Stupid Hurts

I plan on making these Seattle rides once I get my fixed gear back. Riding Jake’s mountain bike the past few weeks has been killing me slowly.

The Humpday Hustle: 7pm at Redsquare. Every Wednesday

Seattle Critical Mass: Meet at Westlake Square on Westlake Ave.5:30 PM last Friday of every month.

Greenlake Race: Last Friday of every month (after Critical Mass). Meet by the bleachers at the South-end of the lake at midnight.

There are a lots of other rides in Seattle, and the town I live it. I will make post about them on occasion.

One of the best features of living Alabama are the unexpectedly awesome warm days we get in the middle of the winter. So after several weeks of miserably cold weather I was blessed with a 70 degree day yesterday. So I lit another candle at my altar to the Madonna del Ghisallo and then grabbed my bike and and my camera. It seemed like everyone who was a member of the church of “Our blessed mother of the holy order of lyrca” was out partaking of the sunlight. I passed runners stretching at lights, joggers pushing strollers the size of small cars and out cyclist dripping sweat from every pore. I ran into a group of South American Bmx riders, once we got past the initial language barrier we rode together for a few minutes and I followed amazed by the fluidity of their bar spins and bunny hops.

Later on I ran into a guy named Jeremy on a mountain bike practicing manuals in an empty parking lot.
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I sat and talked while he tried that and a few other tricks. After finding out he had never ridden his bike down Vulcan trail I ran him up there to show him where the mountain bike trail connected Southside to George Ward park. In my entire time in Birmingham I have never seen the trail that crowded. We found ourselves weaving around playful dogs and happy couples. The entire ride a constant string of warm smiles and nods.

Finally after he split, I took advantage of the failing light to get a few pictures of the city I have been dying to get for some, here is Birmingham facing north from the the 23rd street bridge just north of Morris Ave.
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So I got home expecting to upload all these cool pictures from my day today only to realize that I had left my memory card out of my camera.

I thought I had pictures of the group of people that went on the weekly 20 mile ride from our bicycle shop, and pictures of my co-worker Anthony looking like a kid in a candy story building his new mountain bike that has been on back order for the past month.

I felt really silly when I got my card reader out to import the pics onto my computer and I saw that my memory card was already in it and not in my camera where it belongs.

It is funny how the short simple trips rarely ever are. A friend of mine invited me out for a short 10-15 mile ride with her. Figuring I would be home in time for dinner I quickly agreed. So we saddled up and headed for the hills. In less than 5 miles we had escaped the city and found our selves cresting hills and zooming past bored looking cows.

And then we got lost. The road we were cycling down suddenly turned to gravel, so I asked Liz were do we go now. She told me “I didn’t really listen to that part of the directions.” So we just chose the direction that seemed right and started spinning. When we were confident that we had chosen the right direction the rain started. Luckily it was a warm gentle rain that just sort of added to the entire experience. Then once I crested what had to be the longest climb of the day I saw something that made the entire trip worth it. The blue green sea of grass in front of me was canvassed with little galaxies of lightning bugs. I stopped for a second to let Liz catch up and to try to take it all in. What had started out to be a simple 10-15 mile ride quickly became a visually amazing 30 mile adventure.
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I also finished building my mountain bike and I even found time to fall off of it three times. I really like the way it rides and handles so far. I can’t wait to get the free time off to ride in on some of the local trails.