A Night Of Firsts

One of the advantages of moving to a new town is that almost everyplace you go and more than a few things that you might do there at the beginning are going to be firsts. I hadn't had a chance to get out much since moving to Omaha with all the moving, unpacking and work but I did manage to get out for a bit tonight for some firsts.


Headed down to The Pizza Shoppe in the Benson area to watch my first ever sprints.


Not only was it my first sprints but it was the fist time at The Pizza Shoppe so we decided to get there a bit early and get some pie before the races, they have some awesome sounding pizza and will definitely have to come back and try a few others. The place kind of reminded me of Yia Yia's in Lincoln, without the beer selection.



The sprints were a lot of fun to watch, might have to give them a try sometime but since I had filled up on beer and pizza it didn't sound like a great idea... unfortunately not everyone was as wise, there were a few people not looking so good after racing.



Another first tonight was a visit to Beertopia, the selection was decent but was not quite on par with Moran's... the search will continue, although if Beertopia were closer I'd still probably visit it pretty frequently.

Did manage to find this though, pretty tasty if I do say so myself. 

Swine & Wine

It's been a crazy month and a half, apartment hunting, packing and moving has left little time for anything else. Heck I haven't even touched any of my bikes except to move them since the 2nd of February, that right there is a sad, sad statement. Thankfully the move went off without too many hitches last weekend, which is good because this weekend was Baconfeast. I have been looking forward to this for some time and it did now disappoint.



Walk in the door and right off the bat, bacon ice cream with candied walnuts and bacon crumbles was placed right in your hand.



These maple bacon mini cupcakes from Serendipities Cupcakes were amazing, definitely will have to make it over there to buy a few cupcakes.


Wasn't really all that impressed with the chocolate oreo bacon truffles, too much chocolate and not enough bacon.


The last sweet morsel I had was the maple bacon long john, probably my all time favorite bacon donut concoction.


After a few sweet items it was time for the salty stuff, mini burgers made from ham and bacon were pretty good.

Up next were pork sliders with Dijon cream sauce on a pretzel bun and another offering with pickle and feta cheese, I think in a full size sandwich either would have been good for lunch.



The bacon nachos and chicken and bacon carnitas were also tasty, just wish there would have been a bit more to make a better determination.

You can never go wrong with meat on a stick and the honey mustard turkey wrapped in bacon lived up to it's reputation, the braised beef with bacon from 9 South Chargrill was probably one of my favorite items in the entire Baconfest.


Of course after eating all that salty and sweet goodness you are bound to get a little thirsty and the beer offerings were on par with the bacon. The beer however was not free.

The bacon wrapped Gouda chicken was pretty awesome as was the pork butt and bacon mashed potatoes, the little dab of salsa next to the mashed potatoes was incredibly tasty and insanely hot. After mixing them together and eating them I literally was sweating for the next 20 minutes.


You can never go wrong with pork sausage or jerky, the Super Saver table was good... haven't ever seen any of these items at Super Saver but I'll have to look now.

Can't have bacon with out a few pigs now can  you.

I'm not a huge wine person, beer is more my style, but there were several people heading out to Deer Spring Winery after the Baconfeast and it did sound interesting as I'd never been there before so off we went. It really is a pretty interesting place, not much going on at this time of year other than the wine but in the summer you can watch the crushing of the grapes on the weekends. I did manage to find three wines during the sampling that I would drink again but the bitter/dry ones are just not for me.


The welcoming committee was pretty friendly and inviting.


The history of the place was very interesting, at one time it was apparently owned by Ulysses S. Grant and the deed with his signature on it hangs on the wall. If you're a wine connoisseur or just a recreational binger you should definitely check the place out if you like the fermented grape juice. After all the stress, lost sleep, mess and craziness of moving and unpacking this was just what the Dr. ordered to help get things back to normal... or at least it would be if Dr.'s actually prescribed such things.

No Wonder They're So Skinny

I always wondered how those cyclist dudes stayed so thin, seems maybe it's because they can't afford to ride and eat. So next time you see someone from your favorite LBS make sure to give them a hug and maybe a sandwich, lord knows they aren't getting much else.

 

I Hear A Train A Coming

What this winter has lacked in snow this year it's more than made up for in bone chilling cold. This morning was no exception with actual temps being only 7 degrees but with all the driving lately for the new job riding time has become scarce and the weekends seem to be the easiest time to get a ride in.


Met my nemesis at our usual rendezvous spot, what you can't see is that it brought company as there were two trains, one moving one sitting still. No choice but to turn around and back track to Old Cheney to slip into Wilderness Park.


Plan B was met with another train... actually I'm pretty sure this was the stopped train from moments earlier now moving and in the way. Oh well, nothing to do but wait for it to pass.


As I sat there waiting, cars piling up behind me just waiting to squish me when the gates went up... here comes yet another train. Hard to see in this picture but those three dots in the very right of the frame are those of a third, maybe fourth if the one in front of me is not the sitting one, train coming in just behind the current one.


Gates finally went up and I pedaled my ass off for the 50ish feet from track to entrance into Wilderness without getting mangled by 2000 lbs of metal. Trails were in really good shape, freezing temps make the dirt almost as smooth and fast as pavement.


Picked up a Relevate Designs mountain feed bag the other day at Cycle Works, wasn't quite a long enough ride to need anything to eat but last summer I saw Mr. Swanson throw his camera in one like this and thought it was a really good idea especially when wearing gloves. It might not be an official camera bag but with it being right there in easy reach and the ability to completely close and open it with one hand while riding it might get more than a little use as one.


Fittingly came out of the trees to see this stopped on the tracks, lucky for me I didn't need to cross them this time... probably the most trains I've ever seen on that section of track in a 30 minute period of time.