Friday, August 18, 2006

65 miles. 8000 feet of climbing.

so today was a fun day. we left our apartment around 8:30am. up winkler's creek rd. russ cornett pkwy. first big climb of the day. poplar grove rd. shull's mill rd to nc-105. left to clark's creek rd. up and over clark's creek into valle crucis. second big climb of the day. left on nc-194 to banner elk. third big climb of the day. left onto nc-184. we stop for coffee and a paradise bar. mmm. right onto hickory nut gap rd. fourth big climb. left onto some road. left again onto nc-181. right on old nc-181. left on land harbor pkwy. left on us-221. right on linville ave. right onto us-221. fifth big climb. left onto the blue ridge pkwy. we stop at linn cove visitor center. climb the pkwy. sixth big climb. descend the pkwy. take some rad pictures. up holloway mtn rd. left on us-221. blowing rock. left onto us-321. right onto the parkway. left onto flat top rd. seventh big climb. left onto deck hill rd. right onto state farm rd. right into my apartments parking lot. 65 miles. roughly 8000 feet of climbing.

ride time 4:44:27
maximum speed 48.1mph
avg speed 13.8
mileage 65.78
traintime (HRM) 4:48:55
avg HR 149bpm
max HR 180 bpm
kcal burned (approx.) 5627


quite the day. some pictures.





Tuesday, August 08, 2006

better days

so since my last post i've driven to georiga and back. i've gone to the first funeral for someone very close to me. that was very tough. my grandfather was in the military and so they did a 21 gun salute and played taps. the sounds coming from the trumpet were pretty much the beginning of my break-down. i don't think i still realized what was going on until that song started playing. my mother's whole family was there pretty much and seemed to be making the best of everything. at dinner the night before everyone was joyful. i thought they'd forgotten why we were all together. but anyways. that visit was not really the most enjoyable. i cried at various points on the drive down and on the drive home.

but "C'est la vie."

in other news, israel and lebanon are fighting. george W. is continuing to be goofy. alaskan BP shut down an oilfield in one of the greatest moves of all time. they realized they're making a mess and cut the operation. 400,000 barrells of oil a day are produced there. i know most american's are thinking why in the hell did they do that?? now gasoline prices are going up 5 cents per gallon!!!! oh, well. lets see. it currently costs me about $0.128 to drive a mile. so this unbelievable, unpatriotic, inconceivable act of shutting down the BP alaskan field raises my cost to a whopping $.13 to drive a mile. but i guess if you compared this to the fuel efficient SUV's of say, most of the people complaining... i guess it currently costs them $.24 and the increase in gas will take it to a huge increase at $.25 per mile. so basically, the increase in gas costs raises the cost of driving a mile by about a penny. i understand i penny is a big deal though when paying off the monthly payment of say, a Range Rover, or a Hummer, or Ford Excursion. Oh well. Who needs beautiful wildlife and forests and trees anyways. Lets make Oil. Ugh.

Go George!!