2004
Uncivil War
The Uncivil War is not a book I would have typically purchased for myself. It was sent to me along with an invitation to a discussion group. Humorously enough it was sent by a law firm while Lebedoff goes on at some length about how lawyers are one of the specific groups that typically make up his unimaginatively titled “New Elite”. I’ve been particularly interested in the presidential campaign this year and this book showed up at the right time so I decided to give it a read.
Lebedoff’s text describes a “New Elite” that he believes are fundamentally against majority rule, which he ascribes as one of the most important functions of the American democracy. He believes that this New Elite is in the process of trying to take America away from Americans. While Lebedoff proclaims the book to be non-partisan it is somewhat hard to believe as he spends the first 170 pages of the book showing how Democrat = Liberal = New Elite and how the Republican = Conservative = The Left Behinds. The Left Behinds are his name for those that believe that the majority is right.
It’s hard to swallow his naming and categorization of people in these bins. Perhaps any text that tries to take such a simple approach to the American public is bound to have these type of problems. Perhaps it’s also my own personal beliefs that conflict with Lebedoff’s and make his theories seem so conspiracy theorist and convoluted. Of course the author could simply write me off by saying that I were one of the New Elite. As any prejudiced label is bound to do, it makes the argument simple by writing off the opposing opinion. Something that he proclaims the New Elite does all the time.
It took 180 pages and nearly the entire book for Lebedoff to make any reference to a republican agenda or elected official as a member of the new elite. He picks Newt Gingrich and even when he does he pardons Gingrich with temporarily using New Elite tactics. Please…
I do believe there is a “New Elite” but it’s not limited to liberals and educated people. There clearly is a desire to minimize the majority electoral practice in favor of the game of politics. And both parties are equally guilty of this.
As a final note, I found it somewhat revealing that while the author goes on and on about majority rule and how important it is he makes no reference to the fact that Gore won the popular vote in 2000 and lost the election. As Lebedoff even uses this election as an example of the success of the Left Behinds, I find it surprising that there was no reference to an action that flies clearly in the face of what Lebedoff suggests is so critical to the future of America.
Team America
This Tuesday we got the opportunity (Thanks Chad!) to go and see a sneak preview of Team America. This is the newest movie from the creators of South Park. The schtick for this is that the entire thing is filmed using puppets. I have to admit that I found the fight seens with puppets banging against each other and strings clearly visible was pretty funny.
Don’t go to this expecting any cerebral entertainment. If you went to anything from the creators of South Park expecting something other than just mindless chuckles you are sadly confused. It’s a funny movie, and the political overtones are humorous. However, I may wait and catch this one on video rather than shell out hard earned dollars for it.
Defending the Caveman
Last night Tammy and I went to Defending the Caveman by Rob Becker. I’d heard this was a really funny show and was not disapointed. Becker’s 100 minutes of reflection made me laugh pretty hard.
It’s worth checking out if you have the opportunity.
I wouldn’t say that I’m a Francophile, but blocking cell phone signals in theatres sounds like a great idea to me!
TC 10 Mile Run
I got to be the spectator today while Tammy did her longest running event ever. Today was the Twin Cities Marathon and Tammy ran the sister event in the morning called the TC10 or the Shortcut to the Capital. Her longest run prior to this was a 9 mile training run and she wasn’t starting with a lot of confidence this morning. She has had trouble running because her knee has been hurting every time she runs.
Today was no exception, her knee started hurting her after a couple of miles but she kept going. She was able to make the whole 10 miles and averaged just below 10 minute miles. She was disappointed since she felt the run wasn’t too bad, but her knee was absolutely killing her. Without the injury, she felt she could have done so much better. She’s limping around fairly badly now. I’m sure it will be better in a couple of days, but she’ll need to take it easy for a bit.
I was very proud of her either way – and it was kind of fun to be the spectator and photographer.
New Vacuum
Having your own website is pretty fun. You get to be your own editor and can decide what things you feel are important and want to share with people. Sometimes things happen that really don’t seem that big. For example, you may get rain gutters installed on your house. Why would you ever put that up on a web site? Who else would ever care about that? Probably nobody.
You may think that getting a new vacuum cleaner would be the pinnacle example of such trivial nonsense that has no place being shared with others around the world. It’s just a vacuum cleaner! Who cares!? Really. Get over it.
Well, I’m telling you, this is not just a vacuum cleaner. This is a miracle machine. It sucks dirt and cat hair with an efficiency that brings a tear to your eye. It leaves a visibly cleaner and more enticing carpet in it’s trail. It is the Dyson DC07 Animal.
First off, how cool is it that the vacuum is called Animal. Really, they’ve figured out how to get a man to actually care about what the vacuum is. Animal! Grrr! The thing is big, tough looking and purple. A manly purple, none of this lilac business. It could be in the shop, but it’s meant for your house.
The real sweetness is tasted when you fire this thing up after reading the instructions. You really have to read them, it’s a bit complicated. This is a turbine vacuum. No bags for this baby. And it’s got this super cool clear turbine thingamajig where all the dirt and most notably cat hair spins around like it’s in a little tornado. We ran this thing three times in a row in one room and took a half-gallon milk jug stuffed full of cat hair off the floor. There was more there, but we stopped for now.
When you take the dirt tornado thingamajig off it’s like this Ghost Busters contraption that you take over to your trash can, pull a trigger, and the bottom flips off and the junk falls out. Yeah baby!
If you have a pets, you need an Animal. This thing will suck the eyeballs out of a frog through the patio door. Amazing. I’ll be sleeping on the carpet tonight.. it’s that good. 🙂
Napolean Dynamite
Tammy and I went to Napolean Dynamite this evening. I have to admit right off that this movie did not endear me in any way at all. I generally thought it was stupid, without any interesting characters and even the couple of laughs were minor at best. I’m sure my experience wasn’t helped by the fact that the theatre was crowded with young teenagers.
What is it with groups of young teenagers!? They all have cell phones. They take calls in the movie and yack on their phone right in the middle of everything. Grrr! Tammy turned and told the three particularly moronic girls behind us to “shut up and turn off your phone”. Didn’t do a lot of good though.
Anyway, the movie reminded me of the film equivalent of a Ween album. However, unlike Ween which I find a little interesting, Napolean Dynamite just went on, and on, and on… 90 minutes of meandering nothingness.
Tammy didn’t dislike this as much as I did. Aside from the teens in the theatre, she thought it was an OK movie. Seems the critics also side more with her than I. Your milage may vary.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
I think it was three years ago that I caught the Harry Potter bug. In a matter of a couple of months I had read the four books that were available and loved every page. Yes, it’s a kids book. But the story is just great.
I was very excited when the fifth book, the Order of the Phoenix, came out. I had pre-ordered it at least a year in advance on Amazon.com and it seemed like forever to wait. When I got the nearly 900 page tome I started reading it right away.
But then something happened. For the first time ever I wasn’t all that excited to read it and it sat on my nightstand for months. I finally picked it back up and got infected with the Potter frenzy again.
The book was a great read. Very enjoyable (even with a 6 month pause in the middle). Clearly the story is evolving to even bigger and bigger levels. Now the wait begins for Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince!
Hot Air Balloon Scams
I broke this originally in early June when I wrote my Expose on the Hot Air Balloon industry. My theory has proven itself out. As I said before, this is the perfect system. You buy tickets ahead of time and for mysterious and unknown reasons your flight never happens. “Oh, a bird flew south today so we cannot fly.” Sure…
I called for the umpteenth time to schedule our flight a while ago and found out that Aamodt’s Hot Air Balloons is no longer in business. To be honest, I was a little excited about this. Great, I can just get my money back for these certificates and forget this crazy mess.
Yeah, right. They cannot be reached on the phone. Multiple calls are not returned. Mail is returned to sender. All the while, they’ve got nearly $300 (and have had it now for at least 3 years) and I am positive I’ll never see a cent of it.
Nice going. It really sucks that one of the tickets was a gift from my family. Not the way anyone wants a gift to unfold.
Take my advice. Don’t ever pay for one of these things unless you are getting off of the balloon having just enjoyed a great ride.
Chet Ringwall in the Paper
The Minot Daily News ran a big interview with my grandpa from my birth-fathers side of the family. They keep referring to him as Chester but I never heard him called that once, he’s always been Chet. My fondest memories of Chet and the farm were of winter and riding on a real, honest-to-goodness sleigh that he had restored behind a magnificent pair of horses. I also remember building a snowman in the entryway of the farmstead (I figured it was too cold outside), chasing chickens around in the summer and staring at the goat herds with the dogs. It’s amazing how stuff like that still sits deep in your heart and head so many years later.
This interview is one of a number of pieces I’ve read in recent months about the part of the country I spent some of my earliest years in. An entire way of life is disappearing in front of us, and a lot of people probably don’t even know it. All of the stereotypes of rural North Dakota are essentially true. It’s bitterly cold and nothing for scenery. But the people are amazing and the roots run very deep. I remember on a regular basis going to the cafe with my other Grandpa, Ardell, in Lignite, ND (I am completely stunned to find that Lignite has a web page, wow! To give you an idea of the size of the town, this is the whole phone book.) and sitting at the counter with the other men. There is nothing like that in the cities that the majority of us live in.
I hope that I will have the opportunity to bring my children, and even their children, back to this part of the world and tell them about it.
Columbus man talks of decades of farming
By MARVIN BAKER, Staff Writer mbaker@ndweb.com
COLUMBUS - Chester Ringwall has a lot of stories to tell. There’s a lot of information stored in his memory since the 1920s. But the 80-year-old Ringwall doesn’t like to reminisce with crowds of people. He’d prefer telling you about the past one-on-one.
Time has certainly slowed him down, however, Ringwall keeps going day to day by taking care of some livestock.
Back in the day, Ringwall raised as many as 15 flocks of turkeys because business was good in Minot and Williston after World War II.
His son Charlie and wife Roberta now raise chickens in the same brooder house that kept a roof over the turkeys for so many years. Chester Ringwall believes chickens are more difficult than turkeys even after watching his son’s work the past seven years.
Ringwall also raised as many as 250 sheep at one time, but that number has dwindled to just 16 ewes. He can no longer protect that many animals from the predators.
“These are basically here to keep the grass down,” Ringwall said. “Twenty-eight coyotes were taken by the state on the soil banks south of Columbus.”
He also cares for four ponies, which are his pride and joy. And he tinkers in the vintage 1916 barn that still stands on the Burke County homestead just a couple of miles east of Columbus.
Some of his handiwork includes renovating buggies and sleighs, but as he describes it, parts are so hard to get hold of these days. Still, Ringwall drives on as much as he can because if the sheep and ponies don’t keep him going, the nostalgia certainly will.
“It would sure be fun to go back to the old days. I would like to go to Amish country and see it all again,” Ringwall said. “Farming with horses was kind of peaceful in those days. You could hear the dirt turning and the leather squeaking.”
Farming has indeed changed a great deal over the years, he admits. Ringwall has seen farms grow by leaps and bounds and has seen the community of Columbus shrink by the same ratio.
As a result, he believes farming is its own worst enemy.
“I can’t say that I quit farming. I don’t know if I ever quit,” Ringwall said. “This bigness has sure gotten the best of the country, but this farm has been good to us.”
And when he needed parts for his machinery, a dealer was nearby, even though many people in North Dakota think Columbus and northern Burke County are so isolated, with Minot 99 miles to the southeast and Williston 93 miles southwest.
A short 12-mile trip, however, to southeastern Saskatchewan’s principal city, Estevan, alleviated any broken down machinery problems and while there, Ringwall usually picked up other supplies. He doesn’t get to Estevan much anymore, but can still see Canadian progress from his farm in two power plants just across the border toward the northwest.
Ringwall said that to this day, he can’t imagine how his parents raised a family in a 10-foot by 14-foot shack. His father, Hjalmer, was a Swedish immigrant who arrived in Columbus via Cooperstown with four horses and a buggy in 1903.
The elder Ringwall was fond of growing trees, according to Chester, and it shows today. The farm on the high prairie has an abundant variety of evergreen and deciduous trees, a great shrine to show his effort from a century ago on the treeless plains.
Ringwall, who walks with a diamond willow cane, said there are plenty of willow trees around but he doesn’t know where to locate diamond willow. The species, which is native to North Dakota, typically grows in river bottom land and has become somewhat of a rare species.
When Ringwall got married in 1948, he said he built a new house for $3,600 but it didn’t have electricity. He recalls his head carpenter worked for $1 per hour.
He can also remember in the late ’40s hauling coal from a mine south of Columbus back to the farm six miles away.
“It took 20 tons of coal a year and at one time, coal cost 65 cents a ton,” he said. “So in 1948-49, it cost us less than a $20 bill for heat.”
And back when property lines became established, fences were put in to keep the cattle and sheep on the homesteader’s property. Nowadays, those fence lines are being yanked out of the ground to make more room for tillage and planting of grain. Often times, original landowners would bury items or leave old machinery along those section lines.
“They’re pulling them up and finding what you call artifacts,” Ringwall said. “But I remember what some of those things actually are.”
And growing up just six miles south of the international boundary, he also has food memories of the Prohibition days, even though he was a young boy. Ringwall has heard plenty of stories about the liquor runs between North Dakota and Saskatchewan.
“Liquor was certainly available during Prohibition days,” he said. “They used to call this road right out here ‘whiskey run.’”
That road today is Burke County Road 7, which is a gravel road running north and south from the Canadian border and past the Ringwalls on the east side of the farmstead.
He added at one time there was a coulee along the border northwest of Columbus where someone lived. There was also someone living near the coulee on the Saskatchewan side.
“I think there was a tunnel across the line and they were bringing booze back and forth,” he said.
Another story related to the border involved Ringwall’s own commerce. He recalls having taken five Shetland ponies to a market in Prince Albert, Sask. When he came back, he came through the port of entry at nearby Portal and was questioned. He was asked what he was hauling. He told the border patrol agent that he had sold some ponies in Prince Albert, but apparently, the agent didn’t believe him.
“The young fellow was giving me trouble,” Ringwall said. “The chief came out and said ‘Hi Chet!’ That ended that.”
(Prairie Profile is a weekly feature profiling interesting people in our region. We welcome suggestions from our readers. Call Regional Editor Eloise Ogden at 857-1944 or Managing Editor Kent Olson at 857-1939. Either can be reached at 1-800-735-3229. You also can send e-mail suggestions to (mdnews@ndweb.com).
The Forgotten
Last night Tammy and I went to The Forgotten. The movie was moderately entertaining, however I certainly wouldn’t make a huge effort to see it. Renting the DVD would probably be fine. The theme of the movie reminded me a bit of Dark City. The movie successfully provides a number of shocking adrenaline scenes that will definitely make you jump in your seat. The rest of the time it takes an eerie, 3rd party perspective for the camera. If you’re bored and looking for something pretty simple but exciting, check it out.
What is wrong with MSN Search?
I’ve been having some “fun” (that’s in the geekiest sense of the word in this case) playing with some log analysis tools on thingelstad.com. What the heck, I’m curious to see who is hitting what and how often. It’s been some time since I’ve played with any of this and spiders are an interesting challenge. (Spiders for those that aren’t aware are the robots that sites like Google and Yahoo use to mine web sites).
Anyway, I was looking at spider activity and this just stunned me.
What is wrong with MSN!? They have hit our site four times more than any other spider out there. That seems a bit excessive! Gotta wonder if that is the norm for them.
Anyway, just struck me as odd and rather stupid.
Thunderbird 0.8
I mentioned before that I’ve ditched Microsoft Outlook in favor of Thunderbird. I’ve been using Thunderbird for a while now and I’m really liking it. Also, they just released 0.8 of it which has notably added RSS support! Finally I have a worthwhile RSS reader for home use that is integrated. If you haven’t checked out Thunderbird, it’s worth looking into.
Son Volt Back Together
I got this email in my inbox today:
NO ONE EVER SAID IT WAS OVER: SON VOLT REFORMS AND RETURNS TO STUDIO
How awesome is this! This is the official release from JayFarrar.net
SON VOLT IN THE STUDIO
Midwest-based Son Volt, with songwriter Jay Farrar at the helm, will begin recording their fourth full length album at the end of September. Following a five-year hiatus, with the exception of the April 2004 recording of “Sometimes” for the Alejandro Escovedo tribute album, multi-instrumentalist Dave Boquist, bassist Jim Boquist and drummer Mike Heidorn will reconvene at Farrar’s St. Louis studio. Speaking about the “Sometimes” session, Farrar says: “It felt like we hit the ground running when we recorded Al’s song for Por Vida. Five years seemed like five days at that point. It proved that more recording and performing as Son Volt is something that should happen.”As this revered band reconnects, a unique glimpse inside the Son Volt sessions will be offered. Beginning October 1, a webcamera will be placed in the studio to capture a day of pre-production and 16 days of recording. The webcamera can be accessed at www.jayfarrar.net/webcam and will feature streaming photos that refresh every 5 seconds.
Farrar formed Son Volt in 1994 after the dissolution of Uncle Tupelo. With the release of Trace, Straightaways and Wide Swing Tremolo, the band was met with praise by the public and critics alike. From the plain-spoken chorus of “Windfall” to the gritty guitars of “Straightface”, Son Volt has always pushed the boundaries to blend traditional American music forms with poetic imagery and straight-ahead rock.
Son Volt is not currently affiliated with a label and plans to return to the road in early 2005.
I can’t think of a more exciting or unexpected piece of music related news I could have gotten today. Can’t wait for the album!
Too Fat for the Fat 40
The Fat 40 is over for another year. This has come to be my annual ‘rite of passage’ it seems. This year was as memorable as every other year. I just wish it was more positive! 🙂
The Ride
The ride this year was grueling. Simple as that. Last year I had just snuck under 4 hours for the event finishing in 3:59:55. I was hopeful that I would meet that mark. That and finishing were my only objectives. I surely expected to do better than 2002 when I did 4:25:13 and I knew I wouldn’t even approach my best time from the first year I did it in 2001 of 3:44:00 (including a couple of flats).
As I rolled through the finish line at 4:41:32 I had survived my worst beating on the dirt of the Chequamegon that I had ever felt. There were solid rains earlier in the week and the course was pretty wet. The trails just felt like they were glue. As soon as you stopped pedaling you stopped, there was just no momentum.
This was my hardest 40 yet. I sort of lost it on the trail. My grandma reads this site so I’m not going to share some of the words that were coming through my mind, but they were choice.
The Bonk
Every cyclist at some point bonks. If you are not familiar with that term, it simply means you are on empty. You have not eaten, you have no more glycogen left, your muscles are completely empty. You’re head can’t keep a thought. You feel like a zombie on the bike. A lot of people think they have bonked, but really they were just hungry. When you forget what was happening for the last 10 minutes, then you’ve really bonked.
I’ve bonked before. And just like everyone else, I’ve sworn never to do it again. Well, I did it again, and this time on the very unforgiving trails of the Fat 40.
When I took off I felt a little uncomfortable. I had a waffle early in the morning and some oatmeal and it was still in my stomach. Whenever my heart rate got way up there it felt really uncomfortable. So, my genius solution was to skip some food. I waited until I was hungry. At this point, I’m toast and I just don’t know it yet. About 28 miles in and a lot of pain later I realized that I could barely keep the pedals going. My head was light and I wasn’t really comprehending everything going on. I was in real trouble. At the next stop I took on two bananas and some gatorade and I could fee the sugar instantly. However, it’s nearly impossible to work yourself out of the hole dug by bonking.
After the race my inventory of what I had eaten showed that I ate about half of what I should have taken in. I would normally eat 300 calories an hour, so 1,200 calories on the 40 on a four hour pace. I figure I had about half of that. What a rookie move.
The Gear
This was the first year on my new Specialized M4 Stumpjumper FSR Elite. Overall I was very pleased with the bike. It took the punishment of the course without any problems. I did appreciate the additional comfort of full-suspension over the hard-tail I had always ridden in the past. I did find climbing harder just because I’m an out-of-the-seat climber and when I did that the bike turned into a pogo stick. That is as much my problem as the bikes though, so I won’t get too upset about that. All in all, very good.
I was also lucky not to have any flats since I realized 5 minutes before the start that I forgot to bring a trail pump with me. Oops!
The Brother-in-Law
I’ve always thought it would be fun to have someone riding in the 40 with me so this year I convinced by brother-in-law Dennis Daily to ride. I’ve known many people that ride in the past, like Jim Rikkers, but they are much faster than I.
Of course having your brother-in-law ride means there is at least a competition for pride to win. I have to tip my hat to the rookie who finished in 4:34:09, a full 7 minutes and 23 seconds before I did. It looked like he had a “fun” time, or at least as much fun as anyone has there. I will have to shoot for a rematch next year.
The Finish Line
I crossed the finish line and just sat for a long time. I really felt defeated by the course this year. Various promises were made to myself about training better next year, dropping weight, etc. I know I will be back (lottery provided!) even though I can’t imagine it right now. The pain dissapears, the fun stays.
Meditation Class
I’ve been referenced several times to the benefits of meditation but I’ve never really understood it. Mainly because I didn’t understand how sitting still could benefit you so much. Also, I find it almost impossible to do. I decided that I wanted to give it a try so Tammy and I signed up for an introduction to meditation class at the Yoga Center of Minneapolis.
We had our first class last night and it felt a little goofy but I left the place feeling a level of relaxation that I typically only feel after a massage. As I expected, it was very hard for me to quiet my mind or ego as the instructor says. I’m going to keep trying though. The class is eight weeks and we will learn several different techniques for reaching a meditative state. Last night we did a mental chant of huang-sah which just means swan. You think huang on inhale and sah on exhale. It does work.
I’m looking forward to the next class!
iPod Mini
I’ve been belaboring the idea of getting an iPod for months. Really, this is probably one of the hardest consumer electronics decisions I’ve tried to make recently. Well, the decision making process was shortcut today when I found myself to be the winner of an iPod Mini! Yeah!
Some know that I got my start on computers on the Apple //c and then the Macintosh. Deep down in this jaded IT professionals heart is a soft spot for all things Apple. I’ve got a similar soft spot for all things Unix as well which makes one wonder why I spend my entire day looking at Microsoft dominated systems. Anyway, that’s another blog entry.
Opening up the iPod Mini was a reminder of how Apple “gets it”. They realize the user experience starts with opening the box. The packaging is even cool! Everything was made to be really simple. In fact, I found that when I was having a hard time I was essentially thinking too much about what I was trying to do.
Anyway, I’m only about an hour into using it but I love the iPod Mini. I’m worried that love may turn to infatuation and I’ll be getting a 40G “big” iPod to go with it. iTunes is a great player package. Unfortunately it is so much more intuitive than any of the Windows players.
More to come as I use it, but the immediate reaction is “sweet!”
The Metabolic Plan
My friend Phil recommended The Metablic Plan by Stephen Cherniske to me recently and I just finished reading it. After reading the first 50 pages I had to give him some grief for recommending this “overzealous” book on anti-aging however I recommend you do as I did and continue reading on. This book has some very good insight into the process of aging, what happens in your body and how you can fight off the negative (catabolic) effects of aging not with the intent of living forever but instead with the intent of enjoying your later years to the maximum of benefit.
I found the explanation of the aging process to be interesting and enlightening. I hadn’t taken into account the aspects of aging thinking not about me as an individual but the human race as a species and how we are programmed. This book would probably be lost on people in their 20s (you’ll live forever after all, right?) but for those in there 30s and with an eye on maximizing possibilities it is a good read. It’s also a good read for those in their 40s, 50s or 60s as much of the information can improve your quality of life at any time.
The author is a strong proponent of supplementing DHEA. I always get worried when someone is so vocally supportive of a supplement, however, he properly warns about dosage and when and for what purpose it should be used. Unfortunately, there will always be some fool that takes 300mg instead of the 25mg recommended and has some bad reactions.
Some links to information from the book (mostly for my benefit to refer to later!):
Norah Jones Concert
Last night Tammy and I went to the Norah Jones concert at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul. It was a good concert. The opener, Amos Lee, did a great job and Norah and the Handsome Band were very good. We were totally exhausted however after riding the century earlier in the day and didn’t wait for the encore instead opting to get out and home as soon as possible to fall fast asleep.
Both Tammy and I decided that Norah Jones is a studio artist though, not so much a live artist. Particularly in a venue so large. She seemed like she wasn’t real sure what to do with all these people and all the space. I think seeing her in a small, intimate venue would probably be fine, but I don’t think her music, or style, are well suited to an arena size space.
Jesse James Century Ride
Today Tammy and I, along with John Murphy from my office rode the Jesse James Century ride. This is part of Northfield’s Defeat of Jesse James Days celebration. This is the 3rd year that I’ve done this ride, the 2nd year that John and I have ridden it together and the first time that Tammy has done a century ever!
Starting with firsts Tammy did her very first century today. Previous to this her longest ride was in the high 70s of miles but she can now add a century to her list of cycling accomplishments. She did a great job, set her pace and rode steadily through the entire thing.
John had a much more pleasant time than last year. He has dropped some weight and did more training this year than last and the results were obvious.
For myself, this is my last big training event before the Chequamegon Fat 40 this coming Saturday. Riding the century is a very different task than completing the Fat 40, but the psychological impact of just finishing a 100 mile ride is a real confidence booster going into the mountain bike race.
Here is the map of the route this year, it was modified from previous years. We rode clockwise around the map.
