Dreaming of a Life Less Ordinary

  God Bless Texas… (24 Miles Wintery, Wet, and Windy)   “Oh, how I wish Dallas were in Tennessee…. If you could move Texas East, then she’d be here with me…”   It was that and “Goin' through the Big D and don't mean Dallas.   I can't believe what the judge had to tell us. I got the jeep and she got the palace.” Is what kept ringing in my ears during most of my time I was in the Lone Star State.   Well to be perfectly honest once in a blue moon I would break out with “If you’re gonna play in Texas, you gotta have fiddle in the band, that lead guitar is hot, but not for a Louisiana Man.” Then I kept wondering what the Louisiana man was doing in Texas.   However, that is a little off the point.   I guess when I was in Texas, I wanted to sing a little country music, and I most definitely was in Texas and I most definitely sang a little country music or what I could remember of the country I grew up listening to.   State number 3 has been marke...

10/31/2024 – Happy Halloween "Hey man, I think I like being scared And I wish you all were there Man I really, really think, really think That I think I like being scared" - Dangerous Toys, Scared “Scritch, Scritch, Scritching at the door.” The Bounty Man, Into the Badlands (1991). Every year since 2018 or 2019 I have wanted to tell a Halloween tale.  Every year over that time Halloween has come and gone, like a wraith that goes bump in the night and my tale never materializes.   On September 28, 2024, I sat down though, and I started to write a Halloween tale.  I am three thousand five hundred words into that tale but even so, we have just scratched the surface with what I want to tell.  It is something, that I need to spend a lot more time with before I can release it, or any part of it.   Now we have 9 hours still left in Halloween 2024, but I think starting this story and peeling back the onion a little bit has come to make this one ...

  The Continental 48 and it starts with San Antonio   Sometime shortly after the Dam-to-Dam ride last September, I got to thinking like I normally do, about what it next.  Would I dare to do the RAIN ride?  Would I try another century? Perhaps a ride around ole Gitche Gumee? Did I want to focus on swimming?  Maybe another triathlon? Lots of questions with no real answer.   I settled on wanting to keep riding.  Let my body rest a little bit but keep up the riding.  So, as I sat around looking up rides to do on google, I kept getting hits for rides in Ohio, Kentucky, and even Illinois. I thought why not go try and ride in another state, that could be fun.  I could find a location ride to do in 2025.   I keep thinking about riding in different places.  Then I had a vision of me packing up Nebula and putting the bike on the back and driving to these different locations to ride. I really start...

  Dam to Dam - September 8, 2024   The 15 th annual Dam to Dam has come and gone.   I am very happy to have been part of it.   The ride is not without its faults, and the day was not perfect, but it was overall a great ride.   Wabash, IN is sort of in the middle of no where up in Northern Indiana.   North of Kokomo and east of Peru and not far from Miami and Mexico.   Yes, I know that sounds like a lot of different geography, but those are all towns around Wabash.   If you happened to drive from Terre Haute to Wabash like we did, then you have gone through Brazil, however, Brazil isn’t close to Wabash.   Wabash is probably three times the size of Colusa, CA which is where last year’s main ride took place.     So compared to where we did our century ride last year, we were in a boom metropolis.   I liked Wabash, it was a quant little town.   The Hampton Inn where we stayed was super nice.   Everyone was friend...

  Beaten and Broken – my path to 46 Miles…   It has been a long time since I quit.  I mean just thrown my hands up in the air and said fuck it, I am done and just walked away from something.   Getting beat on the bike takes a lot of different criteria all coming together and making you so overwhelmed that you just can’t go on.   I do remember the last time I quit.  I was in Watsonville, CA.  It was during my tri training.  I had a horrible day on the bike.  There was some guy who was stuck sweeping me in.  Hill after hill kicked my ass.  I was not having any fun.  So, got off the bike and said to the guy “Fuck it I am done”.  I think he was a little dumb founded and didn’t know what to say or do.  So, he got on the phone and called the coaches, but by this time, I had determined I was not going to quit and I got back on my bike, and I finished the game, ...

38+  Miles: 38.77 miles Elevation Gain: 1,893 ft Moving Time: 3:55 minutes Avg Speed: 9.9 mph Temperature: 91F Let’s just get the stats out of the way first.  All in all, it was a good ride, although, I do hate the average speed.  I felt like I was faster than that yesterday.  However, with some climbing and some heat issues, I probably wasn’t as fast as I wanted to be.   The scheduled called for 38 – 42 for the group ride.  I had every intention of getting closer to that 42 than the 38, but sometimes you have human moments when you are out riding the bike.  It was one of the first time I went out without having a planned route, I figured I knew just enough to piece it together are I went.  I knew I was going to start by heading to Ellettsville.  Then I figured I could cut across campus and get in 5 miles, and by the time I got back home, I would be at about 40 if not a little bit more.   I wa...