Friday night dinner w/ parking space hosts Jamie & Morgan and biker Gracie. Jamie & Morgan are very active & leaders in bicycle advocacy here. Both are engineers, Jamie works for NASA putting things in space.

It rained all night and most all day Sat & night. Sun AM Morgan said his rain gauge collected 2.5″ of rain.

Trail work project was cancelled Fri eve.

Met Tim Barnack @ his house for what I envisioned a quick R & R of hinges for bed. Like most things w/ the van it turned into something more. Tim, fortunately for me has some creative building experiences. We used the beefier hinges and used toggle bolts to connect hinges to van body. The hinge would not lay flat against van wall so we shimmed them w/ a combination of a nut & several washers. 2 1/2 hour later the bed stays where it needs to be. Might still buy blocks of wood to wedge up the bed to take strain off hinges.

Huntsville paper printed article about Gracie and her MS and her success as an athelete. She is a focused racer w/ a trainer, sponsorship, and a large community that everybody knows Gracie.

Trails are too wet to ride here. Plan now is to ride Sewannee in TN on Tues as a day trip and on Wed leave for Oak Mtn and continue my odyssey. Gracie continues to be my guide for these 2 planned rides.

Forecast is for drizzle & fog today. Might ride mtn bike on streets for exercise.

Today the invitations and locations are sent out for the Big Dance. This week I find TVs to watch the Zags in play.

Fog cleared later in AM. Rode bike up Monte Sano toll road trail because it is almost all rock & rain would not affect and to learn how slippery the rocks get when wet. Rocks are slippery but kept my angles upright & slid over. Backed away from perceived potentail spills. Played @ park riding skinnies painted lines & curbs and even rode down stairs.

Fixed dinner @ Gracie’s for us. Several people asked if I was cooking in my van. No, I used her kitchen but all my stuff and I could have fixed dinner in my van but I lacked a guest chair. Break thru w/ her dog, Tsali, who finally allowed me to pet her.

Morgan & Jamie shared a Mountain Biking mag article about southern riding. The article introduction photo was of Tim Barnack. Articles included Monte Sano, Raccoon mtn, slatyfork: places I previously rode. i missed the issue.

Darn weather still wants to rain and I have a new wheel I am wanting to ride so Tommy can correct spoke tensions before I head out.

Tim called and said rain and wet slippery rocks left him saying no ride. Called Gracie w/ that info. I went off to get propane, shampoo, magazine, & propane. Success all way round.

Drove to Trailhead to hang. Decidede to ride roads to park Land Trust land and ride the slippery rocks up aways to stress ride the wheel. Rocks get very slippery when wet but no rain but no sunshine to dreally dry rocks. Took a ride gamble & rode rocks climbing up. Rocks were not wet but not baked dry from previous rain. Freaked by slippery potential  but didn’t slip. Started raining and decided tht being off possible slippey rocks was to head back down to shop.

Beth Thames from Huntsville newspaper called me this AM and asked for an interview. She is the MOL of Lee whom I  met @ racer meeting. We agreed on a time & place.

Dropped bike off @ shop and took a shower. Wheel remained true and Matt cleaned my bike up, & then drove to coffee shop for interview w/ Beth. She bought for me & I drank a medium latte and no stomach acid reflux. Wow.

Beth is a stringer for paper and teaches English in real life. She let me talk w/ few guiding questions. She toured my van and said it harkened her back to the hippy days she remembered living. An interview w/ print media, how about that?

Dinner tonight @ Morgan & Jamie’s.

Rain might cancell work project.

Van casualty: 2 of 4 hinges attaching bed to van body broke dropping the bed transferring strain to 2 remaining hinges. The hinge metal snapped. All the noise I heard when the frame racked stress was coming from the hinges. I purchased stouter hinges & screws & Home depot where Don & I should have gone instead of poorer choice of convient ACE hardware. I need to find a neighbor Bill to install hardware. Wedged bed up w/ foam roll & van is quiet. Replace hinges & wedge bed upright will solve noise.

Raining pretty good.

Off to dinner.

Catch up from Wed:

Tues eve Jamie & I planned a ride for 4:30 Wed eve.

Wed AM I accepted the fact that I needed to do my taxes and I could not find a constructive reason not to do them this AM. I went on line, filled in all the blanks w/ good sounding numbers. Stress level pits wet satisfying the data requirements and bad news fear that I would owe $. The program crunched the numbers and returned refund numbers that were good enough for me to convert a wish into purchase of a Chris king front wheel. Pits dried out. Found that Trailhead right near by was the only store with a web presence for custom built mtn bike wheels. Met Tommy the owner of the shop and certified wheel builder. We struck a deal and he committed to putting the new wheel on my bike before I leave. Cool: Big time Chris King component bike: headset, rear wheel, bottom bracket, and front wheel. Refund goes to general pool of $ but i figured how many miles of travel it will but and I am in the 9000 mile range.

Tommy told me about the shop’s Wed night ride and post ride rider meeting at the shop.

Drove back to Jamie’s house for our ride. She called me and cancelled because a work project became important. Bummer. But, the shop ride was on. Back to shop to learn ride details. Tommy had left. Learned to meet up in park @ bike TH @ 5:30. Drove up, only one in parking lot @ 5:30. Then Freddy and later, Chad arrived, riders Gracie told me about and hoped that I would meet. Trails close 30 mins b4 sundown & park closes @ sundown. We had about 60 mins of riding b4 we were illegal. We dropped in and they put energy to the pedals and I did what i could. I rode behind Chad on a hard tail single speed 29″ for some feet. His bike makes for different pedaling & line choices that I got sucked into so I dropped back and that’s my story just because I couldn’t stay on their wheels. Hard fast ride. Gracie is a strong rider, these guys got after it. And they were chatting w/ each other. Chad tried a huck move just b4 the TH and went down hard. It was almost dark when we pulled in.

Drove back down hill and later drove by shop and saw cars in parking lot but lights were off but I saw someone inside leading me to believe that there was a rider’s meeting going on. I drove around the block, parked and knocked on a door like a speak easy and said Tommy sent me and I was let in. There were a few rguys hanging doing what guys do. Beer & bikes. Party. The store has a tiny bike w/ like 8″ wheels that we all were riding. My leg muscles wouldn’t allow a pedal stroke. Big guys on this little thing. 1 rider held onto his beer bottle while he rode laps around the store. By the 2nd lap beer was foaming out of neck. One guy pulled the move of the night by hucking a 2 step drop down. He crashed 2x to the howl of the crowd.

Late night. Got a shower @ the shop. Drove to Jamies after 11:00 ands saw her @ her computer still working. I woke up @ 12:30 and looked out my window and she was still at it. Not me. I was under the covers.

Monday & Tuesday’s rides were hot & humid. Wed AM the temp dropped into lower 40s. I wore tights, long finger gloves, & wool jersey for ride. In upper 30s when i woke Thurs so i turned on heat for comfort. Big temp fluctuation.

Raining of sorts Thurs AM. Have day ahead of me w/ nothing on my dance card.

Tommy built my wheel. I hung @ Trailhead. It rained which makes the rocks slippery so no ride on new wheel.

Stopped @ the Nook for a choice of non white bread beers. Not a happenening place but did have some good beers.

Forecast is for rain for days out. Might have to find how slippery rocks get.