Sitting in my van in Dollie’s Ice Cream gravel parking lot on rt 276 to interior of Pisgah NF having cleaned up the kitchen & dining room of a simple skillet dinner of sweet potato, chicken breast, broccoli steamed in olive oil, curry, & cinnamon. Make this dish frequently as it is easy, quick to fix, & is healthy. Back in the house day I might take an hour to fix dinner; on the road I have cut that time in half & eat more simply. I could still fix most gourmand meals I want if I invest the resources.
Kitchen cleanup is heating a small revere ware sauce pan full of water for wash & rinse. The gravel is the perfect sink water wash station.
I push the computer to create a place to put the skillet down & chow down engaging the manners I remember. I get no practice of talking with food in my mouth.
Back to history.
Fix Bfast & clean up. Bill invites me up for pancakes and the 3 kid active show. I believe they are a pair of 3 yo twins boy, girl & a 2 yo girl. Little kids. The house also has 3 dogs, Sadie the oldest has the kids figured out. One of them takes a plate of pancakes to the front room. Their hands are just about dog mouth height. They put their plate down & Sadie cleans up. Kids always have a clean plate for seconds.
Bill drives us way out into South Carolina countryside to pick up the TH for one of the 40 yo hand built hiking trails that have had bike trail work on them. Great riding on trails that had rocks & roots. The gulleys we crossed had not been smoothed out by machines and were quite abrupt. Sections of ST were connected by some good distance road ride. The last piece was 9 miles back to car. I drank all my 70 oz less what spilled out the unsealed top early in the ride. I started cramping really hard if I pushed overly hard going uphill. Made it w/o body crumpling leg cramps.
What we rode was just regular hand built trails, almost like all trails in the same geographical area. FATS is an experience in riding that is unique. There is no question that you are riding something different when you ride FATS.
Bill drove by FATS to pull down the trail closed signs because of the wet trails. We passed the parking lot, there might have been 80 cars in there, the most Bill has ever seen. It was a beautiful warm sunny Sunday afternoon.
On Sat there might have been 50 cars but we hardly saw a rider on our 19.89 mile ride.
Sunday’s ride finished @ 27.97 miles, the longest so far this year & 1911′ vert.
I went with Bill on an scoping trip for a trail building proposal on the Greenway in N. Augusta. I rode an old hardtail steel frame, no clipless pedals bike with funky brake lever shifters, and no helmet during our tour.
I was invited to dinner. I did watch the SuperBowl and enjoyed Springsteen’s halftime show. A Springsteen concert at the SuperBowl. You all got treated to Bruce. I left the game early 3rd quarter and missed out on the close game.
Said goodbye to Bill as he headed to work. I visited w/ Liz and the kids for awhile. Liz can understand what the twins say, I can’t. Their activity is like herding cats.
Drove slow roads back to Brevard. Started raining near the SC / NC border on into Brevard. Settled back into routine of grocery shopping, hanging @ Dollies for internet access, and shortly the drive back to my camp spot. Forecats here is for cold temps & snow @ night.
Wed is PT appointment for another go @ my knee. Bruce, of Pisgah Works wool jersey fame, is inviting me on a ride. Young people, I like them but I can’t keep up with them.