I'm too tired to come up with a title.

"Well crap, you want me to go in there to get my osage orange?!"

Southfarm on a chilly day. South end.

Someone is building some dirt-jumps at the research park!

Seasonal decorations.

Bobbing for osage oranges.

On the same walk yesterday, found a couple osage oranges and played fetch with zephyr with them. When in the water, they're pretty neutrally bouyant, so they float just below the surface. Zephyr has a hard time getting it out. Have a look... this was actually one of her better attempts.

(if that doesn't work)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hmm84yy_RHk

Hay Barn Ho-Down.

Took another long walk out at Southfarm with Kristen and Zephyr. Decided to goof around in a hay barn. It was actually pretty cool.

Hmm, looks like a fun stack of hay bales.

Kristen and Zephyr think so too.

I thought this shot was cool.

Queen of all she surveys...

Cat Island photos, mom's request...

Mom was asking about the picture on the title bar. Here's the full version of that, and a few others from Cat Island as well...

The full photo. Devil's Point, Cat Island, Bahamas.

Another view. It's very rare to have an overcast day down there. Usually it's so bright all the colors get washed out. It was gorgeous that day though. Even rained on us some.

Nearing the end of a really complicated survey on Cat Island. Not happy.

After finishing a survey of a really simple flank margin cave. Happy.

Total photon occlusion. My hips were too wide to let me get through this hole. After seeing the pictures, it looks like I could have turned on my side and got through. There was a bit more cave beyond this that I had to sketch. Athena, being tiny, and Mylroie, also being smaller and "slimy", got through. I sketched what remained from this position. While doing so, Athena spooked a bat. I'm blocking the only exit, so he had a tight squeeze between my back and the ceiling of this little hole...

We have a winner.

The old man wins. But cookie monster comes out of nowhere and steals your cookie!

Guess where?

Ok Waterstrats, who knows where this is? A cookie to the winner.
Big hint, we used to live there. Don't cheat and look at the file name either.

Old Pics...

Just some old photos I came across when I found an old CD. Probably seen them before, maybe on here, but I didn't feel like checking. Enjoy.

Me on the Morse Mountain Beach (near Popham beach) in Maine. Pretty sure it was Thanksgiving...

Mom on the table lands of Katahdin. What year was that?

Mom and I on the summit of Katahdin. Lots of bugs that time...

Thanksgiving.

I spent my thanksgiving day doing pretty much not the usual things. Woke up when Zephyr jumped up on the bed demanding to go out. Got dressed, went for a 2.5 hour ride out at Southfarm. Took some pictures. On the way home along blackjack, I crossed paths with Kristen who was on her way to Southfarm with Zephyr (in the car) to go for a walk, so I joined them. We walked the entire loop of southfarm, which took about 2 hours. Lovely day for it.
All I've had to eat today has been ramen and a PBJ. I'm so unamerican. Call homeland security, I must be a terrorist...
A couple pictures from the ride:

The Salsa enjoying a view of Skunk Hill.

Found a couple balloons bouncing across a field and took a picture.
I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. I did.

Gecko

Every now and then I come across a tiny gecko that lives in Hilbun Hall. Athena found this one, and i took some pictures. He lived in the office for most of the day before we lost track of him...
Also, if you haven't before, check out the NASA earth observatory. Their image of the day gallery is full of interesting features of the earth viewed from space (at very high resolution). Some of it is gorgeous (I can't help it, I'm a geology dork) and some of it is just plain cool. Check it out here.
An example...

Pretty underwater sand dunes on the Bahama Bank near Eleuthra, Bahamas.

Christmas Ideas

Mom asked me what I wanted, so here's some ideas. I'll add some more as I think of them, so keep checking. I need to know what you all want too. I've got some ideas for some of you, but suggestions are always good.
Things I could use:
- mini-tripod (this would be ideal)
- rack for the Salsa (this (the "sherpa") is about the only thing that will work since I have disc brakes on it)
- cool rocks you happen to find
- Geologic Map of North America (here, I'm a GSA member, so could get it cheaper)
- anything home-made
more to come...

Southfarm, 11/15

Took a walk out at southfarm this afternoon. Needed to spend some time outside. Haven't had a chance to do that much lately. First time Kristen's been able to go in a while too. Here's Zephyr being cute...

The horse actually ran over to meet Zephyr and tolerated her sloppy kisses. They've met before.

Some nifty looking grass.

One for the old man.

Miles Davis and John Coltrane - So What?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4FAKRpUCYY

Some things...

Kristen is still feeling pretty crappy. About all she can do is stay home and read and sleep a bunch. Poor kid. She' s almost out of medicine too, so we're going to go back to the doctor today to get more and let him have a look to see if things are healing like they should. She hasn't been able to eat much of anything, and she's lost about 10 pounds already. She has a hard time swallowing, so literally all she's eaten since her surgery is 2 popsicles, a tiny bit of bread, a tiny bit of soup, half a baked potato (over several days), and a couple bowls of ice cream. Her throat just hurts too much to eat much more than that. I sure hope she's better soon.
I can't remember if I mentioned it or not, but I did finally buy a computer, an HP laptop. So far, it has been a total pain in the ass. It worked fine for about a week, then froze up shortly after getting back from GSA. Aparently the hard-drive broke, so they sent me a new one for free, but the sent me a 40GB one instead of a 80GB that I paid for. I just recently got another 80GB one that works, but now I can't reinstall Windows properly. Some crucial file seems to be missing or something. I'm trying it one last time (takes about an hour and half to install), and if it doesn't do it this time, I think I'll demand a new copy of Windows or an entirely new computer. At least they've been helpful on their end. Too bad the damn thing just doesn't work like it ought to!
Not much else new going on. School still busy and getting busier. The labs I teach are done next week, and it'll be nice to be done with that! Tons of work to do on my thesis of course, and I'll probably be working on that over break. Business has really slowed down at the shop, and there hasn't been anything for me to do. I think a complete overhaul of a nice old Specialized Allez was the last thing I did on Saturday. One of those high end old bikes that was never really ridden, but the owner wanted it checked out anyway.
Well, I'll let you all know how Kristen's doing if anything new comes up. Haven't had much chance to take any pretty pictures or anything. The leaves are pretty right now though...

Nice picture of Zephyr

This picture was taken by Kristen's friend from Philly, Jerrold. I think this is an awesome picture of Zephyr. He's got an awesome camera, which helps, but it's timed well and in focus. I like it.

Out at Southfarm...

Poor Kristen...

Kristen for the past month and half or so has been having really bad sore throats. It got really bad, to the point where she couldn't even swallow water, so she went to the doctor. If you know her, the fact that she went at all says she was feeling pretty bad. They gave her some antibiotics and she felt pretty much back to normal while she was on them. But, once they ran out, it would come back. This happened 3 times. The last time she asked the doctor to recommend her to a specialist, so yesterday afternoon we went to an ear/nose/throat specialist here in Starkville. He was pretty amazed at how bad her throat looked, and was afraid she had an abscessed tonsil. They sent her over to the hospital (Oktibbeha County Hospital) to have a cat scan to make sure. Sure enough, it appeared she had a pretty bad abscess of her left tonsil. So he recommended an emergency tonsilectomy. She had to spend last night in the hospital getting pumped full of fluids and antibiotics via I.V. She's never had an I.V. (me either) or had to spend the night in the hospital (me either). She's probably in surgery right now, and it's supposed to last about 20 minutes. Aparently she's going to feel wiped out for a week or two afterwards. Not suprising, but it really sucks since she's got so much school work to do. She's missing a calc test today and an organic chemistry test on Monday. Poor kid...
I sure hope she gets better quick.
I guess this explains why me or anyone else who's always around her never caught it from her...

a couple pictures...

The Liberty Bell in Philly.

The road bike after pretending it was a 'cross bike...

GSA etc...

Sorry it's been a while since I've written anything on here. I've been busy.
First off, got a computer for myself. A nice HP laptop. However, after having it a week, the hard-drive broke. Don't know what happened, but they sent me a new one for free. However, they sent me a 40GB one instead of an 80GB one. But, that should be resolved soon. The week I had it, I downloaded/installed a few programs I've been meaning to for years (I can't install anything on the school computer). Looking forward to having my own computer again...
GSA went well, mostly. Left here Friday afternoon, and made it partway through Virginia that night. I drove the entire 8 or 9 hours. Got up in the morning, and since neither of the girls are morning people, I started driving again. Made it about an hour before I got my first speeding ticket ever. Don't lecture me on it. I was coasting down a long hill in the mountains and hit 80 right at the bottom of it, where a trooper in a Camaro was hidden amongst some trees. Damn. The limit was 65. I was only going slightly faster than what little other cars were on the road, so mostly bad luck I guess. Out of state vehicle maybe helped too. Regardless, that was it for me for driving on the way up...
Got to Philly Saturday evening, checked into our hotel, etc. Athena and I had to present at 8 the next morning. Before we could do that though, we had to sign in. So Sunday morning was quite frantic trying to find out way around a huge convention center, then finding out spot, and putting up our posters with velcro that wouldn't adhere to the poster. We got everything set up in time though, and the poster session went well enough. I was feeling pretty bad about mine, since at this point, I don't really have any numerical data to present, just a bunch of maps and observations. Got to see several people I knew, from UMaine, field camp, the Bahamas, etc. It was really quite neat. One guy from Canada and I talked quite a bit since he'd done some work with sea caves and was frustrated by the lack of information about them. A good contact to have made I think, since he owns a consulting firm up in Ontario.
The rest of the conference was pretty laid back. Tons and tons of talks about all sorts of geology to go to. Some of it really boring, some of it fascinating. Athena and I also had to work a little bit. Because MSU didn't cover our registration fee, we put in 10 hours of work to cover it. All we had to do was sit in a session and run the computer. Pretty boring, especially if you got stuck in a session you weren't interested in.
There was also an exhibition area where all sorts of geology dork vendors and agencies like the USGS showed off their stuff. Also a nice big bookstore with all sorts of geology goodies. Quite a bit of free geology schwag too...
On Tuesday, I got to meet up with a good friend of mine from field camp. A girl from Chicago named Katie, who went to school in Delaware and was there (45 minutes away) for the weekend. Wandered around aimlessly catching up on things and whatnot. Really awesome to see her again... Also met a girl from Bowdoin who played rugby with Kristen's sister Erica. Small world...
Anywho, drove all the way back in one shot, 17 hours or so. I drove 7 hours at some point, and the final 3 or 4 into Starkville. Total zombie mode. Probably not too safe, but we made it without incident...
Since I've gotten back I've been super busy trying to catch up on all the stuff I missed. Had a chance to work on the MTB and got it running after that super-nasty ride with Fordo. Seem to have worn through my brake pads (disc) though, and have some more on order. What the hell, I thought discs were supposed to be the shiznit for muddy stuff. I guess Mississippi mud is exceptional. Only time I've had a chance to ride, I took out the road bike (now in SS mode) and pretended it was a cross bike. Turns out skinny slick tires don't give too much traction, but the biggest drawback was being over-geared. Had some fun though.
Speaking of 'cross, I was looking around on eBay, and came across a really neat one. Having never used eBay before, I accidentally bid on it, and aparently now I'm winning it. With 1 and 1/2 days to go. Hmm... may have another bike in the stable. Awesome, but unintentional and it'll make things tight. Oh well, live and learn.
So that's that. I'm super busy.
I've got a picture of me in front of my poster, but that was on the hard drive that failed. I'll have to see if I have it elsewhere...

GSA

Well, I'll be off to Philadelphia shortly and I should be up there until Thursday sometime. The poster turned out ok, but it's definitely lacking in quantitative data. Oh well, it's a work in progress.
I'll be pretty out of touch I think, but I might have email access at the hotel... we'll see. Talk to everyone later.

Pretty...

I'm in love.
http://www.jamisbikes.com/usa/bikes/07_bikes/supernova.html

Visit with Ford and Amanda...

Pouring down rain yesterday. Got 4 or 5" out of one storm...
Went for a ride as planned, even though Ford was gonna wuss out. I figure we haven't ridden together in years, so we shouldn't skip this chance. Amanda stayed at the apartment and studied.
Went to the research park and it was horribly wet and muddy. Still pretty fun I thought, though my shifting gunked up in no time and even my fancy disc brakes crapped out. I don't know what happened, but my rear brake was just gone. I think the cable might have slipped. Ford let me lead the whole time. We didn't push it too hard but he was right on my tail the whole time. Didn't rip my legs off but he probalby could have...
Went home, cleaned up, picked Kristen up, went out to a Mexican restaurant, had some dessert, talked for a bit and went to bed. They took off at 2am this morning. Hope they made it back ok. It was nice to visit. Here's a couple pictures. Didn't take as many as I was planning (these are the only two) since it was too cold to stop and mess around with a camera.
Headline News: "Breakout at Zoo - Pythons get loose!"

Muddy bikes, wet car...
Later on, I took zephyr out to do her thing. She got all wet, which she doesn't like. She curled up into a little ball on the couch, which I thought was really cute. You be the judge...

Monday...

Ford and Amanda are going to be stopping by Stark-Vegas on Monday. They're on their way home from Louisiana, though I have no idea what they were doing there. Anywho, we plan on riding the research park while Amanda runs it. However, looks like we're going to get 1-2" of rain on Monday, so it's going to be a messy ride for sure! Should make it interesting. I hope he doesn't rip my legs off.
We'll probably go out to eat or something too, then they're off at 3 in the morning or something. Should be a good but brief visit. Expect to see plenty of pictures of mud-caked Waterstrats.

Oh yeah, next weekend and most of that week, I'll be driving up to Philadelphia for the annual GSA (Geological Society of America) meeting. It's pretty much the biggest sorta meeting you can go to for geologists. I am going to be presenting some of my research on sea caves, and I'm a bit nervous about that. Haven't finished my poster yet either. Not to mention that I don't have any actual data at this point, just a shit-load of cave maps. Guess I'll just wing it...
Should be cool to see some geology folks from UMaine and elsewhere though. It's a pretty informal meeting from what I've heard.

Southfarm at night.

Some pictures from last night at Southfarm...

Pretty sky before it got dark. It was actually chilly, about 57 when I left.

Time exposure when it first got dark. Held the camera on my saddle. Hard to keep it still enough...

Time exposure with the light on.

Left the lights on at this corral. Time exposure.

Looking back towards campus. Lights were on at the Recplex, kind of looked neat...

Happy Birthday Teal.

You olde bastard. Cheers.

St. Francis Grotto, Mt. Alvernia, Cat Island, Bahamas.

I'm posting this here because Mylroie needs to see it but it won't fit in an attachment...
Edit: I just realized I forgot to add a that one large skylight above our main survey station. I'll add it.

If you're curious... this cave is unique because it is a flank margin cave, which usually form pretty close to sea level. However, this one is near the top of the highest point in the Bahamas, at around 55m. So this implies that sea level got that high or something else is going on. But, there's no evidence anywhere else to support a sea level 180' above the present. During the last interglacial (~10-15000 years ago) the sea level was about 6m higher than present... So it's a bit of an anomaly!

More fun with the camera...

Went for another ride today, sorta went all over the place, a little Southfarm, practiced some 'cross, Research Park, North Farm, and home on the Pipeline. Found something of interest out on Northfarm. See below:

Is that what I think it is?

A closer look...

A whole field of it, hidden behind some cornfields in a far corner of North Farm.
What do you think?

Practicing a little 'cross, with a trials move at the end. Trials on an XC bike is akward.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlLKyFjWSbA

Another shot of the bike.

Want some Shoes?

Anyone need a pair of cycling shoes?
I've got some top-end Shimano mtb shoes that I bought from ReCycled Cycles (just slightly used then) when I lived with Teal. They're size 47 and never fit me very well. I dealt with the agony of them for several years before I got my current Sidi's (which are fabulous). I wore them yesterday because I forgot the Sidi's at school. They're a lot stiffer than the Sidi's and I love the design. The lower part of the uppers (the blue part) is plastic, so they're very durable. Standard two straps + ratchet buckle securing. Toe studs, rubber sole. They were Shimano's top-of-the-line mountain shoe at the time. I wish they fit me. I wear 48 in Sidi, and these are 47 and just too small. So if any of you wear 47's, they're yours.
Here's a pic. I love this camera.

Riding at Southfarm...

Got my camera back... trying some things out.

Rollin'...
Let me know if this works for you. You may need to go to YouTube and download whatever sorta player it requires...
Rolling along:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiOiEM9Q0dg
Driveby:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtzadMFJlhQ
Woops, my foot came unclipped and messed this up:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHc29bqExkI
Quality goes down when you upload it onto YouTube, but it's still pretty cool. :) More to come.

One of those rare times...

...that I wish I had a cell phone.
Kristen spent fall break with a friend in Philadelphia and was coming back last night. She was supposed to be flying into GTR (15 minutes away) at 8:30. I got to the airport at the right time, and everyone got off the plane, then the flight attendant, then the pilots. Hmm. No Kristen. Asked a guy at the rental car place and he said it was the last flight for the night. Went over to the airline desk to see what they could tell me. Her flight got delayed big time out of Philly, so she missed her connection in Atlanta. The next flight out of there would come in to GTR at 3:20pm the next day, which wouldn't do. He also told me she might be flying into Birmingham at midnight. Not sure what to do, I went home to see if she'd called and let me know what she was up to. Sure enough, there was a message, but she didn't say where she was headed. Luckily, Jerrold (the friend she'd gone to see) was online, and happened to be on the phone with her. So I had her call me and let me know what to do. She said she'd by flying into Birmingham at midnight (11:00 starkville time). So I hit the road by about 9:30. Got to the airport there before midnight (my time), so she'd been waiting about an hour.
BUT, it turns out, there were also two people from Starkville she knew on that same flight (Jamie, a geology grad student; and Bob, her former French Prof). They both were going to be driving home from Birmingham. However, she didn't know that until she'd gotten on the plane in Atlanta, by which time I was already on my way...
Anyway, got home about 2:45am this morning. I'm pretty worn out and Kristen is even more so. Sitting in a plane for 5 hours at a gate while they try to figure out what's wrong with the plane is a bit stessful. So Kristen had a good time, and I'm glad to have her back in town.

Things

Well, fall break hasn't turned out to be much of a break. Kinda like any normal weekend, minus the classes. But I guess it's been good to catch up on things a bit. I've got to go into work this afternoon, but maybe not for long. It'd be nice to go for a nice long ride. Tried to yesterday, but just felt like crappy. So instead, I sat in the shade of a big oak tree and watched the puffy clouds go by... and thought about life. I'm going to try to be less of a grump. And I'm going to try to be better at everything I do. I've sort of slumped into just doing whatever it takes to get by, and that's not good enough. I'm not doing my best. I need to work on that...
The camera should be coming back soon. It was supposedly shipped on the 27th or 28th, so I should have it soon. I sure hope so.
Caught a tiny little snapping turtle the other day. I'll keep him for a little while then let him go. Sure is a cool looking turtle though. His shell is about 1.5" long, but he's got all the menacing features of a full grown one. Spiky shell, long tail, ugly face. Cute little buggar.
I've decided I'm going to quit spending so much money on bikes and save up for a computer. It's not that I'm always buying things for my bikes that I just want. I tend to just get stuff when I need it, which happens to be quite a lot. There sure are a lot of things I want in terms of bikes... oh man. But yeah, I figure I ought to save up and get a laptop. Once I'm done here I'll be computerless. So we'll see how that goes...

The Salsa

Hell with it, here's a picture of the Salsa taken with the cruddy old camera. Taken at Sunset yesterday, out at southfarm.

The Specs:
Frame: 2006 Salsa Ala Carte, 21", Tange Prestige Steel
Fork: 2006 Marzocchi MX Comp, 85mm travel. I don't like long travel forks on XC bikes...
Headset: Chris King NoThreadSet, was on the trials bike, bought used from Taber years ago
Wheelset: Bontrager Superstock Disc, A steal at $65 for the pair.
Tires: Bontrager Jones XR, come on $400 Gary Fishers, they'll work fine for now.
Stem: Ritchey Pro, 135mm. From the old bike
Bar: Salsa Pro Moto, 660mm wide, flat, 5 degree bend. From the old bike.
Brake Levers: Shimano XTR. From the trials bike.
Shifters: Shimano Dura-Ace Bar-end 9spd shifters, mounted on Paul Thumbies.
Crankset: XT square taper arms, XTR rings. Got from Teal a long time ago...
BB: Shimano UN52 (LX level), square taper.
Rear derailleur: XTR, from the old bike.
Front derailleur: XT.
Brakes: Avid BB7 Mechanical discs. Front is old, from trials bike. Rear is new. Magura rotors.
Seatpost: Thomson Elite, 27.2x410mm.
Saddle: WTB SST K. Bought new in 1998, but I think it's a 1997. How I love thee.
Pedals: Some cheap Shimano SPDs...
Extras: Bontrager braided carbon shifter housing, Avid FlakJacket Brake housing (left over from trials bike), Dura-Ace inline gear indicator (for the thumbies), Salsa Liplock seat collar, 2 cheapo bottle cages, SRAM Bassworm (used on rear brake, I think it feels better), SRAM nightcrawler (on rear shift cable), Lizard Skins chainstay guard, Planet Bike rear blinky light (Thanks Teal!), Night-Rider Evolution Headlight (10W).
I think that's about it. How do I like it you ask? Well...
I love it. It's definitely heavier than the old S-Works (about 27.5lbs with lights), but it fits me much better and rides smoother. The fork is great. I've never been one to mess around much with my forks, and all I can do with this one (without getting into internal stuff) is change the air pressure. I put on the thumb-shifters after my XT brake/shifter combos fell apart. I'm liking them quite a bit. They're not quite as easy to get at as trigger shifters, but they shift more solidly, and I love the friction shifting on the front. I hate having my chain rub the derailleur. Other than that, nothing too special. The steel rides nicer than the S-Works did, for sure. I think the main improvement in comfort is due to the bike actually fitting me though.
So I like it a lot and I plan on putting many many miles on it. I'm eager to try out a 29er, but that'll have to wait. Can't afford it now anyway. Let me know what you guys think of it. I'll try to show you the road bike with gears too. I'm planning on setting it back up as a singlespeed and putting cross tires on it. :) Whee... I love bikes.

Tandem

Yo Ford,
got the old camera out of retirement and took some pictures of that tandem. Mike says he'll sell it for $800. It's really quite nice. Old (but new condition) XT brakes (cantilever), hubs, derailleurs, headset (threaded). Ultegra/Dura Ace 8spd (I think) bar end shifters, not sure on the cranks, but nice Shimano, road triple. Dia-Compe brake levers, stoker hoods. Avocet O2 saddle up front, Selle Italia Turbo in the back...
I hopped on it for a sec and the front position felt alright, besides the fact that the hoods from the stoker bar hit me in the back of the thigh. You'd probably need a longer stoker stem anyway, which would probably solve that problem, especially if you used a flat bar instead of drops. Didn't try the rear, but it's not much shorter vertically, but quite a bit shorter horizontally. Anywho, one of these days I'll try to get Kristen on the back of it and see how she fits.
On to the pictures...

Out behind the shop, 21" Salsa MTB for scale. First pics you guys have seen of my new MTB!

Cockpits...

Front view, note the shifters on my bike. :)

Rear end. Braze-ons for racks and fenders, front and back.

Frame is steel, nicely welded. Whatever the tube is called that connects the two BB's is massive and ovalized. Must be stiff in a good way. I haven't put it on the stand or worked on it, but everything seems in really nice condition. I'm pretty sure Mike/John only rode it a handful of times. I'd definitely put some bigger tires on it, I think these are 700x23. It's got clearance for pretty big tires...
What do you all think of my bike back there? Once I get my camera back, I'll take some better pictures. IF I ever get it back...

Loser...

I was riding yesterday, on my way out the first part of southfarm, and an SUV was approaching. I moved over to let it pass, and as it goes by, I notice the two girls in it were flashing me the "loser" sign. What the hell... Kinda sucks that one of the things I like doing the most is seen as a loser thing to do by most people. Kinda of a downer, but it's not going to make me ride any less.
Also wore through my tires, down to the threads (and beyond). I've been getting a lot of flats lately, and I've noticed some gashes in my rear tire, which I tried to boot. Yesterday though, I stopped in time to notice a bubble of tube protruding through what remains of a tread. Guess it's time for some new tires...
Don't know if I mentioned it or not, but I bought a light for the bike (that LED you got me Teal just isn't quite enough for riding with no streetlights) and I've been doing laps at night, since the daylight is running out. One night just for the hell of it, I decided to see how quick I could do a lap (6 miles). I managed it in about 20 minutes, in the big ring the entire time. I could probably do it faster during the day, and if the gravel were a bit smoother, but it was still pretty good. That's about 18 miles per hour, which is alright on a mountain bike, right? I bet I could do sub-20 minutes if I put on my cross tires or the ol' Specialized Mt. Baldys (like a ritchey speedmax, but even less agressive). But for now, I'm just trying to get some miles in. Seems to be going well too. I'm still losing weight, and I'm down to below what I was when I started the A.T. Definitely never going to be 170 again, but that was gross.
I've got the old camera working, so maybe I'll take some pictures with that this weekend. I need to contact PENTAX and find out what is up with the other one... I really want it back!
We've got fall break coming up soon, and Kristen's going to go to Philadelphia to visit an old friend. I don't plan on going anywhere, but maybe I'll finally make it over to Oak Mountain or something. It'd be fun to do a little camping. Just have to bring Zephyr along with me, which may or may not be a problem... hmm...
Anywho, not a lot going on otherwise...

The Pipeline, A Cropduster, and Hidden Treasure!

So instead of my normal Sunday 3 hours of southfarm or so, I decided I'd mix it up a little and do some exploring around here. Started off out at southfarm, checking out a few older, less-used roads that go off into the woods. I knew the roads dead-ended in a couple of giant fields used for hay, but I wanted to see if there was any way to connect them. Turns out there isn't... Oh well. Then I decided I'd check out a road I'd ridden past countless times. On the way to skunk hill, you cross a bridge, make a sharp right, then a 90-degree left, then you begin the skunk hill climb. Well, just past that bridge, an old roadbed (can't see gravel anymore) goes off straight towards some woods. I'd seen cars parked at the end of it, so I went to go check it out. Turns out it's an access point to the new MSU cross-country course. The old XC course over by the research park is gone since they put the 82 bypass through there, and this is aparently where they built the new one. I rode around on it for a bit. Not sure what loop they use, but there's probably a couple miles of it. Really quite nice... nice short-mowed grass, thoughfully, the course runs along groves of trees for a lot of it. There's also some decent hills on it. Pretty cool find I thought. Not that I do much running, but it might be good for Kristen... Anywho, continued on around southfarm a couple more times and a cropduster shows up. You know, one of those little planes that sprays all sorts of lovely chemicals. At first it just seemed like he was messing around, flying really low and taking really tight turns. Then he does two spray runs. Kinda weird, spraying a grassy field at southfarm, which is an animal research facility. I thought maybe he was just spraying water for practice or something, since he only did it twice, then took off in the direction of Columbus. Continued on around some more and he shows up again, only this time he is definitely spraying something, over and over. It was awesome to watch. Flying maybe 20' off the ground and pulling up and over power lines and stuff. Looked like a blast. But, I didn't know what he was spraying, so I didn't want to get dusted by it... So off I went towards the pipeline. I hadn't been out there since being back here, so figure I might as well since I was exploring. It's still pretty much the same I guess. Looks like only 4-wheelers use it these days. It's quite overgrown in places, and was probably tick-city, but I made it through without any on me. Eventually (not as far out as I remember), the pipeline intersects a golf course! I was riding along on all that white dirt that's filled with fossils they have out there, and all of a sudden, I'm on a golf cart track. Woops. Instead of riding back along the pipeline, I followed the cart track back out to the highway and rode home from there.
Pretty neat stuff. Not the usual Sunday ride, but still 3 hours in the saddle and it was neat to see something new and something sorta new...
STILL no camera...

Good news!

From geology.com

6 laps of southfarm...

Upped the ante a little bit and did 6 laps around Southfarm. Didn't take a break until the 5th lap. I was feeling good, but it was getting hot, and I was starting to fade a bit. Thought about doing two more, but only did one more after that. Still though, in the saddle for 3 hours, maybe 41 miles or so. Not too bad I thought. Still waiting on the camera...

Where we live and how we get to school.

Made a little map of campus etc, where we live and how we get to school. Enjoy. It looks way better as a .pdf, but I can only upload pictures.

Christmas?

Well, I've sorta got a dilema.
I really want to go to Washington this Christmas, but I've got a free trip to the Bahamas I could go on also. And this will most likely be my last free trip, so it'd kinda suck to pass it up. But, it is to San Salvador (for the third time) and for 10 days or so again. I could probably collect some more data and have a good time as well.
But like I said, I really want to go out west. Break is shorter this year, down to 4 weeks instead of five, so it'd be really hard to do both, especially if I drive up there. If I do go, I was thinking of all sorts of fun things we could do... multi-day sailing trip, hike Shi Shi beach or whatever it's called, maybe go to Lasqueti, skiing, etc.
So I don't know... I really don't know what I'm going to do. If there wasn't a free trip to the Bahamas involved, I'd be there. But the Bahamas are awesome that time of year, and it'd be the last time I'd get to go. And, I'd be able to do my own thing without a constant Mylroie prescence, since he'll be teaching his course...
What do you guys think?
By the way, my camera is still being repaired. Sorry for the lack of pictures lately. I miss taking them as well.
Oh yeah, went mountain bike yesterday for 2 hours or so. On actual trails! Not southfarm. There's a nice trail system in Tombigbee National Forest about half an hour south on Hwy. 25 that Mike and other people built the years we've been gone. There's about 26 miles of trails total. This was only the second time I've had a chance to ride them. Lots of fun, even though it was like Shelob's lair with all the spiderwebs...