All these opportunities come crashing down

image courtesy of Golden Age Comic Book Stories!


If you have the chance to kick ass, do you take it?

Or, are you too busy or tired or "stressed" (gag)? Or, uh, lame?

Sometimes things overtake us and we can't participate. Sometimes. Other times we just can't be bothered. And that is weak.

Anyone within sight of this sentence who does not ride Telluride-Durango (date tba) pre SSWC09 is a sucker mother_ucker. Full stop. Except C_____ B____, who gets a pass for his priors and for Willingness.

That rant behind us, I seized the shit out of some opportunity this weekend. L___ and A_____ (family friend) organized a camp out at Pfieffer-Big Sur Campground for Saturday and Sunday. Saturday I rode down after work (L___'s idea!) to meet them. I had enough light/time to turn off HWY1 at Bixby Bridge and take Old Coast Road. Old Coast Road is a kickass gravel option taking the Redwooded hollers to skip the ocean watching driver's of tourist RVs and the wind at Hurricane Point, and to add several hundred extra feet of gain. (Give Thanks for the clearance to run 32mm speedy road tyres.) It was fun. It dumps you back onto the highway at Andrew Molera State Park, and it was about 4 miles further to a cold beer at the campsite. Roughly 30 miles all told.I rolled up and my wife (is better than your wife) handed me an ice cold Hamm's before I could even take off my chamois.

It may not be Jager bombs with classy SoCal in San Diego, but it is almost as good.Water balloon fights ensued. Beer was drunk. Children made lots of noise. The kids had spent the day at the swimmin holes (well) above the campsite, and were charged. 3 families+ guests= 7 kids.

Sunday morning saw me up and on the road by 8am in order to make it to work by11am. The family stayed to party in the streams. I was just congratulating myself on being "wise" and not taking Old Coast Road on the return trip since it would add so much climbing/time when the headwind hit me. Granny ring crawl for any hill, and little ring only for the next 45 minutes, as the wind brutally shifted direction and intensity with no mercy or opportunity to establish a rhythm. Now, y'all know how I feel about that. All I could do was pedal and mentally kick myself for feeling so "strong" on the way down, when it had been the tailwind sneaking me the extra push while I just believed. For real- the wind at the Western edge of this continent is silly.
Rolled up to home at 10:04am, took a shower, switched to the townie, and rode to work.



I am tired. Opportunity took, Bicthes. I would not have been able to do this were it not for the awesome support and encouragement. By encouragement, I am talking about my sweetie telling me to do it. I would have most likely poo-pooed the idea on account of _________ (insert lame excuse most likely involving timing). It is so easy to get caught up in my little head and lose sight of what is around me and available to me. I am telling you now: packing some extra adventure into your life is within your grasp. Get some.