Small Steps and good rides

The weather has been good for cycling right up till today, Michele and I have started the night rides, we have been riding the neighborhood so she can get used to riding in the dark and using the halogen headlights we have. I have been doing the club rides and we have gone to downtown Dallas and the Historic West End, we have also ridden around the American Airlines Arena and the new W- hotel area, it's been fun and people seem to think its cool when we ride by the Diners on Patios with our headlights and flashing tail lights.

For the week ending the 13Th I logged 156 miles and the week of the 20Th I logged 90 miles, I expect those numbers to drop as the weather has turned rainy and cold for the next few days.

The O'day is still drying out its hull but I removed the two shelves over the settee's and replaced the water damaged wood, I then stained it and sealed it. I got the color as close as I could and while it is a small detail it looks much better without the water damage.

I can't tell you how this picture got in here 2 times, and I can't make it go away.

I also removed the bilge covers and glued the areas that were separating and put several coats of varnish on them, they are still 20 years old but look much better with a nice shine on them

One of my fellow cyclists who is the preacher at the church we have been attending invited us to a Mavericks basketball game. We had lower level seats and VIP parking passes, the Mavs won and we had a great time with perfect seats, these lower level seats even had a cheering coach for the section.

Right now it's 50 degrees and raining so no boat work for a few days and it may be hard to get a bike ride in too. Oh well I guess I may have to actually do a little work.

Trying to live my dream

Dennis

The State Fair of Texas

Michele had Friday off so we went to the State Fair and it was a perfect day, we went to the K-9 shows and watched dogs race, catch Frisbees and do long distance water jumps. We also went to the birds of the world show and it was cool watching the birds free fly and do tricks. It was impressive to have a large hawk fly close over your head at a about 100 mph. This picture shows Michele outside the first aid station where she was treated for a splinter she got from the wood seats.No Texas fair is complete without visiting Big Tex and hearing him say howdy folks, welcome to the State Fair of Texas.

We then went to Lake Murray Oklahoma to meet the bicycle club and had a great time riding to Turner Falls and back with the Ardmore Bicycle club. These guys (and gals) were strong from all the hills in the area. The turn around point was at a radio antenna up a 2 mile 7% grade. We had a nice turnout of GDB riders (greater Dallas Bicyclists) and had options for those who didn't want 70 miles of hills. I of course did the long ride and with the strong headwind all the way back I was beat. Michele rode strong with her group and they rode 42 miles to the town of Gene Autry and visited the so named museum.

I took this pic while enjoying the rural countryside drafting off of the locals, this was a fun trip. We spent Sunday resting and going to Church where the preacher just happens to be a cyclist also.

Mind your manners

Dennis

This week I finally got out the dinghy and cleaned it up. this is a boat I built using the stitch and glue method. I never used it much as a dinghy but have used it numerous times to fish small lakes and did so this past week but once again I forgot the camera. Oh well that's just as good since there was nothing to photograph but one little bass, but it was nice to get the boat out and work on my rowing.We did the usual bike rides over the weekend and had the last weeknight daylight ride on Tuesday, for the rest of the winter we will be taking night rides with lights on the evening rides. I had a pretty good week and logged in 112 miles.

The O'day is still drying out but I did remove two seat backs from the cabin so I can replace some water damaged plywood that forms shelves behind the seats. It looks like it will be the first of the year before the hull is dry enough to do the epoxy work.

I am home with the armadillo's

Dennis

Lake Mineral Wells State Park review

We had planned to take an overnight camping trip as soon as it was cool enough and this weekend we went to Mineral Wells Sate Park for our first visit to this Park. After a quick 15 miles on the road bikes early Saturday we headed out and in about an hour and a half we were there.
While the park was very full it wasn't bad at all, we had a nice campsite and for the rest of Saturday we explored the Park roads and some of the trails on our mountain bikes. The roads were good with some nice tough hills and a good number of other cyclist, as a treat Michele and I each saw several deer and rolled up close to some of them before they could hear us. I found the bike trails hard, since horses and bikes share some trails a lot of the surface is loose sand from the horse traffic and its hard to go very fast and you get a good workout quick, add lots of big and small rocks and hills and you have a tough ride.

Now the hiking was good, Sunday we hiked 5 miles on the hike only trail to the primitive camping area and it was really pretty and we only saw one other group on the entire walk. As you can see in the pictures it is hilly and rocky so you walk, climb and crawl. Our dog Sprocket was pooped and in the 2nd photo as we return his tongue is hanging out pretty far.

I think we will return to this Park soon, it's close but seems like a long way from the house, I started getting the dinghy for the O'day 272 ready for the next trip so I can maybe fish the lake. I better rest up now to be ready for the Tuesday bike ride with the club www.gdbclub.com

Proud People Don't Litter ( stolen from Gummy)

Dennis