For you Ben

Alright, Ill try this one more time now that I am what you would call "settled" in a home. As I asked Ben yesterday to ship the last few of my bikes to me he gave me shit about my blogging or lack there of. So this is for you Ben.
Since I haven't blogged in so long I could write pages bringing you all up to speed but I will try and just bring you back over the next few posts. For now, all you need to know is I'm in Cali working as a Air Traffic Controller, living in a desert and finally starting to get some great riding in...(pictures to come). After a few months of slacking and searching for roads I have a few good set Cty Rd 8 type routes established. Today I took the standard shortest of the them. I like to refer to it as my slick route. This was ride designed for Schlicht. Let me tell you how it goes. First you ride across 10miles of flat desert, similar to ND tundra flat and windier than the JETBLAsT from the Stealth Fighters flying over head. I'm talking a constant 25mph with some nasty gusts. But after that you wish you were as light as slick cause the climbing begins, several thousand feet. Even though it is higher it doesn't matter it will still be 100degrees. On the plus side throughout this ride the roads fair quite well, can't complain on that end. After your first long climb you get to turn with the wind to your back and hit some Minnesota type rollers with Mn scenery, i.e. (for slick remind you) Horses, LLamas, goats, Ponies, Donkeys. Even today I saw two Donkeys doing the hippity dippidy. After all the fun of ponies and what not we get into a couple more thousand feet of climbing followed by a beautiful descent back into the city, where speeds of 50mph come without pedaling and you wish cars could corner as well as you so you wouldn't have to slow down for them. Except for of course the occasionally Ferrari or Porsche that comes whizzing by. Once you get into the city you are greeted by biker friendly roads that have bikes lanes 3-10ft wide all the time. A nice 15min spin down through the city and your back home to your luxurious 1bedroom apartment that cost as much as a mortgage in MN.
Doing the ride backwards is actually almost better, it is what I did today and froze my ass off. This morning it was only in th mid 40's. Which I know makes me sound like a wussy but when it has been 90-100 for the last few months it was quite a shock at 7am. Felt like I was back in Sota, actually quite refreshing. I had on my revo kit of course and I passed 3 other riders.... all of whom had long sleeve wind breakers or arm warmers on, California Bitches!!!

OK thats to much for 1 post
Later

TEST..TEST..TEST...TEST

Hello again,
Sorry there are now more pictures yet, it is evening making me think this blog is lame, but I just never get around to it. Next time I promise I will get some pics up. Anyway I am finally learning how to study. It is now week two and Friday I have test two, I am starting to pick up on a pattern here. Every week there is a test on information that came from a book about the size of the QBP accessories catalog. To clarify that is a new book that size each week. I couldn't be more excited though because lil miss Kim is arriving Thur night for a weekend stay.

Riding....well I haven't done a whole lot yet, I have tried and mentioned that routes and roouds...make that roads, suck around here. So I went and stopped at a couple local bike shops downtown OKC to see what the scene was like.
First shop, Holy Shit!!! They stocked everything from a kids trike to a size run of the high-end Cannondale Slice. There were orbea and cervelo frames/completes hanging everywhere. a rack of full carbon TTbars (Zipp,Pro,Profile etc..) Blackwell Wheel sets, full run of MAVIC,SHIMANO,and ZIPP wheel sets...needless to say it was ridiculous. The shop was cool and they have been around forever but to be honest I was more impressed with the second shop I went too and here is why.
The second shop was smaller but well layed-out. They didn't carry the array of high caliber equipment but the important thing was the employees. They new there shit, were totally cool with helping me find routes and find out about the riding/racing scene, and couldn't have been more inviting. Plus they offered me a part time job and I didn't even say shit. People know it when they see it. Anyway, the point being maybe it is because I have worked in a shop for some time now or maybe not but I just hope the average consumer could see the difference between the two. The service they would get at the second shop would far exceed the quality of help they would get at the first. The funny thing was that it was fairly new, 2 years, hmmmm seems like some other shop I know of. (Insert Shameless plug here) Revolution Cycle and Ski

Thats all for now
Gooday

Insurance Baby!!!!

Hey boys and girls, I am slowly getting some time to start writing this blog again. I finally was able to sleep in today, which was glorious. 5am mornings are hurting bad. We can get shit canned for looking like we are tired, being 15seconds late, having a cellphone on grounds, or letting the tongue slip "shit" (which is difficult coming from a shop environment). I can't complain though, pretty much just don't be a dumb ass and I should be able to keep my job. Well that is if I can memorize and execute about 6,000 pages of rules, regulations, procedures, and concepts in the next few weeks. On the plus side this process here in OKC is geared towards having us succeed, it is when I get to CA that all the washout happens. At least I now have insurance!!!! Who wants to go do something risky??? I actually was going to go skydiving with my instructor this weekend but didn't want to drop $200 for it. Instead the roommates and I hopped into the car and checked out OK city as we are actually residing in a lil' suburb called Mustang. Despite previous assumptions the city is actually pretty cool, only exception being is not one single Oklahoman knows how to drive. The weather got crazy windy and cold this weekend so I did not ride today...maybe tomm. Either way we should be back up into the 70s this week. Thus far road conditions down here blow! No shoulders, tons of traffic, old pavement, potholes for babies and small dogs, and no good routes that don't make you turn around for the same 5mi stretch. I might try and ride with a couple of guys from a shop in OKC if I can swing the time after work before it gets dark.
Gotta go Study
Later

Update

Well hello again boys and girls, ladies and gents. We begin again. As all 4 of you whom read my blog know I made the big move this weekend down to OKC. The drive absolutely blew ass. I woke up to several inches of snow on the ground to begin my commute. Nothing like slowing down the start of a 15hour drive. This was a picture of my starting road.
Ok so it is a state hwy in WI maybe it shouldn't have been plowed yet but I sure as hell expected to see the next road below to be plowed, an interstate,

Where are all my federal taxes going? because I sure as hell haven't received my paycheck yet.

Needless to say it did get better, eventually, somewhere in Iowa, and by the time I got to Kansas it was BROWN!

(Sorry for the bad pics. Bad Camera, Driving, horrible photographer.)

I finally got somewhere deep in Kansas and was planning on calling it a night until I realized I was only like 2hours away. I decided to push on and ended up meeting the crew downtown OKC at a pretty kickass Cigar-bar. Ok it sucked because people were smoking in the bar and I forgot how much it suck to have a stench of smoke on you. But they had one hell of a jazzy blues band and my land lord bought me a beer that wasnt pisswater.

After the bar I finally got to the house, not to shabby, it is pretty much brand new. they furnished the entire thing including a 60in highdef TV, full fridge, and stocked pantry. Cant beat that.


SORRY FOR THE LONG POST...THEY WILL GET BETTER.....

Sunday-
I got some needed sleep, ate a huge breakfast(which someone else cooked for me, bonus) played some football with all the residents in a random field with a pick-up truck and country music blaring, which unfortunately is just impossible to escape down here. Ate some burgers and dogs off the grill (again which I did not have to cook or pay for) went home and settled in.

Today-
First day of work. Wake up balls early to make it to the facility and get cleared by security, issued badges and all that great stuff. Went to my assigned room and sat, and sat, and sat. Basically I sat through 8hours of telling me not to wink at the girls, dont be late, and I am getting benefits. Pretty sure all stuff I already knew, not to mention again filling out 6 of the exact same forms I already filled out 23times. Gov't.

Got home ate and rocked some Halo on the Highdef for a while then headed out to the streets to test the ol' cycling legs. More on that to come, I am tired of typing and I am sure you are tired of this breakdown. Just wanted to let you know it has begun and I will be back soon.

laters

Sad Day...things are changing

Things are changing
Blogs,
Bikes,
Life.

Even though the official return to the blogging world is not until next week..(stay tuned) I felt that today deserved an entry. For today is my last day at the shop, Revolution Cycle and Ski I will miss it dearly and all that associate with her.

Rock on!

This guy got HUGE!

I just wanted to start getting things warmed up for my inevitable comeback to the blogging world in the next 2 weeks. Here is a couple of pictures of Slick's Seceret winter training plan in Fargo. From the photos he sent us it looks like it is working.
Enjoy!

I'm a Skiiler

That's right, I have finally caved. After two outings on a pair of Evo rentals with Sir Josh and Sir Mike out at the Quarries, I have decided to put my already debted collge life deeper in the hole. Last night I bought myself some Atomic Vasa G2 Classic Skiis and accomadating get-up. Right now I am waiting for the second to last layer of wax to dry so I can get out on these bad boys.


Time to go scrape my planks.
Later