Still Kicking

Hey All!

Due to being crazy busy, and having accidentally washed my camera with my sheets, there haven't been many blog posts lately. But now Eurobike prep is over and my replacement camera is in the mail... ah, and I'm on vacation as of today. I should have some nice, somewhat interesting stuff to post about pretty soon.

While you wait, here's a photo of a ladies' ride I did this past weekend. I haven't been out on the mountain bike for months (which is an actual crime in some circles) and it was so good to get out again.



The chick who set the ride up, Lindsay, is new to mountain biking and promised she would be the slowest one on the ride. I showed her who's boss and held us up the most, though, going back through sections two, three and sometimes four times, trying to get back up to speed with technical skills. The other ladies got some extra practice in, too. What's more, Lindsay was totally not slow. She's been practicing and it shows. She doesn't ride like a beginner!

Anyway, I've got to catch my last flight to Durango, CO, where I will enjoy being on vacation and far, far away from Connecticut. (Sorry, CT, you just suck.)

Bull's Bridge etc

This past weekend (How many of my blog posts start this way? Maybe just enough.) Tyler and I took the long way to go on a road ride. The first stop was the famous Elephant Trunk flea market. We just stopped in for the last 45 minutes, so it wasn't too happenin', but it was an interesting flea. There's a special place in my heart for the Wellfleet flea, though, and I don't see this one replacing it. I did get a little succulent plant for $5 because I'm secretly half hipster and require things like succulents, hiking boots with red laces and things with birds on them.

That pocket on my shirt? Birds.



We made another quick stop at a vintage store we had seen driving through last weekend, but it was a bit of a bust. Interestingly enough, though, the bottom story of this house was half vintage store, half knife and sword store called 'Affordable Swordables'. Let it not be said these guys don't have a sense of humor.

Then we did one last bit of procrastinating before our road ride - we stopped to kick around Bull's Bridge, a covered bridge near the Connecticut/New York state line.

The day we went was sadly the last day of swimming, as they've been having a lot of trouble with vandalism and littering.



We hopped around below the bridge for a while.





It was a popular place - gotta wonder how well the crack down on swimming will go.





We made our way up above the bridge to explore a little more. This side had some really interesting rock.



There were lots of holes that almost looked like they had been drilled in the rocks.







It got really neat up above what I assume is a dam.



I shamelessly used my camera's 'miniaturize' setting.



After allll that explorin', we finally got down to some riding.





...and a little posing.



After that, there was a quick dinner at the White Horse (check out the squinty horse!) and a pretty sunset.





Wrapped up another good one.

Bikes and Bikes

I recently bit the bullet and ordered a Cannondale - it's cool, it's only been about a year since I started here. Since I was riding smaller brand bikes instead of competitors - I usually commute in on my Salsa Chili Con Crosso cross bike - it wasn't too much of a problem. The cross bike works alright for road rides, but for a while now I've wanted to replace the Blue RC6 road frame that I cracked in Asheville. After several months of commuting, I cashed in my commuter points (which count as $$$ toward employee purchases) and managed to cover much of the cost of the Women's Supersix Evo with Di2. It's just plain silly.

I'm not much of one for some women's cycling products, but I was awkwardly positioned between a 50 and 52 in the men's bikes, and the size 54 women's Evo has indeed turned out to be a good fit. I'll take it!

Obviously it's not dialed yet - I basically just pulled it out of the box two days ago and took off - but this is the 'before' shot. I'm going to paint the frame and fork in our paint booth once I get the artwork for it done. The graphics on it are not mine, btw. They were done by a woman who worked here before my time.



Always desperate to be 'different', I did make a quick adjustment as a placeholder, though.





That sticker and many other charming ones available from All Hail the Black Market, should you be interested.

Mermaid Parade, Part 2: Aftermath

While in the neighborhood for the Mermaid Parade, we got a hot dog at Nathan's Famous...



and rode the Cyclone, which was the most fun I've had in a long time. It's so rickety and amazing. Tyler and I squeezed in one ancient seat, which we periodically flew out of over rough drops.





After all the fun and games in Coney Island, we biked over to Red Hook, got some groceries to snack on and went to a park to watch the sunset.









After the big show, we hopped on our bikes and pedaled over to dinner. There was an impressive moon.



When I first moved to Connecticut from Asheville (land of 1,000,000 outdoor activities) I wasn't impressed with CT or excited to have New York 'in my backyard'. I've kind of had to adjust my summertime expectations, but it's been good. Instead of truly amazing hiking, biking, etc, there are really fun events to go to and city thangs to explore instead. I miss the quality nature, but it's been easy to enjoy what's here. The ocean's rad, with plenty of fat-biking opportunities. Things are A-OK.

Mermaid Parade, Part 1

A few weekends ago, Tyler and I met Ben down in NYC to hit up the Mermaid Parade in Coney Island. It was my first time checking out Coney Island. I was excited to see it all. The Mermaid Parade was about as you'd expect. Warning: nudity dead ahead.

There were SO MANY excellent costumes, but I'll just post a few of my favorites. There were a couple of guys dressed up as sea monkeys.



I love the little lobster legs on her belly.



This fabric art/sculpture was my favorite dress by far.



I apologize if this is offensive to you, but this girl was clearly loving life. I'm all for it. Word.



There was a mini 'Sharks vs Wets' West Side Story-style show that was really fun.



Official photographer, officially winning my heart.









I think this was paper maché.



So many more costumes, but that's what I'd consider cream of the crop.  More on the day's activities in the next post...

4th of July

For the Fourth of July weekend Tyler, Ben and I went out to the Cape to my aunt's cottage. We got out to Province town a few times, and hit all the Wellfleet musts, like the flea market, the drive-in, Mac's seafood and all the little stores, hikes and beaches in between. Tyler and I had fat-bikes, and we also managed to fit his little scooter (technically classified as a bicycle, or e-bike, due to the wimpiness of the motor) in the back of the van, so we had something to zip around on. The weekend looked something like this (in no particular order):







(I'm getting a helmet for that bad boy, stat.)

Here we're watching some guys squid fishing in Provincetown.



I made this quilt! It's not done yet, but it still worked.







Curious seals.



It was sunscreen meltingly hot.



Thrift store find. I managed not to part with $25 for this thang. It is for some other lucky thrifter.



Lots of hammock time.





Walking near Wellfleet.





The drive-in movie theater in Wellfleet.



Lighthouse tour by fat-bike (we saw two).



Grillin'









Shark attack. Did you know Jaws was based on the beaches on the Cape? Now you do.





AMERICA.