Sunday May 15, 2011

Wow! Where have I been? At work.  Riding TOSRV.  Trying to set up the cabin garden between rains. Working on the Ford and the Cub tractors for mowing.  Fixing the '73 Sportsmobile.  Putzing with the '89 Westy's exhaust.  Buying 6 new Australorp hens.

TOSRV (Tour of the Scioto River Valley) was held for the fiftieth time on Mother's Day weekend.  The two day 210 mile tour is one of the oldest in the country.  On picking up registry material with Bro-in-law Ron, I was greeted by the founder, Charlie Pace; who handed me my packet and with it a "1970" tag with my registry number... " It's quite rare to see someone still riding after all these years", he said.  1970 was the first year that I rode TOSRV.  I had met up with Randy Swepston at his frat on OSU's 17th St on Friday night and we were joined by niece Melissa and her friend Michelle (My Belle) for way too much Boone's Farm (the new campus craze) and spaghetti.  Undeterred and very young, we shoved off in time for a group start (the next to the last year for that) at the Statehouse. The weather was great, the girls urged us to pedal on and they persevered.  We slept on hardwood floors and rode back the next morning like it was nothing... it really was for us then.  Randy continues to ride and run in Northern Ohio.  M and M, I would posit, do not.
Incidentally, I saw only one other "1970" tag and no older.  It was on the back of a "wheel" rider.  His Penny Farthing was a replica from Hungary.  He is Dan and is the Ohio chair of the League of American Wheelmen ( old name... can't remember the new one).  He rode his wheel to just North of Chillicothe and then switched to his "ordinary".

This year I rode primarily with Ron, JPayne and several other SVRoadies as the bike train roared down to Portsmouth with a slight SW headwind of 5-10 mph with temps in the 60-70s.  We were on the road seven clock hours including stops and on the bikes for 5:59, averaging almost 18 mph per our computers.  Having done it a few years back, Gary G and I were, once again, able to match and then pull a train (peloton) of 50 riders between Circleville and Chillicothe hitting 25 mph for long periods of time.  We also wheel-sucked a tandem piloted by Gary Mac and stoked by his wife Jen from the Waverly rest stop into Portsmouth.  That train was around 40 riders. For me, large, fast groups are the supreme joy of riding in TOSRV.  In no other ride have I experienced the pack as in relatively flat TOSRV.   We communed at the municipal park before heading to the PFD for our night's lodging (thanks Julie, Nick and Addie P for retrieving our luggage).  We showered and walked uptown in a steady sprinkle of rain to the Scioto Ribber for fabulous steaks and a couple of beers each.

Sunday morning was foggy as we made our way to Patsy's Diner for breakfast ( Patsy was an East European immigrant Nonagenarian who sold his store a few years back rather than let his G_F_N kids have it.) The day was cooler than Saturday with a little drizzle at times AND, true to form, the wind had reversed and gave us an almost head wind of 5-10 out of the NE.  Ron and John had two flats each and we continued on together to Chillibobo where I dropped off as I had to work at 1400. Thanks to Evan for working over for me so I could ride that morning. The other two were joined in Yoctangee Park by Maria PdL who rode with them on to C-bus.
Ron retrieved my luggage and dropped it off at CFD... thanks Ron!  On a mechanical note, this year I have replaced my main bike's wheels, tires, tubes, chain and rear cluster.
On a physical note, I have not ridden since TOSRV because of a sinus/bronchi infection that is just today under control.

The rains keep coming. Record water levels throughout the Ohio and Mississippi Valleys.
We have been flooded out of the cabin road several more times this year than ever before.

The creek stairs washed about 30' downstream.

The creek access stairs have been washed downstream twice. Thanks to several Friday cabin visitors we have put them back in place twice.  The garden is planted in potatoes, beans and some onions.  I will try to set some plants out this week if I can find a break in the rains.  I hooked up the bush hog and cleared most of the wedding filed and the swale field downstream from it.  It's been two years since I did the former and three for the latter. The Cub Cadet started only with the charger hooked up and I was able to get 80% of the trimming done before the center shaft on the deck gave way and I had to take it apart for repair... that was Thursday and it rained Friday (worked yesterday) and today.  The water under the cabin has not subsided for three weeks now and I am unwilling to work standing mid-thigh just to hook up our new holding tanks to the cabin system. At one point it would have been waist deep.

I am happy to report that the Sporty steering is fixed. Randy at PMW and I met Thursday at 1700.   I fabricated gussets and Randy welded them on for a VERY professional job.

Gusset formed to fit before welding.

My attempt at wire welding was NOT professional. I will play with it again on a non-critical area. Also today I have hopefully repaired the Westy's exhaust to quiet it down to an acceptable level.  I had it almost done when Evan needed my gaskets for his '87. We stripped them out last weekend so that he could hear after driving to Nelsonville for a music fest that included... No Show Jones (who showed), Yo La Tengo, The Flaming Lips, Nekko Case and Justin Townes Earle.  He ordered more gaskets.  They came in Friday and I got them on and along with a bit of JB Welding on the #1 exhaust port... it was bought that way and lasted for 4-5 years... it should be good to go for Baker's Buses and Boats this coming weekend.  Someday, I will pull the stud and replace it properly.

On deck for this week are Paramedic Continuing Ed in Cbus tomorrow. Designing and building, with Spencer, a portable coop for the new hens.  Spencer collected a dozen eggs in two days, not counting their first night after picking them up near Frankfort.  These hens are much more settled.  They will squat when approached with a calm voice.  A friend at church today, who has a lot of chicken experience, says it's because they aren't with a rooster.  Spencer and I are debating the whole coop thing. I think a Cabin coop should come first and then we can build a smaller coop/tractor for the back yard for just a few yard birds.   The neighbors to the South have already had one of the hens in their yard when Colleen was home for lunch on Friday.  I fixed the yielding poultry wire of the temp coop and they are now secure.