Here are a couple more from the ’stache series….

I get back late on Thursday which should set me up nicely for Marx – Bensdorf team camp (note the change, I guess it is now M-B, not M&B).  It will be down in Oxford next weekend.  I probably will be a wreck, but I’ll get it done.

Last night, Andrea and I ventured out to Flying Saucer where we couldn’t get anyone to join us (what’s a little ice?).  We joined the U.F.O. beer club.  All it will take is 197 more beers (each) to get our plates on the wall.  (It’ll probably take us a while to get that:  with 3 beers / night max and considering we only go 2-3 x’s /month…  Sounds a lot like 2 years.)

The party was good, fueled by good food and two 5 gallon kegs from Bosco’s (Flaming Stone and Ghost River Wee Heavy). The Wee Heavy proved the most popular and it nearly ran out (got two glasses from it the next day).

On Sunday, we packed up the dogs, the mountain bikes, and remaining Flaming Stone and headed west to Mountain View, Arkansas to spend a few days at her dad’s cabin and enjoy the country and a bit of mountain biking at Syllamo trails.

We didn’t leave for Mountain View until the afternoon on Sunday (rode on the road in Memphis and then packed up), so we didn’t get there until after dark. On Monday, we drove down to the middle Green Mountain road trail head and started out on the yellow trail (Jack’s Branch) and diverted to the red trail (Bad Branch) before finishing out the yellow trail at the far trail head. For me it the second time I had ridden both trails, for Andrea, it was only the first time for the yellow trail for her. The red trail is pretty moderate compared to the rest of the system and the second time down the yellow meant I started to get more comfortable with it. The big thing is the amount of climbing on the yellow trail. We got back to the parking lot pretty tired and ready to eat.

Today, we decided to tackle two different trails, the orange (Bad Scrappy) and the green (White River Bluff). The ride would a shorter ride, but more technical. The weather also played a factor, since it was much colder today (40’s compared to 60’s on Monday). Like the yellow, trail it was the second time I have ridden the orange, so I started to get better on some of the tougher sections of this trail. After completing the orange trail, we started on the green. We had walked this trail together back on Thanksgiving weekend, so we knew it, but not really… This trail is a blast with some pretty ridable section that challenge me, but not so difficult that I feel outclassed.

About half the way through the trail, we were clipping along, when I felt something snag… like Andrea a few weeks ago, a stick lodged in my rear cassette and tore off my rear derailleur at the hanger. Unlike Andrea I had a replacement hanger and more importantly, I had it with me.

From stop to back rolling, it probably was only 10 minutes. The chain had somehow looped, but I managed to figure out how to get it unlooped without breaking it (Shimano chain with one-time pin that I just installed that morning). The rear derailleur was just fine, and in fact it seem like the shifting improved a little bit (probably had a bent hanger before I broke it).

The worst thing is that my 9-speed cassette is pretty worn. I need to use the biggest two sprockets, the next two are flaky, the next 3 are okay and the smallest two are unusable under load. I have been working around it using the front chainrings. It is sort of a pain, but I am making it work (changing the chain didn’t help the situation). I guess those bad sprockets are just wore out. Two more days of riding, then I will get the parts I need back in Memphis. (I have one more hanger to carry with me…, guess I need to order more.)

The wedding itself will be pretty basic (Germantown mayor going to help us out there). The feature event will be the party afterwords. My family is down from Michigan/Wisconsin, her family, and friends from this area. I picked up two 5 gallon kegs of Bosco’s beer (Flaming Stone and Wee Heavy) and Andrea’s parents are preparing some food (and hosting our party). Should be a good time and should fit in with our way of being.

Our plans are to head west again for the honeymoon and mountain bike and relax near the Syllamo trails again. We have the spare parts to keep the bikes going and should have a good several days of riding before heading back to work reality. The main reason I have not posted since 12/1 is that I have been pretty busy with work and stuff after work, posting just got dropped.

As for cyclocross, I hope to get back into it in January some, I need to work myself back into shape (although I didn’t fall far). Plan to race some at Columbia (Tenn) and do the Tennessee state championship race if work will allow. Southern X is also a race I would love to do, but I thing work will prevent this from happening.

Here is the first four that I made up (most are from today)

(1) Andrea and I are getting married, December 12th.

(2) I am changing teams… from Memphis Velo / Smith & Nephew to Mrax & Bensdorf cycling team. The change is going along with my plans upgrade to category 2 in 2010. This year should be a good year to go on top of 2009 (which was my best year yet).

This weekend completes my Fall cyclocross campaign with the Outdoors, Inc Cyclocross race on Mud Island (Memphis). I will race a couple more times this winter, but this is the last of 5 weekends in a row… It will be nice to finish it up with a race at home. (I decided not to race the Lock 4 – six hour mtb race this weekend).

With only 2 races under my belt (as far as TBRA points go), I am actually 2nd in the series in CX1/2. I am miles behind Jeremy Chandler and basically tied with a few others with similar totals, so it doesn’t mean a whole lot. We’ll see how that develops….

Indy is much more stable sitting up… so much so, that it is almost boring….

Saturday morning, I took my fresh legs to the Trinity ride. The group was a mixed bag, but there was handful of people in there to make it interesting (although a few of them turned off for some reason after 10-15 miles). Did some fun attacks that pretty much left it down to Bryant, Jeff, and I… Sit up and repeat… At the store (BP in Gallaway), a RV pulled up and asked direction to the Collierville antique shop or something like that. After explaining to the gentleman it was about 20 miles south and that he shouldn’t have gotten off the expressway way at Arlington… the group was long gone and Bryant, Dale and I rolled off in pursuit. We started off easy and then did some solid turns, but we only were able to get the group in sight by the end of the ride (Lenow Rd) after picking off a few that fell off the pace of the group. Oh well, the group was super sketchy anyway.

At the end of the ride, I started to think about what I would do later in the day since Andrea went west to the Ouachita mountains to do some mountain biking at the Womble and later at Camp Robinson. She left on Friday afternoon and set up camp at Lake Sylvia. I got it in my head to pack up some gear and our two dogs and surprise her by heading over. I got on the road at 11:30a, grabbed some Subway and started driving the 170 miles to the campground. I made good time despite a especially annoying run of I-40 traffic (i.e. Truck #1 is going 71 mph, Truck #2 is going 72 mph, clearly Truck #2 HAS to pass truck one and then bog down going over a hill… and line up 20 cars behind … and then have a few cars try to zip up the right lane and squeeze in…)

On the way, I tried to call to make sure that she didn’t pull up camp and ended up leaving her a text asking about the ride. I didn’t hear anything (figured she was still riding?) and went to the campground, getting there around 2:30pm. I easily found her campsite (the campground was a ghost town) and waited a minute hoping that the occasional moments of phone coverage would let me know she was done (by text message, probably). I let the dogs run around and then decided that I should run to town and get something to eat (and be in better cell coverage for a while). And the mosquitoes were eating me up at the campsite (I didn’t bring repellent thinking that Andrea took it with her). So I went to Perryville (about 10 miles away) and got a chicken sandwich at Sonic and waited. After a while, I tried to find some repellent, but couldn’t manage to find it at the grocery store or the gas station. I went back to the campsite and planned to lay down in the tent and wait.

By this time it was getting late (around 5 pm) and I still hadn’t heard from her. So I ended laying down in the tent with the dogs…. I was drifting off when I heard my phone ringing- Andrea’s ring. I picked it up and we talked for a few seconds before the call dropped. I tried to get over to where the phone seemed worked better earlier (up on a hill near the campsite entrance) and she called back. I found that she was close and planning to come back and pick up the tent and stay in Conway.

A few text messages played out like this… (I usually had to resend each of these at least twice since the cell coverage down in the valley where the campground is bad.)

A: “Service is spotty. I will call you in a couple of hours once I am at Lance’s in conway”
R: “Conway is lame.”
A: “Yeah, I know”
R: “Lake slyvia [sic] is a better place.”
R: “Much more private.”
A: “?”
R: “Probably pretty quiet out there I bet”
(after a minute….)
A: “Be there in a minute”

30 seconds later, I saw the Element coming up the drive. I brought her sleeping bag that she had forgotten, but that was not why she was happy. Surprise visit FTW.