Blues Dawg, you hit me right over the head with a strong dose of nostalgia. I grew up on a dirt road about 80 miles from NYC. In those days there were two other families living on that road and if a car drove by we ran to the window to see who it was. The man who drove the town grader would stop by the house for coffee when working on our road. Those were simpler, and in my judgment, better times.

At the time, as a boy I rode a bike that weighed about as much as a compact car of today. These days I ride a Specialized Secteur, a poor man's Roubaix, with 28mm tires on Velocity A23 rims. I tried 32mm tires but they would not fit. Next year I hope to ride a fund raiser in Vermont that is mostly on dirt roads.