Wow, not only does Sherman Alexie post on my favorite Trailblazers forum but two of his 21 points concern corndogs! We have so much in common!

Viva Durango pt. 5

Here are a few pictures from Thursday, Oct. 18 when we woke up at a beautiful campground on the Colorado river outside of Moab, fiddled with Phil's bike for a few hours, rode the beginners loop of Slickrock trail then had to take off in order to meet Doom in Mancos by four and follow him to Durango and the Thursday night single speed ride and pubcrawl.


Don't fall on these.

Dabby wanted a glamour shot.





A spur of the moment stop on Highway 191.


I don't know what setting Dabby had the camera on but it turned out kind of cool.

Revphil, looking confident with the rock. He claims to be the only player ever cut from the Linfield football team.

We had an excellent experience at Burgerboy in Cortez. Look at that menu! I had the bacon burger which was almost more than I could handle. I can't imagine what the 3-D would be like. I'm also intrigued by the Frito Pie.

I asked Dabby his opinion of Burger Boy's corndogs on a scale of one to five.

Our first view of Dr. Doom's house in Mancos.

Doom's house was full of crazy Doom art, and a very pleasant place to spend some time.

Of course there was a bathtub in the kitchen.

I saw a little bit of myself in some of his art.


Doom shoots a lot of slides.


Doom's bikeshop.

Doom's workstand.

Wagon Wheel was a sponsor of the Dead Fest.

Bailey at his space.
At this point in the evening my bike was was one of the keystones of the bike pile.

weekend wrapup

If you took any good photos of the Westside Invite be sure to submit them to the Flickr Group.

Natasha and Sofia on the way to play frisbee golf with the polo haus crew. I was +16 when I stopped keeping track but I still had a good time. My frisbee throwing muscles are a little sore today though, and I really have to practice that forehand throw.


We made it to the 'Poose on Sunday. Timmy, Dabby, Sweet T. and Natasha. No corndogs once again. Sweet T. had a feeling about the Handy Food Mart behind Montgomery park but it was a wash. We're beginning to realize that on Sunday mornings it's pretty hard to find a corndog, much less a decent one. That's why Brown's camp is always such a good destination. That little store outside of Timber has the best corndogs in the region, in my humble opinion. I'm sure they sell a lot of them to all those ATVers going up highway 6.

Timmy spotted this ant nest (or is it hive?). I've seen them made out of dirt but never pine needles. Creepy.


Dabby broke a branch off a pine tree with his eyeball. Where are your safety glasses?


Dabby wanted me to take a pic so he could see how it looked. I don't see much of a difference.


Timmy won this Castelli skinsuit for getting second in the tag team alleycat. I offered to pay part of his race fees for the cross season if he would print Team WRECK across the stomach and the back of the legs. We'll see if he goes for it.


Here's Timmy hitting a little gap. I didn't get the correct perspective on it. It's scarier than he made it look.

weekend wrapup

Hola, amigos! Haven't rapped at ya for a while...
I could make some excuse about being busy or my camera batteries being dead but I don't want to sound like Dabby. By the way, Dabby, if you're reading this (and I know you are) please post some of your pictures and video from the weekend, I want to see them on a bigger screen. Update : done and done.
I have to say that for all the bitching I do about "bike culture" I certainly had a fun bike centered weekend. The mustache ride was incredible, then after too little sleep the team hit the dusty trails of Scappoose for a mini-epic. Mary Lou made his triumphant return, cleaning a 3 jump set on the north shore and Drew enjoyed the 'Poose for the first time, at one point exclaiming "Why haven't we been coming here all summer long? Fuck Washington!" I agree, fuck Washington, the 'Poose is where it's at.
As you well know nothing is better after an exhausting mountain bike ride than a little bike polo. We got back so early that polo hadn't started yet but we gave it a kickstart and some spirited games were played. A little too spirited for me in fact, perhaps people are getting amped up for the Westside tournament.


On the way to the Mustache ride.


Self portrait with mustache. That's about 5 days growth. Just enough to make you take a second look and think "eww...creepy"

The start of the 3 legged race. After this my batteries died, which is perhaps for the best, as some of the things I observed later would not be fit for this blog audience. I can tell you that Disco won the beanbag toss, I won foursquare, some guy from Washington DC won best mustache. I can't remember who won the 3 legged race but it was very entertaining. We all won when some nice woman approached us at Laurelhurst park and said "Our picnic is winding down and we still have beer, can you guys help us drain three kegs?" Perfect timing once again.

Tom got these sweet tapes from a free box.


This looked so good that I took a bite before remembering to take a picture.


Do you see that peak in the middle, the fifth layer of mountain? I'm going to ride my bike there soon and get a picture of the farm. Aunt Karen sys it's Dorn Peak, I thought it was Condenser Peak, that's a cooler name.


This is an attempt at being artsy. See how my shadow echoes the form of the house and eucalyptus?

A day at the Polk County Fair

Jaden and Uncle Bill discussing the bows J made out of Filbert wood and twine.


There is no corndog quite like a county fair corndog.


That is a sweet tractor.


Nice plumage.

Bill pointed out that this rabbit had a built in pillow. Photo by Jaden.

Photo by Jaden.

A boy and his cow.


Jaden took this and announced "This one's for Dabby"


Photo by Jaden.

Photo by Jaden.

Photo by Jaden.

J and Uncle Cleanhead.
J on the zipper, I felt nauseous just watching.


Our farm really needs a new tractor.

Apparently this is for making corn into silage. Very impressive.


Bill interfacing with a "robot".

Jaden finally worked up the courage to explore the secret room behind the shower.



Photo by Jaden. He found these dessicated remains among other things.