Stanley...The Turkey......

I haven't put any pictures on here lately of our pet turkey, actually I haven't taken any pictures of him lately. But last night I got home and Karen had him out of the pen. She was feeding him and the chickens. We can let him out and he will follow you all over the yard. If you let the chickens out your screwed! They take forever to catch!

Old Stanley, he is like a dog. He stays right there with you! Everybody needs a pet turkey, look how big he is now! When you let him out he walks around all blowin up. Like he's trying to be the man! He just started doing that.

He likes to be petted, and he could care less about the dog! Believe it or not, the outside cat is scared to death of him. When Stanley comes out the cat will run and hide! Maybe next year the kids will let me cook him for Thanksgiving.....NOT.........

Let's Back Up A Minute.......................

Yesterday I rambled on, and covered about everything I did ride wise over the weekend. Ride wise yes, otherwise no! So let's start at the top.

goldsene.......

It's finally winter (I guess) so I came home with a 5 gallon can of the red fuel we all call kerosene. You can call it that, I am going to call it "goldsene"! At $3.99 a gallon what else would you call it! The downside of having a detached garage is I have to heat it separate! I can either shiver and drink a lot of beer or be warm and drink less beer.

According to the wife, the heat money has to come out of my beer budget. Damn, it!

So Friday night I came home with a project! New tires and a Stan's kit. If you never heard of Stan he makes a conversion kit for bike tires. Anybody with a little beer and a heated garage can turn their bike tires into tubeless tires with very little effort, and a little bit of beer!

Read closely, it says "Virtually Eliminates Flats".. Considering I have had 5 flats already on the 29er I figured I might as well be like everybody else and ride without "tubes".. Now I am like all the other cool kids at the local park!!

I always used tubes, so this will be a new chapter in my ride life. Yes you can tell a difference, and I could compare it to a few things in life, but considering I try to keep this blog "G rated" I will leave it at that! Let's just say it makes things more sensitive. You have a better feel for the trail.

So after taking everything apart and putting the liquid in the tires we were in business! It took longer to drink the beer than it did to do the work. But as you can see, I now have new Kenda Slant Six tires set up with the Stan's tubeless tire conversion kit! I am badass!!!!!

Monday Blues...................................

I don't know if I over did it, or I am coming down with the crud.. I guess in the next day or two I will find out! The odds aren't looking great at this point, considering both kids are home with sore throats. Plus the fact that I had to take Cody to the doctor's yesterday. He has been running a fever and as I said his throat is sore... Not a good way to start the week....

So, now for the weekend! My buddy Charles sold his bike the other day and has his eye on a Cannondale just like mine, well sorta he wants the carbon version. When he found out I had one now, he asked if he could ride it. Of course I said yes! You see I still ain't sure if I like this bike yet. All I have heard is that 29er's are faster and blah,blah,blah! So I have been wondering if it's just me!

So I welcomed the chance to let someone else ride it, especially someone who has been riding 29er's for a while now! Plus the fact that he is faster than I am! Guess what, he wasn't sure about it either. I rode my 26in Specialized Epic full squish. I haven't ridin this bike in over a month and it felt smaller right outta gate. Besides that it felt like I had 2 flat tires, because of the full squish!

Those things aside I was smokin! For awhile there it was all Charles could do to keep up with me! Then I flamed out! My back hurts on the smaller bike and it didn't take long before it was doing it's thing! So I let Charles have the point and I still stayed right on his ass!

So what does that tell me! I am beginning to think it might be the bike! Charles feels he can get up to speed on it, but it will take a little while to adjust. He loved the Lefty front fork, but not so sure about the wheel base. Said it felt shorter to him and that might be what he would have to get used to...

With all that said, I went by myself Sunday afternoon and rode for 3 hours! The plan was to ride for 4 hours but I managed to rip the rear derailleur off! So now it's back to the bike shop! Yes, I rode the 29er. I was riding with the intentions of hours not speed and had a good pace going even though I was there for the afternoon. Not just one lap.........

So if I don't get the crud, I will be out tomorrow night for a long late night ride..... On the 26....

Anybody want to buy a bike..........LOL.....

Time To See......

This weekend it's time to see! See how far I have to go to get where I want to be! Where do I want to be you ask? I want to be in a condition (shape) that will carry me 310 miles in April!

This weekend is going to be the start of the finding out process, stay tuned for the results! It looks as though the weather is going to cooperate, if you consider cold as hell and clear cooperating. I am planning on a long day tomorrow and a short day Sunday. Or maybe 2 long days, it just depends.

I am approaching this with no ideal of how to approach this. I know I need to be able to spend extended hours on the seat and need to have at least a 10 mile an hour average! Beyond that, I am reading a book about training!

Simple math tells me 2 things: 1st If I only average 10 miles an hour and have 310 miles to go, I will only have 5 hours to eat sleep whatever! 2nd If I average 12 miles an hour I will have a 10 hour window!!!
                                                
                                                                  

I need to average 12mph, I know that much! Sounds easy huh.... I know that's what your thinking, but if it was that easy more than 57 people would have finished within the time limit!

My goal for tomorrow: 6 hours on the bike and 14mph average! That will be an 84 mile day. Sunday I am heading to the woods......Have a nice weekend............................

Smackdown.............

Yep, that's what I got last night. As I said yesterday, I plan on riding my bike to the store any time I need anything around the house. Which is about every night! Yes it was raining when I got home, but that stopped shortly after.

Of course next thing you know we are out of coke (I hate Pepsi) so it was time to test my new commitment! Only problem: the wind was blowing at hurricane force! Now what? I have 2 perfectly nice trucks and a van sitting right there with gas and keys! 

Time for the commitment test! Yep, I got on the bike and hit the road! Now remember it's only a 4 mile round trip, and it's on a back road to get there. So It's not like going all the way to town!

no. I had no tail wind!!!!!!!

BUT!!! Damn the wind was kickin' I felt like I rode 10 miles. LOL.... Oh well You have to be tough if you want to get stronger!!!!!! It blew me from one side of the road to the other.....

Training and a Rip off.......................

Let's cover the rip off first! Saturday was my mom's birthday, so we all loaded up and went to see the Christmas lights at Charlotte Motor Speedway! First of all, I don't know how many people can remember the Heritage USA Christmas lights from the early 90's. That was a light show and free!!!!!! We also have McAdenville right down below Charlotte. BUT we decided to try out the lights at Charlotte Motor Speedway, we got screwed!!!!!

Now I know Nascar has had low attendance this year, and poor old Kurt Busch is out of a job. But damn 20 bucks for that crap! We got screwed! And sat in line for ever just to see it! I will never do that again, and if you read this and haven't been! DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY......Just because Concord will kiss Bruton Smith's ass and give him anything he wants don't mean I will help him anymore.

in line...pay up sucker....

yea, I couldn't work the camera....

Go to McAdenville,,,it's free!!! A lot better also.. We are going there this week that way we can say we got to see lights! Right now all I can say is I paid 20 to ride around the speedway at 5mph in the dark! WooHoo..........

Now for training! Since I have a goal and I really want to do as good as I possibly can, I need all the miles I can get. I bought this bike a year or two ago and plan on using it for touring. No, I haven't done much with it, besides go to the beer store and back. But I have it! So now my goal is if I need anything when I get home, no car! I can ride to Wal-mart and about everything in Monroe so this is now my new transportation! I put a tail light on it last night and hooked up the head light.

lights baby!!!!!!

flat pedals and all.......

Yep, you guessed it! I had to try it out so I went to the beer store!!!!! I did get bread and a coke though!! That way I justified the trip, it was for the family! Now I am looking at one of those X-tracycle long bike kits, the ones where you would be able to haul 6 bags of groceries on......

the kit

the conversion

Oh Shit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What the hell am I thinking? Since Saturday, when I found out I made the field, everybody from my wife to all my co-workers are saying the same thing..

                       WHAT THE HELL AM I THINKING!!!!!!!

So far my response has been to laugh!!! Honestly, I am surprised by the reaction I am getting from everybody. My wife, she has been around long enough she comes to expect things like this! As far as everybody else????

                                    I am surprised!

You only get one shot at this little life you have, are you not going to try things that will make it unforgettable! When I look "back", and think about 2012. I will SMILE, and think about a road trip my son and I took in the spring of that year! I will think about all the people I met and friendships I made!

Is it going to be tough? Uhh, yea, I have a lot of training ahead of me and even then I don't know if I can finish in the allotted time! They have only had 57 people out of 700 previous attempts who made the time cut-off! Odds, yea they suck!

Ten years from now do you think I will dwell on the fact of "where" or "when" or "if" I finished. Hell no!! I will be talking about a great time I had and how much fun that was!!!!

To top it off, my kid will never forget how I drug him a 1000 miles away (and made him drive home)!!! He will have the time of his life!!!!!! You can see it in his face already!! Then in a few years I will come up with another adventure, I have 2 kids and Chase will be older!!!!!

         NOW YOU KNOW "WHAT THE HELL I AM THINKING"

                So, the odds: I don't think they could be any better........