Resting and Seeing the Sights

So a couple days after the time trial and my bike is still in my room where I last left it, safely packed in its bag. The awards ceremony the other night lasted forever since they had every single group to go through until they got to mine. Finally, I got called up to accept my 4th place trophy and have my picture taken. I went to take a look at the pictures from the time trial, but they were not very good, so I didn't buy any.

The last couple days, I watched the pros do their thing in the Tour of Germany. The prolog course through Kitzbuhel was kind of nuts, cruising mostly downhill before turning through the pedestrian area, over the cobbles and through a few arches. Those guys looked like they were moving pretty quickly. I got pictures of a few notables (all the real big names are at the Vuelta) to be posted later.

For my pre-race ride today, I hit the course and rode up to Schwendt to catch the day's ToG stage as they rolled through, and roll they did. Although the stage started in Kitzbuhel, a mere 25k from Schwendt, the lead group of four riders already had built up a 6 minute lead. The only idea I could come up with on that was that the main group stopped for breakfast along the way.

My last race for the season is another three laps on the road course, starting at 8:15 tomorrow morning. About 116k and 2:40 later, my season will be done with. I would like to end the season with a good result, eventhough that would mean delaying my departure for Munich.

I am looking forward to my time in Munich and no riding whatsoever. Mike was in the process of writing my program and said, "It would feel really good just to spin around a little while you are in Munich . . ." To that I said, "No.". I will not even take the bikes out of the bag, I don't even know where to ride in and around Munich. I will be sticking to the original plan of being a tourist.

Done and Done

Mission accomplished . . . My goal for today's time trial was to crack the top ten. When Mike told me I was sitting 5th with my time of 25:18, I was very pleased. I was even more pleased when I went to go look at the results board myself, after changing out of my skinsuit to see that Mike read it wrong and I was sitting in 2nd with about 15 riders still on course.

The day's prep went as expected. I didn't eat anything solid this morning, just my coffee and some juice. Mike and I went out for the morning warmup ride with Paul Humiston, also from Colorado and another Mike Carter trainee. We headed towards Hochfilsen which is about 15k from St. Johann, following the river, climbing ever so slightly until you reach a 1k climb. Mike kept it pegged, cruising in the 53x11 out of the saddle, as he is known to do. Once we hit the steeper part of the climb, I drilled it, staying on Mike's wheel and forcing blood into the deeper parts of the old muscles. We cruised home, spinning very easily, with a whole day of sitting around and waiting ahead of us. My start time wasn't until 3:45.30 which left a lot of dead time.

As expected, the afternoon wind picked up and by the time we got out to the race venue, it was clear that I would have a nice headwind to ride into at the start. I think it is easier that way because you don't have to hold back and dose your effort for a more difficult return trip. I did the rest of my warmup and spun around until it was time to go to the start area.

On a side note, I went to the start early to have my bike measured, knowing full well that they would tell me my aero extensions were too long. The conversation went a little something like this:

UCI Official: Your bars are too long.
Me: I have long arms, what can I tell you?
UCI Official: Sit on your bike.
Me: ok... (Sitting on bike, arms in bars)
UCI Official: Wow, you do have long arms!

He checked me off on the list, only real possibility for non-crash related disaster out of the way.

I won't bore you with the details of the ride. I went out hard, maintained a steady effort, passed a bunch of guys who started in front of me and that was that. There was a hill where it was supposed to be and the finish line came after 20k of riding. Now we are off to dinner and then awards. I hope my trophy is big . . . Next year (and yes preparations will start soon) my goal will be to put myself in the top three. Now to make sure the time trial bike doesn't get stolen . . .

In St. Johann

And so the saga continues . . . On Friday, I hopped the early train from the airport in Geneva to get to St. Johann. In typical fashion, little time was left when I arrived at the station before my train was departing. Becca has "drop off" timing to perfection provided you don't mind running a bit. I jumped on the first train car I came to since I didn't have any real desire to push my bike bag all the way down the platform. Unfortunately it was the first class car and I had a second class fare. The conductor was nice enough to sell me a half priced upgrade rather than make me schlepp my bag back, one car per stop with only a minute at each station.

When I made it to the Zurich main station where I had to change trains, the conductor on the next train basically started laughing at me and said I would probably run into trouble with my bikes because there was construction on the rails requiring a bus transfer from Bludenz to Landeck . . . poop!

I went straight to the bacj of the line of buses to find one with an empty cargo bay for my giant bike box. After an hour of so on the bus, we made it to Landeck where the entire fleet of buses unloaded onto the train, what a mess! Most of the seats were reserved, but I took my chances on one that was reserved from Innsbruck to Vienna. Fortunately, the party with the reservation never showed. I also met a group from Venezuela, also going to St. Johann for the week. Between the four of us we had no problem shuffling the bikes side to side depending on the location of the platform at the next stop.

Finally we got to St. Johann, eight hours and two border crossings later. When I got to Hotel Fischer, the front desk informed me that they were able to switch my reservation to a single room in their other hotel (a four star joint according to someone) as opposed to my Ferienwohnung with space for six. This would save about 20 Euro a night and it included breakfast with the option of dinner each evening as well. Done and done. It also put me around the corner from Mike, Nanci and Samantha.

I put the bike back together and headed out for an afternoon/pre-dinner ride up to Schwendt, a town in the middle of the road course. For dinner that evening, we had pizza from a place that I give Mike endless grief for having as a favorite because it is essentially the Olive Garden of the Tyrolean Alps, but pizza is fairly universally impossible to screw up.

By Saturday, my luck with good weather had run out and it rained pretty much all day. Mike and I headed out for a few hours in the muck and grime, riding from St. Johann to Fieberbrunn, St. Jakob, and back around through a few more of the villages tucked away in the hills. With the Radweltpokal (cycling world cup) race the next day, the evening was spent cooking pasta and homemade meat sauce and trying to dry out our shoes, gloves, etc.

I woke up the next morning to sunny skies and rapidly warming temperatures. I didn't race until 1:30 so by then it was the perfect temperature for racing. When I went to pick up my number, there were only 62 people registered in my age group, but by race time we had more like 100+.

Either I had better position at the start of the race or people didn't show the usual pre-race stupidity as in years past resulting in early crashes. A few riders tried to get something going early, but everybody followed just about everything. An Italian got a small gap and after a small effort I found myself in nomansland between a rider off the front and the rest of the field. I put my head down, bridged the remainder of the gap and got to work as part of an ill advised, early move with the hopes that a few riders would bridge without dragging the whole field with them.

The two of us covered the ground between Gasteig and Schwendt quickly, establishing a reasonable gap over the chasers. We made it through Kössen, still out of sight and onto what is the second half of the time trial course. We were both taking fairly long pulls and remained clear through Kirchdorf to the base of the small climb to Huberhohe. Midway up the climb, we could see the field coming up on us. Our 40k effort was done since it was the entire groupan not the small bunch I was hoping for.

The second and third laps were much easier since I was just sitting in at that point. A couple riders would try to attack, but they would either do so from the front of the field or their effort would be so short that it wasn't even worth upping the speed to follow. Unfortunately in the last 10k a group of 12 got a small gap around the same time a group consisting of 10 or so of the 40 Italians in the race decided to slow up at the front. This gave the front group enough of a gap to stay away to the finish. With just over 2k to go, I jumped clear of the pack and put in one last effort to try and keep myself higher up in the results. I stayed clear upto the 1000m mark and then got out of the saddle for one final push. So close, but not quite enough . . . I got caught by the sprint inside of 100m to the finish and ended up 39th on the day. The results showed only 60 some finishers. A good number of riders fell victim to the couple 11% pitches on the course.

Shortly after the finish of my race, I saw the lead group in Mike's race coming to the line. No shocker that Mike was in that group. A casualty of timing, he ended the day at 12th after essentially leading out the sprint.

With the first day of international racing in the bag, I cleaned up and headed to the hotel's beer garden for a Radler (half beer, half lemon soda . . . very refreshing on a warm day) before dinner. For dinner, we headed to the Gasthaus Dampfl for an authentic Austrian dinner of Schnitzel, Spaetzle, and other specialties, followed of course by Gelato.

Today was pretty much a rest day. I headed up the hill to watch the end of the Bergpokal (hill climb), Mike took second again this year, and then headed out for a couple hours on the bike. I spent the rest of the day wandering around town, eating Bretzeln, and watching people go by. Quick photo dump of the scenery:





One more day of prep before the time trial and then hopefully I will have more to tell. Bis später . . .

Some Good Riding

On Wednesday I made it out for a good ride and didn't get too lost this time. My goal was to get in four hours with some climbing, but not really pushing very hard. I headed from Pougny towards some villages in France, through some villages in France, back into Switzerland and home. Take a look.

Post ride, I had some lunch and then we all packed into the car to hit the farm for some blackberry picking. I have to say picking berries from brambles that are trained in rows and that don't have thorns is much easier than trying to reach ripe berries from the side of a ditch, while avoiding stinging nettles.

We made a blackberry peach cobbler from the ditch berries, a pumpkin pie from a not so ripe pumpkin from Becca's garden, and a blackberry pie from the farm blackberries. I will say I was very well fed while at Becca and Jan's house.

Today I rode the time trial bike in the morning, a 20K race simulation and then headed out for one last ride in this part of the world in the afternoon, getting a little bit lost in all the villages along the way. I have some pictures from the rides and activities with the kids, I'll post them when I get home.

Tomorrow, I get on the train nice and early to head to St Johann. It will be a full day on the train, but it is pretty relaxing having no responsibility other than looking out the window at the scenery every once in a while. Unfortunately the forecast for St Johann and the first day of racing is cold and rain . . .

In Geneva . . . Close Enough

My flights were fairly painless, as international flights go. There were no screaming children sitting near me and the person sitting next to me wasn't offensive in any manner . . . the food on the plane on the other hand was. The airlines have taken a big jump down the quality scale as of late with all of their cut backs and cost savings measures. Gone are the days of free drinks on international flights and food that is readily identifiable apparently. The "beef" was covered in some sort of "sauce" with some sort of corn (that I could identify) and "mashed potatoes" that were well past their prime.

After a slight delay in DC due to weather, we got off the ground and made it on schedule to Frankfurt. I am so used to traveling through the disaster that is London Heathrow that it seemed odd simply walking to my next flight without claiming my luggage, going through customs, and rechecking it for now apparent reason. Very surprisingly, the connecting flight to Geneva was empty. There were maybe 35 people on the flight and I had an entire row to myself.

Jan met me at the airport, dressed in a suit because he and Becca had a wedding to go to Saturday night. We tossed the bike bag in the back of the car and headed to their house. Becca, Jan and the kids don't actually live in Geneva, they live outside of the city on the French side in a little village called Pougny. I said all of my hellos to the kids, met Catherine for the first time, and readied myself for the moment of truth . . . opening the bike bag to see what the airlines had done.

I fully expected the worst because I got lucky in Denver and they didn't charge me anything despite the bag being in excess of 75 pounds. The lock was still on the bag which was a good start. The disc wheel was still wheel shaped in all dimensions and didn't have any major dings or dents. The only real evidence of travel is a scratch on the down tube, right through the Ibis logo, but it is only cosmetic. I put the bike together and headed out for a quick spin in the direction of Geneva.

For my second day of riding I headed towards the Jura mountains for a little bit of climbing. My jet lagged brain didn't do so well with direction and I was having a hard time gauging effort as well, but eventually I found a little goat path of a road that climbed for about 12 kilometers, up to 1400 meters. As I got higher up into the clouds, the rain started falling, and the road started to deteriorate significantly. There were hiking trails all over the place that were well marked, but the road remained fairly anonymous. Not a bad ride for having no clue where I was going and which roads would get me there. Later in the day we went to Lake Geneva with the kids to wander around and see if we could catch a glimpse of Mont Blanc, but no such luck.

On Monday, I rode with Jan to work on my TT bike and put in a 15K effort on the way back. He doesn't have too bad a commute by bike given that there are bike paths and lanes all over Geneva (and Switzerland for that matter). In the afternoon, we went hiking with the kids along the river to some waterfalls and an old hydroelectric plant. All was going well until they got tired and hungry resulting in a multi-child meltdown.

Today I had a better ride, at least one with fewer stops for me to check where I was going. I decided to head east, knowing that if i kept the mountains on one side and the national highway on the other that I should be ok. I knew the names of a few villages I was shooting for, but you can see from the route where I had to alter my path and backtrack. All in all, not a bad ride and I got home in time to join the rest of the family for a trip to the farm to pick blackberries. Unfortunately the farm was closed, fortunately I spotted some blackberries at the side of the road on my ride and we were able to gather enough for a blackberry and peach cobbler and then some, all with Catherine stuffing as many into her mouth as most of us put in the bucket. Noah was a great help in making the cobbler and seemed fascinated by the process. In another couple years, they should be able to get him on the right career path to get him in culinary school. Tomorrow is my long ride day, keep your fingers crossed for good weather.

Travel Day

I think I am all packed up and ready to go. Bikes - check, wheels - check, clothing - check, helmets - check, shoes - check, other clothing - check, passport - check, credit card - check. When all else fails, there is the credit card. Here's the luggage train, all ready for the baggage handlers to do their thing.


I should have taken a picture of myself inside of the bag, just to give some perspective on its sheer size. You can see my other piece of luggage to be checked in comparison. It is dwarfed by the bike bag and it is an army surplus parachute bag which isn't small itself.


Thanks again to Kevin for letting me borrow the bag for another European adventure. Last year, the bag went on a nice sightseeing trip through Munich since I decided to walk from the train station to my hotel for some unknown reason.

Dempsey was trying his best to use special powers to keep me from leaving him for three weeks. He'll be fine hanging out with his cousin Lou, even though he is afraid of a cat who is one fifth his size.


I'm not sure how regular blog updates will be while I'm traveling, but you can check race results here. Most likely I'll be somewhere, doing something, having a good time.

Packing List

Just for comparison . . . and I am by no means implying that I am Pro-Tour caliber, but here is the Garmin-Chipotle packing list compared to mine. I won't be riding/racing nearly as much as those guys, nor do I have anywhere close to the budget and sponsorship they do.

Garmin-Chipotle Packing List: Food/Rider/Day	My Packing List: Entire Trip
6 bars between Clif, Mojo, Nectar, Z Bar	4 Clif gels
2 protein bars	4 Clif Bars
5 Clif gels	1 Bottle Sunscreen
4 Clif blocks	1 Credit Card
2 cans Clif electrolyte
0.5 can Clif recovery
2 sachets apple cider recovery (hot tea)
1 sachet hot chocolate recovery for chocolate fix!!!
7 home-made basmati rice cakes
4 fruit jellies
1 mussette
10 water bottles minimum
.10 ml sun lotion/start oil depending on the weather
8 safety pins
.10 ml chamois cream
200 g oats
300 g rice for home-made rice cakes
5 rice cakes
50 g cereal
150 ml soy milk
8 l water
10 g nuts
5 eggs
200 g meat/fish
3 yogurts
3 expresso coffee
10 ml olive oil
4 pieces of fruit
1 tablespoon of honey
Quarter baguette
4 pages newspaper each long descent or/and wet day to pack in shoes.
0.5 caps laundry detergent
1 large bath towel for shower in bus
20 ml shower gel
0.5 cups massage cream
0.25 rolls of plastic tape to attach earplugs from race radio
Garmin-Chipotle Packing List: Gear (9 riders)	My Packing List: Gear
* 42 Felt Bicycles	* 1 Felt B2 Pro TT Bicycle
* 27 rear Powertap 202’s	* 1 Ibis Silk SL Bicycle
* 22 front 202’s	* 1 Zipp Disc wheel (no Powertap)
* 6 rear Powertap 303’s	* 1 Nimble Crosswind
* 10 front 303’s	* 1 Front Easton Tempest II
* 40 rear Powertap 404’s	* 1 Rear Easton Tempest II
* 26 front 404’s	* 1 Extra Shimano Dura Ace Chain
* 12 rear Powertap 808’s	* 2 Continental GP4000S Tires
* 17 front 808’s	* 1 Credit Card (see above)
* 2 rear Powertap 1080’s
* 10 front 1080’s
* 21 Powertap Disc wheels
* 10 complete 2008 Shimano Dura Ace group sets
* 2 extra pair of huge cranks…177.5 & 180 mm
* 12 pairs of Shimano Dura Ace Pedals
* 50 Shimano Cleats…Red & Yellow
* 2 pair of Shimano Bar-End shifters
* 35 Shimano Dura Ace Chains
* Enough cables for 3 laps of France!
* 20 handlebars, aluminium & carbon
* 30 stems, as above
* 14 seatposts, same again
* 12 TT aero extensions, all shapes
* 3 TT carbon base bars
* Enough spare nuts and bolts to rebuild the team truck!
* 28 saddles
* 40 rolls of white bar tape
* 20 rolls of black bar tape
* 80 Corsa CX tubular tires
* 15 crono tubular tires
* 16 cans of the good ol’ sticky glue

Then I have all of my standard tourist gear to bring along like camera, reading material for the flights/train rides and credit card (see above). Only racing three days out of the entire trip makes it a little bit easier to pack the gear. For the other stuff, if I forget something, there is always the credit card. I checked the local forecasts for both Geneva and St. Johann and they are pretty much as expected for Europe at this time of year. It is entirely possible that it could rain the entire time.

I got out on the time trial bike last night for one last spin before throwing it in the box. I rode up Golden Gate Canyon, in big gears, in position . . . everything seems to be working. When I put the bike back together, I am going to generously lube the assembly connecting the stem to the "bayonet" fork because right now it is creaking like nobody's business. I debated cutting down the extensions on the bars since they don't fall within the UCI regulations, but I do have the morphological exemption clause going for me and as the official said last year, "Sie haben lange Arme . . ."

I'll get in one more ride on the road bike and then make sure everything is packed securely for the TSA to unpack and throw back in the box . . . I'll actually try to prevent that this year by hopefully repacking everything myself after inspection. According to the kind folk at DIA, I should be able to do so since nobody else takes any responsibility for damage.

Dempsey will get to hang out with Deb and Lou while I'm gone. I wonder if he will eat the mail that comes through the mail slot at her house.

Siding

It looks like they got all the siding on the facade of the duplex across the street. My only beef is the 2x10 used as an accent . . . looks kind of blah and sticks out because it is just a regular 2x10 with a galvanized drip cap on it.


I expect to see some landscaping going in sometime soon and most of the job should be wrapped up by the time I get back from my European vacation.

Speaking of which, I am going to try to come up with a more detailed itinerary for my time in Munich. I'd like to visit BMW Welt, the museum, and the Olympic grounds while I am that direction. If the weather doesn't play nice, I will definitely visit the some of the museums the city has to offer like the Deutsches Museum and the Pinakothek Der Modern, both of which look like they have some pretty cool permanent and temporary exhibits.

I will probably take a day trip somewhere outside of Munich, but I haven't decided where yet. I will have four full days to wander around and get lost in the city. On one of my previous stays in Munich, I tried, unsuccessfully to visit Dachau, forgetting that many museums and sites in Europe are closed on Monday. That might be an option as well. Any other suggestions?

Airport Fixtures

Gone are the random bits of farm equipment that were classified as "art" and in their place is something hopefully more useful. They sort of look like bleachers at a high school stadium from the angle of the drive by photo, but they are all part of a giant array of solar panels.


I am all for public "art", but I have a couple questions. How long will it take for savings gained by the solar panels to outweigh the cost ($650,000) of the blue donkey, er . . . mustang at the airport?


Can it blow steam out its nostrils and waggle its tail like this famous bull? And if you hit the mustang, do you get something?



At least it looks like they are going to be dressing the piece of "art" for special occasions and to mark the change in seasons. That should be festive . . .


I took a quick trip out to the airport today to drop my mom off after her visit. I get to head right back to the airport in just a couple of days for my own departure. I guess I should start packing soon.

Extremes

If you keep the forecast the same every day for long enough, eventually you will get the weather predicted. On Friday evening, the torrential downpour from a slow moving thunderstorm finally hit Denver proper. Pinkerton and I had hit the park a little earlier in the evening, but it didn't look like the weather was any different than every other day of the week so far. Fortunately I didn't ride over to the Cherry Cricket when it was time for food. Lots of people got wet, very, very wet. It even rained in the Cricket a little bit, through the duct work, encouraging us to get to know our neighbors. When the rain stopped, we scattered, with an early departure slated for Saturday morning, getting some sleep seemed like a good idea.

Up at 5:00 to take Dempsey for his morning walk and game of fetch, I caught most of the sunrise and noticed the unusually muggy air. I have truly gotten soft since leaving the high humidity of the South. Part of my morning prep was the first snack of the day:


Getting on the road just after 6:00 made for a quiet ride out of town. I saw a squirrel fall out of a tree, saw some birds flying around, and saw one other rider by the time I got to Lookout. Heading over to Evergreen Parkway, it was clear the clouds were heavy on the horizon, I was just hoping that my timing would keep me out of any afternoon thunderstorms.

I had a nice, easy spin up to the top of Squaw Pass, again only seeing one other rider, it was a quiet climb, just me, some tunes, a 10-point buck nibbling on roadside grasses, and the breezes. I paused at the top to eat half of my peanut butter and nutella sandwich, put on the arm warmers, and get a quick shot of the view. On the descent I saw the masses, finally awake and out for a ride.


When I got to Idaho Springs, I found out there was a half marathon going on from Georgetown to Idaho Springs. The frontage road was free of car traffic, but I was riding upstream in a river of runners. It had to have been an easy on by way of half marathons, being mostly downhill with a tailwind. I stopped in Downieville to get some more water and decided at that time to change the GPSed settings on the phone to only upload my current position every 30 minutes in the hopes of saving battery life. Unfortunately it ended the track so I had to start a new one and splice the two together later.

I'm pretty sure I blocked out a number of things from my previous trip to Vail by bicycle, one of them being the fact that the climbing is pretty unrelenting from Georgetown on. The frontage road from Silverplume to Bakerville is very scenic, set back from the highway, back in the trees. Unfortunately the stretch from Bakerville to Loveland Pass is all on the shoulder of I-70. I paused before heading up Loveland Pass to eat the second half of my sandwich and then climbed the pass very slowly. Riding alone was much harder both mentally and physically than riding with Kendall and Brenner last year, there was no where to hide from the wind, ever and nobody to talk to.

At the top of Loveland Pass, the clouds looked a little bit more threatening in all directions. After climbing steadily from Idaho Springs on, I was ready for a nice long descent on US 6. I think I saw two cars on the way down.


I stopped again in Keystone for some food and beverage, checked in with my mom and my sister to see what the weather was in Vail. The forecast from up the road was variably cloudy but no precipitation, yet.

The ride from Keystone over Swan Mountain isn't too much of a climb, but it didn't feel so good. It started to rain once I got past Frisco and didn't really let up until I got to Copper. There were tons of people on the bike path riding with their heads down, getting soaked, trying to get wherever they were going as quickly as possible. I kept plodding past Copper, feeling slightly better as I started to climb Vail Pass, knowing the end was just "over the next hill" . . . It started to rain harder at the top of Vail Pass, and didn't stop until I got to Vail, showered, changed and headed out to wander around town a little bit.


The map links to the details of the ride, but it was about 130 miles and a hair over 14,000' of climbing in about eight hours of ride time. According to the calorie counter function on MapMyRide, it was a 7400 calorie kind of day.

I woke up the next morning to cold, gray, and wet weather. I scrapped all thoughts of riding back and headed out instead for a ride towards Leadville. You can see the details here, I recommend installing the Google Earth plugin for your browser for full effect. It was 30 miles with about 3300' of climbing, which was good enough for me, I got back to town just in time for the rain to really start coming down. Deb was nice enough to sign me up for a massage for later in the morning. Seemed like a reasonable way to end my brief stay in Vail and the weekend (ignoring the whole traffic on I-70 thing).

Along Came A . . .

I walked out onto the front porch to find this "little" guy just doing his thing. I kept the car in the background for perspective, the spider is almost as big as a taillight which is why I am never going back to my house, ever again.


If I had a better angle on the picture, I could have included the duplex across the street which now has half of the siding on the non-stucco bits of the facade. It actually looks pretty good so far.

Tomorrow is the day for the big ride to Vail and I have to say the weather doesn't look very promising. For your amusement and my safety (so you know where to come get me when I need to be plucked from the clutches of the storm), I have enabled real time tracking on my phone. Just don't go all 1984 on me . . .


I am looking forward to the ride, as long as I don't get too soaked. It will be quality time for meditation, reflection, and contemplation, as rednecks in large trucks shout obscenities as they throw hopefully empty cans out the window at me. Wish me luck.

I found out unfortunately that Becca and Jan's fridge is wood clad and magnets are useless. I can either return the toys or I can keep them for myself which was kind of where I was going with it all anyways. Back to the drawing board on that one.

Another Genius Idea Down the Tubes

So you say you are too busy to have a dog? Well, now you don't have to have one full-time, you can time share a dog with another loving family. Two lucky families in Camden, NJ share Kujo/Fluffy, a Chow-Rottweiler mix, on a weekly basis. One family is training Kujo to be a guard dog to protect their illegal growing operation while the other family is training Fluffy to be an assistance dog for residents of an assisted living home. The dog never gets confused between the two families, what a heartwarming story.

Too busy to even split a dog with another family you say, but you still need something to carry in your purse like the celebrities (or on your arm like Bobby Brown)? Well if you live in the right cities, for a limited time, you can get a dog on an hourly basis.


Even better, your membership is good at any location:

And here’s another great FLEXPETZ feature: your FLEXPETZ membership is valid at any FLEXPETZ location. Just imagine visiting New York, Chicago, Paris or London and strolling through the city and parks with a FLEXPETZ dog!

Wow, that is exactly what has been missing from many vacations I have taken in the past . . . companionship on a strange dog!

I couldn't find the "Is This Legal?" tab on their website, but I am going to go out on a limb and guess that they will not be operating in many states. Ordinances are being passed prohibiting renting dogs which really is too bad. Having little success renting out my place for the DNC, I was going to list Dempsey next for those out of town conventioneers looking for that special human-pet bond they will be missing while away from home.


Any takers?

Thunder

Denver has its fair share of variety when it comes to seasons. There is the cold and windy season, the snowy season, the hot and windy season, the hot season, and now we are into the season of the afternoon thunderstorm. Many an afternoon forecast these days calls for 20 - 40% chance of thunderstorms, sometimes severe. What the National Weather Service does not take into account is that if I head out for a ride in the hills after work, the chance of storms generally increases to 80 - 90%.

Instead of braving the elements yesterday and heading down to Meridian, I headed down to the basement to get my workout done, knowing I would only be interrupted by bad television, not bad weather. I'm sure it stayed dry, but had I driven down there, I would have gotten in a 20 minute workout before it started dumping.

Yesterday evening, I wandered around Kazoo & Co. looking for these:


I figured I'd be the good uncle and not show up empty handed when I get to Geneva. Noah, Emma, and Catherine will have two sets to share on the fridge or whatever else the magnets will stick to. Maybe they'll only end up with one set and the other can stay on my fridge for me to play with.

Crazy

As previously planned, I will be riding up to Vail this weekend, just a nice, long, cruiser of a ride to get an extra bump in fitness prior to Masters Worlds. Not to my surprise, nobody really wants to go with me. It is kind of a haul. The routes below are my best estimates, I'll have the phone running it's gps app to data, but I will be looking at 130+ miles on the way there with 11,800' of climbing and 105+ on the way back with 6600' of climbing.

What amuses me most is the calories burned calculation on MapMyRide. In theory I'll be burning 6700 calories riding to Vail. Instead of carrying all of my snacks, I will be carrying the credit card, cell phone, flat kit and whatever clothing I need. I'm sure the recommended liquid intake is something ridiculous, an amount probably requiring a stop every hour.

I will be taking it all in at a leisurely pace, enjoying all the scenery along the way. From the ride last year, I know the part from Frisco to Vail Pass is the toughest mentally. Hopefully I will be ahead of any afternoon thunderstorms since my goal is to be in Vail by about 2:00 . . . maybe I should schedule that 3:00 massage . . .

So who's with me?

Wind

Sometimes a little music makes the reading that much better . . . press play before you go any further.



It was the year 1989 . . . the year the Berlin Wall fell, the first Bush became President, Exxon tried to turn Prince William Sound into an oil storage facility, students protested in Tiananman Square, Seinfeld, Baywatch, and Saved by the Bell premiered on TV . . . and it was the last year Chevrolet made the Camaro IROC-Z. What can you say about this car? A few select words come to mind, words like pile of crap and trailer park racer. Here's a fine example in its shining "glory" or something like that.


And here's the one at the house around the corner from me after a wise, old cherry tree colluded with some crazy winds and tried to put it in its place (on blocks, in a junkyard, wherever).


It is hard to tell from this angle, but the wind took that huge branch down from the tree and blew it east about 12 feet before it hit the ground, er IROC-Z. Another couple of feet and the car would have had more than just mere trunk damage.


This tree has taken an absolute beating this year with some major limbs coming down in not so delicate fashion. It was pretty to look at in the spring with all of the blossoms, but the fruit that is starting to fall (along with branches) are a bit of a nuisance. Saturday, around noon, a storm blew through town very quickly, lowering the temperature briefly along with limbs. Out at the Fed Center, race barriers got blown over, the bouncy castle had to be deflated, it was quite a scene. Our race was not too terribly exciting, just very hot. When I got the chills riding in 100 degree weather with 10 minutes to go, I knew it wouldn't be doing very much at the end.

Sunday, Dempsey got himself a taste of Pert Plus this weekend and decidedly didn't enjoy the experience. You'd think with it being as hot as it is, he wouldn't mind a good soaking, but bath time as usual involved him trying to shove all 72 lbs. of himself into the corner of the shower. Post bath, he looked a little like a drowned rat, but fluffed back up nicely with the conditioning action of the Pert Plus.


Bath time isn't really that bad except for the amount of hair that comes off after. All gussied up, we headed out to watch the Bannock Street Crit and got there just in time to watch Joey Brenner bridge to the move in the Cat 3 race and then take the sprint with ease. This is the second year in a row he has won at Bannock. If you are going to pick a race to win, Bannock is a good one with a nice, rich prize purse. The P/1/2 race looked nice and fast until the break got established with some serious horsepower and opened a gap of almost two minutes on the field.

I spent most of the day being lazy around the house, cleaning, moving some stuff around, and dinking around in the kitchen. I made a batch of pear sorbet which came out pretty well, but looks like frozen apple sauce. Note to self, add the lemon juice to the pear right away to keep it from turning brown. Weekends go by too quickly these days.

Scenes from the Hood

This post is somewhat of a photo dump, but there are some things in the neighborhood that have caught my eye over the last week and some that I stumbled onto by surprise. I figured I'd share since it is Friday and I don't have anything better to do.

My sister's house has a glut of trumpetvine that tries to conquer the space occupied by the A/C compressor on a weekly basis. I am tempted to get some from her for my to-be-landscaped backyard. When left to its own devices, trumpetvine will grow over everything, not as aggressively as kudzu, but what is?


One of my neighbors has actively tended their trumpet vine, cutting off all shoots below a certain point so that the vine forms a tree-like trunk. Then over time, they have braided the remaining shoots, supported the plant and let it take a different shape than you usually see. It is still a hair close to the house and looks like it might take over the roof of the patio in a couple years if they aren't careful.


I think these neighbors decided they didn't like their juniper bushes anymore. Either that or it was so hot the shrubs spontaneously combusted. I don't think you get messages from a burning bush if you are the incendiary.


I never noticed this one on Logan, but I'm pretty sure it is a non-native species that won't do well in this climate.


I have always liked these trees in the park which means the City will cut them down soon. They have been taking trees down in the park at a pace of one per year it seems. I think they are Catalpa trees, but I could just be making that up. They have a broad, heart-shaped leaf with pretty white flowers when the time comes.


A trip through the hood wouldn't be complete without a stop at Dempsey's secret stash of treats.

Sushi Den looks to be doing some early morning remodel work, should be all wrapped up before the lunch crowd hits Pearl Street. The back room has seen a number of changes over the last couple of years.


The morning walks have been much more pleasant than the afternoon version thanks to the heat. Nothing like 102 degrees as the forecast high, I think Dempsey wants to go swimming again.