I'm waiting on some stuff here at work, so I thought I'd update you on the holidays. I would say we had a pretty good one. Amanda and I didn't get to spend much of Thanksgiving day together, she went to her mom's house and I went to mine. The reason we split up is because my mom and my sister decided that they were going to the midnight sales at the Tanger Outlet Mall in Pigeon Forge. So, to spend some time with them, I decided to go up there to spend the day instead of us hitting both spots in one day like we normally do. By the time Amanda got to my parents' house Thursday night, it was just me and my dad, partially asleep watching/not watching college basketball and the football game. My family has the art of non-PIP, multi-channel watching mastered.

On Wednesday, Amanda and I stayed at my sister's house. I got a chance to go hang with my pal Brad that night. I hadn't spent much time hanging out with him in recent years, mainly because we live an hour or so apart and, let's face it, I'm a busy man. We played lots of Wii tennis and talked art, he's a graphic artist too and one of my longest friends. It was good to see him and hang out.

Some of Brad's work - "Suicide Angel"


Friday morning brought the anticipation of some Iron Mtn riding with a small group of folks who sorta don't mind riding when there is snow on the ground. Andy, Scott, David, Alan, David Witt, Brandon Johnson and myself all met up at Adventure Damascus and shuttled our way to the top of SR 600 where we descended the main road for 1/2 mile and then climbed a slick, snow-covered fireroad for about 2 miles. I did lose traction while pedaling a few times and was able to keep the bike moving forward a couple of times. It's odd on Iron Mtn., one minute you'll be freezing and snow will be everywhere, the next it's 50, sunny and tolerable. Nonetheless, shuttling to the top to ride back to Damascus sounds like and all-downhill adventure, which is far from the case. Looking at the elevation gain/loss afterwards, we did lose more elevation than we gained, but what we did climb was rough. Didn't get to enjoy the festivities of suds and pizza at Bella's afterwards cuz Amanda was sick and I'm her only nurse, but she's feeling better now, cuz I'm a good nurse.

I'm starting to really know those trails on Iron and it's kind of cool and makes it much more fun every time I go up there. I love riding there and the last 3 or 4 times I've been, I've had a blast.

The newly rebuilt Reba Race performed pretty well on Friday. I had it set up a little stiff for all those rocky downhill sections, but it functioned, and that's all that matters for now. I'll do some fine-tuning before this weekend.

It's a busy week at work this week, so another entry before the weekend may not be possible. I'll leave you with a picture I worked on yesterday trying to figure out a technique I saw in a DaKine ad. I thought I did pretty well, but it's not quite there yet.