Recreational Fun and a Pint!

April 26, 2020

Dear Family,

I hope that you are doing alright and that your health is good.  

I went for another recreation bicycle outing today and it was a blast!  I rode past an olden, hilarious trailer with the Clark Erection Co. moniker, still quite legible but faded, emblazoned gloriously upon its broad side.  It was right across the creek from a large Pink Construction Co. conex storage unit. Ahhh.  All is right with the world.  Sure I could have taken some photos, but then it wouldn’t have felt so intimate.

It was nice and warm so I had a hard time withdrawing, I mean turning around to head back.  I found that a fairly large group of people were out on a memorial/remembrance walk for Payton Lester, a boy who had a very short life.  Due to the COVID-19-asaurus, I did not find out any additional details about the young fellow, although I liked the "Payton is my Hero" t-shirts they were sporting.  As I was out on the Keystone Trail heading south, I found that the trail was closed at Capehart Road, 

so I rambled about for awhile.  I took a neighborhood recreational trail

and 25^thStreet south until I reached Fairview Road, headed east, then headed back north on Fort Crook Road.  The City of Bellevue had fairly recently decided it didn’t want some of its bike lanes, and I found some evidence of this along Fort Crook Road, which had a few parts with not much of a shoulder.  

Ouch.  Why you do me like that?

Be that as it may, at least the signs were still erect.  

I was happy to see a pretty good bike lane on Capehart Road as I headed back west to the Keystone Trail.  

On my way home I noticed a lone bicycler sitting out on a picnic table behind the strip mall that contains both Kros Strain and Pint9 breweries.  He was drinking a tall boy and so I quickly interrogated him and found that I could get some beer to go from either store!  

I quickly availed myself of this option and had a pint whilst chit-chatting with Phil for awhile.  He informed me that in the Des Moines, Iowa area he once rode for 150 miles (in one day!?) just on paved multi-use trails and that he never used the same trail twice!  I was mightily impressed.  While, it turns out the Des Moines area claims 550 miles of bike routes (although about 170 miles are shared with automobiles, hopefully they don't get any ideas from Bellevue!)!  And now that BRAN has been cancelled, maybe I’ll just head out to DesMoines and ride around on some sweet trails for 2 or more days and see what kind of trailside breweries are available.  

Well, that is a brief summary of my day.  I hope yours has been equally or more satisfying.  Many blessings from the middle of (US o’) America.  

Love,

BSO

PS:  Here is an optional bike-related video for your enjoyment and/or bafflement

Maiden West Papio

April 11, 2020

Greetings!  

What have you been up to? Eh?  Must have a bad connection.  Anyway, if you are like me you are deciding which long-term radon monitoring device to purchase and enjoying a refreshing Angry Orchard cider. Please fill me in on your doings at your earliest convenience.

How are you and the COVID-19-asaurus getting along?  I hope you are staying healthy and keeping your distance.  I am fortunate to be working from home now.  It is nice for the most part.  I’ve got a comfortable place in the basement.  Just me, a pinch of radon, and lots of Yerba Mate.  For those of you who may not be familiar with Mate, it’s a South American green tea that Mrs. Snot bought for me awhile back.  I think it’s pronounced like (check)mate, but maybe it’s more like a pirate matey!?  In either case, my sweat pants and shirt are comfy and so are the slippers so the Yerba Mate is probably the only kind of mate that'll be happening around here for awhile, ya know what I mean?  Heh.  Along with this comfort; however, I have not been riding my bike to and from work as usual.  This has been mildly disconcerting.  The vast majority of my bicycling over the years has been commuting.  This has resulted in the following:

·     I’m not usually very interested in epic bike vacations because I get enough riding as part of my usual routine.

·      I also do not do much recreational bicycling unless I am getting ready for some kind of longer charity ride.

·      I don’t want new bikes often because they’re just going to get all trashed from commuting.

So those are my usual values.  But lately things have changed and so I have been out for 2 recreational bike rides in the past 2 weeks!  I might have even been on 3, but I initially could not locate the right way to get onto the West Papio Trail east of downtown Millard (pronounced Me-lard, accento en el lard).  After this minor fiasco, I took some time to check the beautiful online map created by the helpful folks at MAPA.

It showed me the way to the promised land occupied by the WPT.  And now, here is a video recap of how a person can get there (mostly as a reminder for me for the next time I can’t remember how to get there due to my usual lack of recreational bicycling.

It is a great trail! I went past Olympia Cycle, where I purchase the bike eventually known as The Old Bastard.  The trail people left some remnants of ye old railroad and a few informational signs that I enjoyed extensively.  

Hell Creek used to contribute to some hellacious floods!

All that pavement gets the creeks a-flowin' more than in yesteryears!

There was also a nice bench where I sat briefly whilst enjoying my Clif bar.  

This is at the trident-shaped confluence of Hells Creek, the West Papio Creek, and the South Papio Creek.  

Diabolically fascinating, eh?!  There was also a nice memorial.

There were people out there walking, jogging, bicycling, even roller-blading!  

Families picnicking!  

It was glorious and I highly recommend you get out for some recreational bicycling at your earliest convenience.  

I have also been using my formerly valuable time to catch up on important cinematic experiences (e.g., I watched Black Snake Moan with Christina Ricci last night).  Previously I watched The Farewell, with Awkwafina, which was also enjoyable, in less of a puerile, B-movie way.  I may also eventually watch Parasite and Can You Ever Forgive Me?.  So those are some of my big plans.  I’m still working on that GarageBand thing. I’ll get back to you soon.  How about you?  Give me a call and let’s catch up!  Hello in there.

Love,

BSO

Steamboating out and aboat

April 4, 2020

Hello friends.  

I hope you are doing well.  I am sitting at home by myself, as is my wont these days.  I am working from home and Mrs. Snot and Snot Jr. are experiencing an extended stay over at the in-laws.  Because I am working from home I have not been doing much bicycling.  However, prior to the rise of the COVID-19-asaurus I was quite fortunate to get out to a place called Steamboat Springs, CO for some lovely skiing.  It was great, as you may or may not be able to tell by perusing this recap video:

Do you know why it is called Steamboat Springs?  Well, I was told it is because the hot springs sometimes make a sound like a steamboat whistle!  Awesome, right!?  In Steamboat Springs I learned a couple things:  I should not be using my telemark skis all day at a mountain resort because it is too much damn work!  Maybe they are too long (179 cm) or maybe telemarking is just naturally more strenuous. I’m not sure.  What I am sure about is that it didn’t help that I hadn’t skied for approximately 1.5 years prior to this expedition.  Anyway, my legs (quads in particular) became quite fatigued on day 1, shortly after lunch time.  So I took the rest of the day off.  I probably would have done better if I had been doing these exercises that I have belatedly been studying intently.  

Then the next day I rented some regular, shorter alpine skis (150 cm).  Oh man!  That was such a relief!  Way easier to keep in control and turn quickly.  Me and my friend Rich were able to elevate our game from all green to greens and blues!  We even made it up to the iconic Buddy’s Run where we patted Buddy’s bust’s head in what we were enthusiastically informed by the local cognizati was an obligatory act of respect and guaranteed good luck.  Here is some background on Buddy Werner.  I didn't know anything about him until me and Rich made it out to Steamboat Springs for our ski trip.

Well, I appreciate it Buddy. I really enjoyed my time out there on the slopes.  Rich and I plan on actually taking a skiing lesson some day, which will hopefully allow us to ski some of the harder routes if/when we make it out to some snowy slopes again in the future.  The town was pretty nice too.  Plenty of great food, beers, and hospitable folks.  We were there on a Thursday (not too busy at all) and a Friday (which was warmer and still not overwhelmingly busy).  I think a lot of resorts are now closed due to the COVID-19-asuarus threat. I also recently became aware that ye olde’ BRAN (Bicycle Ride Across Nebraska, 40th edition) has been cancelled!  Woe is me.  Well I guess I’ll have to find something else to do for summer fun.  

Apart from the ski trip.  I also had a brake issue that took way longer to fix than it should have.  

A little tension-bar that helped push the cantilever back away from the rim after braking snapped!  It was a Cane Creek SCX-5 and it was good while it lasted, although I'm a little bummed it broke.  It seems like they're not around much anymore, so I was able to replace with a generic Shimano anti, that isn't quite as easy to adjust but should work alright.  And of course it happened during a rainy spell.  So I was riding my other bike, the one without the back fender, most of the time when it was soggy last month.  Here is how that went:

soggy seat o' the pants!

I eventually had to chop off one of the cantilevers with an oscillating power tool and kind of file and sand down the pivot on that side so that I could put another cantilever on.  It was kind of a minor ordeal.  But now I've got le Bastarde (avec accentes, sil vous plait) back in working condition again and I appreciate him a bit more than hitherto for.  Isn't life like that?  I never used to consider pandemics and their potential effects on us and those we come into contact with, kind of like having a rear fender during the rainy season.  Now I've got to consider whether I want to risk contacting and potentially spreading COVIDinos around, kind of like walking around with a soggy bum and sitting on someone's nice white couch!  Ouch!

So I've been doing some stuff with GarageBand that I'm guessing you will love.  I'll be sure to post it here soon.  Also been contemplating putting a unicycle together.  I'll let you know how all that turns out.  I hope you've been able to spend a bit of extra time doing some things that are out of your usual routine.  Stay safe.  Stay positive.  I will share your load/road.  I just might have a (bike) problem that you'll understand.  Be sure to use me (or someone else) as a lifeline if necessary.

Love, 

BSO