Large Fella on a Bike

Bike + Race + New Low...

Last week Bob & Beth Brown invited us to the Crit in downtown Minneapolis, having never been to a race of bicyclely proportions I thought it would be interesting.

It was.

Very.

The chicks are fast, the fellas too.  During the ladies event, we heard that they were averaging 180bpm with an average speed of 24mph [mostly all flat]... all sustained for 40 or 45 minutes.  Yoowzer.  That's nearly 3 mph slower than my 19 hour rides.  [kidding]
They were impressive... and seeing one girl drop out due to losing the peloton, and the rule of having to quit if you're about to get lapped, was heartbreaking.  She was sobbing... which made Chloe sob.  Chloe would not leave the area this girl was in until I promised her [Chloe, that is] that "yes, the girl will be okay, and yes, she'll call her mommy & daddy to let them know to pick her up".

Everyone kept telling us, "Just wait until the guys race... ".  Wow.  Every time they went by us, there was literally a small, but significant, windy breeze.  Very fun.  An early breakaway pack of 3 guys had it in the bag it seemed.  But with just 2 or 3 minutes left in the event, somehow, the peloton swallowed them back up.  Lots of fun to watch.

A few pics from the event [click for alt sizing]

Some pics from the guys event [I told Chloe to yell, "Go DADDY GO!" whenever the racers went by, eventually people started asking who was her daddy... and she'd reply, "I'm not sure" which would lead to some damn puzzled looks]...

Night nears, and so does the end of the race... above you see the breakaway group of 3 feeling the heat of the peloton bearing down on them.
Here they come...

Minutes to go and they are flying now...

The group bears straight down on them:

The winner, I think [ ...we were opposite of the Start/Finish line]...

And like that, it was over.

Pretty downtown too...

-------------------------------
In other news:

Woke up the next morning for Weigh-In.

Lost another 8.2 pounds.

New Weight: 282.8 pounds
Total Loss: 218.2 pounds

Keep Riding... everyday,

...no matter what they say.

Scenes from The New New...

Finally life, to a degree, is beginning to normalize... and with that is more time for the important things: Exploring, Seeing, Fun: all via Bike.

We have only scraped the tip of the iceberg, but I must say, The Twin Cities [at least compared to our old digs back east] are Bikey Nirvana.

While I am slowly working on a Mega-Blog entry detailing our completely miserable move from NYC to here [it'll be done sometime before our next move, promise], I thought I would make some brief comments on what I've seen so far along with some recent pics we've taken as we are getting to
S L O W L Y know the area.

Here they be, enjoy [clicky for big]

Amy's bike attacked my bike at some point during the move... she has a very mean and nasty bike.  In any event, my chainstay now frowns.

Chloe found a walking stick/staff in the basement of our new house, she says that it makes her feel, "Wise & Wizardly".  I think I need a walking stick now too.

Very cool playground toy that Chloe absolutely loves, in a park very close to our new crib.

Very important pic for us: First fire in our Fire Pit, and the official burning/sacrifice of a box with our old address.  Burn Baby Burn!

Another big first for a great little girl... Chloe's first S'more.  She'd never had one before, and of course never one made authentically over a fire.  I barely recalled how to make one from my own 3 month, failed, stint in Boy Scouts, but I pulled it off wonderfully and she proclaimed it, "The Best EVER!!".

The beautiful fake waterfall at Como Park.  Must say, the Twin Cities have many more hills than the NYC Metro area... so I am spending much more of my riding time out of the saddle.  My friend, Bob Brown, keeps telling me... "You'll adapt, you'll adapt".  Hope so.  I know it's no Alps around here, but this is very different than what I was riding before.  I have to admit I do like it though, a lot of little challenges on each ride.  Keeps things interesting for sure.

East Coast represents in Minnesota.  Dig it, two times.

Chloe finds, and then plants, a weed of some variety in a grass-less patch at Como [she was not happy that some grass was missing and vowed to cure the problem].

A few days later, it was off onto a 28 mile forced Death March to get Amy's new scrubs for work: which we found out she needed first thing in the AM on Monday for work, that the uniform supply place was open until 2pm on Saturday... and this was all at 12:46pm on that same Saturday.  After getting an address and checking the local bike map [we have no car right now... long story, it'll be in the Mega-Hell-Move entry, soon to come], we split and rode as fast as people like us can ride.  Did I mention it was 94 degrees?
It was...

Their uniforms might be, but their hours sure as shit aren't.  **Chloe smiles at her daddy's angst [and heatstroke]**

I can still smell the heat, sweat, panic and despair coming off this photo... we had $22.00 in our bank, no car, no new money until an out of state check cleared in 7 days, and no payday for 2 more weeks.  But when we got back home, and even though our booty for a 28 mile errand netted us precisely 1 scrub top, 1 scrub bottom and 1 pair of "On Sale" Payless Shoe Source vinyl sneakers, we felt great [in an oddly exhausted way].  We had climbed The Mountain, and somehow survived.  To quote Chloe, "Dad, Mom??  We may be down, but we are NOT out!".  She's always right.

After we got back home, and while I was in the shower scrubbing off what seemed like 3 weeks worth of bad karma and grime, Chloe had been busy apparently... when I got out of the shower and walked out into our new kitchen, in our new place, this greeted me:

Blessings, Everyday...

...Keep Moving, Always.

Twin City Touchdown [barely]...

We're here...

half of our stuff, including the car, is in central PA in storage-the other half made it here with us.  Almost rolled the truck, scary times, cost a fortune to get here:

but we're here, all 3 of us, and the bikes.  Alive too [that's a good jumping off point I suppose].

The natives are different: they speak with funny accents and do some really strange things like smile, wave, ask how you are, give you their phone numbers with no prior prompting.

Odd.  Very odd.

...and very nice too.

More later, after some shock therapy and a nice keg of lithium milkshake.

Peace & Jones, Keep Pushin'...