Chocolate Cake and Pierced Nipples

It's been a hectic week or so after coming back from vacation, lots to do and no time to do it has had me a little behind on posting things on here. Last Thursday was another awesome Tour de Brew LNK ride with Modern Monks beer and Foster Closet being the beneficiary of all the donations this go round. I was flying solo for this one, the GF decided that the 15 hour drive from NY was more than enough driving for her for the week and decided to opt out. Somehow I ended up running late leaving Omaha and didn't have anyone to blame so I registered at Moran's tried the Fox Hole Pivo (which was really good) and beat feet to Cycle Works.


Weather was a bit hot for this one but with the promise of cold beer it didn't keep too many people from showing up.




Quite possibly the raddest bike on the planet right there. Can you imagine riding until you got thirsty and then being able to just pull over for a cold one? Had a few of their brews at Cycle Works and then we were off to pick up our raffle tickets and then Single Barrel.


"Freaky Fast" my ass, we were barely breaking a sweat when we caught up to him.


Took a few more great photos of the top of my helmet and the side of my shoulder, even threw in a sliver of my glove this time to switch things up. I photo gud.



Switched things up this month and ran gears and skinny tires, Gary brought out his newly acquired Fat Bike. New things are in store for the single speed, might be time to retire the Monocog in favor of a different frame, have some things in the works if they pan out.



Had another really good turn out, I think originally they had set aside just the center portion for the brew ride but by the time everyone had arrived I think we occupied about 85% of the restaurant.


Single Barrel has some really good scotches and good food as well but my personal favorite thing on the entire menu is their chocolate, bourbon, bacon cake, it's even better in person than it is in pictures.


The newly weds showed up as well and showed off their custom rings.


A change this time made it possible to purchase extra tickets for a $1 a piece, increasing your chances of winning the 10 person backyard BBQ catered by the Single Barrel and Modern Monks as well as giving more to Foster Closet.



While the extra tickets didn't get me the BBQ, it did help score me this sweet Modern Monks glass in the shape of one of the their cans.



Great time was had by all who went again this month...


Especially this guy, didn't realize the Single Barrel was that kind of bar... they probably didn't either. Looks like next month will be the last of these rides until next year. with these rides going away and the dirt rides from Cycle Works most likely wrapping up in a few weeks it's going to be slim pickings for fun rides around here until spring but I guess all good things must come to an end as they say.

ThNNDDR - The End Is Near

Good turnout for the Thursday Night No Drop Dirt Ride last night, Wilderness got a little bit of moisture on Wednesday but it dried out nicely for the ride on Thursday.


Tried a few more "action" shots, trying to get a decent picture from a point and shoot while riding one handed through Wilderness isn't as easy as it sounds. This one didn't come out too bad.


A little bit worse but still not half bad for shooting over your shoulder and not being able to see what exactly your taking a picture of.


Look at the composition on this one, that helmet is beautifully in focus and almost centered in the frame... oh yeah and those tiny people waaaaaaaaay back there but at least they are in focus I guess.


And then there are shots like this one, lots of shots like this one. As much as we'd like to hold as still as possible there are those "oh shit" moments when you have to grab the bars or shift slightly and this is what you get as a result... that hub though, so shiny, so orange, so blingy.

Not many more of these rides left this year, hopefully we can get at least through September before the darkness sets in too early to make for a decent ride.

ThNNDDR - Bad Luck Chuck

Chuck Norris is officially and forever, from this day forward banned from participating in, talking about or ever using his likeness again for the ThNNDDR! I don't know if his popularity has waned or if people were just intimidated by the thought of Chuck on a mountain bike but I posted this picture earlier in the day concerning the ride... and then nobody showed up!


Well, technically I showed up so it's not like NOBODY showed up, just not all that many of us. Not to be deterred however I decided to ride anyway, I did after all have the bike, the fancy padded shorts and the helmet on, would seem like a crime to waste such an ensemble driving in a car.

Passed Memorial Stadium and noticed that they are putting up faux bricks, I guess the kick backs for joining the Big Ten (who actually has 14 football teams) and leaving the Big 12 (who only has 10 teams) aren't enough for real bricks... of course since they can't even accurately count the number of teams in each conference I suppose that probably just carries over to the accounting department.


Was hoping that there might be a few people at the unofficial meetup at Good Life Fitness but there were not, I suppose the threatening looking clouds could have kept some people at home but not being that bright I decided to press onward into the park.


Wilderness Park was in really good shape and I made pretty good time to the turn around spot, since this was a bit less of a formal ride I decided to ask the group if they wouldn't mind doing a little exploring on the way back, see some of the familiar sites that we hadn't seen in a few. Amazingly the entire group decided it was a great idea, it's hard to get a group of people to agree on almost anything so I took that as a good sign.


Decided to hit up the old Rock Island Railroad route and take that out of Wilderness, been underneath this bridge on the trail below pedaling my ass off lately so it was nice to slow down and take in Wilderness at a much slower pace.


Somebody dropped their pussy on the trail and must not have realized they dropped it because who would just leave a perfectly good pussy behind? I hate when that happens, cannot tell you the number of times I've lost a pussy by accidentally leaving it somewhere. I did get a chuckle due to the placement of the pussy on the wood, I suppose that is where it belongs but I doubt the person who penned it realized the irony at the time.

Someone's been boning up on their color by numbers I see, nothing screams lasting memorial like Krylon straight from the can. Not sure what happened on Feb 23, 2013 but apparently we are not supposed to forget... well shit! They could have been a little clearer on what they didn't want us to forget in my opinion.



Like I said hadn't been by this way since moving from Lincoln in Feb... wait, maybe the memorial is in remembrance of when I moved... I can't say as it was exactly on the 23rd but it might have been. Damn, I'm touched, give me a minute I'm tearing up just a bit right now. Ok, I think I can go on now. Anyway, looks like the railroad is getting pretty serious about people not crossing their shiny tracks in this particular location, not sure what that's all about since it's been a crossing for decades.

Not wanting to feel the wrath of the BNSF popo, I of course back tracked to the Jamaican trail, rode all the way up to Old Cheney Road then took the trail back on the other side just to see what it looked like over there. I did not, I repeat I DID NOT ride down the embankment on the other side, carry my bike across the tracks, ride up this side and then skirt around this barrier, placing my bike like so just to get this picture. That 4 mile detour was a bitch but it's clearly posted that you cannot cross so you gotta do what you gotta do if you want to know what's on the other side. In retrospect since it was just this barrier and signs it might not have been worth the extra effort but you never know that until you've already done it, chock that one up to a lesson learned right there.



Speaking of cement paths and moving, I do miss the awesome network of trails that Lincoln has that will pretty much get you anywhere in the city that you need to go. You don't really realize how nice that is until it's no longer there, Omaha has it's share of cement paths as well but sometimes getting to them is a bit of an adventure and they don't spider out in all directions like Lincoln.

And don't even get me started on the views from the trail...


Speaking of, came around the corner to this... I swear I heard that "aaaaaaaaaaaa" sound you see on TV when you're witnessing a miracle, in reality it was most likely just the buzzing from the Chris King hub because I stopped pedaling but man, it was close enough. It was even more amazing in person than it is here in this picture but life usually is. While it wasn't the largest group we've ever had for the ThNNDDR, I would say the ride was a huge success anyway, got to just slow down and revisit some old stomping grounds and stop and smell the proverbial roses a little bit. Life is pretty good from the saddle of a bike.