Next Epic: Limitless

The two weeks have been fantastic. FANTASTIC. In a lot of ways I felt like kid again. Although I had a lot of personal stuff to take care of, I set aside a good amount of time to play, and play I did. Here's what I've been up to over the past several weeks (lots of pics).

Before I get started, I have to mention that after a few days off of work I felt limitless. Did you see the movie? I had ridiculous amounts of energy that allowed me to play for part of the day and be responsible the the other part. It was great. Mine was done without the aid of a little pill however.

Limitless Trailer

I couldn't help but remember the beginning to my journey as I watched the trailer. I got slammed in the eye and stung by a bee my last week of work. I looked super awesome. this picture was before it turned black and only really shows the swelling.

My excuse for looking like this, I'm an engineer (who likes to ride his bike).

It all started with a trip to Roanoke. The wife had a girls weekend in Christiansburg and I was going up to Roanoke to pick up a new mountain bike I has in the works since April. All my bikes are typically black, so I went a little crazy with this build and went with purple and gold. I was really excited the way it turned out.

Purple Santa Cruz Tallby LT (TBLT)

Right after picking the bike up from the shop, I headed out to my favorite riding spot in Roanoke. North Mountain. This is the same trail I did the Dragon's Tale race on in April. This time however, I'd be riding up to the ridge from the other direction. Out of the parking lot I saw that the trail was extremely overgrown with briars and stinging nettle. I'd come to regret that later, but I had a nice ride on North Mountain. I didn't feel all that great on the climbs, so I held back a little and took the road back to my car knowing that I had another ride planned for later in the day.

The 2.2 miles up to Deer Trail killed me, but the descent was great and allowed me to test out the big suspension on the TBLT. I was a little tentative on the way down due to storms that took a lot of trees down, but I made it out without incident. EXCEPT for the fact that I got a tick on the ride that I didn't notice until dinner. I hate ticks.

I love going to Roanoke. Not only is it a great place to ride a bike (any kind of bike), but my kids also love to go. My in-laws live in South Roanoke, so it's an awesome location to get some decent road rides or even mountain bike rides out the door. The in-laws are great with the kids and a super accommodating by allowing me to sneak out for some rides. My wife's brother and his family also live in Blacksburg, so it's always a good time to get the cousins together as well.

Just before dinner one night, I snuck out for a ride on Mill Mountain. I can ride to these trails from there house and they are surprisingly good. Really good for bing right next to downtown Roanoke.

Junk Car Trail on Mill Mountain

It wasn't all about biking though. I had a great time at the park with the kiddos too. This park was at the Elementary School the wife went to as a kid.

The kids loved the tire swing.

On the turf with their cousin.

Afterwards, we went to 7-11 for some Slurpees. That certainly made me feel like a kid again!!!

After returning to Charlotte, I used Monday to get some personal stuff done. I needed to get my drug screening for the new job done and I had some weeding to do. I had just received a nasty gram from the homeowners assoc. that the weeds next to my mailbox were to the level of a warning. Sheesh. I went medieval on those weeds and then took it upon myself to paint the mailbox, cut some stencils, and re-paint the house numbers on the paper holder. Way more ambitious than I would get under full time employment. Limitless!.

The next day I headed to the Uwharries for another spin on the mountain bike. I intended to head up to Pisgah, but just wasn't feeling up to it. The Uwharrie trail system is much more forgiving if you're having a bad day. As it turned out, I hd a pretty good day on the bike.

Stopping for some fuel.

My eye finally healed! just in time for the new job!

In addition to the mailbox, the back part of my yard hasn't seen any work in 4-5 years. The tree in the picture below wasn't even visible. This work took be the better part of two days and consisted of me getting destroyed by mosquitos one night and attacked by fire ants the next day. Oh yeah, remember the stinging nettle from Roanoke? That destroyed my legs too. So for the record, stinging nettle, ticks, mosquitos, and now FIRE ANTS. I'm also super allergic to anything that itches so I was a real mess. As I write this days later, the itching is only now bearable.

Yard Project.

I also had a great breakfast with E at the Flying Biscuit after a ride on the Greenway. It so rare that we actually eat by ourselves quietly. It was great.

Biking with E on the Greenway.

After all that, and on a whim, we packed up and headed to Myrtle Beach for the weekend. The kids loved it.

A loving it.

L loving it.

T loving it.

This was a cool restaurant at Broadway at the Beach in Myrtle. We didn't go, but this looked like something that needed to be in Vegas. After 5 years in Hilton Head, which has nothing like this, we had a good time with the kids.

The girls enjoying their treat on the boardwalk.

Burying A int he sand. She loved it.

T Cannonballed for hours.

L rode the water slide a lot. So did I.

For my last hurrah, I drove up to Lak Norman for a ride on the trails there. I've been wanting to do that for years, so it seemed like the perfect opportunity. It was a perfect day ont he trails. Mid 70's for the entire ride. Nice.