Black Friday

ahhhh yes Black Friday. I wasn't interested in the mad shopping spree thing.......So plans were made. Lance Andre, and his better half Traci,  and I had plans to ride the wild wilderness of Iowa, or in other words the  Triple D bicycle race route. This is Lance's 5th year of being race director and competitor for this rapidly growing in popularity winter bicycle race.


So the three of us met at the Grand Harbor Hotel to emulate as best we could the start of Triple D race, minus the sub zero temps, blowing snow drifts, and the unpredicableness harshness of Iowa winters.

The ride out of town was just chit chat, then over the curb of Highway 52, through tall grass, and then 'the hills' Up and down rutted, hills. Traci was riding like a pro hill climber. Lance was riding like the Iditarod (click here) finisher, Dirty Kanza winner he is. I was riding like well um, here's a actual conversation after hill #3

I said, "Lance my HR was pegged out at 175, on those hills, that was it, I had no more"
Lance, "Yeah but geeesh, your almost 60 years old"

umm, thanks Lance.....I think....:-)~


After the steep roller coaster hills we continued on. Crossing 3 Creeks, which left mine and Traci's feet wet, and somehow Lance's feet dry.

We rode on. Then we saw them. The attacking, foam in the mouth dogs.  I could tell by the rapid rate we were being approached this was a serious problem. One of the dogs was huge, over 100 lbs, leading the attack. What I saw next amazed me. Lance pulled a "Bear Spray" canister from his back jersey pocket, pointed it in the general direction of the attacking dogs and mainly at 'the beast' and burped out a orange fog,  stopping 'Cujo' in his tracks, and left him trying to wipe his eyes with his paws. Cujo, I will make you a deal, you leave us alone we will leave you alone.


Now before PETA jumps on me, and punishes me by making me live off of the dog biscuits I feed, my most spoiled child, Pitty the Pit Bull. Well at least I buy the favorite ones.  I love dogs. Always have and always owned them. It is a shame when dog owners do not control their pets. These particular dogs have a history of attacking bicyclists. I would prefer to bear spray the dog owners. But instead the dogs had to take the hit for their owners not being responsible.

Traci had enough of us guys and headed home. Good lawd, who blame her, Lance and I were now talking about titanium spokes, carbon gears, and secret bike builds.  I fed Lance some granola bars and we headed down Heritage Trail

During the ride, this Text Message came in from my daughter Melissa, "18.5 miles in this morning. Triple D here I come."  These are running miles. She is running the Triple D marathon. Run Melissa, Run.

After all this, I hooked up with my family, all my kiddies, my lady, son in law, Brook, and Mr. Cole my grandson for some beer, and pizza, and some more beer. They all said I had to much to drink. I say they don't know what they are talking about.

What can I say. The thousands, and thousands, and thousands of miles I have spent riding a bicycle, is always new, always a new experience, and I look forward to tomorrow's journey.

OK sleep sounds like a good thing. Hope your day had fun in it. Mine sure did.

Thanks for stopping by.

Dave