trans iowa v.8...

standby. i'm struggling to get my shit back together...

tk

trans iowa final prep...

tk

more Trans Iowa prep...

perfect weather last night. this is all from the across the street neighbor's maple, the 50 mph winds from 2 sunday's ago filled the front gutters & sprinkled the rear ones as well as the back yard...

the dogs have a love/hate with me being on the roof.  they love it cuz they see me up there, hate it cuz they can't figure out how to get up there...

later,

tk

trans iowa prep...

in anticipation of next weekends outing, I rode mountain bikes saturday and sunday & built a fence...

tk

even more...

easter weekend wrap-up. final. can't remember if I mentioned it but I usually ride up North, dub-g of course, this year the winds did not cooperate so I passed rather than ride 140ish into it.  Last year TI was on easter so I didn't ride up then either.  saturday I went on a recon hike in the woods looking for a suitable site to set up the scope that evening.  clear skies were had that night & my dark sky venue was superb!  I got shut down after a couple hours though, the temperature went from 60 some to 30 some as my session progressed.  despite getting frozen out it was my best outing for seeing to date.  Finally found M1 (crab nebula) but also observed open cluster M38 (actually might have been M36, there really close together).

on my site-scouting hike I saw how ambitious a beaver can be, or foolish. this is just one a few big trees that they were trying to take down & with this behavior they weren't making any friends with my wife's family...

                                                  
 transitional pepsi can.  it was tin but had an early-gen pop-top, post pull-tab...

last weekend the area up there received 3-4 inches of hail, I didn't take this picture, couldn't tell ya if it was pre or post storm, but if I saw this I would definitely be in a state of wtf!

 caught my eye at work on a piece of steel.  no idea...

later,

tk

schloppy hunge...

I'll admit I was scared off by the forecast...at first.  weather watching on friday night had me doubting that an adventure was going to take place.  I didn't finally get out the the door till after 8, determining the "window" was there & the worst that was going to happen was I would get rained on a bit.  It was over 60 degrees, so big deal.  Fog was the opening salvo, between the 100% humidity & being unable to wear glasses this was pretty much my view on the world heading out on the Jamaica...  

today was a full systems check for TI.  I've been riding around for weeks fully loaded but yesterday I had everything which basically just included a few more small items. rain jacket was one of those items...

surprised the B's heading south were very rideable, expected cocoa powder with the high humidity & rain we had on Thursday, but easily crossed the 4 mile S. 38th stretch with zero buildup, nothing.  I love a challenge but passed on this one today...

this was the last rideable mmr of the day, somewhere down near Filley.  the last...because about 20 minutes later the forecast caught up with me & the lightening, thunder, & rain found me...

so the second half of my day was rain & soft, greasy, wet gravel.  I asked myself...would I prefer a manageable headwind (these days wind in the teens seems like a break) and dry-ish roads or messy roads with a tail?  The picture below kind of answers that question...

2 hours of bike tear down followed the ride.  Nothing ruined but lifespan shortened on a few bits...

out the door at 8:10, back home at 2:33.  so how can I explain the the 8 minute gap between my 6:15 ride time and my 6:23 total time on the journey?  I stopped to pee twice, the 2nd time I removed my knee warmers & vest stowing them away. then I stopped to put on my rain jacket & later stopped to take off my rain jacket.  damn, that ate up 8 minutes. stopping is a time suck I tell ya!

the last .70 of my jam was spent railing it through my neighborhood to bag that hunge while trying to keep the avg. up:)

that concludes my training for TI, the time consuming part at least.  if your not ready now, well...I'll let you finish this thought.

later,

tk

more madco...

thump...

blogger's fighting me this morning with picture uploads, ugh.  this is all you get for now...

saturday. heard it all before, wind & deep gravel.  madison county's formula for a character builder.  big adventure becomes big test in survival.  when you do finally make "the turn" you still got the deep stuff with the wind at your back, or side.  I've been riding fully loaded of late so the frame bag & the 32's have not been cross wind friendly...

on the bright side, some of my favorite features up there are the deep mmr cuts.  don't see much of that in our area.  here's a picture of one but I encountered many. interesting to look at & the perfect place to hide out for a few tics...

insert more pictures here...I don't have to time to fight this right now, maybe tomorrow...or not.

later,

tk

pow pow...

you might guess where I was riding this weekend, the deep gravel is a dead giveaway...

more to come as I find time.

tk

peek...

for those of us who have raced outside, here's a peek at what's going on inside...



i haven't been down there for a few years.  might have to get back down there...to see bassnectar of course, not race.

was it just me or was this week like 9 days long.

enjoy a couple days off, do something fun...

tk

more waste...

i'm not getting enough astronomy time. some, but not enough. got up at 3:30 am yesterday for some viewing, but it was hazy out. best I could see was arcturus trying to peak through the cloud cover, shit.  dogs were happy, they got to eat a little earlier than usual.

this morning, same story. actually it's full on cloudy out. good chance of rain this morning, shit.

a positive note...last night I got to see a half-lit venus passing in front of the southern edge of m45.

sweet.

tk

waste...

2 day weekends aren't working out for me, I can't even begin to get everything done I need to get done.  Waste a whole day at a race & you lose half the weekend. then back to work.  somethings gotta give.

tk