Mud Fest 2009

It became abundantly clear on Saturday that I am riding on borrowed time here in the snow belt.  I plotted and schemed all day to find the optimal time to ride, waiting patiently for at least a little portion of the road to clear up enough to allow me to eek by unmolested by car mirrors.  I found it so I went for it, a few inches of snow fell the night before so into the slop I went….and then the weather twisted on me.  About 20 miles away from home I saw the flakes starting to fall again and noticed an obvious temperature drop.  All of my outer garments were already soaked from the spray and splatter that was being kicked up and slowly the spray and splatter started to turn to ice.  I had ice stalactites hanging off of my helmet, ice covered my handle bars, and I was sporting about 2 solid inches of ice covering my entire down tube.  My derailleur was unrecognizable and my shoes looked like two blocks of dirty ice.  Not feeling comfortable with riding on the side of the road back to my house I opted for the gravel road route which shall now be referred to as “Mud-Fest 2009.”  I hit that route home and instead of snow and slush I am kicking up thick mud and there is mud every where, in my mouth, in my ears, up my nose…..everywhere.  My normally white bike has turned into a giant blob of frozen mud and my freakishly fluorescent yellow riding jacked is now fully brown.  I get to the point where I have to ride on the side of the road because to get to my house you simply have to and I pull up to and stop at a red light.  The horror of people’s faces in their cars makes me laugh out loud and a guy stopped at the intersection rolls down his window and starts yelling “Get it bro….Geeeeeeeet Itttttttttttt whooooooo!”   I shoot him a quick double devil horns.  I pull into the garage and start the process of stripping down when my wife opens the door takes one look and simply says “I’ll start the washing machine” and shuts the door.  Two hours of riding and 3 hours spent cleaning the mud machine….I think I burned more calories cleaning.

 I will be writing tomorrow about the awesome Christmas gift my best friend gave me yesterday.  Its not a Kindle however its equally as rad.