Peter Schiff Analogies

Great compilation of Peter Schiff quotes:

Pumpkin

Ann gave Noah a really cute pumpkin costume to wear on Halloween. Noah picked up on Trick'or'treating pretty quickly even if he didn't get to eat any candy.

October ride log

1st Haw Ridge 1:30
2nd Commute 1:00
4th Windrock race 4:00 – City Ride 1:30
5th Haw Ridge 1:30
10th Raccoon mtn 3:30
11th Windrock XC 2:30
12th Windrock DH (5 runs/ 1WM) Plus short ride at the ridge 2:30
13th Urban 1:00 Jeff vs. John
15th Commute 2:00
22nd Haw ridge Fix 1:30
23rd Commute 2:00
25th party/Fixy ride to heckle at the Haw ridge race 1:30
26th Windrock Dh (7runs/2 WM) 3:00
28th I.C. King Fixy 1:30
29th Haw Ridge Fixy 1:30
30th Commute 2:00

Total : 30:00 – Pretty light month, I’ve been sick and traveling. What’s most disappointing was I was supposed to participate in 2 events this month and both fell apart. I have gotten back on both the Downhill and the off-road fixy bandwagons this month though.

Wily back in action

After 6 months off, the Wily is back together with its issues repaired, all the rust cleaned up, and a new coat of paint. I toyed with the idea of leting this one go, I knew from the first peddle stoke I made the right choice in keeping it.

Running fixed for now, fall just feels right for riding fixed in the woods.

3rd Party Debate

Last night on C-Span was the 3rd party presidential debate. This excerpt stood out to both Tara and I:

“It’s not a battle between Republicans and Democrats, because those titles mean very little. Same thing, it’s not a battle between conservatives and liberals. Really, the battle is between Globalists and Constitutionalists. We either believe we are a constitutional republic and we govern ourselves accordingly or we see ourselves as a part of, as George Bush Sr. talked about, the new world order. I think what we’re dealing with here is an infatuation between both parties to the new world order concept, the open boarder situation… Both parties seem to be obsessed with foreign aid. …we are pawns of the United Nations.” – Chuck Baldwin.

You can listen to the whole debate here: CLICK HERE or just the response I transcribed above located on Part 2, within the first 1 ½ minutes of this video.

Economic Woes

Check out this article from February 5th 2008:

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=55601


If you believe the curent financial woes are caused by bad mortages as claimed in the news media you are feeding into their lie.

Big Orange Boots

Noah has some cool new winter boots and a cowboy hat


Hes my "stand in" blogger as well

September Ride Log

1st Iron Mountain 2:30
3rd Haw Ridge 1:30
4th Commute 2:00
6th Raccoon Mountain 4:00
10th Urban Ride 2:00
11th Commute 2:00
13th Errands all day, one trip of 40 miles on the Big Dummy to pick up beer 3:00
14th Haw Ridge + SK8 2:00
15th City Fix 3:00
16th SK8 :30
17th haw Ridge 1:30
18th commute 2:00
20th Haw Ridge 1:30
21st haw Ridge 2:30
24th Haw Ridge 1:30
25th Commute 2:00
26th Brew ride and polo match 2:30
27th Sk8 1:00
28th Trailer ride 1:30
29th commute 2:00

Total : 40:30

Windrock 100/25

I rode the Windrock 100 (reduced to 25miles) yesterday. It was my first time to ride the XC trails at Windrock. I think I may have found my favorite new place to ride. The trails are as hard as an XC trail can be, super steep climbs, technical rock that will challenge the most skilled riders, lots of funky little up and down moves, and banked corners for railing. The two main areas campground trails and Walden’s Ridge a isolated enough from atv traffic that it’s a non-issue.

I can’t imagine the original plan of 4 laps of the course for 100 miles though. I’m sure some folks out there could finish it but not many.



Photot credit- Mark Webb

Just for Jeff

Get your own knuckles at the knuckle tattoo gun.

Republocrat

A few things from thirdpartyticket.com


Vote Third Party


Recently Ron Paul gave an historic press conference asking for voters to consider voting for third party candidates. He invited four third-party candidates to be present at the conference and gave them all an endorsement.

Here is the press conference for your review:





In his press conference he made three major points:

1.) A large number of people do not want a McCain or Obama presidency - collectively we are a political force, 2.) All four of his suggested third party candidates have 4 positions in common:

bring the U.S. troops home
protect our civil liberties
investigate the Federal Reserve
balance the federal budget
3.) the two party system is corrupt, limits the choices of the American people and must come to an end..



Republocrat Campaign Song




I promise to get off politics and back to bikes and Noah this weekend.

Palin

Education:
4 colleges over 9 semesters while participating in 2 beauty pageants, to receive a communications degree.
Experience:
2 term mayor of a town of 6,300 (that’s about how many students attend the high school next to my home). Has served 2 years as governor of the least populated state of the country.

McCain is 72 (would be the oldest president in history) and has survived cancer, 4 times. If elected McCain has a better chance of dying in office than any president previously so the question is more meningfull than ever, Is she ready to lead our country?

Bachelor week, Haw ridge weekend

Tara went to her office last week and took Noah with her. It was very quite around the house what little bit I was there. I got in some urban riding, some skate park highjinx on boards and bikes (fixies in the pool are a trip) and a little dirt time. I went to Haw Ridge twice over the weekend Sunday was a fantastic ride with Thomas, looking for the best descending the Ridge has to offer.

Creeper/Iron/Phil/Coon

Quick update on the last couple of week's riding. last weekend was a trip to Damascus with lots of friends. We did a day on the Creeper with kids and all and then a day of Iron Mountain.





Iron Mountain has become one of my favorite trails this summer. Its realy easy to achieve speeds that are way out of my skillset. Id love to take some pictures of the trail but its such a high speed rythem trail its hard to break up the flow for photos.


We beat our shuttle to the end of the trail, John and Shawn started trials'n on the picnick tables. The regular Creeper rides in the parking lot looked on in confusion.


After months of Ebay bargain shopping I recently built a new set of wheels for the fixy. They are hipster-dejure Phill/DeepV and turned out very nice.





Thomas and I went down to Racoon Mountain yesterday to enjoy the trails and let SORBA Chatanooga cook us lunch. We spent almost four hours in the woods and road about 3 trails. One of them we rode 14 times though.

August Ride Log

1st Commute/Booze Cruse 4:00
3rd Road ride attempt/ broken stem 1:00
4th Haw Ridge 2:00
5th SK8 1:00
6th haw Ridge 1:30
7th SK8 1:00
8th Commute 2:00
9th Farmers Market/errands 1:00
10th Ocoee Tannassi 4:30
11th SK8 1:00
13th SK8 :30
18th Commute 2:00
20th Haw Ridge 1:30
21st Commute 2:00
22nd Commute 2:00
23rd Farmers Market/Dinner Cruise 2:30
24th Parkway/Dragon/Parkway 5:00
28th Commute 2:00
29th Commute 2:00
31st Creeper etc..3:00
Total: 40:30
August is typically my slackest month of the year

Prodigy

Gi-Gi, Zoo, Dummy

My mom (Gi-Gi) came to visit last weekend. We did allot of hanging out, eating, and went on Noah’s first trip to the Zoo. Everyone had a grand weekend. Hopfully Noah will get to see Gi-Gi more in the future

































We got the new Big Dummy together and took it on our weekly farmers market trip this Saturday loaded both direction taking egg crates back to the farmer we get our eggs from and returning with lots of tasty veggies and breads. The bike turned out really cool, and I expect it will be part of our family for many years to come.









I did a little rework on Tara’s road rocket to make it a more appropriate greenway crusher. That’s an 18lb full carbon bike with a triple and runs 32c and is probably the nicest greenway machine in Knoxville. We met the Murrays for a booze cruse Saturday night, I think Tara was pretty happy with it.







I left the camera at home on Sunday but went on a road ride with Shawn, he brought along Lindsey and Fred neither I’d ever met before but where both super cool and I hope to ride with again. We did a Parkway/ Dragon/ Parkway ride that I was absolutely not nutritionally prepared for but I some how limped through the climb back over the parkway. Something about those 636 curves that I just cant restrain myself from going all out.

Next weekend is another camping trip to Damascus. We have a groupe campsite that holds 50 people, Hopefully more than just the Nicholsons and Murrays show.

Pickens Plan

I'd seen the commercials but didn't know much about it until recently. Its worth some thought.

The Nicholson’s are doing our part reducing our dependence on foreign oil. We made it 4 days over the last weekend without cranking either of our cars. And we invested in "new technology" to further our independence from our automobile.

July Ride log

2nd Haw Ridge 2:00
3rd Neighborhood Fix :30
4th Haw Ridge 2:30
5th Rocky top 100K (fixed) 4:00
6th City Ride with Tara and Noah 1;30
7th Farragut fix 1:00
8th Commute to work 2:00
9th Haw Ridge 1:30
11th SK8 :30
12th Ocoee/Tanasi 4:30
14th Commute 2:00
15th Commute 2:00
17th Farragut Fix 1:30
18th Rich Mountain moonlight ride 3:30
20th Ocoee/Tanasi 5:00
23rd Haw Ridge 1:30
26th Creeper 1:30
27th Iron Mountain+ 4:00
29th Farragut Fix :30
30th Commute / booze cruze 2:00

43.5 hours in July mostly during 90+ deg temps.

Rich Mountain/Cades Cove Moonlit Ride

I fired up Monte Jones early last week about the upcoming Friday night full moon. With his email magic and a little word spread around town 17 folks showed up for a moonlit -Townsend>Rich Mountain Road>Cades Cove Loop>Rich Mountain Road>Townsend.:










Sunday Jeff and I went down for a Tansi ride/Ocoee shredding day:

COSIDER A THIRD CHOICE

Georgia’s - Bob Bar




And of course Ralph Nader is in there again.

Rocky Top 100

This weekend was the Rocky Top 100, a metric century (100 kilometers or 62 miles)that starts and ends at "Barley's Pizza and Beer", it was raining at the start and I happened to pack the fixy in the car the night before. I knew the rain would keep the speeds low, make drafting uncomfortable, sketch everyone on the corners basically making normal road tactics impossible. So if I was going to have to do my own ride I might as well ride the fixy. Honestly, I had a goal this year of riding at least one cycling event on the fixy so it was a perfect opportunity. It was a major effort but not quite as hard a day as I had feared. I learned a few lessons.

I’ve got more fixy skills than I realized, not the skidding/trackstanding type but the kind that get you up and down hills mile after mile without blowing out the knees.

30c tires at 75 psi make riding wet pavement allot easier than the normal roadie fair.

Die-hard roadies are an unsociable lot whose egos take a hit when overweight fixy rides in sandals stomp them.

It’s more rewarding to me to take the hard road and overcome at my own level but I’m not sure if that’s a masochism or an excuse.

I did this ride last year on the road bike and perfect conditions in just under 3 hours, it took less than an extra hour this year and was worth every minute. This was Thomas and i's 2nd road event in three weeks, I bet Thomas is shaving his legs by the end of the month ;-).

Noah’s cycling is really taking off, I think he has a future in downhill racing:



June ride log:

1st – Road ride 2:00
2nd – Farragut Fix 2:00
4th – Haw Ridge 2:00
5th – Road Ride 2:00
6th – Commute to Work 2:00
8th – Farragut Fix 1:30
9th – Commute to Work 2:00
13th Commute to Work 2:00
14th - Ride to the Farmers market 1:00
14th – Raccoon Mountain 3:30
16th – Commute to work 2:00
17th – Commute to Work 2:00
18th - Haw Ridge 2:00
21st – Cherohala Challenge 7:15
22nd – Farragut Fix :45
23rd – Neighborhood Fix :30
24th – Urban fix/Tomfoolery 1:30
27th – Commute to work and to Party 1:00
28th – Trailer Ride with Noah 1:30
29th - LeConte hike 7:00
30th – Commute to work 2:00

Forty Seven hours and thirty minutes in June, With a couple of big effort days in the mix but commuting to work is becoming my “base”.

LeConte

11 cyclist/friends go for a hike together in The Great Smoky Mountains National Park:

Newfound gap> Appalachian Trail > Boulevard > Jump Off> Boulevard > Myrtle Point > Boulevard > Cliff Tops >LeConte Lodge > Alum Cave > Beer

14ish miles of rouged Appalachian/elevation hiking. It took about 7 hours and hurt worse than the 115 miles on the bike last weekend.

Thomas has some fantastic pictures of the day over at Harvest the Ride.

I took a few pictures:









I have to give credit to Mike Ford who came along after having finished riding the entire Blue Ridge Parkway in the previous 7 days. Had I just fished that kind of ride, I probably would take at least one day off.

Ron Paul on oil/Iraq

Picture Catch-up

Its been a busy month and I've fallen behind on the updates.
We've been on some trips latly, camping and family biking in Virinia:




We went to Florida and played on the beach:

We did some sailing and various boating:

We went to Tara's grandfather's 80th birthday party. I can only hope to be living life to the fullest at that age the way he is.





Noah and I have done some fishing latly, we have been moderatly successfull.

Noah is growing so fast he is already wearing my sandles and helment

Of course theirs been a little riding going on.

I road the Cherohala Challenge yesterday, 115 miles with +10,000' of climbing. 7:18 total time with a 6:45 ride time, 46.5mph peak!!!

Lots of fun packed days latly