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

We finally got good weather and started applying the epoxy barrier coat on the O'day 272. The first coat shown here is clear and was followed by 3 more heavy coats with the gray additive for abrasion resistance and better water proofing, it now looks slick and shiny but I still have to do the areas under the trailer bunks.Our garden is growing like crazy and loves the water from our rain barrel we showed on an earlier post. Lettuce, green beans and potatoes are abundant, with squash and tomatoes ripening on the vine. With all the healthy vegetables we have been eating we have each lost several pounds.

The bicycle rides have been good and I had 131 miles for the week ending on the 17 th, Michele has also been putting up good numbers and has moved up to riding with a faster group. I have also been running as cross training for my cycling and have began to enjoy the simplicity of putting an shorts and shoes and heading out the door.

Below is our arsenal of bicycles on the hooks I installed in the garage, 2 road bikes,2 mountain bikes and 1 tandem, my worn out bikes are outside waiting to be given to someone who needs a clunker to ride.

I am trying to set it up with a friend to go sailing and do an overnight stay on his trailer sailor over the next weekend. Michele said it would be no fun to overnight on the O'day in the storage yard with no water in sight.

Life is good

Dennis

A bicycle built for two

About a week ago Michele and I were offered the use of an older Trek tandem bicycle, I put a new set of tires on it and tuned it up as best I could and we have been riding it.
This weekend we decide to go to the German Fest Bicycle rally in Muenster Texas and do the very hilly 42 mile route. Michele was looking forward to this ride and was excited thinking because I am a fairly strong rider we would go fast and she got her wish, on our first long downhill we hit 41.7 miles an hour as the picture shows the max on our cycle computer. Well we didn't do that again as it was just a little too fast and exciting. We had a good time and went to the festival after the ride.

On the sailboat end of things I have filled and fared all the blisters and am now ready to apply the epoxy barrier coat on the bottom. Of course when this is done I will still have to block up the boat to do the area under the trailer bunks. Finding the time and then having the weather cooperate when I do have the time has made this job drag out longer the I expected but the hull has really dried out nicely.

Don't dream your life, live your dreams

Dennis

Lake Fairfield State Park review

Over the weekend we went camping at Fairfield State Park with our good friends Gary and Lugay and had perfect weather the whole time. The evening Saturday was perfect for a campfire and steaks cooked over the fire.

The bass fishing was excellent as shown in this picture and you can also see the light fog that was settled on the lake. I found this nice little cove and several times I rode my bicycle over to fish and caught fish every time.

We went for an evening drive and saw numerous deer, one Armadillo and six raccoons and Gary and I saw a bald Eagle while fishing. The only trouble with this trip was that it was over so quick.

On the way home we stopped in at the Gander Mountain outdoor store and had an early dinner at the famous Collin Street Bakery.

Tuesday I rode the evening bicycle ride with the club and we rode 29 miles with a 20.0 mph average. This average was for an in town ride with traffic and was really hard, I was at 100% heart rate way to long even with a nice rotating pace line.

This weekend is our club rally, "The Lancaster Country Ride" the weather forecast is good and the Texas Bluebonnets are going strong so we should have a large turnout. Michele and I will both work the rally and try to do part of the rally after completing our duties.

This week I had my third letter to the editor published in the Dallas Morning News and now am part of the sounding off panel and weekly I am sent topics to comment on. Of course these do not pay but I enjoy doing it. This blog has Google ads on it and I get a few cents when ads are clicked on so I get paid a whopping $3 or so a month, feel free to click on an ad if it is something that interests you.

Getting ready for a market downturn

Dennis Starkey

Spring Fever

Last week I had a case of spring fever and took the dinghy out on a fishing trip at a small nearby lake. This lake is maybe 40 acres and has no boat ramp for launching, making it perfect for my little rowing dinghy. I originally built this to be used with our O'day 277, but it is still in the boat yard being repaired and refitted. When it is ready I sure would like to take a long cruise along the coast living on the hook for a couple of weeks.Michele and I have both been getting to ride our bicycles a lot on the weekends and we have enjoyed that. A lot of times we do separate rides due to our differing speeds but these recent rides together have been nice.

Spring time is here and we have seen our first bluebonnets of the season, and it is raining as I write this. Our garden is growing and we have had 3 salads from it so far, all organic and watered with captured rain water.
If the weather permits we are going camping this weekend and that means mountain bike rides and nice long hikes.

Keeping my fingers crossed
Dennis