Bayou of Pigs

Mileage: 556
Days: 58
Remaining: 32
Average Daily Mileage: 9.6

Uh-oh, I've fallen behind. Over my four-day Memorial Day weekend I went out to northwest Texas with some colleagues from work. Blog post to follow. Today was my first ride since last Wednesday -- by far my longest ride hiatus in the Thousand Mile Challenge. I now need to average about 15 miles per day to reach my mileage goal. No snakes sighted on my ride today, but I did see three deer, three armadillos and a number of spiders. When you can see spiders from your bike at 18 mph, that's a bad sign. Two weeks ago was pig day in the bayou -- I saw about twenty pigs on one ride, including two that lumbered across the path in front of me after paralleling me for about 500 feet -- a bit scary. A mile later I saw Mr. and Mrs. Pig with family -- a bunch of adolescent pigs. All the kid-pigs ran off into the woods while Mr. Pig held his ground and snort/oinked menacingly at me as I breezed past.

I've given up on a new bike at the end -- in part because my Tucson house is reverting to caretaker status. That means much less free cash to work with. Even if I had the extra money, I'd likely divert it to paying off my short-term debts. This is a new obsession of mine, and I long to be "short-term" debt-free which means nothing but a mortgage and student loan. No car payment, no credit card debt, no money owed to parents... and I'm very nearly there. If I could sell my pesky house in Tucson I'd instantly be there.

My second paper was accepted today in final form, and will be appearing sometime soonish in American Mineralogist, after I review the proofs and polish up the final figures. Then it's on to paper #3. I wonder if I can summon the gumption to write that one up. All things pyroxene are slipping from my mind.

On the West Texas trip I read most of Bill Bryson's The Lost Continent. Rediscovering this book was fun, and it had me laughing out loud at times. However after a while I got frustrated with the way Bryson dismisses huge chunks of America without ever leaving his car. Yeah, lots of places look dumpy from the road... to discover the real nature of a place you need to leave the car and the roads and hike at least a few miles. Jump around in a canyon, climb up on some rocks. Before TLC I tried The Pearl Diver on CD and couldn't get into it. Not recommended. A colleague on the West Texas trip recommended Worst Hard Time, which is next on my list.

Humidity Spectrum

Mileage: 446
Days: 44
Remaining: 46
Average Daily Mileage: 10.1

I've fallen behind. Today I rode out to the parking lot by the shooting range. No wildlife to be seen. The last two days I was in west Texas on a well site. Returned this morning, much too early for my taste. It was hot out there, around 95. Tuesday afternoon a bunch of desert thunderclouds began to whip up, dotting the sky. So different from Tucson but from the group up it was familiar -- and I mean both the sky and the run-down and dirty city. Midland-Odessa is not shining city on a hill (but I like the place). I got my Rosa's Cafe fix -- gotta have #55, the sour cream enchiladas, although if you're hungry you'll need a second helping.

I like to drive through oil country. Strong-smelling wafts of hydrogen sulfide. Pumping units dot the landscape, some nodding and some deep asleep or decrepit. The well we were on is about 6600' deep, over a mile. I had a map of the oilfield so I'd pick out a well a mile away -- that's pretty far away -- and imagine the hole in the ground at my feet going down that far, and then some. And 6600' is not a deep well nowadays -- it's quite average.

The light is different in the desert. It's brighter, yes, but it's whiter too. It brings out contrasts. The desert light seems clean and well-scrubbed.

Back in Houston, here are some office views outta my office windder:

Middle Ring Sandbag Contest

Mileage: 388
Days: 35
Remaining: 55
Average Daily Mileage: 11.1

This weekend I raced in GHORBA's "Big Ring Challenge" at Double Lake. I wasn't ever in my big ring. It was my first race in 11 years. Debi and Mary came along, lured by promises of paddling around the lake in a canoe. That didn't happen, but they hung out and did their best to become bike hippie-groupies. Here I am at the start line. I wore a normalish shirt (light blue) since I think bike jerseys look horrible.

The race was two laps of an 8-mile course. I raced men's beginner 30-39. It turned out that the most important part of the race was done on the computer. Those who pre-registered got to line up in the order in which they registered. Those poor slobs (like me) who registered same-day got to line up behind them. The first 700 feet were on pavement where you could in theory sprint for position. In reality there were 38 riders starting in my group so we mostly just tried to avoid hitting each other. Once on the trail it was like a giant paceline. I just ate the dust from the guy in front of me for 4-5 miles. It was a slowish pace, but I could see about 20 riders ahead of me so I wasn't in a hurry to pass. The trail was tight and there were few passing opportunities for the casual racer. After about 5 miles people began to spread out and faster riders began to come up from behind. Finally I finished my first lap, where I sprinted to pass two slower riders in the huge sand pit. They got bogged down but I shot right through (left).

The second lap was more fun. I followed some people, but it was much easier to pass and the course was less crowded. In the end I placed 19th out of 38. Not bad considering I've been riding for about 35 days!

Mary was convinced I had won the race. She told everyone I won, and I wasn't about to correct her. She was pretty heartbroken, though, when we didn't win a prize during the after-race raffle.