Summer is here

Graduation, moving, and heat all come with the end of May and beginning of June. The past weekend was Kirk's tunr. He graduated from Darden with his MBA and I went to Charlottesville, to help him and Lisa move their stuff into trailers to be pulled cross country. Well, to Colorado at least. One big trailer with most of the heaviest stuff was put behind their truck, and a slightly smaller trailer with large but light(er) furniture was to be towed behind the Honda civic. Last I heard they had made it to WV which means the biggest hills of the trip were behind them.

Kirk and I got in one last ride Satureday morning around Charlottesville, which was awesome. We had some great rides over the past two years and I look fondly back at the time we spent hanging out. Lots of things have changed and I think of one that wasn't for the better. Good times! I look forward to the next two years. I imagine things might change just as much. I move into the city in two weeks adn I look forward to riding my bike to work. I've started my preliminary packing of books and DVD's, along with winter clothes in suitcases. Luckily Kirk and Lisa didn't use all their boxes, so I took a few of from their place to my odds and ends in.

Here's my salute to old friends and good times. We'll hang out again soon. Thanks for the adventures.

Freedom Park, Williamsburg, VA

The weather forecast said rain on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. So I switched my day off on Friday with Thursday. Kirk and I met just south of Williamsburg at Freedom Park to go riding.  Luckily, at the same time we were getting ready in the parking lot, a guy with the same truck as Kirk pulled up. We started chatting with him because of the vehicle and the fact he was obviously about to go riding.

He was a local and rode there often, so he offered to show us around the trails. We were more than happy to have a trail guide but we were a little intimidated when he responded "the more difficult, the better" to our questions about what kind of riding he liked to do.  He probably could've ridden faster if we weren't following, but he was happy to have someone to ride with.

We've been down to Asheville, up to Diablo, Highland Park, and Kingdom trails in the past year which were all spectacular in their own way and so I think I've gotten a little spoiled with awesome trails. And there are a lot of fun trails in VA we've ridden as well, but I can say without hesitation, this was the most fun I've had riding within a 5 hr. radius.

I haven't ridden the Buttermilk trail or any of the James River trails in a couple years now, but as far as jumps and bridges and fun obstacles, Freedom park is the place to be. The jumps were built so well, they were easy and super fun. Kirk did "The Big Easy" and that picture there was supposed to be a video, but my dumb gloved fingers chose the wrong setting. It's hard to get a good idea of scale there, but my bike is laying on the ground on the left side of the picture.  We'll just say it was big.

I hit everything else that was smaller, which were still pretty big, and had fun attempting the long wooden bridges. We rode for an hour and a half on the trails with man made obstacles. There are at least two other trails we didn't even see, so there's plenty of riding to be done there. After riding that trail though, I'm not sure if I'd want to do any others. It was just so much fun, the others would seem boring. I really am looking forward to going back.

Rained out

Today is May 5th, also known as Cinco de Mayo, and my Dad's birthday. Happy birthday Dad!

It rained yesterday morning here in Richmond. Nothing like what caused/is causing floods in Alabama, and it cleared up around noon. But the Parks and Rec folks decided the fields were too wet for play so we did not have our softball game last night. I was on the fence about playing this week anyway with my finger, cold and tetanus shot.

I went on Monday to the doctor to get the tetanus shot since I haven't had one in probably 13 yrs as best I can remember. After cutting my finger late last week I figured it'd be a good idea to get the shot. My finger is doing pretty well really. No infection, no pain and I'm sure the nail will grown back in the next couple weeks. I asked for the shot to be given in my left arm just in case I had to throw the ball on Wed. Since the game was canceled it didn't really matter, but I didn't know that at the time. The shot itself is pretty mundane, but the soreness that comes afterwards is very real. Raising my arm above chest height was quite a chore.

In other big news, Apple released new iMac's. I'm sure nobody reading this is as excited as I am about it, but it really was a pretty good update. Even the bottom end computer has a quad-core processor and a much improved video card. And with the inclusion of Thunderbolt it'll be future proof in many ways for a long time. I plan on getting myself one in the next couple months. Hopefully sooner rather than later, but I need to wait and see how much moving costs and get situated before spending a chunk o-change on a computer.