Sunday, June 17, 2007

AAAAHHHHH! Vacation

Tammy, Paula and I are in northwestern Minnesota this week. Ottertail Lake to be precise. This week is always a nice week. Tammy and I put in a seven mile run this morning to get the day started. Hopefully I can get off my lazy ass and keep up the exercise. I have been way to lazy since Dirty Kanza. Jim McGuire is taunting me with the idea of going to the B63 in Breckenridge, Colorado. It sure would be a blast! I sure have a lot of work to do in the next month to prepare for that thing!


Remember when I sold my kayaks to buy another bike. Well, that money is long gone (Ask Tammy and Paula where it went because I haven't seen anything from it!) and now I have spent even more money! Tammy and I had a Honda Element. I loved the thing until two weeks ago we did some figuring on how much gas we were spending with that thing every month.
Let's just say it was about $150 dollars more than the payment every month! So, we sold it the next day! We went and bought a Saturn Vue Hybrid. We should be saving roughly $150 dollars a month in gas! Now, where was that bike I was wanting?

To go along with the car I bought a Hidden Hitch from Awesome prices and 99 cent delivery. Also, you CAN put these on yourself. It isn't EASY, but they just bolt on. It is getting your fingers into the nooks and cranies that make it somewhat difficult. But, I am not much of an automotive mechanic so if you have some pretty nifting tools that will help you reach into tight areas then it will be a piece of cake. Also, after using a Walmart bike rack for the last 10 years I went all out this time with a Xport Flatbed 4 bike rack from Performance Bike. When I rode down to Dirty Kanza with Jon Billman I was able to use his two bike version of this rack. I was so impressed I had to get one. What I love about it is that it took me all of 20 minutes to put it together, it was easy to put on the car, it is very, very stable, the bikes can be put on in literally 10-20 seconds a piece, and most of all the bikes don't tough each other or the car. Also, it doesn't sway hardly at all! I am very happy with the purchase.

Speaking of Jon Billman, he is the guy I went to Dirty Kanza with. I found out that he is a writer for Outside, Mountain Bike, Bicycling, and Skiing Magazines. Well, he is riding in the Great Divide Race and I am sure he is on assignment for Outside Magazine. It should be interesting. After my daughter graduates from high school I sure would love to do that race!

Well, happy training.

3 comments:

Simmons said...

Did you make it to Maplelag?

Paul said...

Yesterday I did just short of sixty miles riding up to Maplewood State Park and found they had some trails, but I didn't ride them due to time. I will probably go tomorrow though. Do you know how they compare to Maplelag? Maplewood is about 25 miles from Ottertail, and Maplelag is probably 50.

Simmons said...

I've never been to Maplewood. Maplelag is very good stuff. You might want to e-mail Jay Richards who owns Maplelag and let him know your coming. His e-mail is on the Maplelag website. There's a link on my blog if you don't have it. Have fun out there. I'm jealous.