stay calm.

Tranquilo (adj): Quiet; calm; undisturbed; peaceful; not agitated; as, the atmosphere is tranquil; the condition of the country is tranquil.

Cheshire Jake

Man, it's been a long road. Or not. The miles, the white line zoning out. The questions. The quiet contemplation. The huff and the puff and the blowing down of the fucking house.

Man, what a fun trip it's been. Start at the Punk. 60 miler's road fixy style in the cold wind. Finally skiskiski. Skiskiski. KNEE! (oh shit.) Roady fix in the rain and wind. The almost century that opened my eyes. The Dos. LOVE the Dos! Spring race, following a plan. More miles. Losing my best friend, fuck. FUCK! Escape to il Giro. Time to climb, climbclimbclimb. Stoopid 50 & Reinventing the Big Stupid Road Ride. Setting a precedent at le Tour, incredible. Working the Curse. Always fun to heckle, full solo pre-ride made it a shared experience. Feeling the pain, but not really. Tuscorora exploration, setting the mental bar and emptying the tank. The 101, showing what's possible. 9:23, never expected that.

Early Snack

And now. Shuttle '07 is in the books, just another 8ish hour ride thru Michaux from South to North. For those in the know, here's the ticklist: Heaven&Hell-up Buckets-Hermit over & up to Snowy Mtn Tower to Karumba. Link a bit of road to Racoon Run to BlueBlaze to multiple flat tires to Caledonia. Link a bit of road to GapTrail (blueblaze) to Sting to Lollipop (1st half) Hanzel&Grettal (Camp Trail) to Big Flat. Drink some beers at the luv shak (Bender showing a flash of Rockstar brilliance). Out Ridge to Lewis Rocks and rippin' across and down Rattlesnake to Heisler's to Nowhere Loop to Community Service and we're at 7.5+ hours. Serendipitous timing as Pete and the Evil Dr. share barley pops on their way home to family. Social spin on the rail trail to Fern Hill and the Keefer family Corn Bake '07.

Rollin' onto the overlook.

Oh MY God! Was that ever awesome! Somewhat spur of the moment planning for the shuttle ride coincided with Keeferkeefer's family shindig at the cabin at Lake Two Hawks. Ride for 8 hours with 8 to 10 of your bestest damn riding buddies and finish at a cabin next to a spring fed ore hole where there happens to be a potluck family reunion type corn bake thang going on.

Camelbak Reunion stop.

Heaven. Thanks to the Keefers for the hospitality. The corn and bar-b-Q and the pot luck and the corn and the beer was simply awesome! If only Mike coulda swung a partial loop on the bikes with us.

Old Mule

The ride was reallyreally fun. Nipped some elbows for fun, opening up the legs, tried to keep the flow and tax the system. Highlights were the entire day, nice to see everybody on their game at this time of year, even Jake revealing some latent fitness. Handful of flat tires south of Rt 30 (a front for me included), couple of dinged derailleurs that needed attention and Lee blew a bead and bounced off terra firma, that's one tough fella, eff'in singlespeeders.

Churtle leads the train.

Official stats: 48+ mile, 5:55 ride time, 8:05 elapsed. 11 started, 9 were committed, 2 bailed early, Buck & Johnny Tourettes got the gold stars for finishing with LowBush, 5 of us took the pavement spin option.

No free salsa.

Slept not well for a long time and found out that today's forecast called for rain, at 7:30am. Watched the blobs move across the radar and timed it as close to perfect as possible. Nice spin of not quite 40 to pick up the car at South Mtn, turning pedals for 2:20 and seeing what's left in the tank. Maybe hit King's Gap tomorrow before putting the feet up for a few days to let it all soak in. It's fun to see it all come together.

rock n roll Jake.