Fat Tire Florida

Last week, I got the hell outta town and headed down to Florida for the Santos Fat Tire Festival.  No trip to Florida would be complete wihtout some alligators, so I came prepared...

We got into town and checked into our hotel for the weekend and immediately headed out to dinner with a whole mess of people (including indoor mountain bike park legend Ray.  I had one of the best steaks I've ever had in the sleepy little town of Ocala, but I didn't photograph it.  Hell, I didn't take any photos of the restaurant either.  Around the corner though, I found another restaurant that made me smile.

Lunchbox has his own restaurant down there I guess.  He is from the Sunshine State, you know.

Speaking of Lunchbox, I was down there in Florida this time for a reason.  I was working for DeFeet at the festival, selling the best socks in the world.  More important than just selling socks though, I was spreading the good word about them to anyone that would listen (it's called marketing, folks.)  That's right, I went down there to work.  It didn't feel like work though since I love doing it and I am pretty damn passionate about my favorite cycling company from the hills of North Carolina.

Anyway, Friday morning we headed out to the Santos Trail to setup, and I must say that I had my booth looking pretty damn good.

And since we were in Florida (and I already had an alligator with me) I did some "special" marketing specific to my location.

The festival didn't start until noon on Friday, but I was busting my ass selling socks and talking about DeFeet.  My favorite part was seeing the socks I'd sold getting put to good use.

That first day was crazy.  Since I was keeping track, I noticed that my sales on day one far surpassed my totals from day one of last year.  I guess they kind of sell themselves, but I'd like to think that I had something to do with it.  I worked really hard too, even though my friends were making ride plans:

I didn't mind.  I was having fun too.

The first day until ran from twelve until five, but I was worn out.  It's usually the slowest of the three day festival so if that was any indication then I had a long weekend ahead of me.  Once I packed away the merchandise a bunch of us headed out to the middle of nowhere to get some beer and fine Florida cuisine.

We ended up playing with alligators though.

Photo credit:  Punky

Well, somehow I also ended up with a new sippy cup.

I worked hard and um, played hard too.  I was worn out from day one, but I still had more to go.

So do you.  See y'all tomorrow.

My Friday

Yep, today is my Friday.  Why?  Because I'm going on another road trip.

For real?

Yeth.  For realz.  Another trip.  I'm heading out tomorrow morning with the little lady and our destination is the Sunshine State once again.  Just like last year, I'm going down to the Santos Fat Tire Festival...

And once again I'll be working the booth for DeFeet all weekend.  Hopefully I'll be able to ride a little bit, but if not I'm okay with it.  I had a blast last year and I can't wait to do it again.  If you happen to be down there, stop by and say hello (and buy some socks from me.)

If you won't be there, then hopefully you won't be just sitting around clicking on random internet shit.

Stay away from that nonsense.

And just wait for me right here.  Like Paul.

See y'all in the middle of next week sometime.

The Adventure Continues

I meant to be here yesterday, but I had to be at work earlier than normal.  When I left off Friday I was still rambling on about the trip I took with the little lady.  We still had one more day of riding left, but as exciting as it was I won't go on and on about it.

I'll just mention the flat tire that I got...

That little fella there in the background didn't help me change it either.  Bastard.

It was an awesome ride but that's all I'll say about it.  I'll move on to another adventure:

I stayed local this weekend.  Other than doing stuff around the house, I actually got out for a ride (as pictured above.)  Obviously this ride was on a mountain bike.  I feel like I've been on the road bike too much lately anyway.  Besides, where I was going there were no roads.

Or at least I was trying to avoid them as much as I could.

I had a destination in mind but no set plan to get there.  I didn't want to stay on those railroad tracks forever though.  Off in the distance I spotted a dirt road so I took it.

Ups and downs and definitely rideable.  And the best part was no people.  Eventually that "road" dipped off into the trees and I rode deeper into the woods.  I felt like I was in the middle of nowhere.

Soon, that was confirmed.

Spent shotgun shells are always a good ride find.

The "trail" split off several times and I randomly took different paths.  In no time I'd reached a creek.

I didn't cross it, but instead stayed on my current path.  I climbed a big hill where I found a view that reminded me of being up in the mountains.  After that climb and corresponding view I got to go down.  That was fun.  More up and down followed, and I exited the "trail" out in the middle of a field.  I had a clear view from there, so I headed towards a road.  

Under the bridge I went, and after some sweet singletrack I'd reached my destination...

That's right.  I road my bike to the Whitewater Center again.  Who gives a shit.  This time though, I only spend a little over a mile on pavement and the rest was off road.  I was excite.  A few short miles from my house without dodging cars and I was at the doorstep of some of the best trail in Charlotte.

The best part about this newest adventure was that there are many more trails I left "undiscovered."  I can't wait to get back out there again to see what else I can ride out in the "middle of nowhere."  A few people have shown interest too, so if you're one of them don't worry.  I'll get at you the next time I go.

Just meet me in my driveway.

Fun Friday (Draggin' It Out Edition)

In lieu of a regular Fun Friday post, I'm just gonna keep dragging out our little getaway.  This is sorta how I keep track of everything and I still have lots of photos anyway.  Who gives a shit.

After doing a weekend's worth of stuff in only one day, the little lady and I needed something relaxing to do on day two.  Instead of riding though, we decided to drive over to Jekyll Island to explore a little bit.  That place is normally full of tourists, but in February that's not the case.

We found a beach with my favorite thing.  No people.

We just wandered around the uprooted tress and looked for shells and other junk.

Before we got there, Little Miss Sunshine looked on The Google and said there was a shipwreck.  I looked it up too, but I was concerned that we wouldn't see anything since it was way out in the water.

But we walked over to that side of the island anyway, and since it was low tide we actually found it.

 That was pretty neat, but I guess the ship is buried under all that sand.

We walked around for quite a while, but I was getting tired.  On the way back to my truck, I found a couple of friendly squirrels.  One of them even climbed up into the tree to get closer to me.  I thought maybe he was hungry or wanted to attack me, but I didn't care.  It made for a great photo.

 After wandering around like bums, we needed food (and beer of course.)  We did what you're supposed to do on an island and had some kick ass seafood.  Local Georgia shrimp (and local GA beer) to be exact.

Yup, I'm one of those assholes that photographs what I eat.

With a little daylight left, we looked for another relaxing spot.  We took a walk through the woods, where the scenery reminded me a lot of my home state.

And as the sun started to set, we watched an alligator try to soak up one last bit of energy before feeding time.

That was a fun little place to spend the day.  I'm sure it's probably a shit show when it's tourist season, so I wouldn't advise visiting then unless that's your thing.  For us, it was nice to have pretty much the whole island to ourselves.  It was a relaxing vacation, but it ain't over yet.

I have one more post to finish dragging this out.

See y'all next week.

Discovery Road

After a nice twelve mile jaunt from our hotel to Saint Simons Island, our adventure was just beginning.  After lunch (with alcohol of course) we started exploring the island a little more.  There were neat little bike paths everywhere, and even if we did have to ride on the road it wasn't too bad (traffic out there is light this time of year.)  Riding along and heading north, we spotted a bike shop.

It drew us in like a tractor beam.

I don't remember the name of it, but they were pretty nice folks.  We didn't stay long, but long enough for the little lady to buy a cool t-shirt.  We hit the bike path some more and we were having a blast.  I kept scanning the area for fun tings to do when suddenly I spotted a path off into the woods.

So we took it...

It wasn't too long, but the scenery was nice.

And the little lady didn't seem to mind one bit, even taking the phrase "dirt roadie" to a new level:

Back on the bike path heading north, we noticed some construction.  Instead of closing it off and forcing bikes onto the road, they did a temporary bypass with some sort of roll-out bike mat thingy.

It wasn't easy to ride on, but it was better than riding on straight grass I guess.

We made it all the way to Fort Frederica National Monument, which was the end of the path.  They were about to close (and it was getting late) so we turned around and headed back towards our hotel.

I was dragging ass at this point.  Although the mileage wasn't terrible, we'd been out for over six hours and I was tired.  I quick stop for caffeine at a local grocery store did the trick, and soon we were racing back across the causeway.

We made it just before the sun went down.  We were beat, even though it was only thirty miles.  Just being out all day took it out of me and I wanted to die.  But instead of ded, we needed foodz.  We cleaned up and headed to a local restaurant to fill our bellies with food and alcohol.

And suddenly we felt better.  And Little Miss Sunshine felt moar better because..

What, you've never ridden a mechanical pig?  Neither have I.  I talked her into it and sat back to enjoy the show.

Much fun was had on our trip, and that was only the first day there.  We crammed so much into one day but we had more time left.

Good for me because I can go on and on about it.  See y'all tomorrow.

Ten Year Getaway

So yeah, I went away.  Again.  I've been traveling a lot (for work and pleasure) and even though the trips have been short, they have been packed with stuff.  This particular trip is one that I do every year in some form or fashion, and it involves the little lady too.  We had a ten year anniversary to celebrate.

This year, we decided to go back to a place we visited when we first got married.  We're not really traditional but I guess you could call the trip back then our honeymoon.  You see, we got married, and about a week later we packed up Little Miss Sunshine's stuff and moved her up to North Carolina (Lunchbox and I would follow a few months later.)  On our way up here, we decided to stop at Saint Simon's Island to see a lighthouse that she's never visited (she loves lighthouses, try to keep up.)

Anyway, since that was our first lighthouse trip as a married couple, we thought that our ten year anniversary would be a good time to go back there.  We hit the road after work on Friday, and after fighting through Charlotte traffic we eventually made it to our hotel in Brunswick, Georgia.  We got in late, so we got to bed quickly to prepare for our adventure the next day.

And of course it involves bikes...

I had the bright idea of riding (on the road) out to the island.  It was only twelve miles and mostly flat so it would be pretty nice.  We grabbed breakfast, suited up, and got to pedaling.  We stopped often to enjoy the sights, especially since Coastal Georgia reminds me of my home state.

Other than the swampy goodness above, the first leg of our journey took us down a major highway.  It had wide shoulders though so we felt extra safe.  Once we turned onto the causeway towards the island though, we found a pretty sweet bike path.

The little bit of climbing we had to do came by way of water crossings and they made for good views.

Before too long, we'd reached our destination.  The little lady was happy.

I was happy too, because the island was full of neat little paths for bikes.

Next up was our "real" destination, the lighthouse.

We brought spare shoes (because roadie shoes suck for walking) so we could climb it.

We enjoyed a view we hadn't seen in ten years, and it was really awesome.  After riding all the way there and climbing up a lighthouse though, we required beer.  Luckily, it can be had easily around there.

We had booze and ate some good food, so it was time to explore the island.  Our last trip out there was really short (we on'y climbed the lighthouse) so we wanted to spend the day seeing what we could get into.  We started off on one of those bike paths just to see where it would take us.

It was gonna be a long day but we didn't have a time limit.  That's my kind of adventure.

I'll probably drag this out tomorrow...