Mountain Biking Around Obert, NE

I should have known this day and ride was going to be intersting when, as I was putting the bike on my van to prepare to leave, all decked out in my biking gear, my 10 year old looked at me and asked: "Going biking Dad?"....Here's your sign.

It definitely wasn't the longest ride of my biking life, but it was interesting and I look forward to the next excursion to the land time forgot...Obert, Nebraska. Tim C. drove Joe P., Cindy L., and myself over to the "village" of Obert. Obert is a quaint, quiet little place that was about to be invaded by four mountain bikers.

The instant we left going south out of Obert, we were climbing...and climbing...and climbing. I like at least a little warmup (I'm sure this is shocking to Joe), but there was none to be had on this ride. About four miles in, we were ready to go from gravel to dirt. That's right, dirt. Joe P., realized that his tire was going flat. A flat always stinks, but especially on your birthday (Happy Birthday Joe!). We stopped, pumped it back up, made it a mile on a STEEP dirt road, and pumped it up again. It was here I noticed something to add to "land that time forgot" stigma: A "SCHLITZ" can. Do they REALLY still make Schlitz? Plugging forward we abandoned Joe with a lowly little pump and our best wishes on his survival. We all went another mile south before circling around to get the pickup and to backtrack Joe's slow progress and pick him up. Sadly enough, Joe's birthday woes didn't stop there. As he went to get into the truck, he slammed his head (still in helmet) into the top of the truck. Joe may have to reconsider biking on his birthday from now on.

At any rate, it's amazing to see how different this land is and it's still so close to Vermillion. It also looks like some good hill training for next year as well.

Tim decided to take us on the "north" loop from Obert to Maskell (via truck). After a fairly good climb leaving Obert followed by a fast descent, we turned on to another minimum maintenance dirt road. After being on this narrow road for a little while I jokingly said, "Now watch another mountain biker come screaming down the hill at us". Shortly thereafter we actually seen another mountain biker that was broke down. As we got closer we realized that we knew him! What are the odds! We gave Charles a lift back to his wife who backtracked to get their vehicle. So, all in all, it was an interesting day of mountain biking and bizarre coincidences on a cool November day.

At any rate, here is some info from the area we did mountain bike. I look forward to going back and biking the area again. Oh yeah, and if there are any people from that area reading my blog, I apologize for the "land that time forgot" comments! Please don't run me over when I come back.

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Turkey Creek Road

This is a great mountain bike ride once you get over the bridge into Nebraska. Turkey Creek Road is a windy, hilly, scenic trip over to Newcastle, NE. This particular day was with Joe and Cindy on a beautiful November day. We bagged work at 2:00 to get a ride in.

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Spondylolisthesis

I haven’t blogged in awhile and I apologize to the faithful few who seem to get all cranky with me when I don’t blog much. Here is a thought for you whiners:Leave comments on the blog! Most of the time I feel like I’m just writing it to let off steam or to look back when I’m old and senile and say..”Hey, I remember that!”

At any rate, I’ve been in research mode as of late. Some of you know and some of you don’t know that I suffer from various levels of back pain. Three or four years ago after an MRI was done, I was diagnosed with a Grade 1 spondylolisthesis. They told me what it was, that I could get through it with Physical Therapy at this point, and sent me on my way. I figured it was a combination of many miles of distance running and a car accident that I was in back in 1992 but it’s awful hard to determine what caused it.

Cycling never seemed to bother my back much; actually if I DIDN’T cycle my back would tighten up and hurt so I tend to make sure that I exercise regularly. As I managed to get in better and better shape I decided to take a crack at running again. Well, long story short, I did fine until I started pushing mileage higher and higher. Then….well….not so good. There went the other dream of doing a triathlon again….maybe…stupid stubborn Kevin….

Why can’t I let this die? Maybe it’s the whole upcoming event of turning 40 and wanting to get back into my *former* shape and do something that pushes my body a little further again. Yeah, I know, like riding 100+ miles on a bike isn’t pushing it enough. I just don’t think it’s meant to be. I have the Physical Therapy department at USD monitoring me and giving me suggestions. I even learned that swimming isn’t good for “spondy” which was really shocking. I thought swimming was good for EVERYTHING.

For now, I am training extra hard on the bike/stationary bike/spin bikes. If nothing else, I’m going to try to have one heck of a 40 year old time trial on the bike. Lose a little more weight and go FAST. Wish me luck!

Cell Phones and iPods

I'm going crazy and maybe feeling a little old at the same time. I happened to be walking across campus when students were between classes. Simply amazed at the number of people on cell phones or listening to iPods I took an informal count.

I used the next 17 people I seen as I walked across campus in my "study". It was actually 19, but I removed two girls who were talking to each other. 17 people, by themselves, and here are the results:

14 of 17 were either talking on their cell phone or had their iPod jammed in their ears. They can't even walk across campus or between class without one or the other. The three "odd balls" that was "technologically impaired" probably feel left out or maybe they were non traditional students that are older like me!

Someday maybe they will enjoy periods of uninterrupted silence instead of constant chaos and noise.

Three Minutes?

So, I woke up early on a Saturday. Something I would rather NOT do as I prefer to sleep in a little to make up for my lack of sleep during the week. It just wasn't meant to be as I heard my wife up getting ready to go to work. I got up, had too many thoughts racing through my mind and so I was up.

Then one of those moments that leave you speechless happened. My oldest son got up, came out where I was standing at the computer reading the news, and said "7:15? I thought it was like 7:18". With a puzzled look on my face I asked him "...and the difference would be?" Without even thinking he said "3 minutes!" and he walked on downstairs to his video games.

I've tried to figure it out if was just a semi sleep state or what, but I STILL have no idea where his thought process was. It was a whole different world that he was in though. Either that or Dad is just getting old.

Too Young to Die

41 years old. It’s too young to die, especially of cancer. Especially when you are leaving three children still in school behind with no father.

The family went to our church after they moved to Vermillion. Big, strong guy…ex-college football player, somewhat of a typical jock, but still a wonderful guy. His demise from cancer was brutal. Every bad thing that cancer could take from you was taken from him and it was one of the saddest things I’ve ever seen.

When he passed away last week, it didn’t come as a shock as we knew that he was in hospice care, but as always is the case, it doesn’t make it any easier to swallow. Part of the “hard to swallow” part comes from the fact that I myself am nearly 40 years old. This could be me. My own mortality doesn’t scare me mind you, but what it would do to my wife and kids right now would be devastating. I can’t begin to fathom my wife having to be a single Mom of three.

I came home from the funeral and my youngest met me in the kitchen with a big hug. He let go after a couple seconds, but I didn’t. I wanted to hold him a long time, and fortunately he let me. When the time comes Lord, if it be Your will, let my kids be in a position where they don’t need me as much as they need me now.

Cycling in the Rain

Okay, so I've been lazy about posting as of late. Sunday we went on our "Fall Colors Ride" that has become an annual outing to enjoy some nice mountain biking on the Nebraska side of the river. We had responses from about 10-12 people excited to ride, which excited me too, because usually there are 4-5 of us on this ride is all.

Then it happened...as I walked out of church, it was sprinkling. We still had an hour and a half before the ride so it had plenty of time to quit. Well, on the contrary, it had plenty of time to POUR DOWN. When the THREE of us left on our ride, it was cold, raining a decent amount, and I think we all wondered how crazy we really were. Once we got going, it wasn't that bad and we had a really good time. As a means of sassing those who didn't ride, I emailed the following account to the rest of the Lanehogs Listserv.

It was a dark, dreary, rainy afternoon which made it the perfect afternoon to plan out attack into enemy territory (Nebraska). Craig DeVelder, Cindy Lavin and I met at the latest safehouse (Latte Da) to formulate an attack plan. We decided to attack at 1334 hours on a Sunday afternoon. The rain cover made it easy for us to hide on our way to meet the enemy. Once across the bridge we knew we were closer to the enemy so we took a path less traveled (Turkey Creek Road). A north wind helped us make time to our rendevoux point (Newcastle). Once there, we found our safehouse behind enemy lines (Marron's Service) and we refueled quickly. After a short break half our mission was over and we headed back to the home base, this time via the main convoy route (Highway 12). That's when it happened, we came under enemy attack! It was only a couple miles outside of Newcastle when I heard a noise and it got louder and louder. A bullet (apparently my brakes) had ripped the sidewall of my tire and into my tube. I had to call recon (Laura) to come and get me. Being the brave soul she is, she too came across enemy lines to save this soldiers life. I am happy to report that Craig and Cindy made it back to home base without further incident however.

Doesn't this make for better reading than saying that the three of us REALLY had a blast riding on a wet, cool day? Yeah, we were a bit wet and cold, but it was a lot of fun and something none of us will forget anytime soon! You all missed a great ride!

Kevin