http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/FriendlyBiker/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from FriendlyBiker en-us Fri, 13 Nov 2009 02:52:43 +0000 Fri, 13 Nov 2009 02:52:43 +0000 I'm starting a new blog to concentrate on my photography Foto By Wes. So check it out for more fun stuff http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Virginia/Norfolk/blog-193065.html I don't have time for the full story on our trip up to Pennsylvania to cover the Wilderness 101 this past weekend but let's just say that it was brutally fun. Liz I didn't get out of town until almost midnight and we pulled up to the starting while the race organizer Chris was on the P.A. announcing Ten minutes Ten minutes till the start folks Let's get up to the lineI'm working up http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Pennsylvania/blog-188351.html We were halfway up Hankey Mountain and I was gaining on Liz as she mashed up the hill in her granny gear. I on the other hand was in walking gear pushing my singlespeed Gary Fisher Rig up the mountain. As I squeezed my helmet against my head with one hand and watched the sweat drip out of my helmet pads I remembered what one singlespeed blogger had posted ldquoI ride singlespeed becaus http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Virginia/George-Washington-Nat--Forest/blog-185150.html OK maybe I can't actually win the Tour de Cure since it's not a race but I will be riding in it next month. For the second year in a row several of my coworkers put together a team to ride in the American Diabetes Association Tour de Cure. While last year I couldn't make it since I was already planning on riding 400 kilometers the same weekend this year they made me an offer I couldn't refuse http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Virginia/Norfolk/blog-141878.html Yesterday while out on our regular Wednesday night ride Liz gave me a warning Wes you do not want to do the Shenandoah 100 on a singlespeed. Get yourself a bike with gears Heck we'll find you a bike with gearsCarol was there to witness it. Fair enough Liz the gauntlet has been thrown.Or should I say the bike gloveThere's something absurd about riding an offroad century and there' http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Virginia/Norfolk/blog-126992.html ldquoHow cold is itrdquo a kid asked his riding buddy a thermometer the size of an oversized lollipop pinned to the back of his schoolbagldquoForty.rdquoldquoWhat Itrsquos colder than thatrdquoldquoDude it says forty. Course it said forty in the valley too. Itrsquos been saying forty all day long.rdquoAnother voice chimed in commenting in cold irony ldquoI think http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Virginia/Harrisonburg/blog-126165.html So itrsquos been over a month now since I finished BMB and I still donrsquot have any desire to finish assembling my bike. I hung the pieces up and returned the bike box to the club but after 750 miles in that saddle I have no overwhelming urge to get it back together get back on. Plus I really really need to do a complete overhaul and Irsquove got so many freelance jobs going on r http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Virginia/Norfolk/blog-89916.html ldquoHowrsquos it feel to be donerdquo my mom asked.ldquoDonerdquo In the eighteen years I had known of BMB and during the nearly two years of preparation I had never really thought of being ldquoDonerdquo with it. I had read webpages and books on longdistance riding prepared my body and bike for the rigors of riding through the night night after night. Irsquod ridden out http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Virginia/Norfolk/blog-86419.html So after 900 miles of qualifying rides months of preparation and years of dreaming I finally received my acceptance package from the organizers of the BostonBostonMontreal 750mile brevet addressed to ldquoRider 40 Wes Cheney.rdquoRider Number Forty. I donrsquot think that an hour goes by without my mind straying to BMB. Easily a quarter of front of the refrigerator is now devoted t http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Virginia/Norfolk/blog-77850.html Somewhere around mile 280 I muttered ldquoTo hell with thisrdquo and kicked it into turbo.Irsquod already been riding over 28 hours and I was determined to meet my goal of finishing all 375 miles in less than 36 hours. It seemed like a ludicrous goal but donrsquot get in the way of an endorphin junkie.And I was an endorphin junkie on a bender.ldquoMind over matterrdquo I counsele http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Maryland/blog-64657.html My mindrsquos always spinning. Constantly keeping a list of things that Irsquove gotta do in my head. My bicycle commute in the morning becomes a traveling zen moment. At my best I weave the three and a half miles to work in an unstopping spinning of pedals dissecting my movement into inches at traffic lights nearmotionless in the balancing act of a track stand sliding behind buses wav http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Virginia/Norfolk/blog-61848.html I had forgotten about Daylight Savings Time. Irsquom not referring to the usual Sunday or even Monday morning social embarrassment of ldquoOops I forgot to change my clockrdquo but rather I forgot that Daylight Saving Time was even coming up. What with the baby and all it just wasnrsquot a consideration.So last week I was explaining to a new rider on the Monday night club ride from http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Virginia/Norfolk/blog-50753.html 445 AM and I was awake a quarter hour before my alarm clock. I rolled over in my sleeping bag to look at my tent ceiling not twelve inches from my nose. ldquoOh well might as well get goingrdquo I thought to myself unzipping my way into the cold darkness outside. The tent fly zipper stuck for a moment reminding me of another cold morning in the French Alps when the condensed moisture http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Maryland/Hyattstown/blog-49208.html Things didn't go as planned last night...but then when have then gone according to plan with our new childJenn spent the last nine weeks of her pregnancy on bedrest but she held out through numerous bouts of contractions until week 37 when she would be able to give birth in the midwifery center as her dream had always been.But at 10pm last night our midwife said Uh oh... and called in the http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Virginia/blog-46890.html Baby itrsquos cold outside.My pregnant wife is huddled up under the quilt with the dog to watch a John Cusack romantic comedy that shersquos already seen a dozen times. Meanwhile out in the garage Irsquom holding my hands atop a space heater so decrepit that I can actually hold my hands atop it without burning them off hoping that my fingers will thaw enough to thread a new shifter cable http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Virginia/Norfolk/blog-44247.html It was a day that I knew would come sooner or later although preferably later. Still when I felt a slight bump from my rear wheel followed by a feeling of general squishiness from all parts rear of my pedals I merely assumed that I had punctured my tire on a piece of broken glass at twilight on my way home. But a quick comparative check of tire pressure at the next traffic light dismissed th http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Virginia/Norfolk/blog-41702.html Block after block of abandoned suburbia stretched out in front of me at the foot of the interstate offramp. To the left stood a shuttered shopping plaza plywood covering the windows of the oversized department store. The random parking lot litter of shopping carts was replaced by flooddamaged cars and trucks that more often than not did not rest upon four wheels but leaned up against light p http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Louisiana/New-Orleans/blog-38968.html I kick myself whenever I donrsquot have a camera with me because inevitably thatrsquos when I see the greatest bikes. Therersquos a great little biking renaissance currently underway in Norfolk. Seems like everyday I see another cool bike a serious bike a bike that ainrsquot no Huffy from KMart.So yesterday I took a walk to the mall half an hour late on my lunch break. Too many pre http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Virginia/Norfolk/blog-40345.html My goal was to not finish last. And yet when I was waiting in line at the registration table a fellow cyclist called out to me ldquoHey Wes are you gonna be riding in the Clydesdale categoryrdquoldquoIf they had onerdquo I jokingly replied a smile on my face to cover the engrained awkwardness of perpetually being the biggest guy in the room.Look Irsquom not fat. Yes there have http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Virginia/Norfolk/blog-38390.html At 7 AM this morning Jennifer's contractions stopped. The birth of our baby has been postponed hopefully for another three months and full term. Jennifer will be in the hospital for another three days and faces three months of bed rest. Thank you for your support and prayers.Wes http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Virginia/Norfolk/blog-35139.html