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!
Note; Throughout December there will be a lot of double-post days. Scroll back to make sure you haven't missed anything!
Right off the bat it was time to go to Emporia, Kansas to do the whole Gravel Cycling Hall of Fame induction, and specifically, a "Hall of Fame Ride" where some of us were going to ride out to meet another group that was riding in from Lawrence, Kansas. I took the pink BMC MCD bike, but more importantly, I took Mrs. Guitar Ted along with me.
I almost never have mixed my "gravel life" with the rest of my life, but I thought that this would be a good time for Mrs. Guitar Ted to see why people have made such a fuss about me and have put me in a hall of fame. So, we traveled down there with the intentions that she could do some exploring and whatever on her own while I did this ride deal. then we'd go to the induction, the after-party, and then on home. the next day.
But once again, plans never turn out the way that you think they will. There was a big storm on one of the nights out for the Lawerence cycling group, so they bailed on the plans to stay at a remote campground and came straight to Emporia. That meant we did not have to meet anyone to go on this ride. The itinerary changed to that of being more of a group ride with a short course South of the town. This may or may not have caused a certain chance meeting between old friends.
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| I never would have guessed that after a decade or more I'd meet Jeff Kerkove on Commercial Street in Emporia Kansas! |
I ran into my co-conspirator in Trans Iowa, my old co-worker at the bike shop, and long-lost friend, Jeff Kerkove on the street in Emporia as he had decided to show up for the Hall of Fame Ride. He was in town for the upcoming demo and race happening that week and weekend. Of course, I am speaking of Unbound.
And what is more, I actually got to ride with Jeff again, which hadn't happened in probably fifteen years or more. So, we actually had a nice chat, and it was great to reconnect with him after all this time, and especially over a gravel event. An event which we influenced the beginning of. Kind of surreal when I think about that.....
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| I also was a guest on the "Gravel Family Podcast" |
This was right on Commercial Street and it was beginning to become a scene due to all the hoopla surrounding Unbound. I wasn't sad to leave, I'll be honest, because that event has grown to become a beast. Just too big - too much. Not my bag.
Anyway, we came back from there to a spat of rain, but then it was pretty much a month of wild fire smoke. Somehow I got a few rides in, when the air cleared out on rare occasions, but I know I missed a ton of riding opportunities due to the smoke.
Once July kicked into gear we had a round of rainy days again, and I was a bit put out because we had missed so much of the riding time we normally get due to the smoke, and now rain. But I shouldn't have been cross about it because it was the last good rains we got for the rest of the year. This drought has been brutal here and we still aren't out of it yet as I write this.
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| Checking the air quality monitor was an everyday thing here for about a month or so. |
July went then to a very dry, dusty scene and riding commenced again as I had the opportunities. reviewing stuff was in high gear again, and I had a few plans for some bigger rides. Only one of which ever happened. One was thwarted when Mrs. Guitar Ted had a flat tire I needed to fix, but that was probably good, since it was about 100° that day anyway. The other one I had planned did happen. That was in August when I got back to doing the 2020 GTDR ride route again.
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| Gathering bikes for the Cedar Valley Bicycle Collective on a hot, smoky day. |
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| The effects of the drought were severe. This was taken in late August near LaPorte City Iowa. |
That attempt at the Guitar Ted Death Ride was a success but a modified one due to construction which sent me off-course and on to roads I was unfamiliar with. That actually made the ride more fun, to be honest. So, with 80+ miles there, that ride turned out to be the longest of 2023.
I was hopeful that now that we had no wildfire smoke and the rains had ceased that I would get that last big ride in during September, but we will see how that panned out in the next Rear View.
Next: Fall
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