I have a legitmate excuse.....

Well the last 9 days has seen 2 trips to Iowa, 3 friends from the old country, 2 quarts of moonshine smuggled aboard a domestic flight, my brain was all but melted trying to learn how to use MS Access, Big Al admitting to soft pedaling on the tandem, and a gradual thaw of things here in Nuh-baska (I have started saying Nebraska as Bobcat Goldthwait would pronounce it)



Last Friday I cut out of work early to head to Iowa City to watch the Collegiate wrestling match of the year, as #1 Iowa was going to lay the beatdown on #4 Ohio State ( I hate Ohio State). I allowed a very generous 6 hours to get to Iowa City. Well after 5 hours we were just outside of Des Moines and the interstate was just getting worse with a pretty solid snowpack. One of my closest college friends, Greg, married a Iowegian and they had bought a farm south of IC. Well, My childhood friend Pesci was also flying in for the weekend, and it was intended that it would be a big surprise for Greg since we all were scholarship kids at Berea College. Well, the weather delayed our arrival until Saturday, but we made up for lost time by destroying a German breakfast food establishment in Amana, IA.

Greg with the Pesc and I in tow

We spent the afternoon feeding cattle, engaging in a no holds bared snowball fight, cleanin the chicken house, and trading lies.

Someone was fixing to get it in the teeth.

That evening we engaged in the time honored tradition of country cruising in the Excursion, and finally made our way out to Herb and Lou's (whose slogan, by the way is, "Not just another small town dive bar") for pizza.

Engaged in the worlds longest game of pool.

It was great to get out there to see Greg and his lovely wife, Heather, who was such a wonderful hostess. It was also great to see the Pesc. The Pesc and I grew up together in the mountains of NC. We went to college together, He was my best man, we are thick as thieves. I am trying to get the Pesc to take a job out here since there are little opportunities for agronomists with graduate degrees in the old country.


Then this week I was back in IA for MS Access training. I learned a ton, but man by the 2nd day my brains were oozing out of my ears.
Then yesterday the weather broke, and Al and I took the Tandem out for some gravel time. Things were pretty swampy.

Was good to get out in the pleasant weather though.

We did manage to find this in the healthfood section of Hyvee.

Life is worth living again.

If you have never had sweet 'tater pancakes your life is empty. Plus the sweet potatoes are grown in NC, and the mix is manufactured there too. Try them. I guarantee you will never go back to bisquick.

I intend to get in some morning gravel jaunts this week since things are gonna be pretty wet during the day. Highs in the 30's. Woot!

blowing my mind

It doesnt take much to redline my brain-o-meter and the thought of how a internally gear hub works is enough to do it so if you have ever wondered what goes in to a rohloff feel free to geek out.

BGR 2010 Meeting

Greetings Honkies!
The flock descended on Big P's like like a bad case of hoof and mouth disease this friday evening to discuss business and plot for the 2010 season.
We covered a lot of new topics and revisited some old ideas.
Bad Goat Racing is now a USAC sanctioned disorganization. Face it. We are (il)legit!
You wanna be a mal cabra? Stay tuned we will have that info up in a few weeks.
We also discussed new kits, sponsors, hosting the KS CX Championships, and a few other topics before things denigrated out of control (as they usually do).

Then John "I am not a role model" Waller decided to breakout his pole dancing skills and the tone for the rest of the evening was set.


Apel sizes up the pole while tanner displays his usual prudent judgement.


Just how many bad goats can pole dance at once?


Patterson goes for style points


I am pretty sure that this was not what our coach had in mind when he suggested activities for coordination and flexibility (EDIT: we are now taking applications for a new coach/trainer....you should have lots of patience and should own a RV....send pictures of the RV).

Things got a little creepy later on.

I realy dig it when people decide to do something with little thought for how it is going to get done. To say, "I am gonna put on a free race, don't have a plan to cover the costs, not sure how many people will show up, but its going to happen!" takes a lot of gumption.

Last year I did something similar to what Chris is doing with almanzo 100, called the Gravel Conspiracy. I wanted to put on a event like what the PCL does but without having have my route confined by towns to resupply food and water. I was simply overwhelmed with the amount of support I got from many different sources for operating capitol, prizes, and and the hopluia! So when I read about what Chris was doing I was all in.
In the current day and age of +$100 entry for a tshirt and cheesy swag, to have someone say "I am gonna put on a event soley cuz I want to, dont care if you pay, and I hope you show up" says a lot.

Its gonna rain beef bourguignon on her Al-ness when she gets back from the old country tomorrow!

North Country

Woke up to see the flakes falling straight to the the ground. No wind. time to see all the rural glory of Elk City, Arlington, dutch hall (via the dump), and points north of the 'Loo via gravel.

going west out of Elk City there is simply a gorgeous section for river bluff that looks down on the Platte and the Elkhorn just to the left of the Cemetery

Bet I would piss some folks off if I bought a lot and stuck a double wide on it. Don't think I wouldn't....

First 25 miles saw the snow staying pretty fluffy and made for easy riding through.

However the roads started to get sketchy and the temps warmed, truck traffic increased, and my front wheel started to wander on the snow over hard pack. I went down 3 times in about 3 miles. Cut things a little short and took pavement home. all in all I got in about 40 miles.
Good times!
Yesterday, I went to Skutt high school to watch a wrestling tournament. Skutt dominated everybody, but I was really impressed with the 125lb kid from Beatrice, NE. This kid hit some of the slickest Granby High-Lows I have seen in the midwest (granby is predominantly seen in the east coast in the VA Beach sphere of influence), later hit a granby roll. was pretty impressive.