Mountain Biking

Today I took my first bike ride in about a year.
Today I took my first spill in about a year.

Overall the ride was very bland - paved roads, not a lot of turns, not a lot of hills. But there was a section of the 'trail' that was closed - they are building a highway over it. They had it blocked off really well, but unless they fence off the whole project, people are going to find a way across. I mean, they blocked the whole trail for like 8 months (projected). So naturally I joined the ranks of the awesome - who judging by the number of tread-marks are few and far between in the area - and went around.

Crossing the construction area was pretty tricky, first off we've had a lot of rain, so there was a lot of 'quicksand' and mud. Where it wasn't mud, the water drainage had caused deep ruts. I made it across pretty eventlessly, but had to go around a bit. On the way back I decided to go straight over the hardest part. I crested a hill and looked down and it seemed pretty easy except for a vertical drop off at the end. Decided it was too long of a fall to crawl it, and went down at an angle. But then the front wheels started to slide, the back wheel stuck in, and it was abandon ship. Ok, so the tires themselves didn't start to slide - I have 2.5" nobblies - they aren't sliding anywhere. But the dirt gave way and basically avalanched.

Anyhow, one duck and roll later and I got a few little abrasions and a little bit muddier. I made it across and there was another biker there asking me about how far the trail went. We chatted for awhile and then I scooted off back home to wash the bike and eventually myself.

So as I mentioned, it was a pretty boring ride except for the construction zone in the middle, but was totally worth it. It was nice to get muddy and slosh around again.

All we know

Some say it was born as the love-child of a Cheetah and a Kodiak bear, and that it often consumes small children for breakfast...

All we know, is it's called Shelbatoast.

Fire 'stinguisher

I've been reading a lot of articles lately about cars burning to the ground. Mostly it seems to be exotic super-cars, Lamborghini, Ferrari and the like which run crazy high pressure fuel systems. But just the same it got me thinking, you know I did most of the wiring on this thing myself and you just never know what might happen. So instead of having to possibly suffer the humiliating fate of the car burning to the ground while I helplessly stand by and watch, I picked up a small vehicle fire extinguisher and mounted it under the dash.

While I was on the website ordering the fire extinguisher I also picked up a few other goodies - passenger mirror, another rear-view mirror, and 2 cobra posters. A nice addition to the garage :-D