ice storm

It figures, I really should put money of this stuff...where ever I go, the weather sucks.

Not in this photo of course...but the 8 hr drive home was full of litter. Trucks and cars and semi's littered the ditches and medians of I-10 from a massive ice storm on Saturday night/Sunday morning.

I'd have it no other way.

Which reminds me of a great quote I read from Axel Merckx after being beat in a race once...

Some spineless sap sat Axel's wheel for however far then piped him at the finish. I mean, that's part of the game, no matter what you think of that piper's performance(spineless), but it was Axel's response that stuck with me:

"At least someone was able to make good use of my hard work."

Speaking of work ethics...you know its a good race when you've blown a gasket and left this on your bike:

I had a nice time in Lajitas/Terlingua/Big Bend/Study Butte. The guys at Desert Sports do a fantastic job putting on the Mas or Menos 100k event, except they missed one rock out there...a rock that fillet'd my tire and promptly put me at the rear of the race about 20min in...I booted the dying carcass of a tire with the wrapper of a fruit bar which was a great excuse to eat...too bad I don't think I even chewed it.

Eventually I chased back to the front group where finally I could relax and try to enjoy this ride. We laughed and skidded and brake checked each other in a slow man's race to avoid the front sometimes.

Gee golly, ain't laughin with 4 peeps in the desert on a chilly morning, with the Chisos mtns and Mexico just over your shoulder a blast. Yeah, that's great.....until I flatted again b/c despite what you may think, food product wrappers won't protect your tube against sharp rocks and even sharper plants. Hey, flats happen, man. At least I didn't slam while doing a Method Air 4 and lose a gold medal.

During my back country hike out of this situation I had a few moments to really take in the beauty and desolate nature of the area. Here I am, hiking in plastic shoes, in spandex, in acre after acre of rubble and craggy landscape filled with plants as sharp and threatening as so many thousands of spears, all at ankle to waist level. Oh yeah, and dragging a disabled bicycle.

At one point I had to take my shoe off b/c a thorn had pierced the leather and was poisoning my foot...picture me hunched over, likely near one of the millions of bushes out there, when a Bourder Patrol plane looking for scally wag stowaways running amouck in the desert flys over, inspecting me.

They did a double pass, so I gave them the moon.