Outdoor Showers

I love anything outdoors- including showers, and I was excited to find Benedict and Ammie's house equipped with a killer shower on their back porch which overlooks a marshy inlet. I've been routinely taking cold showers out there since I arrived, and as the temperature begins to drop a little more each day, I happily discovered today that the shower has hot water which only adds to the experience.
I went for a brief run with Toby Mammoth this morning followed by a nice 3 hour ride, and afterwards I went out and indulged in a warm shower in the brisk fall air. It's the little things.

Personas

Since arriving in New England a few weeks ago my days have been filled with quaintness and easy base miles. I've also started running 3-4 miles in the mornings to break it up a bit, but for the most part I've just been eating healthy and spending time on the bike.
The riding here is unbelievable. I've visited and ridden in every New England state numerous times and I really believe the area I'm staying in here on the coast of Connecticut just outside of New Haven is the nicest. The roads are nearly deserted, the asphalt is as smooth as the tusks of an adolescent Wooly Mammoth, and the scenery is idyllic. The trees and foliage here are so dense and enormous that you don't need to wear sunscreen on rides because you're enveloped in shade for the entirety of a ride. There aren't any mountains to climb here, but there are some substantial hills which will certainly humble you if you're a retired cyclist like myself. The weather is also my favorite combination possible: sunny and cool enough to ride hard for a few hours without breaking a sweat. I usually leave the house with armwarmers and gloves on and shed the armwarmers about mid way through the ride only to finish a few hours later with them pulled back up. It does'nt get much better that this. I wish the rest of the team was up here for some company, but I've managed to only have to ride solo a few times and the Ipod loaded with podcasts has helped.
I rode with Juan Benedicto "Wrestles Wolves" Wheelarosa this afternoon, and we spent two and a half hours discussing my persona for next season. Wheelarosa has embraced a Navajo persona and is planning on mounting the podium wearing as much turquoise and feather jewelry as possible. I'm most likely going to have some sort of barbarian alter ego similar to Conan for my race persona next season. I remarked that I love the fact that we view racing as most civilians view Halloween.

Cockaponset State Forest

We just got back from our mini- camp out which was just an excuse to cook on a fire and go to bed even earlier than usual. We rode about 20 miles on dirt roads and trails to what we thought would be a secluded, quiet spot on the edge of this pond. Turns out it was a Youth Wilderness Campground... and two boyscout troops were occupying the scenic spots.
By this point it was already getting dark and we were hungry so we hunkered down and set up camp away from the pond and up a steep hill- well away from the two troops which were on opposite sides of the pond. The sound of large groups of young boys horse playing dulled any sense of remoteness we otherwise might have felt in the middle of the forest and lent a sense that we were camping in the midst of a jr. high basketball practice. I had visions of Coach O'Dell with his blond pompadour making the boy scouts do sprints followed by weave drills.
Benedict and I are pretty well versed at the camping drill at this point, but we struggled for 45 minutes to get a fire going with the wet wood and leaves which lay around and our stomachs were audibly upset with the delay. In the end we settled down with our usual "beans and greens" meal of baked beans and collard greens simmered on the fire followed by fresh corn and bread toasted on the fire. A meal fit for the kings we are.
I woke up to Benedict shooting me with acorns rocketed from my slingshot, and we hurriedly and frigidly ate our other standard breakfast of the remaining heel of bread and some apricot jam. Then it was back on the cross bikes and back on the trail to try and warm up on the ride back to town.

Mount Mitchell

After a well deserved lunch and a leisurely exploration of Asheville which included a trip to the local bike shop as well as an outdoor gear shop to stock up on some camping supplies, we headed out of town on Town Mountain Road. As soon as you turn onto this lovely road, the pitch kicks up and never really drops for the next 20 or so miles. It was pretty unbelievable. Dense woods and lots of switchbacks and steady climbing took us to our camp spot for the night. As soon as we picked out where we would camp the fog ominously rolled in. It was a dense, gray fog apparently pretty characteristic of the Great Smokey Mountains we were on top of. The lightning, which continued to crackle in the distance got closer and closer as we wisely chose to sleep under a canopy in a nearby deserted picnic area. The rain came down throughout the night, but I slept well and awoke refreshed and ready to tackle Mount Mitchell.
As we rolled out of the campground and down the treacherous switchbacks which were slick with runoff from the previous night's rain, I marveled at how similar this section of the Blue Ridge Parkway was to some climbs I'd done in Europe a couple of years earlier. Amazing views, beautiful pavement and leg-breaking climbing characterized the next four and a half hours on the bike. Due to a bit of construction on a small portion of the Parkway, the road was blocked off to traffic and we were treated to an amazing ride devoid of any cars at all. It was like they had completely shut down the road for us.
No part of the climb is particularly steep, but it is tortuously long and steady climbing with no stretches to let the legs recover and the burn to subside. We went through a few tunnels which further reinforced the Europe comparisons, and then finally we reached the Mount Mitchell State Park. After that it was only a couple of more miles up to the summit and the waiting tifosi.
After a few minutes snapping pics at the elevation marker at the summit it was back down the mountain to the car and then back to town for a good lunch and the local pizza spot and then back on the road and headed north.
The next five hours ended up being the hardest section of the trip, but finally we rolled into Richmond and met up with my brother and his old lady for dinner. He was gracious enough to let us stay at his place for the night, so we got a nice shower and warm bed for a change.
The next morning we got an early start to try and miss the DC, Baltimore, and NYC traffic, and by the end of the day we ended up lucking out and doing just that. We only hit about 10 minutes of traffic the entire trip as we entered Connecticut, but it was a far cry from what we thought we were in for as we studied the map the night before.
We rolled into Clinton CT on the shoreline at around 4:00 and set about stretching our legs with a nice walk with Toby Mammoth before settling down for an early dinner. All in all it was one of the smoothest and quickest roadtrips I've ever been on. It's good to know I'm getting a little better at some things as I get older.

Ciao Ciao, Texas

Juan Benedicto and I left Griswoldo's house early on a Sunday morning. Our initial aim was to get as far away from the sweltering heat of Texas. 13 hours later after a few brief stops for petrol, we ended up in the Natchez Trace State Park of Tennessee.
Situated a couple of miles off the highway, the park was completely abandoned and we were able to have our pick of the best camp spots in the forest. I got a fire going while Juan Benedicto began eating every ounce of food we had immediately.
The noise in the forest from the bugs was ridiculous, as we both stuffed earplugs in our ears and drifted off to sleep in our sleeping bags on the ground by the fire. I was awoken only twice in the night- once by a loud screeching owl and again by Juan Benedicto's snoring which sounds awfully bear-like.
The next morning we hightailed it out of the forest to avoid having to pay for the campspot, and pointed the civic towards Asheville, N.C.. Tennessee is a long state. It takes a long time to drive across that guy, kinda similar to Texas. We finally rolled into Asheville and headed straight for the health food store for a late lunch and some interneting.
To be continued...