Bike Ride with Sir rLog

Our story begins on Thursday afternoon as I was about to take off on my hybrid bicycle. But first, I thought it might be wise to check the tire pressure. Although the tires felt alright, they were about 10 pounds low. So, armed with my trusty air compressor, I set about rectifying this. Unfortunately, my ever-so-relaible (in the past) compressor died in the middle of inflating my back tire. While investigating the situation, I managed to let out about half of the air from the tire--thus rendering it useless. I searched around for our hand pump for a while; but when I finally found it I discovered that it no longer had a working nozzle. This ride was not off to a good start.

And so, I was left to ride the only remaing bike with air in the tires in my garage--Eric's mountain bike. Its tires were a little squishy; but I figured it would get me on the road alright. So I set off.

Rich and I met up on the creek trail somewhere between Leland and the bridge. We decided to go back in the direction I had come from and pay a visit to Sir zLog at home (though it was doubtful that he'd indeed be home). Between the increased friction of these tires on the pavement(as compared to the racer or the hybrid) and Rich's relentless pace, I was beat. I simply couldn't keep up.

Thankfully, we stopped at the intersection of Camden and McKean for me to recover. From there, I led us on the dirt path out to Bob's place. The first section by the orchard was fairly easy to ride as the dirt was firm (though occasionally muddy). As we left the orchard, we got a free bike and shoe wash courtesy of the high flow through the creek this year. Immediately following this we hit the toughest part of the ride.

In an area heavily trafficed by horses, the dirt path continues between two fields. This section of the path was no longer soft and muddy. Rather it was hard and, due to the six inch deep hoofprints of horses, extraordinarily bumpy. It was a bit of a technical feat to not get stuck in these ruts. My arms absorbed the brunt of this punishment. At this point I was very thankful both to have taken the mountain bike and that it was underinflated.

We made it to zLog's abode, but he was not there. A quick call revealed that Sir zLog's daily driver was experiencing difficulties with a wheel bearing. Apparently, he was in the midst of attending to it. And so we departed la casa de familia Stangeland.

Somehow the ride back over the dirt didn't seem as bad as is did on the way in. We then rode to Sir rLog's place to view an episode of something called Robot Chicken featuring a Behind the Music special on the Electric Mayhem.

No jerseys are awarded for this short excursion. Suffice it to say that I handled the dirt a bit better, but that Rich was a much stronger rider for the duration.