Virginia City from the southeast side

Took the road bicycle out today for the 1st time since I moved here. I figured Monday would be a good day to do this climb as opposed to the weekend. All went well. I made it, albeit slowly. Few pics from the climb.

Anyway

Something passed from father to son. (Written by Kent M. Keith)
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"Anyway"

People are unreasonable, illogical and self centered. Love them anyway.

If you do good people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives. Do good anyway.

If you are successful you win false friends and true enemies. Succeed anyway.

The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.

Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable. Be honest and frank anyway.

People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs. Fight for some underdogs anyway.

What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight. Build anyway.

People really need help but may attack you if you help them. Help people anyway.

Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth.

Give the world the best you've got,

Anyway

From Sarge to Scott R

First of all I want to say that Sarge was a name given to me by Patrick who unlike me served in the military and flew helicopters. When I first started riding in Carson most of the facility guys were green(so to speak). At first I was just happy to be riding at lunch let alone be riding with a handful of guys that never complained. At certain intervals I would suggest things because I was careful not to come across as some know-it-all-biker idiot. I would suggest that maybe we shouldn't race from the very start of the ride and that maybe if we didn't do that we could ride farther. These suggestions weren't really a conscious thing. It happened over time. I'm no bicycle wizard but I always carried enough stuff to get me home. Some of the guys didn't(in the beginning) so I was quick to help with a flat or broken chain. Eventually I got comfortable with this group of people and started to yell and joke with them about almost anything bicycle related..... and one day...Sarge....When I moved back to Maryland in 2004 I didn't really do a whole lot of riding. I kept in touch with J-Mo almost the entire time and as I was dealing with other things he never stopped riding. He got new Sarges and started riding farther and eventually commuting. I just want to thank him for keeping me in the loop even when I was 2600 miles away and continuing to keep me in the loop when I moved back mid March. I'm now just happy to be one of the pack and I say that with all sincerity. No offense to Patrick but Scott R will be fine if there are more than 1 of us around.

In an effort to be wishy washy this is a pic of my sister Leslie(taken the night before I headed west) who is the most important person on this earth to me. Here are some excerpts from a birthday blog she wrote to me last year concering when we were kids...I suppose Sarge really is buried in there somewhere but I'm happy to let it go...................

He decided to toughen up his little sister and made her do "stuff" that she might not have been exactly ready for. Instance #1--"Les, just ride this skateboard down this big hill (although you don't ride skateboards)...do it.. you can do it!" Les takes her big brother's encouragement, starts down the hill, and doesn't understand why the skateboard is wobbling at a frightful pace the faster she goes.. ..she goes flying off of it and nothing but the pavement and her skin is there to stop her. Scott greets her with happy celebration as he scrapes her off the bloody road.
He eventually started to like his little sister slowly. He met her at another physical challenge telling her to get on a bike and jump a creek. He psychologically prepared her and told her "Mike Siglers little sister would do it". So Leslie got a good running start on the bike, hit the ramp, went over the creek and flew gracefully over the handlebars having them crush her right in the diaphram. She lay on the ground and Scott met her exuberantly as she tried to breathe. He said she did "good" and she was thrilled with his approval as she gasped for air.

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Cheers to friendship, tolerance and understading....As in life, these things are most appreciated in cycling.

Liggettisms

Too much downtime...I thought these quotes from Phil Liggett sum up the pic nicely...Thanks Mike.

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"He's wearing the mask of pain"

"The elastic has snapped."

"... his legs have turned to rubber and his effort reduced to mere survival."

"He's turned himself inside-out!"

Bridge to engine room-more power. There is no more"

Mid April happenings.

4 the 4 1/2 people who read this I thought I'd post a few pics of Lake Tahoe and give a quick update. Ellie was out last week and arrived in one piece after being stuck at DFW for 9 hours. Seems the FAA wants to get back to the business of making sure planes are safe and they've decided to take a hard line approach which means thousands of planes have been grounded for inspections. Whatever keeps me safe in sky I suppose. Anyway, we had a lot of fun exploring the area. Even though I worked in Carson City previously I am not familiar with the bars/restaurants/casinos here so we made a good effort in that regard. I had another pit bull encounter on a short ride we did behind the apts. Same dog but this time he was hiding in the sagebrush and when he jumped from the bush his big head was at my little leg in a nanosecond. It scared me so bad I fell off my bike but I think that satisfied the dog because he didn't attack me. I don't think there was enough meat on my leg for him. I need to find a way to make friends with this dog. Sunday Jeff took me on a ride and I was the slowest person by far but they didn't seem to mind. It will take some time for me to get in shape so I realize the back of the pack is better than what I was doing....which was nothing...We crossed a flock of sheep on the ride(see video) which was cool. Today against my better judgment I decided to ride the motorcycle around Lake Tahoe. This in and of itself isn't a big deal but there was a severe wind warning. I was getting tossed around a bit but nothing that scared me until coming back into Carson. A gust almost blew me off the road. 1st time that's ever happened. I got to see a big coyote pass in front of me too which was cool. As I write this I have my music loud because my dumb ass neighbor has wind chimes. I decided instead of telling her I would play my music loud enough to disturb the person beneath me and cause a chain reaction of apt living grumpiness. Next week I will take a test for a public dispatcher. Imagine calling me and getting my Dave Chappelle voice, 'stay calm bitcccchesss'...That's it in a nutshell You can now go back to your regularly scheduled programming. If your interested in pics look at the albums in picasaweb.

Trash Night

Now that I'm settled a bit I wanted to get back in the swing of lunch riding. On my 3rd time out it was just Jeff and me so he decided that we would explore a bit. I know I'm outta shape and suffering is a part of all rides but this 3rd ride was very tiresome. Very different from when you are in shape and can pick how hard you want to go. Anyway, he decided we would ride up a newer trail to the snow line. From that point neither one of us wanted to turn around so we walked up what seemed like a sheer cliff to get back to rideable trails. This climb and portage was worth it when we got to dry trails. All was well until we got back to civilization and the world of trash night. I was following just a little too close when Jeff decided to skirt between a trash can and a bush. I saw everything he was doing but misjudged the can. I clipped it with my handlebar and was sent flying thru the air and landing in a gravel driveway. The trash can never moved! Hardest I've fallen in years. All was well aside from some bruises and blood and even though I know it wasn't Jeffs fault, I blame him. He tried to kill me. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. I have pictures.

Moved

I made the journey in 1 piece. We packed the truck Thursday and I started off at around 10am on Friday. The first part of the trip was spent getting used to the truck. I discovered that the brakes would overheat easily navigating the western part of Maryland so that didn't make me so comfortable thinking about the mountain ranges in the west. Ohio was mostly 1 big rain storm. Indiana was ok until I got to Indianapolis. My mapquest had me go the wrong way on their little beltway in search of route 74 which would take me north through Illinois and connect to Int 80. While driving around this beltway thinking I may be a bit lost I decided to pull into a new car dealership and look at the map. While looking at the map I noticed out of my side mirrors that 2 guys appearing to be salesman were behind the truck looking at me yet they weren't moving AND they seemed to be smiling as if they knew I was lost. Then I thought I saw one of them move. At some point I got out of the truck to ask a passer-by and realized the 2 guys were painted on the side of a moving truck. This is when I knew it wouldn't be long before I needed rest. I eventually found Int 74 and decided to pull into a rest area and climb into the back of Hotel Subaru. This 1st nap didn't take so within an hour I was driving again. This went on through the night 2 more times. Saturday had me making Iowa, Nebraska and the beginning of Wyoming. At some point in Nebraska I began to realize just what I had done with my decision to move again. I had been so busy getting to that point that it didn't sink in quite as deep as I felt around the middle of Nebraska. Your pulling everything you own and leaving people you love. I felt alone for a lot of miles but towards the end of Nebraska the road smoothed and so did the music on the radio. It was almost surreal watching the sun go down and losing that questioning feeling I had been struggling with. This is when the new hurdle started. I stopped in Wyoming and filled up for the millionth time.(avg of 6 mpg) and decided to try for a nap. This nap also didn't take so I headed into the night. Made Cheyenne and started up the mountain range just outside the city when the snow hit. I was about 1/2 way up the mtn when I spotted a truck parking area with no services. (I had to #2 behind a snow fence at some point during the foggy night...no choice but what a rejoice) When I pulled in it was about 1/2 full. Maybe 25 trucks. I climbed in the back of my car and proceeded to have happy hour which consisted of 1 Sierra Pale ale. I quickly fell asleep with 2 blankets and 5 pillows covering me. Now I was car camping in the middle of winter. When I woke up in the middle of the night I realized snow was no longer the problem as fog and ice and taken the top spot and the parking lot was full. I decided to stay in the Subaru until morning at which point the fog was still thick. After some calls to Pam(master of the highway cams) we decided as bad as it looked it was only gonna get worse so around 9am I headed out of the comfort of Hotel Subaru. Once I told my parking space neighbor of my plans she decided to follow me up the mtn in a minivan. Up and over and blue skies that didn't last. It snowed most of the way through Wyoming and there were a handful of serious looking Tractor Trailer crashes that happened hours before I passed as cranes were already there. Around the middle of Wyoming there was a tunnel through the mtn that couldn't have been more than 200 yards long. It had a sign flashing, 'ICE in Tunnel..Slow Down') so I slowed to around 40mph but when I hit that tunnel I realized it wasn't slow enough. I hit the brakes and felt the truck slide. Aside from a butt puckerage that hasn't subsided 100 percent nothing happened. Thankfully, nobody was stopped in the tunnel. Utah was a breath of fresh air. No issues and as the pics show Pam and Tom took care of me well. After some nice homemade pizza, beers and shots of liquor 43 I headed off to bed. After many hugs goodbye they saw me off to bright blue skies which lasted the entire trip through Nevada. After getting a room at the Peppermill I met Albert and Amy for some slot machine action and when they left I hit the roulette table until midnight again after shots of this that and the other. Tuesday after I completed all my rental paperwork Albert came down and helped me unload this truck. He's still strong as an Ox but we did have to call J-Mo for assistance with the TV and bed. So, I'm here and that's about all I really know. ps....Thanks to Joe Hager for his expert packing job. Nothing broke!