Where the Wild Bills Are

Last week the event on Thursday that affected the post on Friday was the CABA Christmas Party. Although I did not work in the dreary weather on the icy roads all day I still decided to hop on my bike and head into town for the party as well as the pre-party/CMA Meeting (Charlotte Messenger Alliance AKA Charlotte Courier Coalition AKA Bill and I).

Eventually we had one half of all the current messengers on the scene when Josh the Wonderboy showed up with his hoopty rig all hooptied up. He woulda fixed it before he arrived, but someone jacked his toolbag from his bike in front of a "No tools allowed" building.

Once the real party started other former messengers came out of the woodwork.

Keith "Big Time" Sorenson (with Courier Net's former polka dot bag wearing Dan behind him in camo) showed up and won the evening's Willem Dafoe look-a-like contest.

Rock and roll legend and repeat Rookie of the year from 2010 Mike Garzon made the scene.

He is currently a guitar tech on the road with a major band, although they have not been to, nor will they be going to, Beirut. This group is so successful even the trim coordinator has a trim coordinator.

Old times were discussed, current situations updated, beers drank, hangovers in the making...

What's in your wallet?

During the CMA Meeting I mentioned how we should do this more often, maybe once a week like we did back in the day. The next morning I felt as if once a year would be just fine.

Saturday morning I missed the dirt window for the weekend. I got an email re: a ride going off at 10:00am with almost two hours advanced notice, but I was not interested in riding in the 30°+ conditions. Later on, the skies opened up and dropped a wintry mix on Mecklenburg county and surrounding areas, so I looked to Sunday.

With all the local trails being closed I was fortunate to find out that the temps would be in the mid 40° range, in other words my minimum standard for a road ride. Wool socks alone can only get you so far.

I plotted a course that would take me past a couple shops where I should be asking for applications as opposed to cue sheets. I had no idea how long my route was since I was not gonna G-Map Pedometer the whole thing before I left, and I would have no idea how long it would be since my cyclocomputer transmitter battery died.

I used greenways along the route. I lust after the gravel experience, but the Queen City is short on gravel roads. I do what I can to fill the need.

Yes, I wore my Twin Six Dark Deluxe long sleeve for the umpteenth time since I received it less than a month ago. It is my most versatile piece of cold weather clothing, and if it only came with matching shoe covers it would be perfect.

My route was a mostly boring ride out of Mecklenburg County, into Stallings and Weddington, and back. As I was returning I realized I was only going to come in with around 2.25 hours of saddle time, so I hit the greenway and crossed over the river into the woods to look at the old trails I used to ride years ago.

We used to ride these at night back in the day with more appropriate bikes and shitty lights. Lacking the right tool for the job I eased my way around the park and turned around when the trail got to this familiar portage.

Heading back and going to another part of the park I noticed that a few trails that had popped up over the last few years had signs posted on them now.

Oddly enough the trails used to be hard to locate, but now with these signs you can see exactly where they split off the main path. I rode none of the trails signed thusly, but all other trails were explored to some extent.

I ended up spending about a half hour exploring the trails, grinding the gravel, and sliding around in the mud before I headed back home.

Victory (now in bite size, calorie control servings)!