nice cruise. You don't stop riding because you get old. You get old because you stop riding. I almost made the man crap his diapers as I passed. I guess he wasn't using his mirror.


Oh, the business park. Not to be confuzzled with the Industrial Park. This is the last leg of my homeward commute. It's a curvy road with smooth, easy hills and not much traffic to speak of when I roll through.


Jeez, do you think this guy sells... I don't know... stickers or something?!


See this green crap on the ground? It's the bane of my existance. It's everywhere. It's on my cars. It's on the trails. It's in the parking lots. It gets slimy and slippery when wet.


The offending tree. No idea what it is. 15 years ago, I could have told you. Frankly, I replaced most of my botany knowledge with something similarly useless after graduating high school.



Random Tunage:
Madonna - What it Feel Like For A Girl
Spirallianz - Heiterheute (rmx)

Memorial Day

I didn't take these on Memorial Day, but the Lenexa post office was already flying half-staff. I had to go for the breezy photo op. Tomorrow is officially Memorial Day -- a U.S. holiday set aside to remember our fallen heroes who perished in military service. Obviously, there is a strong observance of prisoners of war or those missing in action as well. This is a federal holiday.

Among other businesses and industries, Wall Street will be closed. I, working in the financial services industry, do not work either. Between this and the brewing storms, you can bet your britches that I won't be leading a convoy in the morning. I'll be sleeping in.


I ran 9 miles of errands on The Goat today. Hard telling what's in store for tomorrow, but Tuesday I plan on riding to work and back, weather permitting.

On my way home from church, I saw this wind farm at EcoWorks in Lenexa. I've seen it before many times (I used to deliver Pizza in this business park all the time) but it was churning today.

Too bad I couldn't capture the motion blur with any of my photos of the turbines.



Random Tunage:
Black Dove - Capsule
Basslimit - Paradise

Oh Deer, what a mess!

I took The Goat out for nine slow, sweaty, grimy miles at Shawnee Mission Park. I almost hit this deer. She wandered off the trail, though, completely tame and unafraid of me. I was mere feet from her when I took this photo. I probably could have hiked over and pet her, but you don't want to see what happens when a deer is both afraid of you and close to you. It isn't pretty. I rode off.


Mud pits on the trail are a bit of a paradox. To be earth and trail friendly, you're supposed to avoid riding straight through muddy ruts because it erodes the trail and makes it worse. The paradox? By trying to go around it, your wheel will inevitably wash out, slide into the rut, and either make you very messy if not cause you to lose control of the bike. And you'll still make the rut deeper and erode the trail.

Fortunately, I just got really muddy and didn't eat it. But I further eroded the trail.


These are a bit out of order. This is before I got all messy, at the intersection of the "difficult" loop and the "easy" loop. I rode all parts of the trail once, and sections of both the easy and difficult loops multiple times.


Trying to "capture the trail" again, but my secret is usually to wait until the sun is going down enough to filter the light through the canopy at an angle. It hadn't quite set enough for my liking when I took this.


Trailhead.


Random Tunage:
Gravity Kills - Guilty
Ecano - Run

Bicycle Friendly Community Meeting

Bicycle Friendly Community Meeting, originally uploaded by KC-Bike.

See the other photos I took at the BFC presentation

My wife and I had some fun today, including playing a round of mini-golf, in which she successfully beat the challenge at the end for a free game. The challenge involved putting the ball up a steep slope along a 3" wide plank and into a cup. Make the shot, get a card for a free game next time. Color me impressed.

Later and on a more serious and cycling related note, I rode to the reception for the Bicycle Friendly Communities seminar going on this week in Shawnee, KS. There was a pretty good showing. I got to meet more people (hi, folks!) and catch up with some old pals I've met before but haven't seen in a long time (Ray, Badger, and others). I rode back home with Ray, who had a bit of a journey left ahead of him to get back to Olathe. He's the one I see on 87th turning to Santa Fe Trail drive quite often.

Not a lot of miles ridden today, but that's why they call this a vacation, isn't it?

Singletrack

Singletrack, originally uploaded by KC-Bike.

See the rest of today's photos here.

I hung out with Jason over lunch at ChefBurger. He's always a blast. I ran into Karen on my way home, too.

I met my wife for supper about 5 miles from home. We put The Twelve on the back of the Explorer and came home. I spent some time getting The Goat back in singletrack form, then took it out for about an hour on the trails at Shawnee Mission Park for 5 slow miles of the funnest suffering I've had in a long time. I'll pay for this in the morning, I'm sure.

I love my Tunage and don't often get to listen and ride since I don't listen to music when commuting. My journey this evening was powered by this soundtrack of random tunage picked by iTunes' party shuffle (and the songs then transferred to my LG Chocolate for listening)

Consider it a mega version of Random Tunage:
Real McCoy - Another Night
Nine Inch Nails - 32 Ghosts IV
Peaches - AA XXX
Hooverphonic - Battersea
Alice DeeJay - Better Off Alone
Dave Matthews Band - Crash (live)
Dirty Vegas - Days Go By (Oakenfold Remix)
Prince - Guitar
Nine Inch Nails - Something I Can Never Have
Orbital - Planet Of The Shapes
Orbital - Dŵr Budr

Recovery Ride May 19, 2008

Recovery Ride May 19, 2008, originally uploaded by KC-Bike.

Tim O on his Trek 1500 and his son, Matt on his new (okay, 2006 closeout) 650b Trek 1000. Taken from down low.

Tim and I go way back to long before my cycling addiction. In fact, we met each other through a car club. Full circle.

Check out the rest of today's photos.

Busy Sunday

I rode to church Sunday morning, and encouraged others to do the same. We usually meet in a high school auditorium, but graduation was yesterday and the school was unavailable. Occasionally, we can't use the school for other reasons. This happens a few times per year. Instead, we end up going to our community center. It's not big enough for all of us, but we just meet outdoors (weather permitting). This was a beautiful day for church outdoors, not to mention the ride there (11 miles)



Assistant Pastor Kurt and his wife Emily roll up on their bikes.


Abbey (pastor Kevin's daughter) rolls up. They live just across the street.


Whee! Bikes! (a few more are parked elsewhere)


About as laid back as you can be and still calling it worship. I love this church, the people that make it, and all the stuff that goes along with it. I won't bore you with doctrine, though.






Pastor Kevin will use any excuse to inflate the slide for the kids. They love it.


Mike cooks pancakes. Also in the brunch spread: Bagles, parfait, pudding (???) and juices.


After church, I had about a 15 mile ride to my birthday party at Antioch Park. I took about 1/2 the trip on the road, and in the middle of the trip, I used Indian Creek Trail (Warren's Fave)

Sneaking up on some walkers. Cue the "Jaws" theme.


Kids at the sandlot. Hardly a cloud in the sky yesterday. Just airliner contrails.


Maybe I took a little Singletrack with The Twelve. Contrary to belief, road bikes can go off road. Just gotta be careful. It's fun, though.


The freshly opened section of Indian Creek Trail that has Warren all excited. It was nice not having to use the blighted walking path through Corporate Woods.


Some family members at the shelter at Antioch Park.


... Mating Crickets??? Not sure what was up with this, but they were clinging upside down to the ceiling of the shelter.



After the party, my wife and I went fishing at Shawnee Mission Park.

The geese were flocking. Sheesh.





They swam right through where we were fishing. Notice the red bobber halfway up and a bit left of center in the photo. Somehow they avoided tangling in the fishing line.


FAIL! This guy spent about 5 minutes trying to cram this overloaded bag into this trash bin. Eventually he gave up and just put the lid on top of this bag.


How to have fun at the lake!

Let's see, you can toke on a hookah... ???


Or kick a ball around... These little heathens kicked the ball into the lake. Their dad (the one who's toking above) and the kids were both too chicken to go get the ball. I took a swim and rescued it. I bruised my feet up pretty badly on the rocks while getting out of the lake, though.


Go Kayaking...


Or just go fishing. Hi, Hunni.


This is the only fish we saw. He was too tiny and still refused to take our bait.



This was my sister's B-Day present to me. Those are full of beer. Lots of beer.


The ride in was nice this morning with the exception of my bruised and tattered feet. Chris and Karen joined in for yet another convoy.

Tomorrow is my Friday. I'm on vacation off and on for the next 2 weeks. I've been blogging and photographing like mad here, especially in the face of Bike Week. I'm going to be scarce but not completely absent for the next 2 weeks. For the time being, check out Dave's Good Stuff, as he bike commutes during the week and packs on the weekend training miles. What initially started as a brotherly challenge training for the Triple By-Pass turned into a lifestyle change and a heck of a good read that's mostly cycling related but always interesting and frequently updated. No pressure, Dave!

Random Tunage:
Chicane - Offshore
Hybrid - True To Form