Sunday Morning 7/9/17

A splendid morning as the sun rises. Birds sing & I myself am perched high above things painting with words in oil (paints). One that will eventually dry & harden and hopefully last and not the quick drying image of acrylics.

I am on the second floor, in the Master bedroom, with the window open overlooking S Meadow Ridge Cir. It is 24 C, as cool as it will be naturally all of this day. The coolness wafts in.

The birds are happy too. Multiple clear & distinct songs, some near, some distant in a pleasant melody. It trumps the din of the highway in the far distance and slow rolling street machines throbbing rap music only occasionally heard in this hood. Thank you God.

Today I am in a bit of a bind. Silver is on orders minimal driving. Last week recall late that she would not go into reverse. I am expecting the worst and planning accordingly. We have an appointment Monday morning early so I truly hope REASONABLE repairs can be made without busting the budget.

On Friday afternoon, recalling, yours truly & Walt left for FW to participate in the 29th Peach Pedal bike ride, race &/or rally. For us it was a ride.

We spent the night at Stew & Ann’s, Walt’s twin brother & his lovely wife.

They have a very nice home in a neighborhood settled among tall, old-growth trees and the longer I was there & just observed taking things in, the floor plan, grounds & furnishings were potentially ripe for a magazine and I am NOT limiting to one. Candidates could be many for everything was well done, tasteful, elegant and stunning.

There was a lot of natural wood. Starting with the floors, furniture, even the kitchen cabinets were all NOT painted and Stew knew all & each of the woods used. There was a working ‘grandmother’ clock that Stew had built from a kit. Slightly smaller than the traditional grandfather, this one was still impressive as was the story and the chimes.

We went out for meals. Dinner Friday night was at a very nice little Italian place in a refurbished Dairy Queen I think I heard. The owners came over from Italy by way of NY & Chicago and had a nice business going in this part of FW. It was BYOB & our hosts selected two excellent bottles from their cellar.

Saturday after the race we went to a new bbq place in a trendy part of town and it was really good.

After the race, I didn’t think I was or would be too hungry but half a sausage sandwich was about right. Heim would be a revisit maybe next year during Colonial week.

Butt getting to the ride ...

The reason for the trip away from the castle & out of the cloud.

Thee best part of the day without question. Cooler, no wind at all, sunny & bright. Walt & Stew rode the course together and wanted to stop at the rest stops of which there were three (3).

Both ride and have nice bikes but Stew had a very bad bike accident last year & only within the past few months has the double vision totally cleared up.

Walt & I have ridden occasionally & sometimes I think more socially but my training for HH100 surpasses Walt’s training in frequency & distance.

Anyway.

I told them I was going to do the course and try not stop if I could. They moved nearer the front of the starting line when I took one last biological before the start and we figure I passed them at the first rest stop.

Abbreviating now as the sun is rapidly rising & I must address other activities before reporting to the orange box, I finished the 30 m (about 44.8 km) in 2:37. Closer to 2 hours than 3 which I was estimating so spot on there. My stretch (should I say 'insane' ?) goal at the outside, daydream or hallucinating best was UNDER two (2) hours.

The course was fast with a very nice mix of uphills but the downhills were better. Much better. The road surfaces were rough (iow slow) in spots but they were few & relatively short. I went over 30 kph 6-7 times and broke my land speed record on a bike smashing last years HH100 rate of 41 with a wicked fast 45 kph. Blazing down this very long incline. The thought of an ugly crash at that moment DID cross my mind.

There was a killer long flat stretch along !-20 near the end and a brutal hill that I struggled & dropped to 8 kph. It was short and right after a couple of quick turns it was the home stretch and up to the Weatherford high school start/finish line.

I found Walt & Stew just as they were finishing up about 45 minutes later. We replenished fluids in the hot parking lot seeking shade from neighboring vehicles and it was most welcome. For some reason, being just still, sipping a Shiner bock Light blonde in the shade seemed to be as close to heaven as desired at this moment in time.

We returned to Stew & Ann’s and showered cleaning up to head for the bbq joint. The shower incidentally marked another mile marker to heaven.

After the most enjoyable lunch, we arrived back again and quickly packed and left our hosts to the peace & tranquility they cherished. But not after thanking them for the gracious hospitality and putting us up.

Stew offered me some pequino peppers and then gave me a pequino plant !! Talk about cool. The tiny red chili’s are mightily hot and now I have a plant that will hopefully bear year after year.

I plan on sending a small token of my appreciation to Stew & Ann in the form of a carving as their home had a very interesting collection of art forms throughout.

And finally, on the trip home, we left FW and it was sunny, humid & 40+ C. On the way, Walt driving mentions rain in the distance. As we were heading East, we watched the outside temperature drop from 104 (F) to 69 in less than an hour folks. We hit the rain at the gates of McK, passed a couple of accidents and unloaded at the cloud in the last sprinkles.

There you have it.

Pretty much current & up-to-the-minute.