Rear View 2023: Fall

Hello! it's time again to review the year on Guitar Ted Productions. The "Rear View" has been a staple of the blog since almost the very beginning. This year there will be five Rear View posts looking back on Winter's End, Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter's Beginning. I'll also have a post looking ahead at 2024 near the end of the month. Enjoy the look back and thanks for reading Guitar Ted Productions!

This past Fall was one of the warmest, longest lasting Fall seasons I can remember. It was also "guest ride" season. I had three rides in September and October that saw old friends and new ask to meet me for a gravel ride. 

Of course, there was some review work to do as well, so there were rides being done to get that part of my work finished up. It was important as I had set a date of December 1st to switch off my contributions to that site. 

The weather couldn't have been a whole lot better for riding, but unfortunately, it lacked a lot in rain, which we desperately need, even now. That said, the clear skies and nice temperatures were a treat and many rides were done in the months of September and October.

September 4th looked more like October 4th due to the drought.

My first guest rider was Jason Boucher. I hadn't seen him in years and I hadn't ridden with him even longer than that. He dropped in from Minneapolis, we spent the morning riding, and then we hit up a downtown Waterloo Mexican restaurant. It was an awesome day and a highlight of my year. 

Jason Boucher's custom built flat bar gravel bike at the "Big Rock".

The rest of September went on without much of anything noteworthy happening and then early in October I was contacted by a newer friend of mine from Waterloo here who wanted to take some images of me riding on a gravel road, and to just hang out as well. Josh and I actually had already done another gravel ride back in June.

This time we did a bit of an adventure up Ford Road and I discovered that the Ford Road cut-off to the Washington-Union Access was opened up again. That's something I have to get back to and check out further. 

Following Josh up out of Ford Road Access.

The weather started to cool off more toward the end of October, but it was not unbearable and I had another guest ask to meet me for a ride later in October. This time it was a repeat visitor from about the same time last year. Ben Morris, from Madison, Wisconsin, came down and we did a foray out toward Petrie Road's Level B Road section. 

Ben Morris cruising South of Waterloo.

The end of the month came and we were still experiencing some pretty decent weather. The review work, the guest rides. and work kind of erased any chances of me getting in a big ride. I ended up putting a couple ideas on mothballs, again, but hopefully there is always next year.

As November approached I started focusing on the Turkey Burn idea and maybe, hopefully, one more chance at a long ride in 2023. 

Next: Winter Begins.