The Mongolia Chronicles

Dawn to Dusk

Young and old. Warm and cold. Hungover (FLINDER!) or at dawn - Quinn was up at 6:10 because he wanted to RIDE HIS BIKE. So, the simple message. RIDE YOUR BIKE. Early. Late. Often. In clothes. In the nude. Sober. Whenever.........Good thing it's a long weekend. Long live - long rides.

Who's Skiddin' Up The TK?

Is it RE? R? A new rider on this remote stretch of path?

Dad

That's Dear (young) Dad. My original Hero. Age 36. Having just won the platform tennis nationals while his obnoxious children sat in the stands heckling Howard Cosell's hair (toupee - as it were) and yelling obscene things at Dad's opponents. I can remember that jacket he has on, I can remember a lot of little things about that time. I recall worshipping Dad, as I still do, just in  amuch more humane way now. I remember they used to say that "Kingsbury rarely leaves the court unscathed". I'd like to think I operate like that a bit as well. Leaving life unscathed would be - as Anthony Keidis put it to Canoe - before trying to beat him up in the beach showers: A total waste of time.

Did Someone say "Air"?

We adults had our time out there today. Some 5 hours on the 'links' as it were. In the meantime, Tomac Jr was shralping the gnar and stepping up like we have never seen before. Go Q, go. Learn it now. I didn't learn to jump in flats until I was 46. I like the idea of getting it dialed 4 decades earlier.

One. Two. Three.

Rode my first teeter totter on a bike in my early thirties. Some 18 years ago. Dude red-pointed this. Shenna used to say - build stuff you can't ride today. I guess I gotta step it up.

Un-lock(e)ing The Tolle Road

Pretty cool to have The KL (as in non-memorial bridge) back in the hood for a few. Even better to take him out on a ton of stuff he had never seen. Wet morning. Cool. Lovely. Feels like Fall. Hosting some legends at the house tonight. Life is grand. 

Some days it is all about the bike.....

The bike inspires. Actually, it's not the inert object with two wheels that is the most efficient transportation on earth. It serves simply as a connection point between all of us, a means to express joy and freedom and sun and creativity and friendship. From the ride Monday nite with my neighbor (who by the way is cranking into his 60's on tight, technical singletrack - GO JIM) to the dark departure this am to ride trails to the Valmont Bike Park to work on Project X. Concieved and created in the back of a van. I could think of no better place. Go. Team. Tomorrow.

It didn't feel right not to swing

Great scene in the alien invasion Mel Gibson film (bad mel) when I think it is Joaquin Pheonix takes out an alien with a baseball bat. He has absolutely zero chance of success. The Alien will likely eat his face momemnts after he swings. Yet, swing he does, with all his might. He triumphs. And after all is said and done, he says the above line. He was famous as a kid for striking out and swinging at wild pitches. But every now and then, he would nail one out past the lights. This is how he took down the alien. With this attitude.

We are not here to sit idle. We are not here to coast. We are not here to hide behind other folks' successes and wins. We are here to make our own fucking way. For better or for worse. In triumph and in failure. Sickness and health. All that. If we don't make the effort, we can't win. Gretzky said it best: I missed 100% of the shots I didn't take. Take the shot. There is nothing left to lose.

Six on Six

Go Dubba, Go