Great Lakes - 70 degree weekend in the MW! Where are we all riding this weekend?

Let's hear it! Mrs Stromcrowe and I are planning a quarter to half century tomorrow, depending on how she feels stamina wise! How about you?http://dune.servint.com/uploads/f_eyebrows.gif

I am visiting my folks in Wisconsin. I'm thinking about doing this one:

http://www.horriblyhilly.com/maps/HHH_Map_100K.pdf

I'd love to, unfortunately I have to direct traffic most of saturday for this stupid thing:

http://www.scarecrowfest.com/

And Sunday Im enroute to So. IL. to work on my hunting property for my archery deer season. looks like im on the trainer or at the gym for the rest of the year:(

I'd love to, unfortunately I have to direct traffic most of saturday for this stupid thing:

http://www.scarecrowfest.com/
HA! - I was just informed that I will be there Saturday as a repayment for buying a new frame yesterday.

I will still squeeze a ride in sometime this weekend though. I better figure out where fairly quickly.

Well, I'll be the idiot standing at 31 & 64 from 3PM-7PM, helping all the looky loos across the street, stop by and say Hi.. New frame huh??? I'm curently watching a Pinarello steel on ebay, hoping to get a good deal.Gotta a guy who lives nearby who I'm sure would be willing to help me learn how to build up a bike :rolleyes:

HA! - I was just informed that I will be there Saturday as a repayment for buying a new frame yesterday.

I will still squeeze a ride in sometime this weekend though. I better figure out where fairly quickly.

HOW bout a 645 am saturday spindoctor group ride leaving from menard's in S. elgin? I'll meet you there if you're up for it!

I will sqeeze in a few 20-30 milers on the hallowed roads of the North Shore Century.
I want to have no regrets when the weather finally goes bad for the season.
Kenal0

I want to - no, NEED TO - get out sometime this weekend.

At least one 20 mile ride. Ideally another 30. :)

I must go to Starved Rock and Hike.............without my best friend the Giant. :(

Saturday:
Me and my Quickstep bibs take to the streets mid-morning for a 35-mile spin through the color of the leaves in Root River Parkway on the Oak Leaf Trail.

Sunday:
An easy ride, taking Mrs. Hip on her Bianchi along on my daily 26-mile training route, with lunch packed in a shoulder bag and a stop at the pond planned, where we will take some pictures of the color and geese as we munch on PB&J's.

HOW bout a 645 am saturday spindoctor group ride leaving from menard's in S. elgin? I'll meet you there if you're up for it!
ARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH! I was banished from BF last night due to a fight between the Mrs. and myself. As a result I missed this message. I would have loved to have gone with SDC today.

Well...at least I might get to see Kimbercop....

I just rode past your house with my 5 year old. Two things I noticed, you need to mow your lawn and pick some of those apples on that tree..Guess that means less riding time for you. Send that new frame over to me, I'll take it off your hands if that will help calm down the Mrs.

Well, I'll be the idiot standing at 31 & 64 from 3PM-7PM, helping all the looky loos across the street, stop by and say Hi.. New frame huh??? I'm curently watching a Piarello steel on ebay, hoping to get a good deal.Gotta a guy who lives nearby who I'm sure would be willing to help me learn how to build up a bike :rolleyes:

What's a Piarello...some sort of pie/jello mixture? :p

ARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH! I was banished from BF last night due to a fight between the Mrs. and myself. As a result I missed this message. I would have loved to have gone with SDC today.

Well...at least I might get to see Kimbercop....

Guess it's a good thing we didn't try for the hilly hundred.

Basement.

Working this weekend.

jw

I just rode past your house with my 5 year old. Two things I noticed, you need to mow your lawn and pick some of those apples on that tree..Guess that means less riding time for you. Send that new frame over to me, I'll take it off your hands if that will help calm down the Mrs.

HA! - I just got back in from mowing the front lawn. Not enough time to get the back. :( The apples are insane. I have already discarded 8-10 lawn bags full of apples, but it has been 2 weeks since I picked some.

Made it to the scarecrow fest with the family, but we didn't make it down to 31. The furthest East we made it was to the petting zoo. MAN was that crowded. Starting to look like Naperville's ribfest.

Our excellent neighbor, who is a Geneva native, talked us out of ScarecrowFest. Sounds like hell.

My parents are in town, so we went to the much more sane Randall Oaks petting zoo in Carpentersville and then to a local pumpkin patch in Sleepy Hollow to soak in the Halloween scene. Sleepy Hollow does October right, as befits a town with the headless horsemen as their city logo.

Got in a brief 8 miler this afternoon while the rest of the house napped or oozed through the Cardinal/Padre game. Hit the 1700 mile mark for the year. Yeah, doesn't sound like a lot, but it's 500 more than all of last year. :)

I absolutely love working in St. Charles except for the friggin scarecrow fest. I was out directing traffic for 4 hours and let me tell you my dogs are barking. At least I wont have to deal with that crowd again for another year. We, (the PD) set aside and barricaded 20 parking spaces in the PD lot for our use. Barricades that said "no entry, Police personnel only" only 20 spaces and people were driving around the barricades like they weren't even there, then getting all indignant when we told'em to move or when they got a ticket. Everyone wants a front row seat I guess. God, I hate people some times.. I told the Sgt. to let me go out and write the parking tickets next year, I will break every record known to mankind if he lets me.

Hey Psimet, those eatting apples or no?

Did 30 miler today ( from Botanic Garden to Devon and back) along North Branch of Chicago river. Great day for biking! Thinking about going to Palos tomorrow ( my mountain bike is back from repair)

Cycling: bringing Hip's family together and tearing Psimet's apart. ;)

Well, today I was riding to work. Tomorrow morning I'm going to take in as much leaf scenery as I can before I take another ride to work.

I have a lot of free time on Tuesday. I'm going to go check out my favorite scenic route, and I'll try to take some pictures for you guys.

Hey Psimet, those eatting apples or no?

We have this kid who comes by during Halloween and totally turns down our candy and is practically jumping out of his pants for an opportunity to pick our apples. The first year he came up, said "Trick or Treat". I held out the candy bucket and he reached in, looked over, saw the apples, looked at me like I just bought him a bike, and said "HEY MISTER, CAN I HAVE SOME APPLES INSTEAD??!!"

I was so dumbfounded that all I could say was, "umm if it's OK with your mom." Then I was like, "I don't even know if they're any good." He ran around for like 5 minutes picking whatever he could.

The next year he brought his brother and they didn't even bother coming to the door. The mother asked if it was OK. Said it was the highlight of their night.

I don't know if they're any good. They'd probably be great in baking, or cooking. I've thought of making applesauce, or apple jelly. Feel free to stop by and take whatever you want. The tree is hanging about 3-4 feet lower than normal from all the extra weight. Wet year and all.

Back to cycling...I think I'm going to be able to get a good ride in tomorrow. Now I just have to figure out where to ride...

Cycling: bringing Hip's family together and tearing Psimet's apart. ;) <snip>

She always comes around. At 6:30 she looked at me and said, "You want to go to Performance?"

I know it was just so she could go to Babies R Us, but I'll take it. I didn't even buy anything. Figured that scored me some points.

...although she did say, "you mean you didn't even get a fork? What about wheels...you can use one of your other sets right? What do you mean Campagnolo. I thought you liked Shimano...."

She gets an "A" for effort....:D

YEAH I GOT TO RIDE (http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/mb/weather/refresh.mb)

That was close. I was kicking myself for not figuring out a way to get my bike invited on the Starved Rock trip. We hiked and camped out yesterday there. Then made it home today for me to get in a nice 30 miler. Then me and kid watched the BEARS (Tivo) in the baby jail.

Oh yeah, I found me some hills over at Starved Rock and think I need to map us out a route through them. Maybe 30 or 50 miles with some nice steep rollers for these parts!! We only need one more nice weekend!!! Later.

YEAH I GOT TO RIDE (http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/mb/weather/refresh.mb)

That was close. I was kicking myself for not figuring out a way to get my bike invited on the Starved Rock trip. We hiked and camped out yesterday there. Then made it home today for me to get in a nice 30 miler. Then me and kid watched the BEARS (Tivo) in the baby jail.

Oh yeah, I found me some hills over at Starved Rock and think I need to map us out a route through them. Maybe 30 or 50 miles with some nice steep rollers for these parts!! We only need one more nice weekend!!! Later.

Next weekend looks OK (weatherwise) . want to organize something and start a new thread? I'll help.

Our excellent neighbor, who is a Geneva native, talked us out of ScarecrowFest. Sounds like hell.

My parents are in town, so we went to the much more sane Randall Oaks petting zoo in Carpentersville and then to a local pumpkin patch in Sleepy Hollow to soak in the Halloween scene. Sleepy Hollow does October right, as befits a town with the headless horsemen as their city logo.

Got in a brief 8 miler this afternoon while the rest of the house napped or oozed through the Cardinal/Padre game. Hit the 1700 mile mark for the year. Yeah, doesn't sound like a lot, but it's 500 more than all of last year. :)

Super....the socks are gone from the avatar!

Yesterday was a beautiful day for a ride. I had an interesting encounter, as well. I was up in Michigan riding up to a stop sign and all of the sudden I heard, "How far are you going?" from behind. I almost crapped my chamois from the surprise. It was another rider from a nearby town who turned out to be a really nice guy. We rode together for a little bit, but I was close to my turnaround point and I had to get home in time to go to work. Too bad we couldn't have ridden together longer.

I took my camera along, so enjoy a picture.

DX, thanks for reminding me. I need to remember the camera for my afternoon ride today!



Super....the socks are gone from the avatar!
Hip, yeah, Oscar's gone for the time being. You know me, I like to change up the avatar once in a while. I don't have a metalurgical miracle to show off like you!

Next weekend looks OK (weatherwise) . want to organize something and start a new thread? I'll help.

Oooh, sounds exciting. From driving around there this weekend I mapped out this route......Starved Rock Route (http://routeslip.com/map.php?map=10975). There is a steep arse hill through the Park then Rt 71 heading West has plenty of climbs with twist and turns.

I rode some of these roads on the Bike Psychos Century and surprisingly the traffic was light. We would want to roll out fairly early though to avoid any traffic issues.

Any other interest or thoughts? I still need to get clearence from the Chief but it is likely doable for me as it wouldn't be an all day thing. Later.

DX, thanks for reminding me. I need to remember the camera for my afternoon ride today!



Hip, yeah, Oscar's gone for the time being. You know me, I like to change up the avatar once in a while. I don't have a metalurgical miracle to show off like you!

You know what they say CyLowe....'if you've got it, flaunt it'

I went through hell getting that thing so I'm braggin' on it every chance I get.
And although I've had that as my avatar forever, I have to think that Rad has the longest-running, original, unchanged avatar here.

I didn't get any riding in this weekend.

I've been dealing with a skunk in my basement window well and the all the aftermath. :mad:

My house stinks. Literally. :(

that sux!
http://quickstrong.com/images/qspicture2.jpg

Great!

NOW you tell me! :mad:

;)

I blew off the HHH route and decided to just set out. As near as I can tell, I did this route:

http://www.routeslip.com/map.php?map=11051

Primrose Center Rd. was a lucky find. Narrow, country roads with big hills, I nearly dropped a lung somewhere out there. I wish I brought a camera to share some pics. The area SW of Madison is exceptionally nice, I highly recommend it.

iab, looks like you hit the area south of the HHH, which stays north of Hwy 18/151. Fantastic area for riding. I can't wait to get back up there.

I was able to get 31 miles in on Monday afternoon, which I took as a day off. The wind from the NE was not a lot of fun, but the sun made the day great. I took a bunch of pics, but they are still on the camera at home.

This weather ain't gonna last.... dang.

I was able to get 31 miles in on Monday afternoon, which I took as a day off. The wind from the NE was not a lot of fun, but the sun made the day great. I took a bunch of pics, but they are still on the camera at home.

This weather ain't gonna last.... dang.

The wind really caught me off guard. I had a nice ride anyway. Cant let a let the sunny days pass!!

iab, looks like you hit the area south of the HHH, which stays north of Hwy 18/151. Fantastic area for riding. I can't wait to get back up there.

I was able to get 31 miles in on Monday afternoon, which I took as a day off. The wind from the NE was not a lot of fun, but the sun made the day great. I took a bunch of pics, but they are still on the camera at home.

This weather ain't gonna last.... dang.


I don't get to that area often and I forget how nice it is. My parents have a farm house between Mineral Point and Hollendale so I know the area pretty well. It is always nice to head out on unknown roads though. In the middle of nowhere, there was a very large roadside stand with several "booths" selling wool, sheepskin, and other sheep products. It was a little weird but they were nice people and I got to refill my water.

I don't think many people realize you can get some great hills only 2 hours from Chicago. Next year I will organize a ride around there.