Ride the Rockies 2021- Getting There
September 30, 2021 § 1 Comment
Ride the Rockies is an organized ride facilitated by the Denver Post in 1986. I am not sure when I first heard about it, but while I was house rich and cash poor, some of my cycling friends embarked on more than one RTR adventure, and I stayed behind and pined. Images were sent, and I wished I had the resources to attend. Of course, me being a cheap bastard, I would have camped, while my friends dined and slept in the luxury of the hotel option, but at that time, my vacation time that wasn’t family oriented was dedicated to backpacking, and the luxury of a week of bike riding just wasn’t in the cards.
« Read the rest of this entry »Hunterdown & Bucks Counties Take 1
December 19, 2020 § Leave a comment
The misperception of my home state, New Jersey, is rather vast and narrowly confined to the NJ Turnpike corridor. That perception begins, from the South, as you cross the Delaware Memorial Bridge and espy the Industrial properties that occupy both shores of the Delaware. There is a break for many miles, until you approach Port Reading and Carteret where the Tanker Farms begin, then transitioning into all out oil refineries, before phasing into the Meadowlands, peppered with the transportation industry. Considering that a majority of through traffic travels the 95 corridor, this is what those travelers see all the time, though to be fair, since the very last section of 95 was completed only a few years ago, some traffic has shifted away from the Southern 5 exits of the NJ Turnpike.
« Read the rest of this entry »A Bump in the Road
April 15, 2018 § Leave a comment
By this point in the vacation I am starting to sleep better. It isn’t what I would like, but I did manage solid hours before the alarm awakened me on time at 4:30. I had saved some bananas from yesterdays breakfast, so I was good to go on the food front. I believe I even laid everything out the night before so I was ready as Eddie to go. Dressed and out the door, I was well within the time window necessary to catch the ride at 6.
Recovery Day 3 – Alarm Mistake
April 8, 2018 § Leave a comment
When you are 12 hours East of your normal timezone, I suppose it can be easy to make a mistake. My intention was to arise at 430 in the am, and be on the road by 445 so that I could make the 6am ride in Cheong Thele. What I got however, was a realization that light was pouring through the windows, and I was still in bed. Bolting up right, and grabbing my phone, I could clearly discern it was well past the time I wanted to get up. Hell, the sun appeared to be up. I checked the alarm. 4:30 was still set with the indicator showing “I will wake you!”, however, further concentration revealed I was to awake by 4:30 PM. A major blow. Too late to leave, I resigned myself to another rest day.
The 6 AM Weekday Ride & Scooters
March 23, 2018 § Leave a comment
After the Sunday Club ride was over and I was back in my hotel room, long after the incident in the massage parlor, and long after the sun had gone down, I was cruising through Strava, and noticed that guy that I had reached out to a few weeks back concerning riding in Thailand and where to get a bike, had been on that ride. If you recall, I arrived just as the ride was pulling out, and so failed to introduce my yankee ass to anyone who gave an F. The whole ride I was pretty much front group, and I was constantly evaluating my ability to even do the damn ride, so I was surprised to find that I failed to find Mark, this guy, and introduce myself. So I did the next best thing and left a comment on his ride that I had reached out to him a few weeks back and see now that we were on the same ride and apologized for not seeking him out.
The Sunday Club Ride – A Wanker Rides in Thailand
March 12, 2018 § 1 Comment
The question I went to bed with was this “Do I want to try and make the Sunday ride?” The pro was I would get to ride with a group, and I could just sit in and let everyone else do the work and reap the rewards. The main con being that the ride was 100K and I had to ride 30K to get there and 30K back, AND that is 60K that contains some very obvious in your face climbing. I had already ridden back over those climbs in the heat once. I wasn’t to eager to repeat that performance. So I made a plan. I would ride there and meet them and explain my plan which was to ride as far as the mainland, and then turn around and do my own ride back. Seemed simple enough. There was one wee little problem with this plan, and being almost 59, I should be well informed regarding what my real personality traits are.
Operation Get The Bike! Day One
March 10, 2018 § 2 Comments
To say that “When we awoke the next morning” is a little misleading about traveling to the other side of the world where the local timezone is exactly 12 hours ahead of the timezone you left. If I said I went to bed and awoke early would be a lie, because I never really fell asleep that first night. The same went for Susan, and when 6am finally rolled around, and the breakfast buffet opened up, we were eager, and hungry to get started. Our girls had a week of Vietnam in them, so they weren’t about to stir for some time.
Fritz
November 18, 2017 § Leave a comment
Day 3 – Way back in my young adulthood I got this idea to ride my bicycle across the country, which I did during the Summer of 1981. I started in San Diego, and rode North where after some weeks and some time in San Francisco, we (My roommate Frank joined me) headed North for some Highway 1 scenery. On our second day out we met a cyclist named Jim, who was riding across the country as well, however there was a difference, and that difference was that his equipment was not really the kind of cross country equipment you should be riding across, but one look at him, and you knew he was riding what he could. That was near the end of the day, and when we found a State managed biker campground we pulled in, and to our pleasure we had company. That was where I first met Fritz Knochenauer.
Big Bird's Adventures 