Meet The Parents

 I have trust issues, and it's not from finding fake snakes in my bed when I was a child. After I took a tumble off my Rocky I took it in to have it looked at. The stem and headset were loose which may or may not have contributed to me eating dirt the other day. I trust all them mechanics who work on it and one mentioned the bearings could have settled which caused the headset to go loose. It's been touch and go and I'm much more cautious on it now. With the Whiskey 50 this Saturday it's not the best predicament to be in. 
 

I know, the best.

Oh heyyyy!

I took a break from that bike this past weekend when I went up to my parents in South Dakota and brought my road bike. The first day I was there I headed up north to meet some friends but figured I would work some riding into it. I stopped by a shop to see where decent riding was as I wasn't familiar with that area on bike. They told me about a hill climb that starts right away and seemed to have gone on for miles. They weren't kidding when they said it started right away. Unfortunately it didn't last as long as I thought, 14 minutes, but I did stop by Dinosaur Park, made a couple of laps up and down and called it good. 

 

The next day I headed out on one of my go to rides. Unfortunately it's calving season for the

He's just a little guy!!

buffalo which means my mom is extra nervous. "If you see a baby on one side and the herd on the other, turn around don't try to mess with them." Okay, okay and gave her an estimate of when I would be back, but tacked on an extra half-hour for good measure. I lust for this route when I'm in Boulder with having to navigate traffic and never really feeling that far away (which is probably why I'm drawn to mountain biking more). Every time I ride up there though I can't help but yearn for trails outside of my parent's back door (maybe not that close). Especially when I'm wrestling with the internal dilemnia of riding vs. walking over all the cattle guards. Walking across possesses its own risks, my shoe falling off the ever so thin rail and jamming my leg down (a fear since I was a child), however riding can be impossible as well, if you don't carry enough speed through, the spaces are just far enough apart that I usually ride off feeling like a shaken baby. The ride finished with ample amount of climbing and me clamoring into the back of my sister's jeep as she came and got me when I finally lost the battle with the wind and didn't feel like getting gusted around like a Raggedy Ann Doll. 

 

And I got to see my favorite dog!

I probably should have been on my mountain bike, but figured if I was up there I would end up mostly on a road or gravel so it would have been a frivolous and frustrating undertaking. It was good to get some miles in while I was there because Sully and I are doing the Whiskey 50 this Saturday(!!!) in Prescott, AZ. I'm mildly worried because it seems to have snuck up on me and I don't feel that I'm in super great riding shape yet and I might embarrass myself by forgetting to ride a bike. But I survived meeting his parents so I can probably survive 50 miles on a mountain bike....