a good plan

Working nights this weekend, in fact it's 2:40 am as I type this post. I was supposed to be outside tonight but the new guy who was working the console inside decided he didn't feel good and I was extra so I had to fill his spot when he went home, lucky me.

Earlier today, well actually yesterday, Melinda and I loaded up the dogs around noon and headed over to ETSU to watch the racing going down on campus. Short Track was on tap early that morning and because I was sleeping we missed it. We made it just in time to catch the last half of the Downhill runs. The downhill course stretches out across some of our old stomping grounds, ETSU's singletrack trails. Melinda and I used to live in an apartment just up the road from ETSU so we rode/hiked the xc course on almost a daily basis. Melinda and I both pretty much honed our mountain bikes skills there and Moonshine and Jackson grew up running the trails behind our rear tires. The DH hill course only uses a small part of the trails so we used the empty ones to our advantage and let the dogs run loose while we hiked around to different sections of the course catching bits and pieces of the action as the race wore on. Today bright and early the xc race will be held starting the "A's" off at 9 am. Us local guys were invited to participate but were told while we would be acknowledged for our place this was a collegiate race and no prizes would be awarded nor would we get to stand on a podium and spray champagne on the crowd. I would like to race the "B" class but that would mean coming off night shift hanging out for an hour and then heading over to ETSU to line up with a bunch of college kids 10 - 15 years younger than me, with the exception of ETSU's newest/oldest teammate and student. I still haven't made up my mind if I want to race, actually I know I want to but my sleep schedule is already out of whack and the course will likely be muddy from yesterday's rain. I'll probably make that call when I get home and see how tired I am.

We have another round of camping lined up for Labor Day weekend. We're loading up the Eco again and heading over to Big South Fork State Park to meet up with my entire family. It's been a long time since we all camped together, actually everybody but Melinda, my youngest sister and I will be staying in a large cabin. While they're blaming staying indoors on 3 small kids I know the real truth, they've all gotten soft. When we were young my parents took us camping all the time and we had a blast. I've heard good things about BSF system of trails and I hope Melinda and I find plenty of time to explore them on our bikes. It would be a shame to go there for the weekend and not hit the dirt.

I was surfing the net for cool cycling videos and I ran across this interesting piece and I thought it was worth sharing. No ridiculous stunts here just some cool art.

Bicycle from Submarine on Vimeo.