A few Photos from last night....

A July Morning

This morning I woke up eairly to meet a co-worker for a ride. I rode with him (and his neighbor) once before. I had good intentions to ride to his house, do the ride, work, and then ride home. A late night of reading a new magazine, and a suprise flat in the morning kept me from most of that. How can you get a flat in the dining room? Luckly I know how to change a flat in record time......

So since my plans were altered, I figured I would make the best of the ride (24mi). Keeping the pace high the whole way, throwing in a few hills to mix it up a little bit. There were 4 of us today, they all are just "newer" to riding, and are finding the love of the bike, they are all riding well. Since I last rode with them they are all getting stronger.

I could go on, but I will not bore you with the minor details, who really cares anyway. It was a good ride! I took some pictures, which it was a great day for pictures. Rising sun, flat light, some clouds in the sky, and throw in some fog to add some artistic balance. All of these pictures in this post are from today.

Burt commented on my post from yesterday about taking the picture from the pace line; well Burt....I was so caught up in the double pace line that I thought momentarially through my heavy breathing, that I just wanted to remember that moment for a little while longer......

I have many interest, and hobbies, and as you all know taking pictures is one of them. I like to share them (at least the better ones) with you all. They help tell the story, of the event/s. I've gotten a lot better at taking them on the bike, I've been toting a camera around every time I go on a ride for 4 years now. Im on my 3rd camera, the 1st one fell out of my pocket at Worlds and broke, the second one is still around, but it's been taken over by my son. The 3rd is the best one so far. Ofcourse I have the SLR where I take pictures of races.

I also like to show what we see around us as we ride. I as with others will tell you that the Lancaster County Area, is one of the best places to ride in the US. Where else can you go out your back door and ride for hours, on country roads, away from busy highways.

So long for now, time to work.......

Sunday Ride Recap......

So after I got back from vacation I was looking for a ride. Riding at the Beach just does not do it for me at all. I call Wareham and he mentions to me that a bunch of guys were leaving at 8am locally. So thats just what I do the next morning. The middletown ride, is a standard ride, basically sort of Karls Ride in Reverse.

Pretty much a good steady ride all the way up through Middletown, plenty of time to catch up, and chat; discussing the world, sports, healthcare, bike races, bikes, vacations, Steve McNair, and what ever else....o yea the Tour is On....but as someone would say "Who Cares?"

then we hit 441....heading south it was on....I did my best to stay in the rotation, eventually surfing the back, then fell of.....they slowed at a light, I caught back on....then surfed some more, eventually heading back up 772 to Mt Joy.

Lets just say....I can handle the pace...mostly....but I cannot handle it for too long before I have to recover, lack of anerobic capacity.....riding with people who have been racing all season........its good training.....So in the end...I hear a few of them rode back through millersvill and did the sunday course....a 100+mi day for the hard core...I did half of that....good luck guys next weekend at Nebo.....quality training miles for a tough course.......

I was glad to ride....because I had to return to work today, to around 400 emails....and other duties......Plan to ride tomorrow....we shall see....

A few Pictures.... Turkey Hill Middletown.....Notice Country Girl across the windshield of the car....this car was driven by a MAN....I guess his woman gave him temporary driving privlages....ofcourse she probably had to keep his nutz in her purse while he drove it......Tridna shows a face of "disapproval"

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Amish Buggies on the way to Church.........classic Lancaster County on a Sunday Morning. Some crazy dirvers were weaving in and out of us and the buggies.....heading up to Colebrook Road....



Driving the pace down 441....Swashbucklers.....Mark, Wayne, Tridna, Paul, Kevin, The East Side Rep: A.T. .....Spinners.......Zban, Whitaker, myself and there was another guy....sorry I forgot your name.....we had a few more prior to Middletown.......they had places to go.....and people to see.....


Forgot to Mention Wareham was out riding his motorcycle for the day.....someone said "are you sure?, he probably could ride his Cannondale and still keep up with those guys on the motorcycles." I know he is riding strong, he rips my legs off anytime we go riding.....

A little ride this morning with a few of the local guys....Thanks for a good ride....I took a few pictures....Ill post them later.

A week of vacation = 4hrs of yard work

The Tour is On....TV.......I'm tired of Bob Roll already....

We just got done with the yard work, mow, trim, weeds, etc......not too bad, now time to relax, eat some good food, see some fireworks later tonight. Perhaps a ride in the morning.....nice....

Until Later.....

Happy July 4th......1776.....

Post ice cream

Heading to a conference for the next two days and then some relaxation at the beach for a few days. Nice.....perpahs this will bring me some motivation to post something.

Cargas Crit Sunday and Thursday Night Ride

Cargas Crit on Sunday....http://www.bikereg.com/events/register.asp?eventid=8451

Thursday Night Ride.....We had 6..(Care, Spittal, Brubaker, Shebelsky, Kulicki, and myself)...after a few days of rain it was nice to get out....

Debate.......This.....

Are Leaders Born?

Or

Are Leaders Made?

Or

Something else?

Nurses offered Free Breast Implants

Take note of the part "We were always taught that if a nurse is nice, intelligent, loves her work and looks attractive, then patients will recover faster." Being nurse and a nurse manager/leader I wonder how something like this would go over in the US.

Our Friend Marc

Vermont You just have to visit

Last week Karen and I took a trip to Vermont, which the thoughts about where to go began in April. We have never been to Vermont before and decided to go and see what is special about Vermont.

We sent the kids off to grandparents for a weekend of spoiling and attention. We thanked the grandparents and quickly left town.

We took a different route up to Vermont, through upper Manhattan and took a lunch stop in New Haven Connecticut. Why did we stop in Conn? Karen had to introduce me to Frank Pepe Piazza. It was worth it, very good.

Onward to VT, ending up at Little River State Park Campground. Great camp site, better than some state parks in PA.

The next day we did the tourist thing with a stop at the Green Mt Club to pick up a local hiking trail map so we knew where to go.

After the quick stop, we went to Ben and Jerrys Factory in Waterbury, for a tour and Cherry Garcia tasting.

A dirve up the road to Stowe and then on to Stowe Mt. Resort through Smugglers Notch.

After the Notch we did a quick hike to bingham falls a short hike from the road. It was a nice place to relax, and watch the water go by.

We headed back to Waterbury and decided to eat at the Alchemist Pub and Brewery and had some good brews, and awesome seet potatoe fries. I would recomend to stop here anytime you are in the area.

I also stoped up the road at Five Hills Bikes, a bike shop specalizing in 29ers. I spoke to the owner for a while and am now thinking about a 29er along the way.

Back to the campground and the next day a Trip to Burlington VT. Best way to describe Burlington; Small town with a metropolotin flair.

Its a good town to visit, but I hear the winters are Brutal. We said we would have to go back up in the winter sometime just to check it out.

Open air market in the park, and a 4 block stretch of a pedestrian mall. Lots of interesting things to see and do, people to watch, good food to taste. I would reccomend this city to anyone.

We did make it down to Magic Hat Brewery, and tried some free Beer (samples of all their current products.

Back to Burlington for some dinner, and then to the campground, tomorrow was a planned trip to Mt Mansfield, the highest peak in VT.

We woke early the next day to start our hike. We took the long trail past taft lodge to the top and down haselton trail.

It took us 5 hours with a lengthy stop at the top and then at the octagon for lunch. Actual hiking time was around 3.5hrs with the 1.5hrs just relaxing taking in the sceens. Hiking down the ski slope was challenging, it was nice to get into the woods.

The loop was pretty much up across and then down. We headed back to the campground for the night (it started to rain around 3pm) took in another pub and prepared ourselves for the trip home the next day.

The drive home was through Albany NY, different than the way up. We were not ready to leave but we needed to get home for work and the kids. In a few weeks we have a trip the Beach planned. We would reccomend the VT trip to anyone, we will be ready to go again anytime.

Just got back from VT....Until I post More

Gentile? or lost relative?

Off to Vermont

Vermont It should be fun. Ill be posting along the way. Email posting. Until later.