The Perfect Saturday

It would be hard to beat the Saturday I enjoyed yesterday. I met up with Johnny5, the new 9-5er, and Scott "Monster" McConnell out at Lock4 for a few laps around the park. For once I showed up on time, which was a half hour before Thad so I rode a bit before he arrived. Then Scott said he and his buddy were running late too so Thad and I went out and rode a quick 1/2 lap. Then we met up with Scott and his friend John whom he was showing the ropes of off-road riding to. Another Wood N Wave rider was in attendance having seen Scott's invite over at the Nashville Mtn Bike forums.

We had a good size group and filled the spectrum of skill and fitness level. The trail could not of been in any better shape. It was tacky and fast and really let you rail into the corners....so much fun! It was another cool morning with a ton of humidity but made for great riding weather without the fear of getting overheated.

On to the more exciting photos of the day:

I think I spot a Catahoula

Puppies aren't shy are they?



Hey there JD!

Moots trail dog in training:

The crew with our fearless leader...wow isn't he tall?

I met another new friend on the trail

How do you top a great morning on the trail? A great lunch with my in-laws at a fun new Mexican restaurant in the every changing Gulch area of Nashville, Cantina Laredo. Then after lunch coffee at Crema, Nashville's best coffee shop (according to me) Yum!

Our Saturday had another big event planned, a wedding with reception at the Copper Kettle downtown. Two friends we've met through our Young Couples group tied the knot at a lovely little church off 12 South. Beth and I really enjoyed the ceremony and the food of course was amazing from the Copper Kettle. Best bonus: Yazoo Pale and Dos Perros on tap. (and ironically served in High Life glasses) I'd say this could be considered the High Life!


Bikes, food, coffee, friends and Yazoo beer... The Perfect Saturday.

riding again

Tuesday was the Sorba Full Moon Fandango night ride at Lock4. We had a huge turnout of over 30 riders who all donned lights and hit the trail after a short raffle by Sorba/Darryl. For the first time ever, I won something at a raffle! I won a polar insulated water bottle... score!

Everyone got settled in with their group and rode the trail at their own pace. It was fun being

out there with that many other riders. I'm used to only night riding with about 3-4 other people so 30 was awesome. It was neat to see the lights dance around the woods and hear everyone having fun. Thankfully no one jumped out to scare me, though I heard some other riders weren't so lucky. We did have a stealth cop pop up all over the place shooting video and taking pictures. You can view them HERE.

We had 5 Yazoo riders there with Biteme, J5, I'mJ5'sWife and Hennessee. It was great to see J5 and his new wife again since I had to miss their nuptials, even better to see H on the bike.

photos courtesy of TVA448

Last night was tap room night at Yazoo, but the rain kept us all off our bikes. I was really hoping to ride in as I'm in bike withdraw. The rain just kept coming down all day and never let up for more than 1/2 hr or so. We still had a great time at Yazoo and then headed over to Las Palmas for some grub. I hadn't been there in a long time so that was a treat and it was fun to meet some new friends and get to know them better.

Beth and I are heading to a show in Alabama today. Should be great weather and we are hoping for another great show! We could use the money now that we are home owners! heh You all just wait.... shin digs are in the works for the coming months. Now that we will have enough room to both breathe at the same time, we'll have people over more.

I found out that a friend of mine was in a bad motorcycle accident this week. Hodge, who's a hell of a guy, rider and shop owner in Georgia. Please keep him and his family in your thoughts and prayers as he goes into surgery and starts the road to recovery.

I didn't work today, but I feel especially accomplished!! I was finally able to get my Sprint account setup the way I wanted. I'm sure this doesn't sound like a big task, but it took about 10 customer service calls where I probably spoke with 15 different people. I won't go into all the details but I basically have my new phone working on my old phone number with a very nice plan. The power of persistence and patience is amazing!

So much has happened this past week it's hard to know where to start. I'll work to keep giving the short version.

Last tuesday I did a tracking session at a new (to me) studio at Sony Tree. I hadn't done a tracking date in a month so I was a little rusty but the guys on the session were a lot of fun and made the day really enjoyable. The studio just got a new (to them) console installed and there are still some bugs to work out. We were able to work around it all, but it would of been a pain if we were working there for more than 1 day. I really do enjoy tracking though. I wasn't the engineer on this session but tracking is still so rewarding to me. You get a great sense of accomplishment that you don't always get from mixing. At the end of the day you can look and see the fruits of your hard work. With mixing you're always second guessing yourself and the clients has little changes, and many times continues to have little changes until they learn to let go. Tracking is a more final process. You come in, setup, record music, and then you're done. You've helped create something that didn't exist at the beginning of the day.

On thurs afternoon Thad and I headed down to MOAB to hang and I started building my "dream bike" aka the crosscheck, or aka "the spot filler". I admit I was underprepared, but I also didn't know what to expect. Brian (at MOAB) and I worked through some different builds and then hit some internet trouble. Thankfully about 1/2 an hour later Thad was able to rescue us and fix their laptop. I'm happy with most of the build. Now that I've had a few days to ponder it more there are a few changes I'd like to make and I still haven't decided on a wheelset. I'm thinking of sticking with a pretty standard 105 group but can't pick wheels. I know so little about road components that it's hard to know what things cost. Even without wheels, I'm pretty close to the top of my budget so I'm trying to get some affordable, durable, non-tank wheels. So far the ideas are 105 hub/Delgado CX rim, XT hub/Delgado rim, or something cheap like the Mavis Aksium. I'm not sure what a 105/xt with delgado wheel will cost so I need to get back to MOAB and work some more and ask some more questions. I'd like to order this by the end of the week if I can... then my spot won't be void for much longer.

Beth and I traveled to Decatur, GA this weekend for a craft show. It went well and we were able to have dinner at a place we both love there called the Brick Store Pub. They have great fish and chips and amazing beer. They have some great microbrews from across the US. They had the Great Divide Hibernation ale again so I was in heaven! There are few beers that I enjoy as much as this one. I mean its a hoppy, dark, strong ale with a 8.2% alcohol content, what's not to love.

Grant posted a great update to DSG 2.0 on NMB and has really got me pumped. I keep forgetting about DSG and that I have a team set up. I wasn't able to go last year because of my wedding so I am super psyched for this year. Our team needs to get our butts in gear and get registered!


Here are the photos from our weekend adventure. (sorry there aren't many this time)

Breathing time

Life has settled down finally and I've been able to relax and enjoy being injured and not working. My sessions last week went well and were fun. I have a light week this week and then a trip to Roanoke, Virginia to see my brother on Thursday. We're going to go to a Virginia Tech football game that will hopefully involve some tailgating. Then I have to shoot back to Nashville early Friday and pick up Beth and her truck to head to Indianapolis for a Saturday craft show. I'm exciting to go to Virginia even though it's going to be a 15 hour round trip drive in two days. I've only seen my brother once since my wedding in April and I haven't been to a Tech game in a while. I'm not a big sports fan and don't watch sports on TV, but you can't help but enjoy going to a game and watching it in person. Being at Virginia Tech is always fun as it reminds me of college and JMU. That area of Virginia is also ridiculously beautiful and I miss it.

I was thankful to have the time this week to make it to Polo even though I had a session on Tuesday. I generally have to write-off my entire day when I'm booked so it's always a surprise to be able do something at night after work. We had 6 players so we played some hard fought games of 3 on 3. Teams seemed a little mismatched at first with the first couple games being blowouts. We rearranged a couple players and were more competitive. A new guy who met the Yazoo guys at Cyclocross came out and rocked it hard on his 29er Redline. He is an x track racer so he picked up the game quickly and the aggression/competitiveness came naturally. At one point I was making a meager "fast break" attempt and did a sweeping turn towards the ball, at the last minute looking up and seeing the new guy right in front of me. I was past the point of being able to stop or even slow down and I just t-boned him. Up and over the bars I went with my right knee slamming into my stem and my left arm scraping down my handlebars. I hit the ground hard on my left shoulder with my head quickly behind it. Luckily I was wearing my helmet because I remember feeling the impact. Troy and Dan thought I must of broken a collarbone or something seeing how I fell. I took a sec on the ground to check for broken parts and figure out what had happened. Once again I avoided any broken bones and just had a scraped knee and some blood on my arm. I slammed my knee hard though and it was already feeling tight. I had full range of motion and was able to pedal around and stretch it out but I could tell it was going to be a lasting pain. The bike managed to come out almost unscathed with just a broken pop-loc lever and a drooping brake lever. We took a short break for me to get back to my senses and enjoy some beer and then we played two more games. My knee has been slowly getting better. It's still sore and hurts when coming down stairs. I was able to ride a little this weekend on it and loosen it up some. Being on the bike felt better than expected but it still hurt to bunny hop and soak up the landing.


This weekend was the Race to the Canal at Land Between the Lakes. I was planning on entering this race but knew with my injury at polo, I wouldn't be able to. I went back and forth about going and camping knowing I couldn't race. Finally Beth helped remind me how much fun I would still have and Thad mentioned I could help the racers shuttle to the start so I decided to go. Very glad I decided go because I had a blast! We got up to LBL around 3 ish on saturday and met up with Jut, who'd left Thursday and ridden his crosscheck up there. (crazy!) We reserved a camp site and quickly setup camp. Thad and Jamie wanted to get a pre-ride in so the three of us headed out. I knew immediately I would have trouble keeping up. I haven't ridden trail in over 3 weeks and was clearly out of shape. I was leery of my knee as well which made me even slower. Thad reminded me that I was on my handicap bike, the geared Ventana, and make it sound like that was my only excuse. I wish that was it, but it was clear I just didn't have a lot of strength. Once we hit trail I fell even farther back and just tried to enjoy my own ride. About 2 miles in my calves really started to cramp, like full-on charlie horse style cramp. I've never had trouble with cramping and never that early in a ride. The only reasoning I could think of was not being well hydrated and being on antibiotics which possibly dehydrated me more. I tried my best to just ride through the cramps and drink a ton of water. Thad and Jamie waited for me at the confusing intersections and I stopped a few times to stretch my calves. I was enjoying being on dirt and riding but also really frustrated with myself.

We headed back to camp and met up with Chris Ivory and ogled his new Dekerf Solitare. What a sweet bike! He headed out for the inaugural ride on his new bike and we all chilled at the campsite and enjoyed some beer. Thad started cooking us spaghetti dinner and we snacked on nuts and chips and salsa. The pasta was great and the beer was cold and we were camping. Life was good! Brandon showed up a couple hours later with some more beer and a liter of Makers Mark and the party hit a new level. We partied hard and had a lot of great conversation. Next thing I remember was waking up in the tent at 6am. Thad was already up starting breakfast and it was still dark out. I tried to sleep a little longer but the gravel campsite was not too comfy. I got up to watch the sun rise and snap some photos. Everyone was looking a little rough at breakfast. I think Jamie and I probably felt the worse, though I didn't have to race thankfully. Thad made a killer egg/ham and bagel breakfast with fresh coffee! Everyone started their pre-race preparations and I tried my best to keep my food down.

Registration took longer then expected and then we met up with Mike N and Jeanie at the Welcome Station. Everyone piled in the truck and we headed off to the starting line. Clearly the race wasn't going to start on time but there was a big turnout of racers. The crew got geared up at the starting line and waited for their turn. We saw Jeremie from NMB racing for Cumberland Transit, Michael Cook from Team NMB and Bikerchickie. The crew took off with the SS class and Jeanie and I headed back to the Welcome Station in the truck. We had some time to kill and had some naps planned while the guys were racing. We took the cars down to the finish line and found some good shaded parking spots and just waited. I lounged in the passenger seat and tried to get a nap. I never did fall asleep but it felt good to just relax and listen to the sounds of animals, people and the occasional acorn hitting the truck. Jeanie and I estimated the guys would be done around 12:30pm which turned out to be about 30 minutes late. I headed up to see if I could find a bathroom and noticed some of the sport racers were done like Michael Cook. Ooops! Looks like we missed the Yazoo guys finishing! I saw Thad and Mike and Jeanie down by the finish line and walked up. Sorry guys! Sounds like the race was fun.

What a great weekend of camping! It really satisfied my camping fix. I'd been talking with Beth lately about camping and wanting to get her out. I hadn't camped in about 3-4 years. I grew up camping with my family and with Boyscouts. Beth has never camped so there is a little barrier there. I hope we can plan the perfect trip to ease her into camping. There are so many different levels of "roughin it" that I think if planned well, she will enjoy it. Maybe match it up with a day of rafting. There is just something about spending a lot of time outside away from technology that is relaxing.

I uploaded my photos from the weekend to my Flickr account. You can check them out here:
Flickr- LBL Camping Weekend

tired but accomplished

Well we (Beth and I) made it through our first show weekend for this month. Two more to go, then probably a couple in October as well. We headed down to Germantown outside of Memphis friday afternoon at a leasurely pace and found our hotel, no thanks to Googlemaps directions. Apparently Google needs to work on their left and right some more, back to school, no student left behind!! The hotel turned out to be a great find. Large suites with a decent breakfast and a pretty comfy bed, can't really ask for more on the business trips.

The show went well minus some grueling temps on Saturday and a few downpours on sunday. We managed to stay relatively dry and sell a bunch of jewelry. A lot of folks stopped by the booth and expressed how happy they were that we were back again this year. I think it is so awesome to think that Beth is having such an effect on people across the country!

A lot of the vendors surrounding us decided to leave sunday morning before the show even opened because of the poor weather. I have to admit the idea crossed our minds, but we always get so aggravated when people leave early and you never know what is going to happen in the long run. It always seems when people give up, the weather always turns for the better and the customers flock in. This show was no exception. We had great sales saturday even in the extreme muggy heat, and then sold almost as much sunday with 4 less hours and all the wet weather. The scared vendors really missed out this time!

I haven't been doing much biking lately. It's sad, but I've just had too much going on. I thought about getting out today but I had a few random studio projects to work on and some Google work to do. It also was muggy in the morning and then rained quite a bit around lunch. I'm looking forward to some more bike polo tomorrow. We are heading to Chicago thursday and I have a remote session in Franklin booked for wed. Tomorrow may be my only chance to be on a bike this week. I was doing so well last month towards my goal of 1000 off-road miles this year. Hopefully I can still put in some good miles sometime this month, or hit it really hard in October to stay on track. I've got about 300 miles to go. I wonder what my reward for myself will be?? hmmm never really gave that any though til now!

Well I'll leave this with another pic from the weekend. Found a good beer at Outback of all places while we were in Germantown. Coopers Sparkling Ale. Sounded like I wouldn't like it, and that it may be cider-like, but it turned out to be fantastic and refreshing. Sorta reminded me of a bubbly Bottingtons, even had a little Yazoo Pale taste to it, though less hoppy and more carbonated.