Solo trip to Ray's Dec 27th 2008

I drove from Deb's parents again on Christmas visit. I left the house around 5:30 in rain. It occassionally turned into a blinding downpour. A little before 6, the driver's side windshield washer fell off the arm. I made it to a gas station and re-attached it under the light of the canopy. That lasted for about an hour. I did the same again and that lasted until Cleveland. Along the way, I stopped at one truck stop to shop for a wiper blade, but no joy. I had a egg mcmuffin in Cleveland and bought a $18 summer wiper blade - I couldn't find winter blades the right size. The gg mcmuffin was an attempt to have sufficient calories in me when I started to ride. I ended up at Ray's about 9:15.

Bought 2 Gatorades and started at the pump track. In 10 minutes, I was wrecked. The nutritional strategy was not a success. Also, I'm not fit enough to warm-up on the pump track. I got that from Shaums. (who is fit enough to use the pump track for a warm-up). Next time, I warm-up in the sport section.

It was dreary weather when I went in. It was 67 and sunny when I left. Definitely t-shirt weather inside, not long sleeves.

I forgot my padlock, so I left everything in the car except the key, which I left in my gym bag.

There was a guy who took 3 tries to get a rental that didn't have the seat post clamp borken. So maybe then rentals aren't in great shape. He ended up on a Three57.

There were 2 kids on electric motorcycles. I talked with the dad who said that his 5 yr old races motocross and this is how he trains in the winter. Ray lets him ride there when it's empty. I watched him onthe expert jumps, which he sky-ed to a flat landing on the table top. The dad says that the kid rides all the lines in the sport section on the motor cycle. Around 11, he switched to a bmx bike.

The expert section was pretty empty all day. That's because the jump line has it's own start. The pump track got busy in waves. It'd be empty, then fill up. The sport section got the same way by 10. The beginner section also got busy in waves. I got the log skinny 3 times in a row.

By 11 or 11:30, I was exhausted. I was doing fine on the baby rhythms, cleaning them all earlier. And then I couldn't get the front of the bike in the air. Once I got that tired, I never recovered.

I did the littlest of the expert drops once, I just rode off it. It's small enough now to do that instead of dropping. So are the bigger ones, the gap is filled with logs, so you can just roll off.

I totally rocked the pump track. I'm starting to get a little tiny bit of air on the bumps. When that happens, I get confused. I cased the tabletop once. I also have the 180 berm completely dialed. I need to get a picture of me on that when we go back next time. I didn't see many people on the intermediate rhythms. I didn't ride them.

There were 2 guys on unicycles. Father and son. The kid was college age. They rode everything, but fell everytime on the drops.

Other cool things I saw:

• 2 guys doing trials on the beginner skinnies. They leapt sideways from one line to the other on their back wheels.
• Big air. Lots of big air.
• I never noticed, but lots of the bmxers don't have brakes. They just drag a sneaker.
• In the subaru bowl, ice picks and nose picks on the spine. But they don't have any brakes. That's awesome balance.

I left about 12:30 or 12:40, stopped twice and got back at 4:10.

Fun things I didn't buy:

• Colored chains
• 5.10's ($90 is a good price)
• Colored pedals

Took a nap when I got home.