Gravel, Single Track, and Windsheild Time

 In celebration of the twentieth year of this blog, I have a few tales to tell. This post is one of them. This series will occur off and on throughout this anniversary year, I hope to illuminate some behind-the-scenes stories and highlights from the blog during this time. Enjoy!

I mentioned last week in this recurring series of posts about happenings from this blog's past that there was a weekend that was pretty crazy at the end of August 2009. This weekend was a snapshot of my entire year of '09 and is a perfect example of how nuts things were at that time. 

The weekend in question was started out by working at my old bike mechanic position at Europa Cycle & Ski. I got off probably around 3:00pm or maybe 4:00pm back then, I don't recall now, and had to get my ducks in a row for a four-plus hour long drive to Omaha, Nebraska. The trip was arranged so that my wife and two kids could stay with friends we had living there who also had children and the parents were longtime friends of my wife. So, it was agreed that I could go do a gravel race Saturday and then check out a venue for the Big Wheeled Ballyhoo I was involved in putting on near Brady, Nebraska.
 

This was how the Pofahl Signature single speed was set up for the Good Life Gravel Adventure.

Unfortunately my camera which I had at that time needed recharging but I had zero extra time for that. So images are either from previous to that weekend or from others. This bites because the Good Life Gravel Adventure, which I partook in, was a blast and one of the original gravel grinders in the nation. 

After getting to Omaha I spent a little time with the family and friends there and then drove solo to Lincoln, Nebraska in the dark and found what was then known as the "D Street Hotel" where Corey Godfrey was waiting for me. But before that I had stopped at Matt Gersib's house and chatted up some folks staying with him to ride the next day's event. They were Joel Dyke and Joe Fox. I did not6 remember this until I read a passing sentence about it in my brief pre-report report on the Good Life Gravel Adventure. 

Now this is a good thing, but it is a reminder that I have regrets. On the one hand, I mentioned this meeting with MG, Joel Dyke, and Joe Fox which otherwise I would have completely forgotten about. The regret is that I did not get any images and no record of the time spent with those three other than that brief mention of our time together. Joel is dead and I rarely see Joe Fox anymore, although I did get to see him in March when I went to Mid-South. This is a reminder to make a record when I see someone because I may not ever see them again. 

The regrets continue with the lack of images from the GLGA, meeting Corey at midnight as he waited on the porch at the D Street house. Riding with Matt Wills, Troy Krause, and I think one other as we sped through back yards and across streets to the MOPAC Trail and the event's start. No images of Ben and Oliver whom I rode a big chunk of the event with. No images of Troy Krause, the winner of that year's GLGA, picking my worn out body and bike in Courtland where I DNF'ed. 

But - I do have vivid memories of events from that weekend. So there is that. Ironically I was half out of my mind with lack of sleep and my typical for then lack of proper nutrition and hydration. I fell asleep on the bike three times too. It is amazing I lived through it all! 

Me riding at Potters Pasture on the Horseshoe Loop. Image by "Llama".

After the GLGA, the afternoon it ended, MG and I hopped in my car and drove to Gothenburg, Nebraska and drank Red Bull Cola to keep awake, as we did not arrive there until well after dark. The black top road out to Potter's Pasture, where we were to meet a few people to ride the following day, was black as night with the only light coming from our headlights. 

On the way out I wrote that I was "hallucinating" seeing myself riding down a gravel road and then realizing Matt was driving us down an interstate highway. Weird! But I was so into sleep deprivation and exhausted physically from riding all day that it was no wonder. And then there was that Red Bull Cola....

The next day was a blur. We rode some and then I had to get back to Waterloo, Iowa, which was over 500 miles away and seven hours straight through. But I had to stop in Lincoln and in Omaha, so my travel time was longer by three hours. 

That was but one weekend in my life during 2009. There was a lot more with family illnesses, work, vacation, and trips for the Twenty Nine Inches site. Trans Iowa was looming, and that all would be a big time suck also. How I found any time to write a daily blog and do all that stuff was amazing. All I can do is shake my head and remember what I did write down, which, as I said, wasn't enough looking back. 

From the Potter's Pasture ride. Image by Llama

Ironically the weekend represented a new beginning and an ending. A transition was happening in my life, as I stated before. It was also represented in this crazy weekend. The Good Life Gravel Adventure saw 42 people toe the line. The following year, 2010, Corey and Craig Schmidt decided to call it Gravel Worlds and have rainbow jerseys for winners. The event saw over 100 people attend. Gravel was taking off.

Conversely the Big Wheeled Ballyhoo was a bit of a failure due to my not being able to attend as my father-in-law had to go in for emergency open heart surgery just days before the event was to happen. Then a freak snow storm dumped up to ten inches of snow on Potter's Pasture the night before the event was to happen. It would be the last mountain bike event I would be involved in. 29"ers became "just bikes" in the ensuing years, and my involvement in that scene faded as that acceptance of that wheel size became ubiquitous across the globe. I started Gravel Grinder News late in 2009, and the trajectory of my writing changed as a result for this blog.

More craziness from 2009 in future installments of this series will be coming. Stay tuned...