Hindsight

Looking back over the past couple week, I just realized how quickly the time has gone by. Much of it lately has been filled with clean and discarding and giving away and relocating many of our too many cherished possessions. Why you ask? Because we officially have put the Green Box on the market. Yes, our home of almost 10 years is up for sale.

The time has finally arrived to start making our next move(s). Rene is looking at a new position with an old company or another upstart she has been working with on the side. Either way, we will have to move. And we want to. Not because we hate it here or even MI for that matter. We just need to "shake things up" as Rene says so often now. And we do. Try something different. There are so many things yet to be done and most of them are not here. We have been here and done this. 

Speaking of trying things that are new, I have officially decided to run the full season of cross this fall. First up was the Kisscross night race, held at Cannonsburg Ski Area, home of one of the best mountain bike trails in the local area. It was warm and wet and very un-cross like that night, but it was fun too. And painful. The course was very sandy and slow going and the legs were dead tired at the end. I finished 5th, from last. Not my best outing but no where to go but up, right? 

Since the night race, we have been lucky enough to have a long streak of very nice, warm fall weather. Plenty of time to hit the trails if you hurried out after work. And so I did. Luton Park has been my regular ride most days. The photo above does not do justice to the fun, twisty trails that lay just beyond the cornfields.

Even the old barn where I park looks rather shabby and in need of repair. But the trails are n great shape. The newest route, the black loop is still sporting marker flags.

On nights I did not have time to drive out to the trails, the gravel roads were happy to provide me a nice workout. Most are slick and fast now with the cool nights and some recent rains. Hilly and in many areas, tree covered, there is an endless number to pick from. You can usually ride a good 20 mile route with only limited stretches of pavement between the gravel.

Along the way, there are many great sights including this line of parked grain cars. This is the line being removed to build the new Rail Trail but for some reason, this section has remained intact all summer. My original theory that they were temporarily parked there until the wheat harvest did not seem to hold true. I am going to have to ask around and find out what the story is. Stay tuned.

The biggest deterrent to riding this time of year is the lack of light. The sun is setting earlier and earlier now and one has to hustle to get miles in. But the low light makes for some great shadows too!

Along with fall comes cooler temps now. Mornings have been foggy and grey most days, but eventually burning off to allow a little sunshine.

So, when the sun is shining and I have more time, I am still out there on the road too. I have been able to get a couple 40-milers in the past couple weekends and as the colors change it is a great time to tour the area by bike.

But most of my on-bike time has been on-trails. Mainly riding Luton on the single-speed thanks to a stupid move on my part. I dropped my mountain bike. Not while riding it. Rather, I actually dropped it. From over my head while taking it off the rack. And it landed, on the fork dropouts. Which then proceeded to break. Ouch. And since you can't safely ride a bike with broken drop-outs, the Inbred became my main trail-squeeze. I had to send the fork out to Fox for a replacement lower assembly (which beats the hell out of buying a new fork!) and it just came back this past Friday. A costly lesson in roof rack removal techniques!

The nice thing about having the geared bike back is not having to pedal the roads with only one gear all the time. And the bumps are a little easier on the arms too.

This weekend I ventured back to the Ski Hill trail with the reborn Sinister and enjoyed riding the very fall-like trails. Many are covered already and the season has just begun. The trail was fast and fun and I virtually had the place to myself that day.

On Sunday Rene and I and the Boyz ventured out to the Fallasburg Fall Festival in the park. An arts and crafts fair, it comes to town each year and we typically trek over to take a look. Last year Rene and I purchase some new "wedding rings" so you never know what you might find. This year, it was more crafts than art and after a short tour of the booths, we decided to go to the park trail and enjoy the fall colors instead.  Spots of fall are showing through here and there but it is still pretty green. With the cooler temps this week and rain, that will soon change.

I am home today with a cold or something that has thrown me for a loop. Not sure where it came from but it started coming on last night and hit me full force at work. I decided to cut my losses and head home for some R and R and hopefully, the other R; recovery. Can't afford another day of this. And not riding. The next Cross race is this Saturday at Highland Park and I am really looking forward to getting out there and mixing it up. Or tagging along behind. One or the other! 

Rene is in Minneapolis today until Thursday, making an appearance with the powers that be to remind them she still works there. The final plans for her job are still up in the air and we are on hold because of it. But regardless, there is no looking back now. The wheels are in motion. They are rolling slow almost imperceptibly sometimes, but change is coming.