The Delinquent Blogger Rides Again

I am the delinquent blogger! I hate dial up! With that being said I am vowing to at least blog once a week. Not that you all can’t survive without my blogs but rather that I miss the long-distance camaraderie of my friends and the accountability to stay active.

Rather then try to catch you up on what has been going on the last couple of months I will just start fresh with what FGB and I have done lately. The totals for the last week; three rides 15 miles, 26 miles, and 18 miles, a four mile hike in Pokagon state park, an evening of bass fishing on Long Beach Lake and an afternoon of shooting clays with my new 20 gauge O/U in the back yard (300 rounds in about two hours).

The 26-mile ride was just like old times only with new faces. FGB’s cousin, alllen, was in from Colorado so we took him for a ride to the covered bridge. FGB took my Tricoss, Allen took the Sirus and I was on the Stumpjumper. The wind was from the North gusting to 25 miles an hour, so the trip south to the bridge was a breeze. Allen, a soccer player, kept up with us pretty well. On the way home we headed a bit further South and west and rode through the heart of Amish farm land, since Allen had never seen it before. Needless to say it was picturesque!

Almost as soon as we turned into the wind Allen began to struggle. I looped back and holding his hand, embarrassing for a teenager, I began towing him forward. Unfortunately FGB who has become quite an avid rider was on my Tricross and disappearing into the distance. It took every bit of my energy to catch him and I had to sheepishly ask him to slow down a bit. This he did with out a complaint. On arriving back home Allen was thrilled to have ridden 26 miles. By the way I took him via a mostly dog-free route. We were only chased by the dog I call happy dog, a black lab mix that just loves to run with us as we pass and looks so dejected when we don’t stop to play.


FGB has enjoyed riding the Tricross so much that I have let him ride it the last couple of outings and I have taken my Stumpjumper. I have decided that trying to keep up an 18-mile an hour pace on a MTB is too much for this old man. I broke the news to FGB that he’d be back on his road bike and I on my Tricross for further rides or we’d both be on MTB’s. Yep! FGB has become my equal this summer and next year I imagine he will lead the way and I will be the one struggling to keep up.