do I take the red pill or the blue one?

There's a whole lot of planning going on, mainly in my head. Alot of it will probably never actually happen mostly because all the things I want to do greatly out weigh the time in which I have to do them. If only I didn't have to work for a living. Then again if I was handed everything I would probably be a lazy turd, isn't that how it usually works?


I was just looking over my schedule this afternoon and I realized that we do not have a free weekend between now and sometime late in April. I'm surprise at how fast our calendar filled up but I'm also glad that other than work it's all fun stuff and camping trips. I can remember when Melinda and I first got married, before we became heavily involved in the local mountain bike scene and how there were weekends where we would sit around trying to think of something fun to do because we were bored. To think back on those days seems odd, I guess that's why the days of watching entire NASCAR races on a Sunday afternoon are long gone. Now I can't imagine sitting on the couch all day watching TV when the sun is shining and there is so much fun to be had outdoors.


The other day Alan and Anthony made the trip up to Hungry Mother State Park to aid in the return of the Night Owl race. It almost slipped through the cracks this year and didn't happen at but but luckily the park agreed to give it another shot. Last year was it's first year and while the park is not new to putting on races they don't really seem to grasp what it takes to really draw a crowd. To me a good race doesn't have to have great prizes as long as the entry fee is low and the Night Owl definitely has got that going for them. Probably the most important thing for me personally is the people who are going. I race to have fun and that's all, if our friends aren't there with us then there is no sense in racing. Last year we had a huge crew show up for the Night Owl, in fact I was friends with 3/4 or more of the field in all categories. The only thing that hurt the Night Owl in my opinion was the race course, it was short and consisted of mostly doubletrack.
I had plans to return this year just because I enjoyed the time we had there last year and I like supporting the "little guy" events.


This year there is a dilemma, GRT Racing has somewhat of a plan in attempting to race in the TN Cup series. Those dates have been on my calendar in the "I hope to do these section" for a while. Last night the powers that be decided on a date for the Night Owl and as my luck would have it these two conflict each other.










Last year I ran into this same dilemma with the Night Owl and the 12 Hours of Tsali. Although I wanted to race Tsali it really was a no brainer, do the Night Owl. This year it's different, the plans to race the TN Cup were already being put in place, it's also a small local promoter and while the entry fee is bigger, the swag and after party benefits are better than most races I've been to. The big thing that's drawing me toward the TN Cup is the race courses, all singletrack.


Tomorrow I plan to ride the trails with some of the GRT crew so hopefully we can discuss the details and maybe come to some sort of a conclusion or at least bounce a few pros and cons off each other. If nothing else we'll at least get to ride trails, well everyone except Chris who for some reason is planning on doing laps around the parking lot. For some reason he thinks he can win the mileage contest that way. Mileage contest? I'll tell that story another time, it's generating some really good smack talk and I think Alan is close to tears already.

Just kidding Alan, see you tomorrow.