Texas cycling and sailing with Dennis

Make the best of it

noreply@blogger.com (Dennis and Michele Starkey) — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 17:04:00 +0000

The weather has been bad for outdoor activities for a while, I did ride 60 miles on the bicycle Saturday but I had on 4 layers. The forecast for Monday called for a one day respite with a high of 70 with sunshine and light winds, not enough wind to sail but I wanted to get out on the water.
A couple of weeks ago one of Michele's cycling friends Marla asked if she could store her Kayak at our house, since we have tons of storage and I had always wanted to try out a kayak, you bet. The removable ladder rack went back on the truck and the kayak fit like a glove, soon we were off on our maiden voyage at white rock lake.

After unloading the yak I climbed in, adjusted the foot rest and played with the rudder. This model of the Dagger has a rudder to help steer and move straight in a cross wind.

I chose White Rock Lake because of the many piers and protected coves where I could get in and out hopefully without getting wet. This was a lot of fun and a good upper body workout and I did not get wet. What a nice day to learn, now I plan on trying to fish out of it but will first need more time to develop balance and become more comfortable with the small low sitting craft.

Are you ready for Christmas?

Dennis

Enchanted Rock and Cross Moutain

noreply@blogger.com (Dennis and Michele Starkey) — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 20:53:00 +0000

The week of Thanksgiving was a busy one for me, I had another chance to go sailing with Bobby and David and we had a romping day with 20+ winds and large rolling waves. We exceeded hull speed a spent a lot of time dodging spray and trying to get each other wet.

After a great Thanksgiving Day of food and family at my brother Bart's, Michele and I headed for the Hill Country and Fredericksburg.We spent some time shopping in the Historic part of town and I got a nice gift for Michele for Christmas, It was busy as it was the weekend of the Lighting of the courthouse.

On Saturday we went to Enchanted rock and climbed to the top as well as hiked the perimeter loop trail. Enchanted Rock is a giant granite rock about 400 feet tall and was a sacred place for the American Indians.

A distant look at the granite monolith.

At the top Michele, Sprocket and me left a long shadow on the windy barren top.

We then went to a winery near comfort Texas and drove through open range land with loose cattle, herds of deer and beautiful fall color to sample a nice estate grown Merlot on the deck behind the Winery. I highly recommend the Singing Waters Winery, great people and good Texas wines.
On Sunday we found that the local walking club has a walk box at a local hotel where you can get maps for some local walks. We chose the Cross Mountain Walk and set off through a neighborhood for a mile or so and got this glimpse of the small mountain.

We continued our walk to the top of the mountain and the base of the cross, the story is a man purchased this land in the 1840's and while exploring the mountain he found an old cross probably left by early Spanish explorers. He put up another cross and had Easter Services there for many years and the cross was eventually replaced with this current one. We had a true moment of thanksgiving while here for how blessed we have been, and I finally realized that I can stop looking for the place where the grass is greener because I AM STANDING IN THE GREENEST GRASS THERE IS.

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving and holiday season.

Dennis

Fairfield/Palestine

noreply@blogger.com (Dennis and Michele Starkey) — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:11:00 +0000

On Wednesday the 11th Bobby and I went sailing again on a perfect day with 12 to 15 mph winds,we tied a reef in the main and off we went. While discussing sail trim with his new main we made a little adjustment to the jib trim by relocating the anchor point for the sheets allowing a 3 inch tighter trim angle and a much tighter leech. We were pleased with the results and were able to get the Mac 26S to sail 35 degrees to the true wind without giving up any speed.For a long weekend we once again went to Lake Fairfield State Park, we had wanted to go to the Hill Country but could find no campsites. Who could complain when Fairfield has roads like this one and a 14 mile mountain bike trail called the Dockery Trail.

I did make a tire change on the GT mountain bike, the 26x2.25 knobbys are great on the trail but are heavy and not the best for the road so I put on a set of Tom Slicks in the 26x1.4 size and what a difference. Now I just change back and forth depending on the circumstances, a 10 minute job and worth it.Of course I rode the mtb to my favorite fishing hole several times and pretty much wore the bass out, I took this angled photo with the timer and by wedging the camera in a small tree.
We also took a day trip to Palestine and shopped the historic downtown area and a nice art gallery, the art was a little out of my price range with pieces up to 30K, we also visited a new to us winery, the Texas Vineyard and Smokehaus. Michele raced me to the bar for the tasting and complimentary wine glass, a really nice couple owns this new venture and while it may not look like what you would expect after looking at their website the wines were in my opinion good.

On the way home we stopped and had lunch at the Collin Street Bakery that is famous for its fruitcake that it ships all over the world. After lunch we got back on I-45 and I was passed by a giant weenie flying down the highway.

This past weekend I got in over 100 miles on the road bike in really good weather for November and I have been invited to a ranch in Brady next weekend. We also have reservations at an RV park in Fredricksburg for the Thanksgiving weekend.

Thanks for stopping by

Dennis

Galveston Oh Galveston

noreply@blogger.com (Dennis and Michele Starkey) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 19:02:00 +0000

With the shorter days and lots of rain this is what some of our bicycle rides look like and have taken place in the garage. On the bright side it's safer and no helmet required, it also stirs up more of our addiction to travel.

Galveston Island has always been a place I like to visit, sometimes a little seedy but you have to like a place with a newspaper named the Twisted Parrot. Michele and I loaded up the camping trailer and took off for three days to see how things are in the wake of last year's hurricane.

" Sippin" on the dock of the bay is where we spent Saturday after a morning bike ride along the bay and on the hard packed sand of the gulf beach. The event was a wine and food festival that was our first of this kind, we sampled some of over 60 wines and lots of cheese, pasta, cured meats, and a really good Blues band. The event was hosted by the South Shore Harbor and this is a really nice upscale Marina, I could see us living on a sailboat here (not gonna happen).

The State Park is where we stayed and we met a nice couple retiring in a few months to travel full time in their 5th wheel travel trailer. The park is still suffering from the damage inflicted by hurricane Ike and was not exactly what we were expecting, but the ocean is still the same. This was sprockets first trip to the beach and he loved it, he wore himself out chasing gulls and investigating all that the sea washed up.

The Island itself is recovering from a lot of damage and the beachfront homes look nice since most of them have been repaired and have fresh paint and roofs, of course a lot of them are missing too.

I had one of my best runs ever when I did 6 miles from our campsite to the beach and watched the sun rise over the Gulf as I ran along the waters edge and had the place to myself. The hard packed sand is a perfect surface to run on.

The rain and shorter days has limited our cycling somewhat but last night we started our night ride season with the bicycle club and had a nice hard ride, much nicer than riding the trainer.

Dennis

J22 North American championship/ Niagra falls

noreply@blogger.com (Dennis and Michele Starkey) — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 20:35:00 +0000

Last Wednesday Bobby, David and I went sailing, the plan was to install a new Boomkicker boom vang on the sailboat. Bobby had been wanting one of these popular boom supports that eliminates the topping lift line from the boom to the top of the mast. He found the kit locally for $239.00 plus tax and asked me to see what I could get one for, the manufacturer wanted $199.00 plus shipping but a little more research and P-Yacht delivered it to my door for $167.00. I told Bobby for an extra $20 I would tell his wife it only cost $100.00, it looks good and performs too.

When we left the Marina and hoisted sail I noticed a lot of sailboats on the South end of the lake and we sailed the Bobcat down to take a look, what a treat and nice surprise to find the North American J-22 Championship in progress. These sailors are pros, the fleet stayed in a very close group and the sail handling and spinnaker work was impressive. The picture is not the best but we stayed a respectful distance away and with a stiff breeze the boat was anything but still.
We also had a busy weekend in Buffalo New York attending Michele's Nieces Wedding, it was an extravagant event in a Beautiful Church from the 1820's and the reception was in a Private facility also from the early 1800's with frescoes on the ceiling and large Marble columns, the open bar was nice too.

While we were there we also bagged another Lighthouse, The Buffalo Lighthouse marks the entrance to the harbour and the Erie canal. On this stormy night we caught the light as it came on.

Of course we had to visit the Niagara Falls, no photo can do justice to the power, size and magnitude of these falls. For a little perspective the boat in the basin is the Maid of the mist and is maybe 80 feet or more long. Of course we took a trip on the Maid and got a good close look and also got wet, even with the poncho's they give you, to wet for a good pic.

I even had a chance to run with the Buffalo, well we stayed with Michele's friend Leisamarie who lives close to Delaware Park where I went for a 6 mile run, the trail just happens to pass by the Zoo and the bison enclosure, it was nice to have the fence between us.

Bagged a Lighthouse and one of the seven wonders, even saw a world class sailboat race, sweet.

Dennis

Lake Murray State Park

noreply@blogger.com (Dennis and Michele Starkey) — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 18:48:00 +0000

We have returned from our annual Lake Murray trip, I had a good but very difficult ride to Turner Falls and back for about 74 miles which included climbing the "mountain" to the top of the Arbuckle Mountains. Our local Dallas club met up with the Ardmore Oklahoma Cycling Club and the testing began, well I did not do so good but I did finish the ride and was not alone at the finish. The Ardmore folks were great, they took us on a nice route with back roads and little traffic, some even stopped for a break in Gene Autry Oklahoma at the Gene Autry museum and got pictures taken with Ellie May Clampitt who was there for a festival.
Sunday morning I woke up in the old CCC bunkhouse and walked down to the lake, had my coffee and watched the sunrise, (photo above) I also fished for a little while but caught nothing on a very beautiful morning. We had reserved the 2 bunkhouses at the State Park and they were nice and rustic, built with thick stone walls and indoor/outdoor fireplaces. These cabins are from the 30's, built by the CCC and do show their age, however they are comfortable and handle large groups well and are very private and far removed from any other cabins. We will use these cabins again next year

Below is my Mountain bike with the new fishing rod holder I made for it, I use it to ride to my secret fishing hole about 3 miles from home. I found this spot while looking for a shortcut home after finishing a Saturday group ride. It should also be nice on our Camping trips and a planned trip to Galveston State Park.
Last week I was working in the garage and took a break for lunch, I came back out to find this little box turtle checking out the bicycles. When I was finished in the garage I left the door up for another couple of hours and he disappeared.

Proud people don't litter

Dennis

HHH 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Dennis and Michele Starkey) — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 21:08:00 +0000

Before we headed to Wichita Falls Bobby and I got in our usual weekday sail, this time we went on Wednesday night and became the spectator fleet for the Night races. You can see the fishing rod in the picture and when the drag started screaming my hands were full trimming sails and steering while reeling in a nice Hybrid Striper about 19 inches long, it worked out well as Bobby came up from a project he was working on in the cabin and took control of the boat.

Michele and I had another good ride at this years HHH, thanks to Paul on his bent for taking this picture of us as he caught and passed us, we of course were reunited at the 98 mile outlaw beer stop. The rally set an attendance record with over 14,000 riders and the Tandems had to start with the mass start, which got us off to a slow start. The temperature was 64 at the start and all went well until just after the 80 mile mark when the front tire developed a blister and would thump on every revolution. I had to reduce the pressure down to about 35 lbs to smooth it out and nor wear a hole in the blistered spot on the tire. We also slowed down and limped the last 20 miles and still averaged 18.8 for 103.51 miles. With a failing tire there were no more 35 mph descents.

We took our camping trailer and camped with a group of friends at the rv lot close to all the activities and had a great time there, kind of a rally the wagons atmosphere.

We watched a lot of races and my friend Aaron took 2nd place in the cat 2 mountain bike race, he then took me out Sunday and we rode the very technical course along the river and greenbelt. This is a nice mountain bike trail and also has a multipurpose trail, I think we might go back and camp and ride this again.

The grass is indeed greener on the other side of the fence but I think I am finally halfway up the fence and closer to crossing over. Hey Gary enjoy New Mexico!!!

Dennis

TGIF

noreply@blogger.com (Dennis and Michele Starkey) — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 14:14:00 +0000

The last 2 Fridays have been really nice for me thanks to my friend Bobby and his nice sailboat the Bobcat. We have met at Lake Ray Hubbard in the mornings and prepared the boat while taking short breaks to fish the docks and I caught bass each time. Gentle breezes, dead down wind wing on wing, notice the rod and holder

This was an unusual sight, from a distance it looked like a man walking on the water, jibe to starboard tack and sheet the sails and on closer inspection it looks like a paddle board of some sort.

This Friday we sailed into a giant school of surfacing sand (white) bass and I was catching a fish every cast for a while. When I had no fish for 3 consecutive casts we moved on and left them biting.

On the cycling front I have been getting in my basic 100 miles a week, consisting of 2 club rides and usually a ride with just Michele and Me. Other than The Tuesday evening ride which has been really hot we roll out at about 7:30 am to beat the heat. We have got to get at least one long ride of at around 70 miles soon because the Hotter Than Hell Hundred is just around the corner and we are not well prepared.

Team off the back

Dennis

Lake Mineral Wells Trailway

noreply@blogger.com (Dennis and Michele Starkey) — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 01:16:00 +0000

With the news of cooler weather over the weekend Michele and I loaded up the camping trailer and headed off to Mineral Wells State Park for the weekend. While there we off course rode the 20 mile (one way) trailway which is the bed of the old railroad that served Mineral Wells in its days as a big player in the mineral water business. Riding from our campsite to the trail head and both ends of the Trail and back was about 45 miles for us, also all of the roads in the park were new ashpalt, none of that chip seal stuff, very nice.This trailway is in good conditioning and is a great ride, no steep hills or descents, just slight grades and smooth crushed and screened limestone. It does cross several small country roads and there is a trail bridge over highway 180 near Mineral Wells. At the Weatherford end there is only a parking lot, around halfway in the Town of Garner is a country store, but it is closed on Sunday.

After the bridge is a memorial park with several exhibits and this helicopter, it seems that a lot of the State Park land was used to train helicopter pilots for the military, before it was a park.

We saw few riders on our ride, maybe 5 bikes, 5 hikers and 1 horse along with a few deer and a good number of birds. I got this deer picture from the bicycle.

The camping at the State Park is also nice and there is a nice sized lake I caught a few bass out of. The mountain bike trails in the park are very hard since they are mostly shared with horses that turn the soil into soft sand.

Dennis

Peach Pedal Bicycle Rally

noreply@blogger.com (Dennis and Michele Starkey) — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 20:40:00 +0000

Ive wanted to do the Peach Pedal Rally for a while, last year I was going and then my back went out so I couldn't ride. This year the temperature was predicted to be 104 or 105, but we decided to go anyway since the start time is 7:30 am. We loaded up the tandem and headed for Weatherford and the Outback Building at the new high school.

The tandem in the mini van

Michele and I rode our Treck Tandem 64 miles in about 3.5 hours with 2 quick rest stops, this was a nice rally with back roads and decent rest stops and they had a good turnout I would guess was several thousand riders.

Since it is the peach festival I had homemade peach ice cream and cobbler made with Parker County peaches. Michele passed on the cobbler and had other festival food but she did not pass up the homemade ice cream.

I was washing the Tandem after the ride and noticed a blister forming on the rear tire and that spot was worn very thin, it's unsafe to ride now so I will get a new tire, we were very lucky we didn't have a blowout on a high speed downhill. Our top speed was 38 miles an hour and we averaged over 18 mph for the ride.

No sailing due to the extreme heat we have had, I have a chance to go on a 9 day coastal sailing trip on the 17th, but with work that's not going to happen and it would be hot sleeping on the boat on the south Texas coast.

Dennis

MS 150 and other stuff

noreply@blogger.com (Dennis and Michele Starkey) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 00:34:00 +0000

I have been lax in posting as I just haven't felt creative or like writing and then the heat set in. There have been lots of rides and some sailing since the last post.

I was lucky enough to be given a pre-paid spot to ride in the MS 150 and was riding for a large team called The Feisty Devils. I got as close to the start as I could get and rode the 80 or so miles from Frisco to the Texas Motor Speedway. this shows my spot in the mass start

I rode my but off with one very short stop for the rr, when I arrived at the bike lot to walk to the team tents not many people had arrived.

The Feisty Devils had a nice tent with all the food and drink you could ask for. I was looking forward to riding a lap around the Speedway on Sunday but Saturday night they cancelled the Sunday ride due to severe weather. It was a good call as severe weather did come in and the area suffered a lot of damage.

The near empty parking lot with my steed #121

We have also been camping at Bastrop State Park and rode the hilly Park Road One route several times and went on a nice 8.5 mile hike with the dog Sprocket.

Michele and Sprocket ride through the Lost Pines At Bastrop State Park
(sorry for the blurred picture and no brain bucket on Michele)

I have still been doing two club rides a week and felt like I was in a rut so this Saturday Michele and I went to Ray Roberts State Park and rode the Dorba trail and the 20 mile greenbelt trail for a nice change of pace and 40 miles on another 100+ day.

Today we went to the Summer Bash our bike club puts on (http://www.gdbclub.com/ ) and rode our tandem a little over 30 miles and had a great lunch catered by Freebird's.

My friend Bobby took me sailing again and I hooked another nice fish but this one got off as I attempted to lift it over the transom while sailing at 5 knots. This picture was supposed to be a short video but I guess I need to do some work to get that to happen.

Michele and I have also been going to Lambert's Fitness Boot Camp for a six week course and we are both down over 5 pounds and this really concentrates on the body core. Heath is a good friend and the Coach, they can be found on Face book

It appears we are in for a really hot summer as it was over 100 all this week. This will limit the rides and eliminate the camping for now, but we are planning more adventures.

Next time will come sooner

Dennis

Copper Breaks rides

noreply@blogger.com (Dennis and Michele Starkey) — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 17:51:00 +0000

The bicycle rally our local bike club puts on was a success. The Lancaster Country Ride had great weather and about 1200 or so riders, always nice to pull that off.

After we both worked at parking and registration we then rode the rally route on our Tandem and visited the rest stops. We also acted as unofficial sweeps asking any stopped riders if they needed help and encouraging those that were struggling. Some of the porto's were overwhelmed, but you do the best you can, if the weather had been bad like 2 years ago only a few hundred riderw would have showed up

No sailing to report on but planning to correct that little problem soon.

We took a trip to Copper Breaks State Park for a long weekend, we drove through a lot of rain and arrived to find the park only got a little rain so the mountain bike trails and especially the roads were fine.

This park is nice, clean and has a limited number of campsites, it only

has 24 sites for R V hookups. This weekend was quiet and we hiked and biked a lot. The rain had brought this arid country to life although the lakes are very low, they need rain.

In this case I made it a point to stop and let the traffic slither on by, this rattlesnake was only about a foot long but thats enough to make for a really bad day.

The trails range from nice easy doubletrack to the rocky ledges trail which I didn't even try to ride we hiked it and either climbed or slid down the ledges.

We plan on riding the Germanfest Metric Century in Muenster next Saturday on the tandem.

Finally sailing

noreply@blogger.com (Dennis and Michele Starkey) — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 13:19:00 +0000

My good friend Bobby and I finally got to get out on his boat. We had a great day with clear sky and good wind, Bobby and I have sailed together for years cruising and racing.Bobby
We even dusted off the spinnaker and took off on a couple of long reaches, perfect.

I almost always carry a fishing pole when near the water and in my ditty bag I carry a piece of PVC pipe and a couple of short lines to set up a rod holder for trolling, it was a good day to fish too.

Leading the peloton

The bicycle rides have been hard to get in but we had a good 67 mile ride with the club last Saturday, we broke out the tandem and had a fast hard ride. We rode part of the Bluebonnet trail and the flowers were starting to look good. This is part of the ride our bicycle club puts on each year called The Lancaster Country Ride.

Tonight is the clubs fast ride, last week it was 34 miles at a 20.7 true average, I haven't been on the bike since then and I hope I can still hang in towards the front. It gets harder to stay in decent shape every year.

I just returned yesterday from an overnight backpacking trip on the Cross Timbers Trail where I camped at the 5 mile trail campsite, great time but my legs are pretty sore.

Dennis

Its been all about the bike

noreply@blogger.com (Dennis and Michele Starkey) — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 01:03:00 +0000

I have not had a chance to go sailing for a while now but since our trip to Palo Duro Canyon I have been on some great bicycle rides. On Thursday I met Heath and Jeannie for an afternoon ride on a sunny and very windy day. We rode 55 miles with about a 17.5 average, which was really hard with wind gusts up to 30 mph and sustained winds over 20. The picture below is after the ride, I'm on the right.

On Saturday I rode the GDB Airport ride and got in 59 miles on another windy day, I rode the entire ride with the fast group but I did get dropped on the last few miles around the airport. The 20 mile loop around the airport is where it is a free for all and you usually catch all the lights green so it is fast and hard. This day we formed a rotating pace line at about 26 and I stayed in it as long as I could. our group of 20 + slowly got smaller and there were maybe 6 or 7 left when I went off the back.

Tuesday was the First ride of the year at REI and I once again went with the renegade group, this group rides fast but safe and I managed to stay with the group the entire way with a second and third place in the city limit sign sprints that I was in position to go for. We got in 25 miles with a 19.9 mph average and it rained on us , this was a very fast average for wet roads as we had to really slow for the turns.

It has been raining for 24 hours as I write this and shows no sign of stopping, when this finally blows over I am going to try and go sailing, but it may be next week before that can happen.

MAKE THE BEST OF WHAT YOU HAVE

Dennis

Cycling Palo Duro Canyon

noreply@blogger.com (Dennis and Michele Starkey) — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 16:02:00 +0000

We have been getting a few more miles on the road bikes but when we get a chance to ride the wind and cold has been a killer. Last Saturday Michele and I rode the Tandem to the meeting place for a club ride and all but 2 of the group did not ride but went to breakfast, to cold and windy. We did about 40 miles with wind gusts to 30mph.

Michele thought for a minute she had lost her driver as I dreamed of a warm breakfast.

We decided to take off Friday and go camp at Palo Duro Canyon this weekend, since it was going to be cold and windy we would ride mountain bikes down in the Canyons. This worked out nice and we hiked and biked roads and trails and were covered up with wildlife. The mtb trails are great and you can find rides for any level of rider from easy to very technical or you can ride the road out of the canyon(several miles of 10% grade). Due to the high winds on this road I did not do the climb out of the canyon but I will return and do it. My favorite trail was the Lighthouse Trail.

This was our first time here and it was a pleasant surprise, nice campsites out of the wind and clear sunny cool days to hike and bike. In the picture below I took an over the shoulder shot of a herd of deer, we saw hundreds of deer and wild turkey as well as a coyote And I will depart with another over the shoulder shot of another small group of weekday riders.

Palo Duro Rocks

Dennis

Almost Sailing

noreply@blogger.com (Dennis and Michele Starkey) — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 15:35:00 +0000

I was invited to go sailing with Bobby on the Bobcat, we prepped the boat, lowered the lift and the motor would not run. This motor is just like my old Tohatsu twin 8hp, and like mine it has been trouble free until now. At any rate we put it all back together and went to eat at Soul mans BBQ and did not actually sail even though we still had a good time.We did manage to get in several bicycle rides and I have still been working on my running. We went back to our favorite Fairfield State Park for the weekend and while on a ride I saw some wild pigs in the woods and turned back to Michele and said pigs and pointed, my intention was for us to stop and watch them but Michele apparently thought they were chasing us and sprinted off into the distance.

Happy Valentines Day Michele, these are just a few wildflowers that someone else had picked and left on the picnic table on the nature trail. She did get real flowers but they are at the house.

We had a great time camping and getting chased by the pigs, while the lake is now very low I seem to always catch a bass or two here. Michele sat in the sunshine and read a book while I fished and disrupted her to take a picture every once in a while. In a couple of weeks we plan on going to someplace new to us, either Goose Island on the coast or Colorado Bend in the Hill Country.

Dennis

A new Toy

noreply@blogger.com (Dennis and Michele Starkey) — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 15:05:00 +0000

Since we had sold our sailboat Michele and I had been looking at camping trailers, we like to camp and have always done so in our tent. After doing our research we decided that a camping trailer would fit the bill for several reasons, most importantly because we can store it at our home and anything larger would not allow that. We also like being able to be a lot more comfortable and it extends the weather window considerably.We looked at several and missed out on several because I always like to negotiate price. We finally purchased this 2001 Coleman Westlake and did OK on the price. When we arrived to look it over it broke a lifting cable, after looking closely I decided I could repair this if the price was reduced since otherwise it was in much better condition than others we had looked at.

Three hours of work and $50 later we head out to camp in our new RV and find everything works. It was nice to have heat, air, refrigerator and running hot and cold water. This unit also has a shower and toilet that work well but are not quite what you have at home. Most campgrounds have bathhouses, but these certainly will work if we need them. Our dog Sprocket immediately took over ownership but does allow us to use it.

We got in plenty of bike rides on the park roads at Fairfield State Park and I also did 28 miles of hard mountain bike trails and encountered 7 wild hogs out in the woods. In the pic above Michele is on a youth model mountain bike we borrowed from a friend to see if it fit her better than the full size ones. It was a good fit and she really likes this Trek MT 220 so we may just have to shop for one. We also started riding the tandem again training for the German fest Rally in April.

We will be home this weekend and ride with our bike club www.gdbclub.com and plan another trip in the new toy. While home we met with a lot of family at El Fenix to celebrate several birthdays including my own. As I write this we are getting some much needed rain for our garden. The onions and winter green are just starting to take off and as the weather warms we will keep planting in our garden that is much larger than last year.

Dennis

Sailing A Dana

noreply@blogger.com (Dennis and Michele Starkey) — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 14:01:00 +0000

I met Paul while bicycle riding with our club, he was a new rider on our DFW Airport ride but it was soon obvious he was not new to riding. While putting in about 60 miles we struck up a conversation and found we also had sailing in common, he is an accomplished sailor with a solo Atlantic crossing under his belt. I mentioned that if he ever wanted company on a day sail e-mail me and I would like to go. Another thing we have in common is that we are maybe a little more enthusiastic about sailing in cold weather than our wife's are.Well, this developed into a full day of sailing on his Pacific Seacraft Dana. a beautiful little ship that is a pleasure to sail and is maybe the best built small sailboat out there. I was also introduced to an auto pilot made by sailo-mat. This is a servo pendulum type of steering device that moves the rudder to keep the same angle to the wind, it works perfectly and is an ingenious device. On this cold windy morning it steered us while he made a pot of coffee on the gimbaled stove while close hauled into 15 mph winds.
Almost 6 knots close hauled with a reef in the main and this vessel is only slightly heeled over, most boats I have sailed or owned are heeled way over and require concentration to steer in these conditions.
Thanks for a great day Paul, and when you get ready to do some bright work let me know.

Dennis

Boulder Park Mountain Biking

noreply@blogger.com (Dennis and Michele Starkey) — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 22:28:00 +0000

After being off the bike and any exercising for over a week due to a leg injury I was finally well enough to go for a MTB ride. I headed out to Boulder Park after reading reviews of the trail. I really liked this trail since it is single track (one way), it has two tracks the blue is 6 miles and is the easy one the red is 10 miles and more difficult with creek crossings. I rode both paths and got a good workout, on this weekday ride I saw no one else.

It is nice to have a large area in the City of Dallas that is dedicated to Mountain bikes, not crowded and looks like a nice shady place to ride in the heat of the summer.

There were several little bridges, and one large one shown in the above photo. The trail takes you over and under this bridge.

A few areas here have narrow sections through the trees, I tried to illustrate that in the above picture. Like I said I liked this Park and if I ride here a lot I will cut down my handlebars for better clearance, keep your knobby tires if you want to make it up the hills and don't go if it is wet.

We have also done some road rides, one was on a nice Sunday when Michele and I rode about 35 miles with a stop at a local coffee shop on a perfect weather day. Our friends Gary and Lugay went with us and I took this photo ( blind over the shoulder) while riding. Michele is in the Texas Jersey. We all went out to dinner to close out a really nice day.

I have been invited to go for a full day of sailing on a Pacific Seacraft Danna that has crossed the Atlantic so stay tuned for the next post.

Dennis

Mountainbiking Huntsville State Park

noreply@blogger.com (Dennis and Michele Starkey) — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 13:58:00 +0000

We had heard Huntsville State Park was a good place to ride the trails and hike and since it was warm we paid them a visit. This is a large park with a nice little lake and trails from short to about 10 miles long. These trails are nice, no rocks but a fair number of tree roots will keep you standing up a lot. I should also note there are quite a few boardwalk areas to keep you out of the marshy areas.

On the longest trail called the three C's trail I heard the sound of rushing water so I stashed the bike and hiked in to find this small waterfall in the Pine woods. The picture does not do it justice.

While the trails are great and it is a beautiful park, we stayed in a shelter and found the facilities and the restrooms a little run down. Don't let this stop you from going and if you can go during the week it would be a super place.

Sunday about noon the wind changed and a blue Norther arrived, within 5 minutes we went from shorts and t-shirts to coats and long pants cutting our trip a few hours short.

Happy New Year

Dennis

Merry Christmas

noreply@blogger.com (Dennis and Michele Starkey) — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 18:47:00 +0000

We hope everyone has a Great Christmas this year, it's obvious many are having a hard time this year and all who can should spread it around a little. Well on to the cycling. Our local club http://www.gdbclub.com/ has been having a Santa ride for about 20 years from what I have been told, this year we met in North Dallas to ride to Highland Park and meet up with Santa and the van of gifts and more riders. We rode with Santa to a Family Shelter in Downtown and sang carols and donated the gifts and money our club had rounded up. This made me feel very lucky indeed. A Group shot if front of a decorated house, sorry about the grass

Chris's van full of toys and loot.

Michele and others with Santa

Riding with Santa was fun and people honked with joy instead of anger, Santa tossed out candy canes to everyone we passed, kids, construction workers bus stops etc.

After this ride Michele and I got with 3 others and did some bonus miles, shorts on December19th, you have to take advantage of it.

After Christmas we are going to try to get away for a few days and camp out if the weather allows. No sailing the last few weeks due to the weather, work and the foiling of my best laid plans.

Dennis

North Shore Trail Review Grapevine Texas

noreply@blogger.com (Dennis and Michele Starkey) — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 17:51:00 +0000

I have an older mountain bike that I won from Carrier on a point system for selling oem parts. This bike was junk, it weighed about 40 lbs and had worthless brakes and a couple of springs they called a suspension.

I got an early Christmas present when this GT Mountain bike went on sale and I had a 20% off coupon. It is the Avalanche 1.0 hydraulic disc brake. I rode it around for a few days and decided to try out the North shore Trails 9 mile out and back route. The bike is so much nicer than what I have been riding on the trails, if money was no object you can get a lighter better bike, but this would be hard to beat for the price I paid.

The trail started at a Park on the North end of the dam and runs along the lake through corp of Engineer land its whole route. I would call this a tough technical ride, it starts out nice but the first real climb is full of big rocks and I like most people had to carry my bike. The ride was fun and had maybe 4 real hard spots,(walk) mostly it was very doable hills and creek crossings. Below is a picture of a balancing rock and an Idea of what the area is like.

Well I can't leave out the sailing, at various places I could see this regatta, there was no wind at the finish line so everyone sailed into this big hole and it took them a long time to finish. I may go ride this again next week, it was a good workout.

The only bad thing is the trail was busy, and it is narrow with blind turns and I was surprised a few times. I think I will ride this during the week when the crowds are smaller.

Ride with a reason

noreply@blogger.com (Dennis and Michele Starkey) — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 18:37:00 +0000

We filled up with some cheap gas on Thanksgiving Day, the lower prices help a lot but I wonder if it will just delay conservation and in the long run cost more. My non scientific survey shows traffic seems to have picked up a lot.A week ago Tuesday a group of about 15 of us rode our bikes to a viewing at a funeral home, The funeral is for a long time member of our local bike club. His family appeared to really enjoy having cyclist dressed in warm clothes and riding in the dark across Dallas to pay respects. James loved to ride his bicycle and cycling had nothing to do with his passing.

This week Michele and I took a midweek ride at White Rock Lake, we usually ride a 9+ mile lap together and then I take off and ride until I make a lap up on her. We will no longer be doing that as she has gotten to fast for me to make up 9 miles. We still split up and I do the optional hills or sometimes join another rider and work together, or just test each other.

Taking a break on flagpole hill, while this is not a good year for fall color there is enough to make it a beautiful time of the year to ride here.

We also rode a trail that follows White Rock Creek for 7 miles, this trail out and back with a lap around the lake is 25 miles. We had a nice 40 miles or so. This picture is Michele returning to the trail, we rode up this side path and it leads to a new development of modernistic cube style houses with a big effort on going green, next time I will get a picture of some of them.

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.

Share what you have

Dennis & Michele

noreply@blogger.com (Dennis and Michele Starkey) — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 15:45:00 +0000

On the 5th Bobby took me sailing again on a perfect day, we decided to sail over to the Fish House Restaurant at the Bass pro complex. We sailed wing on wing with the main and jib to clear the big point and the reached on over to the docks. Had a nice fish sandwich and a nice sail back.This is our newest Bass Pro Shop, I wonder how many of these we need. Locally or close by we have Gander mountain, Cabella's and 2 Bass Pro's as well as Academy, Dicks etc.

I got invited to hunt in Brady Texas again and took this picture as the sun tried to break through the fog, The deer were like grey ghosts silently moving through the wet woods. I was down to 2 packages of meat and now the freezer is well stocked again.

Michele and I have still been riding our bikes a good bit but we are not putting in the miles or hard long efforts like we did this summer. We did do a long ride Saturday on our roadies, I broke off with our club's fast group and gave a good effort but I got dropped. The only thing that makes getting dropped taste a little better is I wasn't the only one or the first one to go "off the back"!

36 degrees this morning

Dennis

A New Era

noreply@blogger.com (Dennis and Michele Starkey) — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 14:26:00 +0000

The flowers have been hit by frost, the leaves are falling and the flagstone patio is done. Well almost anyway, it will need a little detail work to be finished. With the raised beds, the rain barrel and Sprockets dog house we like the new backyardWe finally moved the boat to the lake as the refit was as done as it is going to get. The boat makes the F-150 look a little small, kinda like a big boat and toy truck.

Ready to move out on the way to Lake Texoma and a date at Cedar Mills with theTravel lift and mast crane.

We made the 85 mile move fine, I was a little worried as after all I built the trailer from scratch. We fully rigged her and put the sails on and took a little test spin in the marina area.

The picture below marks the end of our ownership of the Sailing Vessel Rising Star, The little dot in the center of the picture out beyond the boats in the Marina is Mike sailing off in his new boat.
I am happy and sad and I hope he enjoys the boat.

After all this we went to Lake Fairfield and camped out for the weekend, we had perfect weather to hike and got several nice rides on the bicycles. Oh and yes the bass were still biting in my little cove. As the campfire fades and our eyelids grow heavy we contemplate our next escape pod, maybe an RV or a storm damaged big sailboat around Galveston, or maybe nothing for a little while.

Get out and vote

Dennis