Great weekend in Duluth

So with little man being about 10 weeks old now the two older kids have had a long time with not much besides being around the house.  Kris hasn't gotten much of a break either.  I figured I'd solve that by taking the two older kids up to Duluth to visit my parents for the weekend.  That meant driving about 6hrs to/from Duluth with them for a quick weekend trip.

I did that Friday night, got in about 10pm.  It was a long, tiring drive with two little ones asking if we're there yet and needing snacks every 2 minutes.  Saturday was fun.  The kids woke up very early, woke Grandpa and Grandma up, got some quick breakfast, and checked out the tree fort.  It's looking pretty good, Grandpa has been hard at work.  He was working at Bentleyville both Sat and Sun from 8-4 so he took off in the morning.  Grandma was around, then she had a haircut.  That left the kids and I for a morning of playing at the lake, playing outside, going to the tree fort again.  Very busy morning for them and they were tired for sure by the time Grandma came back for lunch.

After lunch, I got to leave the kids with Grandma and do a bit of mountain biking.  Finally in all my trips to Duluth I had great weather for a ride.  I decided on going to Brewer Hill and Piedmont, neither I'd ridden before.  I think I've tried to ride there at least 10x but have gotten rained out every single time.

I loved the trails, they were super fun and nice and challenging.  I had brought the fatbike so while it's fun I quickly wished I'd have brought the scalpel instead.  Brewer Hill was cool but there were a lot of spots where suspension would've been very appreciated.  Piedmont was actually better for me, maybe the trails are just more ridden in, but there were a lot more places I could get flow on the bike and roll through/over stuff easily.  Very fun crushing along the trails a bit and really beautiful views and leaves.

After the mtb trails I went down to canal park and rode the fatty a bit on the beach of Park Point.  I had fun doing that, my first real time riding on anything except singletrack on the fatty.  A bit of a taste of what to expect for winter I suppose.  It was fun riding but after already running the trails up the hill I didn't go too long, I think I did just under 9 miles all said and done.  Riding the beach is pretty calming, beautiful, etc.  I have to say though going back I should've done more at Brewer or Piedmont rather than done the beach, it was more fun on the trails.

After I went to Fitgers and filled a growler and that was about it.  Sunday we visited great grandma and then grabbed lunch, then headed home.  Fun weekend but I was pretty spent when I got home.

All of these pics are from my new iphone and uploaded via instagram, pretty impressed with the phone/camera so far.

Bike storage in the basement

It's been a slow riding week, not much to talk about.  Evan is 4 weeks old now and doing fine, but he's sure switched our schedules on their heads.

I've been working a bit on my bike shop, thought I'd snap a picture of how far I got the bike storage over the weekend.  It took a trip to Home Depot with Noah and some putzing, but I've got something usable.  What I did was buy some cheap bullhorn bars from ebay, about $13/ea, and some really cheap stems, $3/ea.  Put them together and I had something that can hold the bikes by the frames.  Sure, I could've gone with a pre-made stand but not as fun and not as cool.

My only mistake so far is using pvc for the vertical - I need to replace that with some better pipe/tube that is more sturdy.  That will be easy though and will make the whole stand pretty legit.  Here's my man Noah with his measuring tape.

Aly's riding a bike

So, this isn't about me riding but I'm proud.  My daughter Aly who is 2yrs 8mos is now riding a pedal bike.  She started on the strider, now is pretty much able to bike on her own, at least for 3-4 houses down the street.

It's been fun to watch her learn compared to Noah.  Noah started a bit later and was on 100% gravel on the strider.  Much tougher.  I remember his first bike ride and it was actually on an atv trail.  He has been biking all over now since then.

Aly started on gravel (very roughly) early last year basically just walking with the strider inbetween her legs at a year and a half, but then now as we've moved to Green Bay she's on pavement.  She's become great on the strider and as Noah moved to his 16" bike Aly got some pink grips and streamers for his old bike and has been trying since.  She didn't quite take off on it right away like Noah did but i'd say after about a month now we're rockin on the bike.  Enough so that I can almost ride along with her and Noah.  I can ride along if she's on the strider, but not on the pedal bike yet.

Fun stuff.