Rear View 2020: The Fourth Quarter

The Quest took up almost all my riding for the last quarter of 2020.

 Hello Readers! Once again I am doing the annual retrospective on what went down over the year of 2020. This is the last post and will cover the Fourth quarter and the previous three quarters have been posted already for a total of four, one each week of December on Thursdays. This is the fourth "Rear View" post of the series. 

October kicked off with my announcement that I was not going to continue on with cataloging gravel events anymore. The chaos induced by the pandemic caused everything to be in flux and one man trying to ride herd on 500+ events was not a tenable situation going forward. Besides, the whole situation previous to the pandemic in relation to taking care of the calendar was time consuming and did not reflect in any perceived benefits to either the site or myself. So, that's that. I kind of hated to call an end to something I started in 2008, but it wasn't a realistic expectation for me to carry it on either. 

The Fall saw my rides to complete "The Quest" ramp up considerably. The days were windy, dry, and the routes got more convoluted and weird. The need to get roads done dwindled down to a point that by December I had a minimal amount of roads to cover. Finally, on the last nice day of 2020, where the temperatures reached about 60°, I completed 'The Quest", and that was on December 10th.

On a personal level I was attending my son's final high school football games. The away games were all at the same stadium in Cedar Rapids with the exception of the final game which was at Drake Stadium in Des Moines. Attendance was strictly relegated by the schools, so it was a weird experience. The West Wahawks won a play-off game and were awarded a special banner to be hung in the school gymnasium and a trophy for the trophy case. My son was proud of his accomplishments on the field and it was kind of rewarding to be a small part of that.  

One other notable thing I did was that I volunteered for the Spotted Horse gravel race in October. This marked the first time I had driven out of town for anything other than football games since the last day of February. It also marked the first time I had personal contact with anyone outside of my family and employer since mid-March. In fact, I got three hugs. It was.......weird, wonderful, and risky. I actually felt a touch guilty about it all. Still do......

Work was another thing that dwindled down to nearly nothing by December. Since new complete bikes were as rare as hen's teeth, only repairs were keeping me working and those dried up, which wasn't a surprise. The Winter would be a sparse, low-key affair for me going forward due to this. Of course, this gave me more opportunities to finish up "The Quest". So it wasn't a total loss. 

And that's a wrap on the year. Once again, I want to extend my deepest thanks and appreciation to all those who have come here to read this blog. Either on a daily basis, occasionally, or even rarely. All of you matter and I am honored and privileged to have you all as my audience. 

As 2020 draws to a close, and after 15 years of blogging, I am still amazed that anyone even ventures to read my writings. I still am energized to write stories and convey thoughts and opinions. I hope to continue sharing my experiences in words and images for a long time into the future. But I realize the future is not guaranteed. This year has brought that thought into sharper focus more than ever. 

Next: A look at the images of the year, a Top Ten Most Read Posts article, and a look into the future of the blog and my exploits for 2020.