cruising savannah

I don't know what it is with this year but there is definitely something in the air and it's killing me. My allergies have been on full attack off and on for the past couple of weeks and some days it really keeps me from accomplishing much. All day Saturday I felt terrible and was unsure whether I wanted to run the Crazy 8's 8k or not. I was already paid up but as bad as I felt I went ahead and just pulled the plug and stayed home.

I have been meaning to post up a few pics from our trip to Savannah for over a week but I keep putting them off so I guess I'll throw a few up today.

The trip down was a pretty special occasion, my little sister Katie, Bug as we call her was getting married. My folks rented a ridiculously huge house and for the first time ever they rented a dog friendly house so Moonshine & Jackson enjoyed they're first full fledged Carr family vacation. I think by the end of the week they were more than ready to get home.

Bug being escorted down the isle by Pops. I was up front standing in as one of Ben's groomsman so I didn't get many pics from the wedding.

Bug and I in the van on the way to the wedding.

Melinda and I in the park where the wedding was held.

Mom and Pops breakin it down on the dance floor at the reception. The reception was held at some foo foo organic restaurant which had some really weird food some of which was good and some of which was well, weird.

Of course it wouldn't have been a proper vacation without taking our bikes but this trip we left the mountain bikes at home and opted for the cruisers instead. We don't really get to ride our cruisers as much as I would like to but we really put the miles on them that week. Our rental house was situated in the downtown historic district which is really much easier to get around via bike rather than walk or drive. There are a ton of one way streets and very little parking so we rode to almost every destination and left the truck parked at the house.

Savannah is mostly flat and the hipster fixie scene is really huge there. Everywhere we went we saw a lot of cool tattoos and cool bikes, two of my favorite things. While we were there were there we visited almost every bike shop we came across and the majority of them stocked road, urban, cruiser and the occasional mountain bike, very different from the bike shop scene here in East TN. I really dig the environment of Savannah, a fixie would definitely be a must if I lived there but I don't think I would trade it for the mountains. Even though this is not a commuter friendly town I love being just 5 - 10 minutes from two different trail systems and a state park.

The only problem we encountered while in Savannah was my springer fork. Somehow on the drive down the main bolt that holds everything together on my fork came loose and fell out. The rubber bushing and a couple of spacers went with it as well but luckily everything else stayed in place until I took the bike off the rack. Right off the bat I began calling around trying to find parts for my fork but parts for springer forks aren't something any of the bike shops stocked. After a bit of research and three trips to Lowes & Home Depot in search of parts I finally came up with a solution. I was able to make everything work but I could find a substitute bushing until Melinda had the bright idea of using a door stop which worked perfectly once I drilled a hole through the center of it. I have to hand it to her she really came through with that one. The door stop work flawlessly and was almost a perfect match with the exception of the color.

Today is the Bay's Mountain race and right now I'm still not 100% on whether I'll race or not. In order to make the race I'll have to burn at least 2 hours of vacation and the rain that is currently dumping on us will have to stop soon. I did pick up the loaner bike this weekend and a few hot laps around the yard this weekend is all I've gotten on it to get it dialed in for my likings. Hopefully this rain will let up soon and my allergies will stay at bay and allow me to race but I'll be playing that by ear as the day wears on.