So the summer has been really tough for me blogging. The issues have been many, and varied. The most disappointing one is that this summer, I've spent more time driving than riding. This has been entirely due to children's schedules and not preference. Add to that work stuff and it all adds up to less seat time. For that last 2.5 months, i've been able to get in 2 days riding a week rather than the 5-6 that I usually get.
It has been very frustrating.
Not helping has been the ongoing battle with my teenage daughter about riding on the back. You see, 4 days a week this summer, I've been taking her to gymnastics on my way to work, it makes sense since it is on my way to the office. Unfortunately, she refuses to ride on the scooter. Her reasons are not well thought out or justified, and it's not fear that is the issue, at this point it is just plain pigheaded teenage girl.
Oh well, that's life :-). Come next monday, it will no longer be an issue, school starts on Monday, and my commute will be mine again (que evil maniacal laugh here).
Anyways, I did get in a couple of good rides, including the ride to and from Chattanooga for AmeriVespa where I got to see and meet quite a few faces from some of the forums I frequent. One of those people was a guy who earned some serious respect from me and others.
Mike from San Jose and several of his VCLG clubmates rode their scooters from Sn Jose to Chattanooga. That, in and of itself is impressive, but adding to the trip was a rabbit that jumped out and caused mike to dump his scooter at speed in the Nevada desert. Totaled scooter, road rash and some pretty good bruises, Mike took his lumps and came to AmeriVespa anyways. I had the pleasure of meeting him, and he is a genuinely nice guy, his wife is his equal there. It was wonderful to meet them.
I also have some pictures to get posted, but not as many as I would like, I just didn't have time to shoot as many pictures as I wanted to. Unfortunately, mixed in with the fun, I actually put my bike on the ground as well. DUring the Lookout Mountain ride on Friday, the girl in front of me locked up her brakes in the rain on downhill stop. It had just started raining, the pavement was new, the surface oils where coming up from the moisture, but it wasn't coming down hard enough to wash it off. In short, it was a treacherous surface under good circumstances. Mix in a new rider and a group ride on an unfamiliar road, and it was a recipe for a mistake.
As she was coming down the hill, she was braking and the rear wheel started to slide, she went down just a few feet in front of me, with her body and head in my wheel line. All I could do was dodge, brake and pray I had enough traction to avoid her. In the process, I got wide and was stopping until my foot lost traction on the road surface (it was that slick) and I bounced the bike off the left side hard case. It's cosmetic damage, and I'm not worried about it. My body never touched the ground, just the one strawberry on the plastic of the bike's hard case. In total, 8 other bikes hit the ground behind the incident, but no one got hurt.
It was all good in the end, but the rain real put a damper on the Friday festivities.
With school starting back, it appears that I will be able to get to return to commuting and blogging on a normal schedule again. Yes, I am excited by that prospect. More than I can express.
There are some other things to talk about, but they'll wait for another post.