The Road Less Traveled

...atleast by road bikes.....

I got out for a good scouting ride the other day- I had planned to ride down to the Pigeon Mountain preserve just west of Lafayette and ride an unpaved ridge over to Daugherty Gap (the Tour de Georgia went down that last year), into the cove and back towards home- unfortunately I got out a bit later then planned so had to cut it short- BUT, I was able to get there and ride the climb to the ridge- it was fantastic- a one lane, twisty chip and seal road that probably averaged 10-12% over the 4 1/2 K climb- all in the woods- deep in the woods.

The pictures are the sheer cliff I had just ascended and was about to go down and the second is the sign pointing to where I will visit in the future.

This has the makings of an epic ride- I will try to get out to in in a few weeks- hopefully it willbe as foggy as it was on this day.....

Warren Zevon?

So I'm driving home this evening and I hear an unmistakable tune on the radio- it's Waren Zevon's "Werewolves of London"....WRONG- it's some lame ass Kid Rock tune- My exact thought at that moment was "you've got to be kidding me, I hope Warren's estate got some cash out of this one because it's the exact riff from the original".

So, I listen to this disgrace for about 47 more seconds and change the station- then what do I come across?- as horendous cover of Judas Priests "You've Got Another Thing Comin'" Now I'm in a world of pain, memories of my more formatable years have been significantly dented in the span of less then one minute.

What's next, some unjustified rip off of a Frank Zappa story or destruction of my memories of a Grateful Dead experience? Man, I'm in the dumps, there's nothing wrong with covers, but do the original justice please.....

Snow-

got in 3 hours today in the snow- nice......I got a couple pics on my phone- if I can figure out how to get them off the phone I'll post them....

just got it done- thanks T....

Todays ride.....

ahhhh, thanksgiving, time for a trip to the inlaws- me, my wife, our 4 kids and a hyper 5 month onld 45 pound Great Pyrenees puyppy, what a trip.

Got to Southeast Ohio at like 1:30 this morning, got to bed at 3:00, got up at 8:30 and managed to get a ride in- I feel a bit better about our future today as it was COLD, WINDY, DAMP, NO LEAVES ON TREES. Made me smile- this is what late November is supposed to be.....
the thing about riding up here in the appalachian foothills is there are crappy little patchwork, chip and seal roads. Even detoured to a grave road at one point....cool....There are more short 1K 10% climbs then you can imagine and enough dogs to keep things interresting. I hit a few roads I have always looked at but never gone down and I was rewarded with a backwoods feel to todays ride. If you've ever seen Silence of the Lambs- when the move starts and they are driving out to middle of nowhere WV- that's what it's like riding around here- roads go over hill and through hollow and it's pretty cool. Although there is te sense of what's waiting around the next corner. Especially after witnessing a hill jack domestic disturbance on the side of the road......

So I now feel like winter is agian approaching, tomorrow is supposed to be 25 degrees in the morning with flurries, I'll probably get in a 55-60 mile ride over in and around Huntington WV (Go Herd!). It will be nice....(and miserable)

Todays ride.....

I got out for a decent 2:40 today- and man was it beautiful. I was able to ride one of my favorite roads here, Dripping Springs road in Walker County Georgia. The only thing bad about the road is it's too short before it meets up with a highway but that's life. As I was riding I started to do some thinking in between glances at the power meter. My overwhelming thought was how warm it is. I mean, I was in shorts and thin arm warmers and was sweating. It's just not normal for their to be beutiful multicolored trees and 70+ degrees in late November.

So, my thoughts turned to this whole global warming thing and I started thynking how it would affect things like cycling (not that cycling is something of great worldly importance, but it's part of me so that's a natural thought pattern). Here's what I envision (hope I'm wrong)- in like 20 years cycling in the US won't be a summer sport because it will be like 130 degrees in the southeast, we'll be racing in balmy 80 degree temps in January, on the Canadian Boarder. If the trend continues in like 50 years there really won't be any organized sport because we'll all be cave dwellers living on mushrooms and dead bats, with the skin tone of Sean Kelly (THE MAN) in February no less. Those who choose to still be surface dwellers will face an existance parallel to Mad Max.

Over time, we will evolve into large eyes full pupiled creatures that haven't seen the light of day thier entire existance.

Sorry for being so down but it was an odd thought pattern I thought I'd share. So, in the meantime, hope it doesn't happen, enjoy the ride today and spend some time thinking about how you can effect change for tomorrow.....

BTW- 164.5 post ride today ;-)

170 pounds!!!

......167.5..........

170 pounds!!!

.....168.5.......

170 pounds!!!

Yeah, that's what I weighed this morning- Nice, man I feel poor. It's no secret to my triaing buds that I struggled a bit keeping the pounds off this past season. Instead of my normal 156-158 fighting weight, I fluctuated at 161-164 pretty much all year. I did manage to get down to 159 for our local River Gorge Omnium climb-fest here in the 'Nooga. But that was it. Now, I'm 170 pounds, haven't been this heavy in like 7 years or so.

I'm not one that has to really starve myself to get skinny (and you shouldn't do that either), it's more of a struggle with avoiding the oreo's and ice cream, but lately I've been loosing this battle. Especially with the red holiday double stuff oreo's. My favorite thing is to break 3 apart, scrape the cream out of one and make a triple double stuff oreo....man that's good...But I think those days are over for now, unless I want to not eat during Thanksgiving, and that'ain't happening......

So, AJ, Tyler and all other Devo guys- keep me accountable....I'm a weak minded man sometimes and I need the help...I'll pay you back in quad hours next summer.....

carp

it's finally getting cold

yeah, for now atleast, it's funny, yesterday I was riding thinking how cold it was at 35 degrees and windy. But a month from now I'll be wishing it was 30 degrees. I ride in pretty much all types of weather, the coldest ride I did last year was 3+ hours at an average of 19 degrees. I remember 2 years ago I did 4 1/2 hours in 35 degrees and raining, but now I'm crying about a little chill in the air. It's alwways the change that gets me. Infact, when we get teh typical warm spell around here mid winter, enjoy it, but it makes it that much harder to readjust to the cold again.

I guess it could be worse.....didn't Erie, Pa get like a foot of snow yesterday???

Go Andy

This is Andy Meyer- AJ's Dad- just finished IM florida in 9:24:57 yesterday-

great job man

-carp

Family pictures.

So my wife (Terri) told me a month ago we needed to get a family picture done, which was right as the last time we got one done we had one child now we have 4. So yesterday, we ventured to the Red Bank Cemetary (yeah- the cemetary) to have our photo guy ( www.wildonstudio.net ) do the shots. Let me tell you what it's like getting 4 boys out the door looking presentable to get a group picture- remember that suprebowl commercial a few years ago on herding cats??? That's about what it's like with our guys, not only were we 30 minutes late but then the fun begins with getting the older two to stop arguing and still get the shot with the younger two actually looking somewhat in the direction of the camera.........but we got it, and a good shot of just us to boot (while #3 son was trying to figure out how to climb on top of a small mausoleum)....we just had to ignore that one for a minute to get things over with.

It will be nice to have something recent to actually put on top of the armoir when we get them back....but back to life right now and the 27 loads of laundry that are waiting........

Hincapie DEVO Team

Much thanks to Rich Hincapie for his vision and desire to promote what is going to be one of the best DEVO teams in the country in a short time.

here's the Roster:

Rich Hincapie- Cat 1 Greenville, SC
Shane Weaver- Cat 1 Greenville, SC
Steve Carpenter- Cat 1 Chattanooga, TN
Randy Owens- Cat 3 Greenville, SC
Jeremy Ellis- Cat 3 Greenville, SC
Steve Colavito-Cat 1 Atlanta, GA
Lynn Joslin-Cat 1 McDonald, TN
Nichole Bossie- Cat 1 Greenville, SC

U-23 Development Riders
David Hutton- U-23 Cat 1, Monroe, OH; Furman University Student
Nick Housley- U23 Cat 2, Marietta, GA
David Talbot- U23 Cat 2, Single Mountain, TN
AJ Meyer- JR Cat 2, Cohutta, GA
Ty Manger- JR Cat 2, Griffen, GA
Ben Gabardi- JR Cat 3, Jackson, MS; 2007 13/14 JR National TT & Criterium Champion
Evan Wynn- JR Cat 3 Asheville, NC
Tyler Karnes- JR Cat 3 Chesapeake, VA
Angela Austin- Greenville, SC
Cynthia Lehner- Greer, SC

This is an incredible project that has an unlimited future.