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