- Captain chaos, my former boss that had us running in circles is now gone…. The new management is refreshing.
- Mom passed away while I was away in Kansas re-racking the entire place. I did have a nice long visit with her before she left us, leaving me with warm memories.
- Broke my favorite bike. Chain broke pulling the derailer into the frame and wheel. Frame needed replaced so I had a new improved one made. We have been riding a lot. Most every Sunday for 20 to 40 miles and picked up this habit of riding at 6 am Saturdays. (Dawn patrol)
- Susan had her best friend LaDonna over for a week and they saw everything in Ohio.
- Spent a vacation week at dad’s pool early July.
- The Grand kids are getting much older now, but thankfully they are still kids.
- I started a Facebook page. Don’t go there though… Too social.
- Added some more photos of our bike rides and created some slide shows with music.
- Yeah, that’s about it.

So… at a slower pace was a visit to the Ray Skillman muscle car museum. Dad has been telling me of a nice car museum in Greenwood IN that we should go see. We went just after Thanksgiving day and all I can say is WOW! This is an awesome collection with some of the finest old classic cars I have ever seen. The thing that stuck me was the open non-barred feeling you get to move freely about the cars but of course no-touch is the unspoken code. If you look close you will see some rare cars here.

Funny thing.. I was thinking just thinking it has been sometime since we have been to the Air Force Museum in Dayton. 10 years? Anyway we got a call from Jon and they were coincidentally just leaving home for the Air museum so we met up with them and enjoyed the balance of the afternoon checking out the exhibits and wow the place has changed a lot!

See the pics…

Fred posted the shot of the day so I decided to post the goofy shot. Thanks to everyone for being so much fun!

Jonny wins the prize.

I have been remiss in getting the photos processed so here they are.

When I refer to the group it is anywhere from 4 to 15 riders that all have one thing in common. We like to ride our “whatever” bikes but mostly recumbents. Most folks in the group that ride those funny looking sitty-upright-tall bikes are working on getting into the right recumbent for them.

The best thing about our group is we like to go at an even pace. No race! Nice easy rides. Our team captain, if you would, is Denny who works part time and off site for the local bike shop. He is the recumbent expert for the store and set’s people up in proper fashion. He hes gathered this group via an email list that has grown to about 30 folks and every week we try and gather at some trail within an hour’s drive. Sort of forces one to be there on time, well forces you to just be there at all if you know what I mean.

Yesterday I did a Saturday morning ride with three others on the south part of town. Started at 7am. Yeah.. my time of day. 32 miles before noon which included a stop at the coffee shop for a sit down breakfast and good company. Today we are all gathering at Scott and Lynn’s, after a ride of course, for a barbecue.

We will have many more rides and many more stories to tell about them…

What’s more exciting than a new garage door? Taking the old one to the landfill!! (stay with me here) I have been hauling the old garage door around in the Safari van for several weeks now, cut into 4 foot sections and ready for an unsuspecting dumpster. I guess I could have thrown it out the back door and just leave it lay in the yard, but we live on this side of the river thankyou.

Too big to go in the trash can and considered construction debri so curb side would not do my only choice was to take it to the landfill. My first thought was, man I have to haul it down there and pay to dump it, so off to the landfill we went with 15 bucks in hand.

Pulled into Scott’s Landfill, motored up to the little shack and payed the guy my 15 dollars, and he said, “take it to the top of the hill….” I slowly turned and looked at that trash mountain (you know.. like the one’s you see from the interstate that look like a small mount everest) and said in my own breath, “really?” OH BOY I thought, were gunna do some hill climbing! I haven’t done this since I had my 1972 Ford pick up, well back in the 70’s. I haven’t even been off roading in years!! I jumped back in the Safari van and looked over at Susan and said, Were going to the top baby! She said something quietly like “oh shit..”

Now you would think they would have a road that winds it’s way around the hill for a gradual climb, HECK NO baby! Straight up! How cool is that?? Okay it wasn’t straight up but it was steep enough to be fun. Drop it in low and keep the momentum up so she doesn’t spin out. Pick good lines, not on the ridge and not in the groove… keep the steering wheel moving… that’s it. Like riding a bike, you don’t forget these skills. We bounced and swayed, passed a dump truck that was coming down the somewhat 2 lane path and eventually popped out on top. Yes!! ..made it.

Now were driving on dirt covered trash and the thought of sharp objects and tires blowing out cross my mind, but we made our way over to where the big dozer was pushing trash over the side. “Man I hope he sees us,” I said. One of those giant steel wheels is bigger than our van. Anyway we toss our stuff out next to another small pile, shut the doors and pull away. I stopped and mentioned, “hey look you can see the entire city from here.” You could see for miles actually. It was mount Columbus we’re on! What if we built a house up here? How cool would that be? …Then it hit me - that little voice of sanity said, “Dude.. your on a giant trash pile. ok.. let’s go home.

Let’s see, legal dumping and off-roading for only 15 bucks. …and took me back 30 years. Yeah… I’ll be back!

See more here…