Merry Christmas

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

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

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

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

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

Time Off

With fall approaching I get a little more time off, not only from work but also from the hard bicycle rides and training rides. Fall is a time for fun rides and recovering from the hot summer. This past week I got to spend a day sailing with Bobby Allen on his Mac 26, we had a perfect day with 10 to 15 winds and we brought sack lunches. We sailed all over the lake and to the docks at the new Bass Pro Shop on Lake Ray Hubbard.We then decided to go to Pensacola and stayed at a B&B that was built in the 1800's by a ship captain. In the following photo's we are canoeing down the Blackwater River, this was a fun trip where an outfitter took us back into the National Forest and we drifted and paddled miles back to the take out site. This was a fun trip with enough current we mostly just steered and were the only canoe that day and had the river to ourselves.

Since we like lighthouses we also visited Pensacola lighthouse and Half moon bay lighthouse in Alabama, we collect miniatures of the ones we have visited and I think this makes 16. We spent a lot of time walking the beaches, eating seafood on open air patio's overlooking the beach and recharging our batteries.

This area was hit hard in 2004 by hurricane Ivan and the trees still show a lot of damage, but the area is recovering. Some of the roads at Pensacola Beach are still closed and you can walk for miles over the sand covered roadway.

This was our first stay at a B&B and it was nice, each day started with coffee on the wrap around porch and a nice breakfast served by the Innkeeper, then grab a snack and water bottles and off for the day, returning at dark.

Life is good

Dennis And Michele

Texas Tough Crit Races

Last week I did a night ride with the bicycle club that used some roads and some trails to get to the American Airlines Center to watch the Texas Tough Crit races. This was a fun night, riding our bikes to see a pro level bike race with 20k in payouts and some sprint laps paid up to $2500. This was a gruelling race won by a Team Toyota rider from New Zealand who made a clean solo break away with 6 laps to go.
We also went to lake Murray in Oklahoma this weekend and stayed in a rustic cabin and rode to Turner Falls on our bicycles, I got over 100 miles in nice rolling hills with a bonus climb to The scenic overlook above the falls.

The first picture below shows our old cracked up back porch in the process of being broken up by us, we took the old cement to be recycled by big city concrete crushers.
We are replacing it with Oklahoma flagstone, this is a learning experience setting the stone and cutting it by hand to fit. We first layed down a couple of inches of decomposed granite as a base and then leveled it and started setting and fitting the stones. I think I will like this natural look.

I have more photos of our rides and the yard project but my camera will no longer transfer to the computer. Oh, the O'day 272 is ready to launch finally and we have been looking at marinas.

Sailing soon

Dennis

Backpaking the Cross Timbers Trail

I had day hiked a small part of this trail some years ago and have wanted to return and backpack some of this trail. Friday I drove to the trail head on Lake Texoma at Juniper Point and got there about 5:00 pm and set out . The trail goes up and down and up and down with some nice little hills, nothing to bad but not a lot of flat land as you walk along bluffs above the lake and have to go down and back up to cross every drainage.

I arrived at the lost loop campsite a little after 7 and set up camp for the evening, dispersed camping is allowed but since I saw no one else on the trail I used the designated campsite to leave a smaller footprint. The campsite looks to have seen a lot of use but there was almost no TRASH.

I saw a lot of the little plant below, but none was right on the trail but a little off to the side. If you don"t recognize this little plant, this is the classic poison ivy (leaves of three let it be).

Saturday I hiked back on a nice cool morning with a low of 66. This trail spends a lot of time along the lake with nice views and varied terrain, I plan on doing the rest of the trail soon but the 4.5 miles or so from Juniper Point to Lost Loop were nice and clean. The trail crosses the parking lot of a marina which is the only place I saw other people. Close to the parking lot at the trail head I did pick up 2 fresh empty drink cans, a DP and a V-8, they were not here on my way out.With a pack weight of 30 pounds and about 10 miles total I could feel I had used some different muscles than I normally use. Sunday we got up early and got a nice 25 miles in on the bicycles by 8:45 and had the whole day left to work on the yard project.


Proud people don't litter

Dennis Starkey

Copper Epoxy Bottom Job

We finally found some time and cooler weather and were able to work on the Boat, we have already put an epoxy barrier coat of 4 coats of West System. I found a product from Progressive Epoxy that is a kit of epoxy and copper powder and works as a barrier coat and anti fouling. Since the 4 coats looked a little light I re- sanded the hull did a little more fairing and put on two thick coats of Copperpoxy.Michele said it looks like a new penny, it did cover and flow good and I got a reasonably smooth finish. If I would have left it a little thinner is would have flowed out better after being rolled on.

We still have to do some work under the last bunk, but the end is in sight. If the copper epoxy doesn't work well as anti fouling I have lost nothing as I needed the thicker Barrier Coat and regular anti-fouling paint can be applied over it with light sanding for adhesion.

It was a light week on the bike, during the week it is getting dark earlier and has cut into the ride time, Saturday we rode 35 on the Tandem, and on the road bike only 30 miles on Monday and 21 on Tuesday. I was trying to save my legs for a overnight backpacking trip this weekend.

Yard work coming soon.

Dennis

Hotter'n Hell Hundred

Michele and I had a great ride at the rally, as we did last year we camped in our friend Gerald's motor home. This is a great way to stay at this rally since with 10,000 riders showing up all the local hotels fill up fast, and they charge you a two night minimum.

In the picture we made it to the Outlaw Rest Stop, some times also called the 98 mile outlaw beer stop . We were the first from our club to arrive and its just an old metal building out in the hot sun, its a right of passage you just have to experience to understand. This our friend Paul who also took the following picture of us.
We have left the outlaw and are going over the big overpass back into town in the picture below, this is a tough climb with 101 miles on your legs. Our training paid off and we did much better than we had expected with an average in the 19's doing the 102 miles in 5hours 14 minutes. We worked at keeping a steady pace and used the downhills to get maximum speed on the old Treck t200 tandem. We took 2 very short rest stops at 50 and 80 miles, my heart rate average was 148 and I burned over 4,000 calories.

We had a great weekend with the shopping and the crit races, now its back to work on the backyard project and finish the boat repairs, my next posts will be on these.

We rode through Hell's Gate

Dennis & Michele

TEBR

These pictures are from the Tuesday Night Bike Ride that meets at REI in North Dallas. This Greater Dallas Bicyclist ride has a group for everyone and all levels, we are in the renegade or unofficial ride. This ride is fast and if you do not keep up you will be dropped so bring a map and phone. As we head out I am on the right in the blue jersey just sitting in trying to save energy for later in the ride.

This is much later in the ride I am now on the left and struggling to hang on to my friend Gary Chaing's wheel, I eventually let a gap open and caught a red light,(I guess I didn't save enough energy) this was a hard ride on a hot afternoon. My computer showed 33 miles with a 20 average while dealing with traffic, red lights and a lot of hills and strong wind, can you see the pain in our faces, we are old enough to know better.

After a day of recovery this morning I ran 7 miles at an easy pace before work, I like running when I can't get in a ride because I can leave in the dark and its easy, just put on shorts and shoes and go.

We are still working on the backyard project and it is moving slowly but is beginning to take shape, hope it turns out like we envision it.

This weekend will be our last weekend ride before the Hotter'n Hell Hundred on the 23rd, after this we will do no hard rides to be fresh for this 100 mile challenge on the tandem.

Hopefully there will progress to report on the boat repairs on my next post.

Sea Ya
Dennis

This picture tells the story of July, hot and dry, it has been the 4th hottest ever here in North Central Texas. While we have still been riding the bicycles, it has been only 2 rides a week and you have to pace yourself and work at staying hydrated.

On August 2nd we left early and rode 60 miles in the heat on the Trek Tandem, it was hot and hard, but we are training to ride the Hotter Than Hell Hundred in Wichita Falls TX. the 23 of August and we will ride the tandem.

Being in the Mechanical Contracting business I have had all the work I can do and it has left me too worn out to work much on the boat, but I have the material to finish it with a copper epoxy bottom coating and should be able to complete it if we get some cooler weather, 105 to 107 is not good weather for applying epoxy.

The closest we have come to significant moisture is this picture I got of a rainbow to the West of us where someone must have received rain. Michele and I have learned to deal with the heat well and pace ourselves but don't let it stop us from doing things and we don't spend our summer indoors.

We are also working on the back yard, A tree limb fell and broke our large old deck so we are removing it and putting in raised beds to increase our garden space. While we are at it we will break out and remove our cracked concrete patio and replace it with flagstone set loose with granite sand for a natural look. I will post pics of the fall garden as we progress with this project.

Dennis

July 4th

I hope everyone had a great 4th of July, we did. Our day started out with an invitation only bike ride, it was recommended you be able to average 18-20 mph for 50 miles to go on this ride. So we could both do this ride together we rode the tandem.

We all made it the rest stop at about mile 24 and took a break at the CVS store, while here we found Barry talking to the pharmacist about performance enhancing drugs, but he had no luck.

There was another tandem on this ride and it was a really nice bicycle, a Co-motion that weighs 1/2 half of what our Trek weighs. In the photo above we decide to start our move to the front while I try to take pictures, steer and keep the speed in the mid 20's.

Success is achieved as we pass everyone and move to the front where we stayed until we hit the big hills and they killed us. We still managed an 18 average for 55 miles and had fun with some great folks.

Later we went to a firework show and concert at the Historical park close enough to the house we could walk to it, the band was great and it was a super time.

It has been hot and dry here so work on the boat is at a standstill, but my mind is made up, I'm going to sail away, looking for adventure, of course on Island time.

Another delay on the boat work is a wind storm blew down a large tree limb that crushed our deck so we are removing it a little at a time in the cool of the evenings.

Dennis

This past Saturday we rode the Treck T-200 Tandem on a 56 mile ride and had a great time, I have been so busy working I have been missing my midweek daytime rides with a group of 6 or 8 of us.

This Thursday I decided to play hooky and met up with them for a quick 30 miles and on the way to the ride I saw this wreck, may bee a car isn't so safe. We had a nice ride in a new area following Heath's Garmen 705 GPS bicycle computer. More rides like this are in order.
After this ride I find out a friend of mine in the same business as me passed away. This really topped off my midlife crisis and made the need to try and enjoy life more a little more urgent.

After our ride Last Saturday, on Sunday we went to lake Ray Hubbard to meet Bobby who had just installed a lift and docked his boat there.

We had a great time sailing with light winds and I even trolled a lure for a while with no luck, but we had plenty of snacks and cold drinks. With my newly gained sense of urgency I think more times like these are in order.

Tommorow may be to late.

Dennis

Heat Wave

The weather has been hot here in Dallas and I have been really busy trying to keep people cool.
This is another job I did and on this one I had to lift this 5 ton unit over a smaller one and fit it in a tight area. Another slight reduction in a homes carbon footprint since this unit is 30 percent more efficient than the one it replaced. This and lot of other jobs have cut into the boat job and our cycling.
I was able to put the temporary bunk on the starboard side of the boat and grind out the blisters under the trailers normal bunk, and allow them to dry good. I have no idea when the weather and work will allow me to finish this part and move to the other side, but really I'm not in a hurry.

The old Truck bit the dust after 220K miles of service work, it was a good truck and never gave any trouble, I hope this one does as well. The good thing is full size trucks are not selling and the incentives are great.

We have been riding on Saturday mornings and maybe one other short ride during the week, I rode a really fast ride with some racers on The 10th and could tell my conditioning is off. I guess I'll have to put work on the back burner and get back to important stuff.

Proud people don't litter

Dennis

Trailer Sailing on Lake Texoma

Over the Holiday weekend I knew several friends were going to be anchored at Wood Island on Lake Texoma so I twisted my buddy Bobby's arm into trailering his boat up there. It's about a 90 mile trip and when we got to Mill Creek Marina we pulled out of the way and in the photo below we are stepping the mast.We had a great sail over to the Islands and are anchoring with the stern toward the shore, his Macgregor 26D will go into 12 inches of water so we step off of the stern ladder into shallow water and spent the afternoon with friends whose boats you see in the background. Bobby and Michele are smiling "we made it".

After lunch we spent the afternoon sailing all over the lake and had good wind almost all of the time. In the next picture Michele is trimming the main and Bobby has rigged his boat with a traveler allowing windward sheeting. In years past Bobby and I have won a few trophies sailing "Bobcat".

Bobby returned us home tired, windblown and a little sunburned.

Life is good.

Dennis