My Month of Vacation

I had one free month from my last summer class until my first fall class and the picture above pretty much illustrates all I did. I rode my bike as much as I could. I don't feel safe riding in Lousy so I typically only ride the trainer in my apartment. That's good for fitness but it doesn't really prepare you for long rides and since I am doing the 100 miler in the Big Dam Bridge ride this year, I needed to get some miles in.

I was doing a lot of fast 15 milers and some easy 30-40 milers but I really needed to do a good distance ride to test my legs. Leighanne's mom, Jenny, is also riding the 100 miles with me in late September so she decided to take a day off of work so we could get at least one good training ride in. She could not have picked a better day to take off. She took off on Sept. 1 and it was a day with a high of 82 degrees with very little humidity. Most of you know that this is unheard of in AR at this time of year. It was AWESOME!

We left the Dam bridge around 8:30 in the morn and it was so cool we almost needed long sleeves. We decided we would head toward Conway because it is part of the course for the 100 miler and it gave me a chance to visit my favorite coffee shop in Conway, Something Brewing.We stopped there and had a muffin and some coffee before heading to Hendrix for a bit so I could check out the new Student Center and take a look at all the new housing they have on campus. The new stuff looked pretty good but it was just weird seeing all of it. It makes the campus seem so much bigger because the housing extends so far now.

We then headed back toward Little Rock and this next picture just illustrates how beautiful of a day it was. We didn't even start sweating until after noon!
This next picture is in Maumelle. I first rode past this sign when we lived there and I have always thought it was really funny. Dewafelbakker is a company in Maumelle and I can only guess that they make waffle cones because as you ride past the factory that is all you can smell. Crazy Awesome.
We made it back to the Dam Bridge and had some sammies and a coke before heading back out again. We rode a little on the NLR and LR sides of the river before finally calling it quits for the day. All said and done we rode a little over 80 miles that day. That's the longest ride either of us has done so far but that record won't last long.

Riding wasn't really all I did for a whole month. I power washed most of my brother's mulit-level deck since they are trying to sell their house and buy one that is more baby friendly. I also met up with Adam Perdue, Esq. a few times at....you guessed it, Vino's. (I can put the Esq. after his name because he found out he passed the Bar exam which made us celebrate with a pitcher at....right again, Vino's.) I also spent a few days with my parents in Hot Springs watching movies and taking rides on the boat. Of course, the best part about the month off was actually getting to see Leighanne every day for an entire month. I can't wait for that to be the norm. All in all, a damn fine month off.