Dare

I stopped at the New York Dawg Pound for a bite on the way to the Trek ride. I don't do this ride as much these days, by the time I ride to work and back from Corinna's, I've got 27 miles, give or take, and that 4:45 a.m. alarm has a way of going off before five o'clock in the morning so I can do it again.

When I do the Trek ride, it's close to a 50 mile day, usually, and that's on top of a full work day and trying to get enough sleep to be worth two shits when that 4:45 alarm starts doing its thing.

I love the Dawg Pound, though you have to be careful, their menu is structured to extract maximum revenue and apply maximum calories to the customer. Their combo deals are, in my opinion, for couples rather than individuals, and I mean couples who might be riding 30 to 50 miles on a bicycle that day.

But stick to one dawg, no sides or drinks, and you can have a calorie bomb that would end some humanitarian crises for under four bucks, tax included.

And it's quality calories. I guess Johnny Dare is friends with one of the owners, hence the charming mural.

I hadn't seen Roj in upwards of a year. Maybe since last Bike MS, I'm not sure. He broke his collarbone a few weeks before RAGBRAI this year and then stunned everyone by riding across Iowa anyway.

Which I figured either meant he was my hero or a moron. Or both.

"The doctor said I could go on a bike ride, just don't fall down," he explained. "I didn't tell him it was RAGBRAI."

Between his biff and RAGBRAI, Mongoose called him wanting to send him something to help with RAGBRAI. He thought it might be a jersey or something, but it was one of twelve prototypes of an upsized BMX they're going to start selling next year.

It's the bike he'd want if he was going to get another bike he said: his old bike on growth hormones. It's a single speed, though not a fixie.

The guy who showed to sweep the Trek ride was the guy who lead it when I first tried it out. He looked at my bike and asked, "So, is there anything you haven't upgraded?"

Derailleurs, crankset, the whole groupo thing, that's about it. Even have a Long Haul Trucker frameset waiting for me to get that other stuff together and then I can move the meaningful upgrades from the Diamondback to it and christen a new Foolkiller.

Anyway, it was a late night but worth it to see Roj and Jill (and Sarah and Aaron and so on) and still get to ride back to the Dotte with Corinna.