Social call

I was to leave before dawn but I just couldn't. I enjoyed home, wife, and daughter who was having friends over for sleepover.

Mid morning I called my friend Pete and rode out to his place. There is plenty of written and documentaries about Felix "Pete" O'neal so I don't have to write much here about him. In the late 70's we would nod to each other on the street of Arusha and in the early 80's one of us ran out of gas on the road and the other helped out with a litre of fuel. (Both of us at that time never filled gas tanks, we just added enough for the day.) From then on we started having gab fests. It got more frequent when I learned he had a video player and lots of recent movies, and Pete learned I knew about computers in the days of DOS. Of late it is mostly me riding out to his place on my bike, and we talk big and small and have a good time. Are biggest joke is about suing each other for infractions.
Pete was given a Saxophone recently and he is blowing on it trying to learn. He is one of those guys when we are sitting there I will say, " Hey man I am hungry what you got to eat back there?"

On the way I met his guy in town and snapped a shot. This is a common sight. And I am not sure why I even noticed it today.


I had a couple thoughts riding to Pete's.

Wide seat.

Thanks to Chuck Schaefer or brother Don for leaving a wide bike seat behind. He brought it out to use for themselves and it sat for years and years with my tools. I snubbed it because of its width and sponge. I put it on as there was nothing else and the seat that came with the bike was hurting this last year. I think the sponge don't work but the width has me thinking i need a wider seat

On a bike discussion list they have been discussing seats. Sometimes you don't know something is wrong until someone tells you. The Brooks seat on my road bike has always felt great but now I am thinking it is not wide enough. Only after hearing other people saying they feel the rivets, now I feel the rivets. On last Wednesday ride I noticed them.



Ride to the ride

It means if there is a club ride or a bike trip starting out in the bush, if you ride to the ride you are more pure biker, and why not ride to the ride anyway.

Often my bike buddies will take a vehicle and put the bikes in the car for the first 50-100km
The excuse is so we get to more interesting places quicker. I think it partially defeats the idea of the trip.

The ride is the same to the ride, whether we drive in a pickup or on the bike the ride is the same. It differs in the time it takes.

We make too much money.
But we wont change when the cost of us driving to the ride is affordable. No one is going to conserve unless it costs us not to.

At Pete's we shot the bull and watched a a documentary on Eldridge Cleaver , an old one. I wonder who in my family got dad's copy of "Soul on Ice".
We talk more about getting old than we used to.

The ride today was about transport today. It was incidental that I got some good exercise coming home and liked the process too. All but 5 km of the 40km to Pete's house is tarmac, but those 5 are pretty rough. So i rode the mountain bike.