2-23-07


Well, since we were given an extra day in Dubai, we decided to make the most of it. It's about 3:15pm here and already we've taken quite a stroll about town. We walked to the Naif Souq (spice market) where we went last night, then went for a water taxi tour of the Creek before grabbing lunch. Before departing for that little venture, we tred to track down the Kam Air office only to learn that since today is the Arab world's version of Sunday, the office was closed. The bellhop here at the hotel got us in touch with the Kam Air people via their cell numbers and they had no idea of the situation in Kabul, saying their flight left this morning on schedule. I asked them about getting on the flight tomorrow and the guy just told me to show up in the morning and we'd have seats. Well, that's what we hope to do, but it means tonight is an early night for us, like we thought last night would be. We have to be at the airport by 6:00am, so hopefully this will work.


When I left the States, I knew that one word would have to define this journey: flexibility. Well, we're taking it in stride and trying to make the most of our little break here in Dubai before jaunting off to Kabul, for once we arrive there I'm afraid we'll be in a totally different world, even though it's only a two hour flight from where we currently sit.

Enough with the jabberwocky, here are some pictures from last night and today.






Look -- It's a painted camel, like our painted cows. Apparently all peoples are more similar than we think! I wonder what they were raising money and awareness for.





Here's a sampling of the bicycle that most folks ride. It's a Hero cruiser but the interesting thing is....there are no cables on this bike! That's right, click on the picture and look at the brake lines -- they're s/s metal rods. The owner of this bike tried to sell it to me for 150 AED, which isn't a bad price, but it would cost me much more than that to get it home!













Here's the Naif Souq (spice market). Really cool little place.









Appetizers on Al Rigga Street!






We must have passed this fountain every time we went somewhere. I'm convinced it's like the Big Chicken -- all directions are given from here! "Well, ya get to the pyramid fountain and go...."



Ah yes, dessert!











This was from the boat tour on the Creek. If they call this a creek, I'd hate to see what they call a river!





Dubai Skyline

More skyline

and yet another....

Look at those tower cranes! There are no fewer than 20 tower cranes within 10 minutes of our hotel. That means lots of construction. We didn't make over to the Jumeirah area, but that's where the 7-star hotel is and the Palms and where the new world's tallest hotel is being built. There's a lot of opportunity for construction folks over here ;)

Well, that's about all for now. I hope you've enjoyed your little tour of Dubai today! Hopefully the next pictures you see will be from Kabul.

2-22-07
4:22 pm EST / 1:22 am 2-23-07 local

We just received word from Kabul that our flight is to be rescheduled for arrival to Kabul on Saturday. Apparently the 23rd is Afghanistan's Independance Day so they're inthe middle of celebrating there freedom from Russian rule and all the airports are locked down. HMPH! Seems like our folks would have known this before we got on airplanes, but I don't mind getting to spend another day in Dubai. It's really nice here and there's a lot of construction going on so I may go job hunting tomorrow! HA!! The people are super friendly and the driving is nutso! If you think Atlanta has bad driving, you ain't seen nuthin' yet! However, I've only seen one car with any dents or damage. It's a very controlled chaos.

We found a nice little market and did some shopping in the little time we had before dinner. I have some pictures that I'll post tomorrow, but given that it's 1:30 am here, I'm off to bed!

Oh, I'm told not to be concerned about the lockdown, it's just a security measure. I'll know more tomorrow but hey, we may end up with another two days in Dubai, who knows?!

Cheers!

2-22-07
Greeetings from the Renaissance Dubai Hotel!! My coworker, Jamison, and I got into Dubai last night and it was a pretty standard arrival into town evening. Got our luggage -- yes, it all made it -- got checked in at the hotel, then grabbed dinner. You know how it is, you want to try new stuff when you're in a new place and we heard this Cuban band playing in one of the hotel restaurants so that's where we wanted to eat. However, since we changed out of our traveling shoes -- literally-- and put on flip flops, we didn't meet the dress code for that one! Oh, it's so warm here which we are surprised at given that the weather we were expecting was supposed to be in the 50's. (I'm gonna have to learn the C > F conversion so I can understand the weather around these parts!). So for dinner we ended up at Harry's Place, an American styled restaurant / bar complete with am Asian band singing American pop tunes, and they did a relatively decent job with them too!

Not long after dinner it time for a shower and bed. I'd been up since 7:00am EST Tuesday and got to bed last night at like 4:00 p m EST, which means I'd been up for.....33 hours (is that right?). Now, the hotel is nice, but these beds -- WOW!!!! I've never in my life laid on something so much like a cloud! Needless to say, it didn't take long for me to pass out. I woke up a few times just being in a strange place and hearing weird noises, but when I finally looked at my watch and saw it was 3:30 pm local time, I freaked a bit because I'd just lost an entire day -- my first full day in a foreign country and I want to go see the place!

As we traveled to the hotel last night, we passed this place that had a showroom packed full of fully restored classic American trucks -- Chevy, Ford, Dodge -- and Jamison and I both went crazy at the sight! It was most wonderful to see so I'm sure we're going to go there at some point today or tomorrow before we leave. It's actually kind of funny to see the only cars on the road are all American companies. We rode in a Chevy Venture taxi van last night and the Dubai taxi company uses all Chevy and Ford.

Well, sorry no pictures yet. I didn't want to be a silly tourist snapping pictures of airports and the plane we flew on, and the front of the hotel at night then again in the morning. I may get a picture of the bed I slept on, however, because THAT was worth a picture!

I appreciate all the emails and encouragement. Know that you're all in my prayers and thoughts. Time to go see the city!

2-16-07
Here are a few pictures that I just received from our team in Kabul. They were taken from the rooftop of our villa there! Looks like a beautiful place; hard to believe there are people fighting in a place this beautiful.

2-15-07

So I figure I'd post a few pictures of the dogs that I've taken in order to make the blog a bit more inviting. These were taken this past weekend. Enjoy!

I'll be leaving these guys behind while I'm gone but they'll be in good hands.

Here's the doggers sitting in the backyard on Saturday night. Gus on left, Mollie on right.

The pictures below were taken Sunday at the dogpark in Marietta. Gus is the second picture and Mollie is the third. This was not long before they both decided to be punks and start fights with the other dogs! Can you imagine these two sweet pups being mean? HA!!!

2-13-07
T minus (7) days and counting! Money...check. Bible....check. Passport....check. Visa.....Visa.....Visa......hmmmm. Let me get back to you on that! That's one of those things my company is taking care of so let's just say "CHECK" in the hopes that it really IS taken care of (even though I've not heard anything yet). Let's see, what else is there? Oh yea, shots! That's on the schedule for tomorrow. I'm told by the company folks that none are needed -- right!! That's why it pays to have friends at the CDC!

I've had some folks ask me if I'm scared or what will I do if I get shot or any number of 'what if' scenarios. Well, it's easy to answer actually. If I get shot, well, I'll go to the hospital at Camp Eggers. If something lethal happens, then it's okay. But here's the kicker -- I'm not really scared about any of that. I know I'm going and will be covered by the wing of the Lord of Creation so not much else matters. Does that relinquish me of paying attention to my surroundings? Nope. Does that mean I can walk down the street and not care about the loaded down van that just passed me? Nope. I still have to do my part and pay attention to the information I'll be given in the security briefing. No matter what, I know that the Lord has ordained this trip and I just need to depend on Him to provide. We all know that's not as easy as I make it sound, but really, it's not as difficult as we make it sometimes either.

Something struck me last night while listening to a story from a friend that really put some things into perspective. If I say I want to live by the Word of God and that I want to follow God's will and calling then I should probably pay attention when He speaks and ask questions along the way. There've been a lot of things in my life in the past couple of years that I've done where I didn't ask the one important question: "God, is this something you want me to do?" Sometimes we just know, like we KNOW God doesn't want us dealing drugs or shooting someone. But what about driving 10 mph over the speed limit? We KNOW it's wrong, but do it anyway. What about not treating someone as though they're valuable and just seeing them as a means to an end or a way to fill a desire for that moment? What about blowing off a bike ride to spend time helping a friend? HELLO?!! The most important thing in our lives is serving others and not ourselves.

So in that light, I'm off to Afghanistan. My company thinks it's for their work, but I know it's for something entirely different! Even if it's just to allow the Lord God to change my life, then that's better than getting in my car and driving down I-75 each morning with no purpose.

Here's some light reading if you're interested:
Heb 12:1 (you might want to peruse Heb 11 first!)
Psalm 37 -- there's a whole lotta good stuff tucked away there

I gotta go....more things on the to do list to check off. Oh, and Happy Valentine's Day!

Well, I know it's been awhile but winter has been a rather silent period. Yea, there's always Christmas to keep one occupied, but my day job has kept me pretty tied up too. Okay, well, maybe I've just enjoyed too much of a social life but no matter the reason, I've not been riding. And ya know what? I'm okay with that. I've been in the gym, but I just have not had the time on the few nice days we've had to actually get outside. Take today, for instance, it's a beautiful sunny day, but I'm about to leave one office, go get a passport photo taken, then go to another office location deliver that with a visa application then go run a couple other errands for work before 5:00pm then I have choir rehearsal tonight at 7:00......

Passport photo? Yes, I'm off on a trip oversees. I was asked Monday about going to work in Kabul, Afghanistan for (6) weeks. I head out on February 20 and won't get back until about April 7. Alas, I'll miss the great early season fervor of the breaking weather and riding and I won't get to do the Cohutta 100 as planned, but I'd rather go on this trip than be wrapped up in one thing in life. That said, the next two weeks are filling up quickly with logistics and packing and shopping and trying not to panic. I was okay yesterday, but today I'm a little freaked. There's much to do and most folks plan trips like this over the course of months. Fortunately, all the travel arrangements are being made by my company....WHEW!

It should be a nice trip, actually, that I'm looking forward to. I have a great confidence that the Lord has opened this door and I'm just trusting Him to take care of the details and of me. I'm comfortable with the protection level that we'll have from our security force and since we have folks there presently, it's not like I'm going in to this totally blind.

I'll try to post while I'm gone and maybe get some pictures up to make the reading more enjoyable. I'll see you at the Cohutta 100 race, but don't look for me to be riding, I'll see ya at the SAG stops =)

Thank you in advance for your prayers!

11-27-06
Thanksgiving Report

Like most, I look forward to the Thanksgiving holiday with all the eating and hanging around the table with my family. In recent years, a couple new traditions have developed for our Thanksgiving celebration:
1. The men go play golf on Thursday morning
2. I take my niece(s) for a mountain bike ride.

One is not neccessarliy as fun as the other. Golf, for example, is not my idea of a super fun time. I've played a grand total of 36 holes of golf in my entire life, both on Thanksgiving Day. Now, I don't mind the driving range and I don't really dislike the game of golf. I respect those who can play it well because I understand the difficulty of hitting that darn round ball and doing so with finesse. For most of the round, I was hitting the ball straight down the fairway. My tee shots were typically long and in the fairway, but my 2nd shots sucked! I almost always topped the ball and couldn't get under the thing, so although it would still go straight, it would only go about 20-50 yards. Then if I did get under it, I'd launch it past the green about 15 yards. My putts got better as the day progressed, but the greens were so fast, we might as well as been putting on plywood.

Taking my niece(s) for a mountain bike ride -- now THAT's fun! I have 3 nieces and a nephew who are all into different things. The oldest niece, Catie, loves riding her bike and I'll be darned if I won't support that! I started this new tradition last year by offering the choice of some present from a department store for her birthday or going out for a ride. She much prefers and anticipates our rides. This time, her sister, Becky (second oldest) wanted to tag along. So on Friday afternoon, off we went. Bikes loaded, brakes adjusted, Camelbak full. For Thanksgiving, our family usually hangs at my parent's house in Macon, GA. Now, I can't stand riding in Macon because the trails are only 4-5 mile loops and they're just neverending technical puzzles that afford no opportunity for the REAL fun of opening up the throttle and letting loose. I've gotten so spoiled with the mountains of North GA, TN and NC that I just don't like the trails in Macon. But my nieces, well, they don't know any better and a 4-5 mile loop is a good ride for them.

We rode for about an hour, but started by playing around on some dirt jumps that OMBA (Macon chapter of SORBA) has built in the field at the Thomson trails. You'll recognize that name, Thomson, because it's likely on your seatpost or handlebar stem! Interestingly, when I lived in Macon and was working for an industrial supply house after high school, LH Thomson Company was a customer of mine. When I discovered that they made these really sweet bike components, it was nice to have something to be proud of come from Macon! The dirt jumps were fun for the girls and I showed them how to roll over them. They kept wanting me to jump them, but given my last jumping incident that resulted in a titanium rod in my right arm, I played it safe and just gave them a quick bunny hop over a large log. That quieted the requests for jumps and off we went to the trailhead.

Here are some pictures from our ride:
1. Catie & Becky preride
2. Catie on the dirt jump
3. Becky on the dirt jump
4. Catie on trail
5. Becky post ride

10-31-06
Double Dare Report

The quick and dirty review: I raced with Kirstin Reff, adventure racer who was outta shape this time around -- bad girl! That's okay, she got her fair share of the big hurt. Truth be told, Kirstin's a tough rider who (for some reason) has taken the last couple of months off from mountain biking and has just been on her road bike. Great training, but not for Pisgah. Our game plan: enjoy the ride! Use this for training going into the winter months. I'm planning to do my first off road century in April and I just wanted two good days in Pisgah.

Day 1: Mandatory CP at Farlow Gap. We took off from White Pines and headed to Fish Hatchery where we picked up Cat Gap Loop (yes, we hiked it) and took that to Butter Gap. Butter Gap to Long Branch to Glouchester Gap to Farlow Gap. I was having chain issues and my only climbing gear was 2-1 so I was turning a 34-34. Not bad for the Farlow climb, but I had to fix that little problem before Day 2. We found out on the way up to Farlow Gap that there was a bear hunt in progress with dogs on the run. Since the informant didn't advise of any danger to us after having advised him of our potential route, we rode on not giving it another thought. Besides, we had a headwind up to Farlow that was our main concern at that moment.

Once at Farlow, we refueled the bodies and took off down FS140A. At the bottom, Kirstin took a swim in a little pool of VERY muddy water. That's what ya get when you don't stop in time! We gave a group of bear hunters something funny to break up their day. We found out that the bear was about 400 pounds and coming around the ridge not far behind us - now they tell us! After a brief attempt to get the CP at Courthouse Falls, we decided things were getting sketchy with hunters and bears and ensuing nightfall so we turned our trusty bikes towards FS 5003 back to Glouchester Gap. At the intersection of 140A and 5003, we picked up a dog that had been left and since we knew there were hunters on the other side of the ridge, where we were headed, we took the ol' boy with us, hoping to find one of the hunters rounding up their lost ones. We got to Glouchester and got ol' boy a ride home after which we turned our wheels towards White Pines. Downhill all the way!

Day 1 total: 3 CP's, ~40 miles and about 10 hours of riding.

Day 2: Up for the rider meeting and to get the passport for the day, then it was back to the tent to review the day in my head. Kirstin was a bit difficult to get stirring but I made the most of the morning by getting some hot oatmeal and stretching the legs a bit. We left camp about 9:40am with the plan to get the mandatory CP at Turkeypen Gap swinging bridge, while obtaining the CP at the intersection of Black Mtn trail with Turkeypen Gap trail on the way. This was not our best day at all, but we made the most of it.

Day 2 total: 2 CP's, ~25 miles and about 7 hours on the bike.

Here are the pictures: Day 1
Kirstin's handstand at Butter Gap


Me at Farlow Gap (finally)!


Kirstin, just after her swim in this muddle


Me at the intersection of FS 140A and FS 5003, on our way back to Glouchester Gap


Day 2 Photos

A couple from the intersection of Black Mtn Trail and Turkeypen Gap Trail



Here's the WaltWorks trailside on Turkeypen Gap Trail



And here we are at the swinging bridge near Turkeypen Gap. We were a little drained!


Again, a great weekend even if we weren't in the running. It was nice to meet Mike Brown and it was good to see folks like Brado, Zach, MUM, Peter, and Eric again.

Thanks again, Eric, for putting on a great race that is atypical and by far, not the norm! Each race of yours reminds me why I really got into mountain biking in the first place.

10-26-06

Tree Shaker 12 hour MTB challenge. Hmmm, that's what Neal Boyd called his new little race at Renaissance Park in Charlotte but while I rode the course over the 12 hour timeframe, I came up with a few other names:

12 Rooty Rounds of Reni
12 Hours of Root

I cannot remember the others now, but hopefully you get the picture: the course was pretty darn rooty! I had forgotten just how rooty the trails at Reni Park are. Did that take away from the fun? Nope! I had probably my best race ever this past weekend. My objective, as stated before, was to ride hard until I dropped. Secretly I wanted 100 miles. I wanted to spend more time riding this race than I have in the past. As you may know doing any one thing for 12 hours takes a lot of physical and mental effort. Think about your work day -- do you stay focused on work for 8 or 10 hours? Nope. Same applies to riding a bike. In the past, when I got to my rest stops, I would take more time than I really needed because I was fighting the mental battle. I’d think I need to give my body more rest when in actuality I really didn’t need to stop riding.

The course
Two loop configuration which I call the front 9 and back 9, each with about 4 miles of trail. The front 9 is tight and twisty with rolling terrain. The back 9 is more open and has better flow. The back 9 also has a couple good downhill runs and some nice jumps which break up the monotony. There are several bridges on the course but the Tarheel Trailblazers do a great job with ensuring that entry and exit from their bridges is straight and you don’t have to worry about sliding off because you enter the bridge on a turn (a lesson we could employ here in GA).

Results
SUCCESS! I rode hard – not flat out – and rode constantly. My stops were brief and limited to eating, drinking, and bike repairs. The race started at 9am and my early lap times were in the 45 minutes range. Everything was going well until I snapped a spoke at the beginning of lap 6. No real worries, just cut it off and went riding. Well, about ½ mile into the front 9, my chain snapped. Again, no worries because I carry a multi-tool which has a chain tool on it. I ran the bike out of that section where it would be safe to work on the bike while not impeding the progress of other riders. I got the chain fixed and took off on my ride. I didn’t get a mile before the chain snapped again. Well, at this point I decided anymore time spent trailside was wasted. I had a backup bike at my pit so I took off running with the now broken bike. Once at my pit, I transferred pedals from the Walt Works 29er to my 26” wheeled backup and took off.

Now, I’ve been riding big boy wheels (29”, aka 29er) since April and haven’t been on a 26” wheeled bike since. My friend Tucker helped me build up the backup 26er with some parts that I had laying around. The backup bike is a $120 Access frame from Supergo (before they merged with PBS) and the components are a mix of Race Face, SRAM X.0, X.9, American Classic, Ritchey carbon OS bar with WCS stem and Avid BB-5 disc brakes. When I got on this bike in a race situation, I didn’t know what to expect. I did expect it to be fast and twitchy – it delivered. However, the bike actually felt better than my custom Walt. Of course, that got my brain thinking about other things during the latter hours of the race and of changes that need to be made to the Walt. I digress….

Night was approaching as was the finishing time of 9pm. I stopped to ask the race director about when lights were required and when the last lap was and started to review my status vs. what I wanted. After my bike swap, I realized that I wouldn’t make 100 miles so I decided that I’d be happy with 80 (8 laps) but really wanted 12 laps (96 miles). When I was on my 10th lap, I came up on two other riders and we got to talking about the remaining time we had. I said something about wanting two more laps and they said I didn’t have time. They had understood they last lap time to mean that you had to be back at the finish by 8:30 (the established last lap time). I argued that 8:30pm was when we could START the last lap. I lost the battle and since the current time was 7:45pm, I told myself that 10 was my magic number for the race. I picked up the pace and decided finish strong since I wouldn’t be doing another lap. After I handed in my timing chip, I realized that I could go out for another lap because the last lap time of 8:30pm WAS, in fact, when you could start the lap.

By this time, it was too late but I was happy with 80 miles. I was sitting in 5th place and another lap wouldn’t have changed the results as 4th place was two laps up on me. I broke camp and hung out with friends while cheering other riders onto the finish.

A big congratulations to Peter Rajcani, who finished in 6th place, also with 10 laps. The Rank Riders showed up with two teams in the duo categories – one team in single speed (SS) and another geared. Fatboy and Slim (Mark and John) took 2nd in the Duo SS which is great considering Mark had only ridden a SS once before! My friend Bill snapped the Walt Works fork on his rigid SS and we spoke briefly about how well Walt would take care of him on the replacement.

This coming weekend is the Double Dare in Pisgah, NC. The forecast includes rain for Friday and chance of showers on Saturday. Highs in the upper 50’s with lows in the mid 30’s. The race format is 2-days with 12 hour time limits. Each team is two people that must stay together and we have a list of mandatory gear to carry. We’ll be given 10 checkpoints (CP) to locate each day with at least one mandatory CP each day. Saturday we’ll be riding noon to midnight then 6am to 6pm on Sunday.

Don’t forget the time change this weekend!