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Carter and I went for a ride this morning. Two rides actually. On what could very well be the hottest day of the.... well, ever. My new wheels worked just  like wheels should. The bike is definitely a little lighter, and my lungs are a lot better conditioned since I started riding to work, so I felt pretty good on the trails today.  We did over 10 miles total, and I was super tired by the end. 

The first ride was at Quarter Park which was about a 6 mile loop. It was only about 90 degrees when we started that around 9:30 in the morning. After a short break we drove down the road to Freedom Park and did another 4+ miles. It just kept getting hotter as the day went on and I'm glad we were done around 1pm. I think I'm ready for a good nap now. Hopefully it'll rain tonight or sometime soon and dump this humidity and bring the temperature down. 

The return of the King

I guess it's really more like the King's first appearance, but "the return" sounds cooler in a nerdy sort of way. I got my new wheels from the bike shop today. I had the new spokes and rims put on the old hubs as the hubs were fine after the accident. All the insurance stuff has now been processed and finished which is great news. The dent in the frame was accounted for and I was able to get a different kind of wheel that allows tubeless tires. Check it out.

All in all, other than being a pain in the butt, and not having the bike for a couple weeks, it turned out okay. A little extra cash in my pocket from the damaged frame and new wheels. The bike shop cleaned the cassette too, so with a new crankset, clean cassette and cleaned chain, it should be dirt free for about 5 minutes. Carter, a buddy who used to work at UNOS with me, and I are going riding tomorrow in Williamsburg and another park a little farther south as well. It's gonna be a hot one, but oh well. It's mid July on the East coast. It's never really pretty. 

Kill Devil Hills

The beach. The sun, sand, and water just have a way of relaxing me. Considering I'd been preoccupied with the insurance companies and dealing with my bike damage issues, I was ready for a little relaxation. The beach is always a vacation in my mind. I went down to Kill Devil Hills, NC to visit my cousin who lives a few blocks up from the beach. I consider it my own free beach house.

We watched the re-enactment of "The Lost Colony" Friday night, which was really quite good. It's the longest running outdoor re-enactment show in the US. And Andy Griffith was an actor there in the late 40's and early 50's.

Saturday and Sunday were full of beach going and eating. The dogs kept each other company most of time.  Sunday evening on my way home I stopped by my dad's place in Hampton and had dinner. It's nice having family close enough for weekend pop-ins.

Rear end (updated)

My mom brought Maddog back to Richmond today at lunch time. I left work and met my mom at my new place so she could see it and drop the dog off. We had lunch and walked around the block before I started back to work and she headed back to Hampton.

I figured, while I was out, I'd take my bike over to the shop to get my new cranks installed. I figured I'd drop it off and get it back tomorrow (friday) in time for an early afternoon ride. On the way to the shop, with my bike on the bike rack hanging off the trunk, I got rear ended.  

I had the insurance inspector take a couple official pictures before moving the bike as they were too busy to do the full inspection, but after that was done, I went to the bike shop, but instead of crank installation, I had them look the bike over for damage. The wheels took basically all the damage as far as they could tell. The front worse than the back. But both need replacing. Luckily it seems like the fork and frame are okay.

The majority of the damage was to the guy who did the rear ending; cosmetically at least. His hood was all kinds of crumpled and lights busted. The inspector will be able to take a look at my car tomorrow morning and make a better assessment than my uneducated guessing. I was pushed into the guy in front of me so there's a bit of minor damage to the front and to the back of the third guys car too. Good thing there's a little something called insurance. 

My biggest concern at the moment, since my car is still drivable, is how and when I'm going to get the bike wheels fixed.  I hope to know more tomorrow after talking to the inspector and calling my insurance company with the bike estimate. What a pain. 

I ended up not going back to work. The accident happened just before 1pm and I then after waiting for the cops to come, do their report, call my insurance, take my car to the inspector for the bike pics and then going to the bike shop, it was well after 4pm. If you look closely at this last picture you can tell what type of car hit me. 

UPDATE: Looks like my frame was dented a bit under the top tube. Didn't notice at first but it's definitely damaged. Still waiting on the bike shop to give me an estimate on damages and repairs.  Hopefully they can give me an idea of the value lost by the dent as it's not fixable. It may be still ridable, but it's definitely worth less in monetary value if I were to try and sell the frame. Should be fun dealing with the insurance company. :rolleyes:

Happy 4th

Happy Birthday America. 235 years and still going. I went to Freedom Park in Williamsburg to ride the trails after spending the weekend with my parents and family in Hampton, VA. I put together this short video of my ride. It's a shame everything looks so small and slow. I promise that when you're riding, it feels like you're riding really fast and going off big jumps. Here's a link: Freedom Park.

I hope everyone had a safe and fun holiday weekend. In Richmond, we had some nasty thunderstorms roll through just before dark so the fireworks show was canceled. I'm not sure if they'll reschedule, but you'd think so, otherwise that's a lot of wasted explosives.

I left Madison in Hampton with my parents for a few days. He'll hang out until my mom brings him back later this week. We figured they could keep each other company while me and my dad are at work. Speaking of work, I should get to it. Back to the grind. At least it's a 3 day week. I love having Fridays off. :-)