Rogue Pun

Saturday.  I needed miles.  Wanted to end my day at the Spoke Easy swap meet to get some flat bars for my tarck bike project.  Lacking direction or goals, I revert to some of the route from the Tour duh Charlotte.

Leave out the house towards the big buildings.  Get to the center of the city (because I like to repeat my work commute on my day off) and turn left.  Head to Southwest District Park with my STRAVA running the whole time.  Pull out my phone and see that my battery has dropped 10% in 8 miles.  Turn of STRAVA.  Guess there's not much need in knowing how far I'm riding if I know where I'm going, no more, no less.

One lap.  I consider two, but since I've got no idea if I'm going further than I would want since I didn't plan this all too well.  One's good enough.

Head over to our unmaintained non-trail from the Tour duh Charlotte, Amay James.  Hop into the woods.  Man, this is a great trail for not really being a trail at all.  It's a shame that nature is probably going to reclaim it... again.

Meh.  Came to a giant downed pine tree (they hate me).  Limbs everywhere, and the tree managed to take out a live tree with it, muchly compounding the issue.  Shoulda carried my pocket saw.  Consider leaving it,  but decided to give it an earnest effort.  Twenty minutes and one bloody nose later, the I managed to reduce the face high pile of angry dead tree to something less irritating.

Not sure if all the effort was worth it, since I've got no idea if anyone else will ever ride it before this place looks like the Jurassic Park facilities in the first sequel

A couple laps out there and then head over to Renni.  Immediately run into Good Guy Greg and Chronic.  They were out their doing the Lord's work... making Renni great again.  Then run into Rocky... which meant this was a logical time to break out my pepperoni and Dale's lunch and share.

And then run into the much larger crew... Emily, Hubbs, Big and Buttery... some other folks.

photo cred: B&B

They invited me to have some trail work pizza and at first I was all "no," but then I saw it and smelled it and was all like "yeth, please."

BTW:  I'm super stoked on what's going on out at Renni.  One of the oldest trails we have in the area.  Chopped down by development on this side and that.  Mileage lost.  Some broken into vehicles... next thing you know, it gets dropped out of the rotation for most people.  Too many other trails with more mileage on a "better side" of town.  An embarrassment of dirt riches.

Not for much longer tho.  A group of dedicated individuals are working to bring this place back up in the rankings.  They've gotten Parks and Recs to give us a whole bunch more land to work with, and soon(ish), Renni will be a place to go to again.

I digress.

Grab my slice and head out.  Next stop, Bike Source.  Grab some gels (mostly for The Pie), get a refund on some helmet pads I ordered that are never going to come, end up walking out with a sweet crabon Easton CT2 3° 580mm bar... which ironically is the same crabon bar I bought back in the early 2000s.  So, no reason to go the swap meet... other than beer, people and watching the yutes "jam" on the tiny bikes.

And also on city B Cycles.

Spend as much money on beer as I did the crabon bars, ride home, feel exhausted, shower, grab a beer, head to the hammock for a nap... and then my family comes home.

So, no nap.

Later that evening, I end up falling asleep watching Rogue One for the first time.  I didn't see the ending, so don't spoil it for me.