Jesus got me sunny days for my birfday

Finally right. The downside is that I'm no longer 30, which means all those goals and ambitions of things to be done by 30 are now overdue. Just like flying cars and eating pills for dinner. The upside is you get sweet gifts. The girl knows my appreciation of all thingsso found me set of vintage whiskey tumblers and hi ball glasses (Matching...from two different places). My birthday card was a little bound book of classic cocktail recipes she collected from the Mad Men website. Good girl.
I also got a sunny ride in with Chris Bennett. Sunny, but very sloppy. We road up Webb Cove again on cross bikes knowing that everything else high was still snowy. Webb had cleared from my previous outing, but was now the consistency of grout, or if unfamiliar with grout, think peanut butter and sand-sandwich. What was supposed to be a "open the legs for mountain biking tomorrow ride" turned into a chase game, that I, admittedly, started. Short and sweet and lots of power. Riding from the new house allows me a really nice flat roll out, and obviously, flat spin out at the end of the ride. No more rolling hills of Leicester all the way to the front door.

Sunday came the much anticipated mountain bike ride. No one had been in the woods with any great success in months. We were a group of 8 with no agenda other than to ride for 4 hours and explore some trails in SC that I had never been on.
Our ride "leader" was Zach, though he'd later leave us in the woods in favor of attending the Nina Simone statue dedication in Tryon. Priorities. Here we have a sign pointing out a trail named High and Dry, the latter being succinct description of the trail conditions. The former being a succinct description of our ride leaders. The first part of the day was rooty, twisty, state parky kind of trails. Stuff we aren't used to up here in the more northerly of the two Carolinas. It does serve a purpose though, more power. Our allegedly leisurely group took off at XC pace, and other than a few wait for lagger stops, maintained it most of the day. We covered the south side of the park, and got stuck with just a little pavement that went by quickly. At this point Zach, Dave and Cissy had to bail, and we were left in the hands of Jay, who had been here once or twice. Time to take a picture of the map. Time to take a picture of the map with Jay's hand blocking all the vital trail intersections. Another two hours of riding got us back to the car. My legs were shot. Four hours in the woods is a lot more than we've had recently. It was good to get out, and as I type, I'm getting later and later to pick up friends to head back today.