Tour de Georia TT start

Here is a link to all my pics: http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8KYuWLZs2YjI

At My Age, I'm Just Happy That I Can Move the Day After.

I made the trek out to Athens, GA on sunday for the second race of the Georgia Mountian bike series. Normally i wouldn't travel to that god forsaken part of the country since it the home of the University(sic) of Georgia. I am thankful for the recirculate button on my AC in the car so i didn't have to smell the stench that rises up from that place. The race was about 20 minutes south of town at the Heritage Park. It would have been a really fun course in the dry, but with the rain and the large number of roots, it wasn't much fun. I realized after slipping and sliding over many, many, many roots, hitting a few trees, and going ass over elbows into a creek embankment,(in the first half lap) that i had the wrong tires, too much pressure and not enough skill to make it around this course without killing myself. I had serious thoughts about bailing, but i finished the first lap and stuck it out for the next two. I let a bunch of air out of my tires and the trail started to dry out a little as the ride (notice i'm not calling it a race since i was soooo far back) wore on so it started to get better. I finished 13 out of 18 (14 finishers, i think i loaned my CO2 can to the guy that finished behind me...this close to DFL)
I've realized that i need to just focus on my skills and do whatever it takes to make me more comfortable. If that means running a heavy front tire with a huge footprint, so be it. I will probably turn faster laps with it rather than a 300 gram lighter tire. I'm afraid it may be too late in life to sharpen the skills....we'll see. I've been mountain biking a lot more and i still hope that i can finish the mtn. 100 in 9 hours or so this year.

BTW: no serious wounds, a few scrapes, lumps and bruises. nothing that my childrens tylenol won't fix.

STEEL IS REAL BABY!!!

So in case you were ever wondering where I got my e-mail address....here it is. This is PAPA. Papa was my first car. My dad drove it back out to California after my grandfather (Papa) passed away. Papa bought the truck new and i'm hoping to keep it in the family for many years to come. When i turned 16 i started driving it. At that time it had the stock 352 c.i. V8 with a 2bbl carb and a set of desert dueler off road tires on steel wheels. I still managed to turn the rear tires into slicks within a year. We built a 390 with a 4bbl carb, headers and a mild cam to put in the truck. We then pulled the motor, interior, bumpers and grills and had him painted. The original color was desert tan and following a quote from Papa "it could be cat shit brown for all i care as long as it works" (at least my dad claims that as the actual quote) we stuck with a tan color. It is actually close to an 88 ford light chestnut beige. We had the grill and bumpers chromed (they were white) and bought some wheels and some new tires. (I had to buy the tires...what the???? it's not my fault 70% of the weight is on the front wheels) We haven't really played with Papa in a few years, but now that i am in Georgia one of my projects is to freshen it up and drive it on a regular basis. I'm looking forward to cruising in a vehicle that gets 10mpg with $3.00/gallon gas. I'm thinking i need some dropped front I-beams, put the rear axle on top of the leaf springs and tuck some 20's in the wheel wells. Rollin' Hard, Old Style.