South Carolina Rocks!

For all of you who don't have a map or cannot read a map I live in North Carolina. We are North of South Carolina or above South Carolina on a map. I do not live in South Carolina! This girl doesn't represent us.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj3iNxZ8Dww

Paige and Lyn

I found a few photos of Paige and Lyn I forgot to post.

Training In The Blue Ridge Mountains

Check this link out. Pretty cool!

http://www.pladadet.com/

Sunset in NC

Another big day (4.5 hours of riding on the single speed) of riding in DuPont NF with the boys. They crushed me today. This was exactly what I needed today.... a good old butt whooping.

Horse Turds

This is for you Steve. Here in North Carolina the forest service enforces the picking up of horse turds and hay. Maybe the forest service at Whiskey Town could put this into effect at horse turd parking lot. It does make your experience a lot more pleasant when parking.

Fun With Humidity

Here’s what you get to enjoy when you have humidity. Sorry all of you western folks don’t get this type of entertainment on a daily bases.

Sunday Morning Ride With Lee

I cannot go to JC and not do a ride with Lee. We headed out around 8:00am and did a nice 2 hour road ride in Eastern Tennessee. The weather was nice and no traffic. Just some tomato farms, tobacco frams, some drunk people passed out on a little beach next to the river (that was pretty funny...sorry no photos), and good company.

Dinner With Friends In JC

I meet Lyn and Paige Saturday afternoon in JC. We went to help Lyn’s mother get some of her stuff moved into her new house. Saturday night we meet up with some friends for dinner. Pretty funny… all the girls are pregnant. We had a great time seeing everyone.

Saturday Morning Ride in DuPont

DuPont is a National Forest that has been under a lot of revamping. The trails are absolutely fantastic. It only about 45 minutes from the house so Jason and I decided to do a 3 1/2 hour single speed ride. Jason actually logged in probably more like 6 hours because he rode from his house to the trails and back home. He's a freaking machine.

In order to get to the other side of the fall we had to go under it. The wet rock is so slick you cannot walk across it when it’s wet. A lot of people actually die trying…no kidding someone died few weeks ago by falling off a water fall.

Jason on the approach

Here I go

I made it! Safe and sound.

Going Crazy On Three Wheels

Smoke bike’s is at it again. This time they are making a three wheeled two person town bike. This is their first one. They have another one that's nicer and more functional. Gabe and Thad...you guys crack me up. This thing is awesome!

Riding Shotgun!

Learning how to lean into the corners

Thomas The Train Day

The real deal. I couldn't believe my eyes when we walk up. It was really Thomas the Train. I figured it was going to a regular train with some sort of cardboard or fiberglass looking front end to somewhat resemble Thomas. Boy was I wrong. This is the only original Thomas in the US. How special are we?

Thomas is ready for a day of kids.

Entering the kid zone

The kids where going crazy.

They even had a little petting zoo

Paige was so excited and ready for the ride

Paige waving at Thomas

Finally on and riding Thomas....yea

Thomas pulling us along over a bridge

Paige always finds the music. She loves to dance!

Paige's 2nd Birthday

Paige’s birthday was last Wednesday Aug 2nd. Because we had plans on Saturday to go see Thomas the Train we decided we would take Paige tent camping for the first time. We went to an area that's only 10 minutes from the house incase things went bad.

I'm happy to report no problems and everything went great! We brought out a present for Paige to open and a cake. She has a great time. It's was a lot of fun and I see a lot of camping in the future.

Paige helping Mom setup our cheap car camping tent

The tent is up and time to go to the lake for a little swim before dinner.

Mommy and Paige walking back from the lake. I stayed behind ad got the fire and dinner ready.

Paige enjoying some beans and hotdogs.

Paige showing how old she is.

A little party hat and a present

Paige blowing out her candles

Eating some good icing. She was bouncing off the ground for about 15 minutes after this.

Man’s Best Friend?

I’m sure I’m going to offend a few people with this post. People….stop mountain biking with your dogs! I have finally hit my threshold of being silent about this issue. Today I saw another guy at the end of a decent hanging out. I was climbing up where he just came down and he was calling for his dog. About 2 or 3 minutes after I passed the guy heading up the trail I saw this poor dog. It was barely able to walk and completely warn out. Because of this guys stupidity his poor dog was beyond suffering. This is a common sight where I live and I don’t understand it. I guess it’s cool to ride and run the s*** out of your poor dog. I refuse to ride anymore with people who insist on bring their dog. If your going for a leisure ride around the neighborhood big deal. If you’re hitting the trails do your dog a favor and leave it at home. I’m sure your dog would rather live a health long life vs. a short arthritic one.

When I have asked people why they ride with their dog they almost always say the same thing, "they love it!". I have news for all of you. A dog is extremely obedient. So much so they don’t know when to stop. If you want a somewhat active dog to ride with you they’re not going to say no. They will run themselves into the ground. They don’t know when to stop. Do your dog a favor and help make the right decisions for their own good.

They call dog mans best friend. So this is how we treat a best friend? I would love to take someone out and make them run behind me on a little 10 mile mountain bike ride. If I did this to a friend I would have to guess they would be second guessing our friendship. Ok…enough for now.