A slow summer....

My entire output for the summer is here.

But I did get in a cool long ride last Friday through the middle of nowhere, mass along the old stagecoach route across the state.

And there's also this:

DDRR

The Deerfield Dirt Road ride was swell. Probably the 3rd hardest day of riding I've had in the past few years (1st and 2nd were that stupid ride to Clayton with JP and the wack 1st day of the sprang tour last year when we rode up that mountain in the dark). D2R2 was a very cool 100K + of riding mostly on dirt roads from Deerfield, MA up into Vermont and back. The hills never stopped coming at us, but the climbs were mostly manageable - nothing worse that the stuff we get out of Bobby's back door. But that's not to say that it totally kicked my ass - the longest ride I've done in a long time.

I've lost interest in most pay-to-ride rides, but this one was worth it, especially for the food - giant sandmiches beside the Green river (and a covered bridge) at lunch and BBQ and beer at ride's end.

The roads were rough and loose - most folks rode cross or mountain bikes or some other rig that could handle fat tires. But there were plenty of hardasses out there on road bikes pounding up the nasty gravel climbs on skinny tires.

Bike geekery abounded. It was actully kinda funny with several examples of conspicuous Grant-Peterson-following. Gag me with a banana bag. I only saw a couple of "normal" bikes like the usual Treks and Canyonsnails. Most folks were on either some kinda of uber-fancy bike (Hampsten, Riv, Bilenky, Sachs, Sylvan, Geekhouse, Iglehart, Rock Lobster, Chris Chance,etc etc etc were all there) or cheap functional stuff like redline, surly, etc. I rode for awhile with s dude who had a cool Rawland fat fat tire road bike.

Another nice day in new england.

Weird Mass

Cool ride up past the big Holden reservoirs, then to Paxton and Leicester, ducking into the woods (air down the tires) at Hot Dog Annie's for some dirt road riding past Spider Gates, the Nazareth Home shrine, and then up and over Airport hill before heading home. Very nice ride that takes in all kinds of different riding, a few creepy spots, and finishes with a nice up and down. And if I had turned right instead of left at the Airport road, I could have cruised back in through the grittier sectors of Worcester or stopped of for killer Bun down on South Main. Maybe next time.

Instant Karma for my Birthday

Just got back from some awesome riding at the Kingdom Trails in VT. I had a great time catching up with my old friend Brian, who invited me along. I hadn't seen the dude in about 14 years, when we were cross-tha-street neighbors in Normaltown. Back then, he showed me Tsali for the first time and we used to ride our rigid Specializedses (huh?) at Chicopee and Chase back when they were in their infancy and spent lots of time at Mitchell Bridge when it was a full blown trail system. I.e., I hadn't seen him since Captain Dondo was a staple (e.g., see the latest Dirt Rag) and Zap was maybe relevant. Since then, the dude hasn't just gotten old and slow while resisting technology like I have, but has gotten better and better and kept upgrading his stable to match. So he showed up on a sweet carbon SC Blur along with his buddy Norm - not like Norm from cheers, but like Norm who does things like race in the Kilimanjaroman. Needless to say, I lagged a little behind, especially on the 2000+ ft climb up Burke Mountain.

But the Kingdom is killer. Search for it on Youtube and you'll hundreds of crappy videos of dudes on bikes. Don't let that deter you. Take about 15 prime minutes of riding at Clemson or Bent Creek. Now multiply that to fill 3 hours and you have an afternoon at Kingdom. Being a yankee is great.

And being a yankee is also great because I can give the finger to whomever I chose (but I rarely (no really - almost never) do.) At least that's what I thought. I was doing my usual walk this morning from the butcher shop to Dunkin Donuts for a 5th cup of crappy coffee when I had to cross the street, which I did in what I thought was a completely acceptable manner - push the button, wait 5 minutes, then when I don't get the little white man, look all 5 ways, wait for the old dude in a fancy restored Bentley (or something) to make his turn, look again, the cross when the coast is clear.

Apparently this wasn't good enough for the a-hole in the fancy Bentley (or something), because he decided to yell at me - "Push the goddamn button why don't you!!"

I was in shock - in this town pedestrians and drivers get away with all kinds of shit with impunity and no one seems to care. Left-turning cars will cut off 3 lanes of traffic for minutes at a time (I kid you not) and no one ever honks. I once saw a guy stop his car (and 300 yards of traffic behind him) to get out walk around his car a half dozen times for a never-determined reason. No one ever honked. Drunks, college students, attorneys, gangbangers, and parents out with their kids walk out in front of oncoming 30 mph traffic in the middle of the block on a 6 lane road and everyone just stops. No one ever honks. It's just the worcester thing - we walk and drive (and sometimes bike - but mostly walk and drive) like assholes and no one seems to care.

So that's why I was so surprised that this guy cared enough to yell a nasty word at me after my minor infraction that didn't inconvenience him or anyone else.

So I did what I thought was acceptable here in the commonwealth - I gave him the finger. Wouldn't you? Actually this was out of character for me. Back in the 90's it was pretty much accepted decorum (at least in Athens) to shoot the bird at anyone who was annoying, but I eventually grew out of it. No sense aggravating an already out of balance redneck who is probably packing heat.

But this dude deserved it. I gave it to him in a long and serious manner from the middle of the (vacant) lane. I did in a studied and (hopefully) indigenous massholish manner. No one, I though, would guess that I was just off the truck from Georgia.

Tit for tat - the matter was taken care of in the appropriate way for southern New England way. But no - Mr. Asshole, who had probably been lovingly restoring his Bentley (or whatever) since the early 80's, wanted another piece of me and my impudent snotty young, turned 44 today, self.

So, he did the logical thing and threw the car in reverse to come back and give me a proper ass-whopping or tongue-lashing (more likely) and immediately backed into the Corolla that was, unlike him, driving in a completely legal and predictable way, thus doing at least a two grand worth of damage to her and ruining the rear half of his lovely restoration. I wonder how he's going to explain to his wife that he has to go spend $5,000 for another vintage quarter panel.

So, I got my coffee and headed home.*

I probably will hesitate before I give someone the finger again even when the deserve it, but I sure hope that he's learned not to go around being a masshole and yelling at folks who are minding their own business. And I'm sure that he won't try to drive in reverse against traffic in his fancy car again.

* OK, ethicists: I did stick around long enough to hear the victim (a nice young worcester lady) yell - "What the fuck ass hole! That was real bright - you git pissed at someone giving you the finger and you go and do this you fucking idiot" and to make sure no one was hurt. No one asked me for my info.