The trip started on Thursday. I went to pick K up, and as we were loading up his stuff, I realized I forgot my camelback. Thankfully, Kirk lives about 5 miles away. So back to my place to get my camelback.
The plan was to hit up Jacobsburg State Park for a nice ride, and then head to French Creek. We got to J-burg and as we were getting ready to ride, asshat (Kirk) forgot his helmet. Soooooooo back to Kirks to get his helmet. After getting asshats helmet, we decide to head to Jordan to do a little ride. Was a nice morning and asshat had never been there.
After a quick tour, we began our trip to French Creek. However we needed to make a quick stop at South Mountain Cycles to pick up my sweet new Fizik saddle for the Bullit.
We continued down Rt 100 in PA, and stopped at Longacre's Dairy Bar. I had a chocolate milkshake and Kirk had two scoops of ice cream. We were then back on the road!
After about another 20 mins we finally arrived at French Creek. We get our camp set up and went out for another ride though. I am in the green tent, yes its huge, and I have and Aerobed air mattress as well. I have paid my dues backpacking all these years, so when I can, I go all out for comfort.
So for the ride, we were able to pick up the Green trail right near our campsite. We we able to hook up to the Blue trail and then the Yellow trail. True to French Creek, the Green and Blue trails were a rock filled fest. Poor Kirk, kinda new to the sport and I lead his down this stuff. He said he was getting thrown around a bit, but overall he had a great time.After the ride, we cleaned up and headed to Red Lobster for the Unlimited Shrimp. The first batch they give you has about 15-20 shrimp. Each addition has 10. On a busy night I would think this would take forever, but being it was Thursday night, we got our refills quite fast.
After Red Lobster, we hung out at the mall for a bit like a couple high school kids. While there I was able to get my hands on the Optimus Prime Christmas Ornament.
The next morning was going to be a fun filled day of riding........or it was to be. We hit breakfast at McDonalds for some hotcake goodness. Coming back to camp, I decided I wanted to let breakfast settle, so I was going to read for a little. Two hours later as I awoke from my nap, i found that Kirk had taken a little nap in his tent too.After getting ready, we headed in the car with no particular destination. After being led astray by the GPS, we finally found ourselves at the Sly Fox Brew Pub. Interesting Place. It was 3:00pm, but the pub was dead, with the exception of the really, really short chain smoker girl. We each had one beer, and in that time, this girl had to have smoked at least six cigarettes. The beer was ok at best, nothing to write home about.
It was now onto Zerns Farmers/Flea Market. It was your typical Framers Market. Lots of food and others peoples junk. However this would be the spot of the most entertaining people watching event I have been to in a while. Every Friday night there is Auto Auction. This first car that was up for auction was a 94 Accra. It went for about $900.00. However the guy who was in charge was the true entertainment. No matter what the going price was, he was always screaming "COME ON! IT'S A NICE CAR! RUNS GREAT!" He seemed to be insulted that these donated junkers were not fetching top dollar. Never the less he gave us some vocab that we will be using for a long long time.
After Zerns, we headed to Applebees for some food and drink. Kirk and I decided to split a trio special they had. I was going to make a comment to the bartending about Kirk and I coming out of the closet, and splitting a meal, but I didn't, which was a good thing, turning out the bartender was gay. I would have never saw that coming.
K and I actually had a blast at Applebees. Turns we sat right between two groups of regulars. Some good conversation was had, we got a couple free shots, and when the bartender found out I was a married man, he shifted his attention to Kirk, all in good fun of course!
We started to head home, but first we made a stop at wal-mart for a little Guitar Hero competition. Needless to say, Kirk whipped my ass. He is a video game geek.
Its funny, I surf the mt bike message boards, and I see all these post about great rides people go on. They are super stoked because the trail was great, or it was a nice day. They throw out the comment "This is why I ride." I found out this weekend why I ride. I ride because it gives me a chance to get away with people I care about. It takes me to new destinations, introduces me to new people, and new cultures. It took me a day of not riding my bike to realize why I ride. This is truly why I ride.
