HHH with the motorhome

Finding a place to stay in Wichita Falls can be tough for the Hotter Than Hell Hundred but this year we were very lucky and had a great place to stay. Gerald, a good friend of ours has been cycling lately and decided to do the ride and take their 32 ft motor home. We scouted around the RV area and found a spot with 30 amp electric and got set up , best of all it was free for cyclist and a newspaper was delivered Saturday morning. This worked out great and was within walking distance of all the events, thanks Gerald and Kay.With nervous energy it was hard to go to sleep so we detailed our bikes, had more snacks

and visited with friends and neighbors. We finally went to bed and set the alarms for 5 am.Michele and I both had good rides and set pb's (personal bests) on a nice day with nice light breeze for the most part. Like last year Michele the the 64 mile or metric century and I rode the 100 miles. Of course our small group on the 100 mile route pulled into the outlaw 98 mile beer stop for a few minutes before finishing.

Get off the couch

Dennis

boating and swimming

On Saturday Michele and had nice rides on the bikes, she rode a little over 40 miles and I rode an extra 18 miles by taking a loop around the perimeter of DFW Airport. This lap is always fast and we almost never have to stop and we try to keep a pace over 20 miles an hour with one all out sprint zone. I got very lucky and won the sprint in my small group while achieving 39.4 mph as my max speed.

Sunday we went to check the flood water level at the lake and found it disappointingly high, we nose in to this Island and explored a little. The O'day 272 is a fixed keel boat but has a shoal draft wing keel, don't try to nose up to the shore like this in your fin keel boat.
This picture shows me fishing at the still closed boat ramp, you can see the parking lot is just now starting to dry out and the picnic tables are still under water. Maybe next week the ramp will open.

My Mother in Law was out of town for a week or so and Michele and I went over to check on things and just happened to have our swim suits with us. It was a nice day for a swim with perfect 84 degree water, (thanks Teddy)

Sprocket went for a swim too and while he can swim you can see he really wanted to get out of the water.

You never know if you have 6 more minutes, 6 more days, or 6 more years so do it Today.

Wish Michele and I both Luck as we ride in the Hotter Than Hell 100 this coming weekend.

Dennis

Urban Ride

On Saturday Michele and I went on a nice 50 + mile ride around Dallas, we left from the house and first rode to Snider Plaza and stopped for this picture at the fountain and then stopped at Starbucks to get caffeined up. After the coffee stop we rode through the S M U campus and through numerous back streets and neighborhood to arrive at White Rock Lake Park. This Park is the cycling Mecca of Dallas so we did a few laps around the lake at 9 miles each and then 7 miles up the White Rock Creek Trail and then back home. This was a fun ride and it was nice to ride moderately and sight see, so many of my rides have become too much like a race and very intense with a lot of "attacks" on any hill.

The weather has been very hot and it was over 100 when we got home from this ride. Living here we have learned to live with the heat and to not let it keep us indoors all summer like so many do. I have found that we can pace ourselves and drink plenty of water and do just fine, this was good training for the Hotter Than Hell 100 less than 2 weeks away.

On the sailing front all is quiet, the mast is still down and the water level is down to 5 ft above normal and next week I plan on hauling the boat. I think I will make it a winter project to completely refurbish the bottom, add pressure water to the existing 30 gallon tank and a good solar panel for keeping the battery's charged while traveling and staying on the hook for several days at a time.

Live more work less

Dennis Starkey

CRASH

MIchele took her first spill on the Specialized Dolce and got scraped up a little bit, she also jammed her thumb but was not hurt to bad. This happened in our neighborhood when she entered a turn with water from a sprinkler system around the curve, a little hard on the brakes and the bike slid out from under her. I am thankful she was not seriously injured and since she was out by herself she went ahead and finished her ride and then came home so Dr. Dennis could bandage her up, she said that hurt more than the crash. Notice the large band aid, and there is one more on her knee, (sorry no bloody photo's).

I went on a new hill training ride on Wednesday and got a good workout on a very hot late afternoon. This ride goes to a hilly area and does repeat aggressive climbs of some hills in a residential neighborhood, in some areas these are probably considered small hills but it was still hard work. The ride finished with an all out sprint to the performance bike shop in which I stayed with the leaders at 37 mph but faded at the end to finish a great ride

On the work front this is a new unit replacing a 24 year old one and will reduce this homes carbon footprint and save on the light bill. The old unit was about a 9 seer rating and the new one is a 13 seer rating. Think of seer (seasonal energy efficiency rating) like miles per gallon, in this case a higher number is better. This was not an elective change since the old unit died and will be recycled.

Less is really more

Dennis

This picture was on a club ride where the fast group (with me) caught the slower group and are working our way through them with a lot of cutting up going on, we made up 5 miles on them. Michele and I have been able to ride quite a bit. On Sunday we rode to Downtown Dallas and looked at the big fire at the welding gas plant that has been all over the news, the area is destroyed with buildings and a lot of cars torched. Many years ago I had worked on the mechanical systems at this building, I'm sure glad it was a long time ago.Monday I worked on this 1959 model chiller that still provides the cooling for a large home, that's an old unit but not as old as me.

This is the old atmospheric type cooling tower for the chiller and I replaced a few boards that had rotted out. This is an old very inefficient system, the oldest still running system I know of.

Thursday I decided to take the boat out and survey the high water from the lake, since the mast is down in preparation to remove the boat I had to use the motor and couldn't sail. The picture doesn't do the sky justice, it was incredible.

The lake is still in flood stage but has dropped 3 ft since my last visit (now 9 ft high) and I should be able to haul the boat this month. As I motored through a cut in the old dam I stopped to fish this brush pile and caught a little bass, the trees in the background are the original shoreline. I sure would like to be able to do the work on the bottom of the boat and get it ready for some coastal sailing and try out the trailer.

Have more than you show, speak less than you know.

Dennis