Friday News And Views

From last week's Fargo Reunion Ride

Turn The Clocks Back:

This Saturady night we "fall back" an hour to Standard Time from Daylight Savings Time. Don't forget to set those clocks back an hour.

In terms of the season, the time is running short to get things in this year. The Fargo Reunion Ride a week ago now was my last big, planned ride of the season. Now I just have to figure out where I stand in regard to my Cup-O-Dirt standings and see what it is I have to do to get that taken care of. I can make it work by doing three more 100 mile each rides. That wouldn't be tough to do but for finding the time, as each would be a day shot just riding bikes and recovering. I have several "metric" centuries, but I need 12 of those and I think I would need to do six more to get it done that way. I'm thinking three centuries are an easier goal at this point!

Anyway, there are no "planned" rides anymore this season/year. Everything from here on out will be mostly just for the fun of it or a stab at the Cup-O-Dirt deal. I'll likely have a review of my "season", such as it was, coming up in December when I do my 2016 Rear View series, like I do every year on the blog. 

I'm probably bringing this up to show. Or maybe I'll bring........something else!!

Bikepacking/Endurance Seminar at Ingawanis Woodlands:

Before you go and set those clocks back, check out the Bikepacking/Endurance Seminar which will be held at Ingawanis Woodlands at the Eagle Lodge  at 4:00pm until about 7:00pm on Saturday afternoon/evening. Camping is encouraged, and I will be there along with a few others that will be yakking about set ups and techniques you can use to get better experiences while pursuing gravel events, bikepacking adventures, or for your own touring or cycling fun.

No entry fee, and all we are asking is that you bring some clean, 5 cent deposit empty cans to help bring some revenue for Bremer County Conservation. Make sure those are in bags, by the way. There will be chili and vittles. There will be a campfire and some talk. Check it out.

I probably will bring something more gravel oriented to talk about, but I haven't settled on what that will be 100% just yet.

Kitty-kitty!

 Country Views:

The occasional posts I was doing throughout the Summer dubbed "Country Views" was well received. As we get on into "Brown" season and then into "White" season, the interesting views will be fewer and further in between.

However; that doesn't mean that I don't- or won't- be seeing cool, interesting, or odd stuff. So, I think since it is getting so that entire posts of "Country Views" will be hard to do, I will save interesting bits and put them here in "Friday News And Views".

In that vein here is something that I had happen to me this past week. I was out on a gravel road ride when I came upon two cats in the road. Cats are a commonly seen animal out here, but they typically are shy and wary. They don't typically saunter down the middle of the road, as these two were doing. Initially I passed the pair by, and they seemed to not mind my prescence but were content to wander in the opposite direction. I stopped not long after seeing them to scrape some Levl B Road mud from my bike. The wheels were tossing bits of dirt off like an old time manure spreader.

Well, as I was busying myself with that, I heard the faint "meow" of a cat and then again, getting closer by the sounds of it. I turned my head in the general direction of the sound and here are the same two cats coming back to have a look-see. They didn't get real close, but within about ten feet, and then they sat down and watched me.

I am sure I was as unusual to them as they were to me. Cats just never have approached me on the gravel roads. Dogs? All day every day. Cats? They run the other direction, typically. So, that was another first for me, and my "Country View" for this post.

Have a great weekend and get out and ride those bicycles!