Gettin Kinky

Thursday I found out Kinky Friedman, a former Texas candidate for Governor was going to be at a local cigar shop so Michele and I went to meet Kinky. When he arrived he was very pleasant and was cutting up and signing autographs as well as posing for photo's, he gave Michele a big smile when he came in. I did have the camera with me and pulled it out, turned it on and it beeped and said battery exhausted, great. The purpose of his visit was to promote his new line of cigars, one of them is named the Utopian after his animal rescue ranch and the proceeds of this cigar go to those efforts. I had the impression he was a large man as he is always wearing a cowboy hat, but in real life he was not very tall but it was still a fun time.

I was scheduled to lead a bicycle ride for the club called the distance builder on Saturday, but it was in the 30's and none of this group showed up so I did a ride of 50 miles with the more hard core Airport group and we had a good ride with light winds and sunshine even though it was cold. Monday Michele and I went to the GDB spin class and had a good workout, I used my heart rate monitor and worked for a little over an hour with a maximum heart rate of 182, and overall average of 151 and burned 915 calories, not bad for an old guy.

Sunday we went to Eisenhower State Park and did some hiking along the bluffs at Lake Texoma, the lake was deserted and we saw no other hikers on the trail, I guess the cold and wind made it a perfect day for us. The limestone bluffs were full of fossilized sea shells and makes me think it was all covered by water at some time.

A woman and her faithful DogWe visited the Eisenhower Birthplace to round out a politically themed week. The annual State Park Pass allows us free entry to the State Parks and Historic sites and has paid off for us.

Losing retirement money faster than I can count

Dennis Starkey

West Systems Epoxy

When work allows and weather permits I am still sanding the bottom on the O'day 272 in preparation of repairing the blisters on the bottom of the hull. The hull is now dry and all the blisters are open, and a lot of the gel coat is ground, or sanded off.Santa brought me some West Marine gift cards for Christmas and I bought round one of the Epoxy supplies I will need to repair the blisters and apply a barrier coat of epoxy. This is about it on the O'Day until the weather warms up.

I have had several good bicycle rides over the past week or so, On Tuesday I rode a night ride on the White Rock Trail for 22 miles, and then Saturday I rode 55 miles with the club www.gdbclub.com . This was a good training at a good but not all out intensity level, For a lot of the ride I was on the wheel of a guy with a powertap and we stayed at a consistent 200 watts of power. The powertap is a hub on the rear wheel that accurately measures power applied in watts, since I was drafting a lot my power output was a little less, but I have a heavier bicycle and weigh more myself to even it out.

Michele also got in a nice ride on Saturday with the clubs distance builder group, they rode to The State Park Fairgrounds and explored that area. We both did the Spin Class on Monday night and it looks like cold weather is going to set in for a while now limiting our rides.

I think I've got cabin fever

Dennis Starkey

1963 Biscayne for sale

For the first of the year my brother Bart,his son Austin and I went down to the farm to do a little work on the place. we bagged up a lot of debris and trash. In this remote are there is no trash pickup so a lot of bottles and cans and anything that won't burn is still there. It had been at least 3 years since the driveway was mowed so we mowed the one driveway and around the newer house, the grass was the same height as the pasture and was hard to mow, but it looks like someone is taking care of the place now.Mowing the grass helped a lot but the amount of work that needs to be done is staggering, we also need to sell a few vehicles, like the 63 chevy in the picture below. If anyone wants a Cheech and Chong low rider we have the title and would take $500. The car is all there and has never been wrecked, but has not been moved in at least 10 years

My nephew Austin Starkey loves to target practice and is becoming a good shot, we shot several guns and in the pic he is shooting the gun my dad gave me when I was 12 years old, A youth model 22 single shot rifle. We set up targets and had a little safety course and a lot of fun, my shooting was not up to par, I'm going to blame on my aging eyes.

On the bicycling ride side of things I was riding down to meet the club Saturday and the street was wet, I hit a section that was muddy and the bike instantly just shot out from under me. I wasn't injured but did suffer a good Raspberry on my Bum after sliding about 20 feet on it. Its healing nicely but I may not be able to ride for a while, guess it will be work on the boat time for a while.

Sea ya

Dennis Starkey

Bastrop State Park Review

This Weekend we decided to get away for a little while before Christmas and we visited Bastrop State Park. This is a Park located about 30 miles southeast of Austin and is in an area of the hill country known as the lost pines.
This is a really pretty area in the Winter time because it is still green and the forest floor is covered with a blanket of pine needles and makes walking in the woods quiet.
The real reason for our trip was to ride the 12 mile park road between Bastrop and Buescher State Parks. We rode this route out and back for a ride of about 26 miles including the loop around the parks on both ends. This is a very hilly ride with constant up and down, Make sure your bicycle has the right gears for the climbs. While fairly steep the climbs are not long and the descents are fun, traffic was very light and the narrow winding road was in good condition with the exception of the 3 cattle guard crossings.

Michele rides in the Piney Woods

Sometimes Sprocket our rescue dog thinks he is a sled dog
Since it is Christmas maybe he thinks he is a reindeer

This park also has 2 hiking trails , the Bueshcer trail which is 7.7 miles and another loop at Bastrop of 8 miles. We did the 7.7 miles and saw only one hiker the entire time, very nice trail with gentle climbs and smooth terrain. We plan on returning and hiking the 8 mile lost pines trail next time.

The Town on Bastrop is a trip back in time to small time America and they had the walk on the Colorado River decorated with thousands of lights and every few feet the decorations had a different theme, it was a great Trip

On Christmas we went to my brothers house and about 20 family members were there, after a nice lunch we went to Michele's mother's house for coffee and dessert, it truly was a great Christmas.

Merry Christmas

Dennis and Michele Starkey

Sailing a small boat

Tuesday I did The TEBR with the bike club (Tuesday evening bike ride) and it was a spirited ride. We do various routes ,all after dark so we use lights. I have a strobe taillight and a 10 watt halogen headlight. the 10 watt is OK but the guys with HID light like the night rider brand are maybe 3 times brighter but cost 3 or 4 hundred dollars. Until I can make myself spend that kind on money on a light I just stay close so someone with a good light, if I pick someone faster than I am it is motivation to keep up

During the middle of the week I did get to do some sailing with a small boat. This is a boat I built from a kit some years ago, it is an America's cup miniature called the Victoria. The first time I took it out the motor that controls the rudder came off its mount and I had no control and had to walk to the boat and retrieve it off of the rocks. When this happened I had a visual off this happening on the bigger O'day 272 and how dangerous it could be too loose steering and control off the boat, I was helpless. After the repairs it sailed very good and I could sail it right back to me.
After about an hour of tuning and sailing the boat a couple came over and said they enjoyed watching the remote control sailboat in action and visited with me for a few minute about the boat, that was nice

This weekend we have planned to go to the Austin area and do some hiking and cycling at some of the State Parks in the area.

I am a Pirate 200 years too late

Dennis Starkey

Sunshine at last

I took off work early Thursday and got a nice 30 mile ride in and then on Sunday I met a group of friends for a randonouring ride. In the picture we are heading out of Dallas on the highway 80 service road and are going across the 8 lane I-635 and looked down ----------and this is what we saw. a multi-car crash. What a rotten start to someones Christmas.
We had a great ride on nice country roads on a Sunny 50 degree day for a little over 40 miles. On the way back in the traffic was heavy and we had to stay alert, it was nice to have 7 riders as you are a lot more visible. We took one short restroom and drink stop and finished the ride. Thanks to Paul who took these pictures and is not in any of them. While we were riding Michele rode with her friend Lugay and got in a little over 30 miles and did some pretty hard hill climbs, this along with the Monday night spin classes are making her a strong rider.

On the sailing front the weather has not been conducive for sailing with friends on their boats but I have done some more sanding on the bottom of the O-day 272 and should apply the epoxy repairs and barrier coat after the 1st of the year. I really need 70 degree dry weather to do this, but may have to wait, all because of the delay due to the spring flooding and high water preventing hauling the boat. I guess the longer I am landlocked the more I will appreciate sailing again.

Doing better than I deserve. (if you recognize this statement That I have plagiarised then I must tell you that yes we are.)

Dennis Starkey

Global Warming

We had a great bicycle ride on Saturday with a high in the low 80's, then Sunday morning it started in the 40's and then dropped into the 30's and has been there since.
For the bicycle ride I did the GDBCLUB Airport ride which is about 55 miles plus I ride to the location for some extra miles. At about 20 miles I had a flat tire (first one in 2000 miles) , this is no big deal, I just removed the piece of offending glass,installed a new tube and proceeded to air it up with a co2 cartridge and blew the tire off of the rim exploding the tube with a report like a gunshot. I carefully installed and pressurized my last tube and made it fine the rest of the ride and back home. This is a nice club to ride with and they patiently waited while I changed the tube twice and only received a little grief from the other riders.

Sunday was so wet and cold we started a nice fire and just relaxed and worked some on Christmas stuff. Now I don't really know that much about Global Warming but we do recycle and use the least amount of electricity and water we can. We do this for our pocketbook as well as the environment so it is a win win situation.

Proud People Don't Litter

Dennis Starkey