Traveling Dickbury

I used to take a certain sense of pride that I was good at riding my bike for twenty four hours at a time.  Keep in mind, on race day, I was probably up at 8:00 AM before the noon start.  I might even have stayed awake for hours after the race was over.  One time, I packed up, tried to stick around for the podium (but lost patience, even for probably the most important podium I coulda ever got on), and then drove for over four hours to get home.

Point being, I used to be good at staying awake.

Now I'm looking at the thirty hour one way drive to Moab with some amount of trepidation.  Sure, Bill Nye and I will be splitting the drive, him more than likely taking the helm of lee_van_cleef_van the lion's share of the time.  Me?  I'm old.  My days of keeping my eyes open past retired person bed time are sorta far behind me.  I'm no longer the guy who wants to hop out of the car, do some jumping jacks, slap myself in the face, drive with the window down when it's 40° out, or down a six pack of Coke to get a little further down the road.

I dread driving tired something awful.

That said, I wanna be in the desert and up in the mountains and far away from the outside world... I mean the bad part of the "outside world."  Not necessarily the world outside of the inside/indoors world.  Just all the bullshit that starts conversations in my head that I'll never have with people because it just won't happen IRL.

I've gotten much better about not arguing on the internet... unless it's about drooper posts or tubeless tires or clipless pedals or wheel size or the best way to install a silicone grip or...

You know.  The important things. 

So, speaking of travel, I'm looking forward to more of it.I originally put the Step Cast 120mm fork on the Vassago Meatplow V.8 thinking mebbe I'd race it one day.  Well, I haven't... aside from the Pisgah Enduro™ last year.

First place (outta one in the SS class... which I always think is important to note, because first outta one is also last).

Anyhoo, I thought doing an endurance race on a squashy fork would be in the cards for me at some point, but I never did it in 2019, and 2020 is certainly looking like it's gonna be an air ball.

Recently, so much of my spare time has been about getting to the mountains and climbing and descending, not so much in a hurry to get up in order to also later get down.   Why not carry a little more fork up the mountain to make the downs a little better?  I mean, I was thinking about getting a fully sqaushed bike (yeth, again), but when I looked into it, the one(s) I'd want to mebbe ride are all sold out until some time this winter.  

This.  This is cheaper.  Much.

Of course, as luck would have it, I tried to buy this fork over a month ago.   Out of stock because everyone on the planet discovered cycling since March '20.  Then last week while I was at the beach, I got an email saying it was available.  

Shit and also poop.

With a 5-7 day shipping delay due to COVID and ground shipping from California, I'd never see it before leaving for Moab.  

Unless...

The thought occurred to me in the shower that maybe the Fox Bike Dick Handler (who will remain nameless unless he wants named) could speed things up.  I grabbed my phone and wrote an email in the shower... because I'd do that kinda thing.

And horns rang out and bells were rang and angels sung and it showed up on my porch yesterday at 7:18PM.

Bless and thank.

Finally, can I refer to Moab as Moob from now on without hurting any feelings?  It entertains me.  

And I'm truly only here for my own entertainment.

Clearly.

I'll be gone for a week, so see you after that, I guess.  Obvs, I'll post some Instagram when I'm bored at night.  Mebbe Bill Nye and I will make a Tik Tok dance or something.  Dunno.

*end scene*