MS Tour 2010 pictures. click to enlarge

Last Long Ride before MS

Rode 15 Friday night, had to work Saturday so I couldn't stay out late. Saturday worked till 3,

got home at 3:20 , changed, geared up, left the house about 4:10 Pm. Took the long levee ride to the other end of St Charles parish, came back to Audubon Park , it was dark by then.

No pictures , just riding , concentrated, steadfast, intense, endorphins bouncing around like laser beams, at about 50 miles it came over me like a chill, I was there, nirvana, life is good, life is high, nothing mattered but that moment, the moon was full , a line of clouds shadowed the front of it ,it reflected the lenght of the river, what a beautiful sight to be alive to see. Did I really see it really or did I see it but not really. What's real and imagined in my life melds with the music, the meds, the endorphin high, gives me a distorted, interesting, off beat, view of life, I usually conceal it from most people because of the difficulty making an empty coke bottle understand the Pythagorean theorem , I don't understand it myself , I just have to live it , It keeps me looking inward then outward. While riding down St Charles all the college students were lined up at the grills for their Saturday night dates, smelled good, the grills, about that time the Beatles were playing "A Day In The Life" part of the McCarthy is dead myth, it's well recorded, a little psychedelic long and deep. Every song reminds me of something, in 1970, living in a one room apartment with Marie off Post in Alaska with 10 other MP's, (we were all close), Marie was visiting one of the other wives for chit chat, friend Larry came over, we did a little Boones Farm Tickle Pink, enhanced, and decided to listen to some music. Larry got his Acoustic Research AR3A's I took my Pioneer 727 out the box and opened the Garrard turntable , we hooked it all up and like true music lovers sat the speakers (3ft tall) on kitchen chairs right in front of us,

we sat on the other 2 kitchen chairs, opposite the speakers, we started with some Jethro Tull, then a little Hendrix War Hero's , then it was Beatle time. we spun "A Day In the Life" , volume range 10, our hair was flying back , the front two legs on my chair were lifting off the ground,

we were there live and on the stage. Suddenly I tell Larry, Paul McCarthy''s spit is passing the mike and hitting me on the arm. Larry said that's impossible McCarthy plays on the left not the right, we swapped places , then Larry says to me , your right but it's not Paul ,it's John ,

I reached over the counter behind us and pulled off a paper towel , we wiped our arms dry and continued on. Things aren't always what they seem to be, sometimes their more.

You have to open up and give it a chance to reach you. Sometimes your in love and don't know it, sometimes you think your in love and your just infactuated, or as Hendrix says in his song "is this Love or Confusion". He also says "Manic Depression is a frustrating Mess", Here!,Here!

He doesn't say anything about OCD or AADD. Guess he died before those came out.

That's how the ride was, I could feel McCarthy''s spit it was so real. That's focus, that's intensity,

that's lunacy, that's a great feeling. I'm almost sixty years old, I"m gonna feel good every chance I get and by next Sunday evening I'm gonna feel like Lance Armstrong. Sure I won't win but that's not my goal, my goal is to finish without help , all the way. I don't concern myself with other riders, fast or slow, I row my own boat, ride my own race and I decide if I'm a winner or not. I'm ready , I'll have plenty pictures, and a blow by blow of the MS Tour 2010.......

Wound up doing 75 miles Sat night , got home at 11:30 pm.

later

Gary

PS - yes , I'll die trying if necessay.

Sometimes you just have to get up and dance.

Friday night did 35, Saturday did 70 and Sunday did 25, that's a 150 miles weekend, ready for the MS tour , actually I'm 2 weeks early, peaked too soon, have to keep riding.. Putting bike in shop next week for tune up , new brakes, tires, tubes, cleaning, lubing, and setting,.
Friday night was nice, cigar man was out, still the hordes of light bugs filled my nose mouth, ears, and any open orifice they could get to , one of those giant crickets hit me in the arm , I thought I was going over, it hurt, big black ugly thing, I could of lit a fire and fed a few people with him.
Put 18 new songs on my MP3 player, picked up come classic Delbert McClinton, Chaka Khan, Green Day, 3 Doors Down and one Johnny Ace, what a combination . The City was quiet , Ball game over, still a few Minnesota Fans in town, Saturday morning they were showing their kids Bourbon Street. Saturday was hot , took almost 7 hours to do the 70 miles, drank over a gallon of sport drink, and a snowball, (cherry), at about hour 5 I was like a machine, my mind was in a far away place, somewhere normal people probably shouldn't go to , my legs just pumped like robots, no pain , no tiring, no issues, a little door on the top of my helmet opened up and my soul climbed out , set up a tiny little lawn chair and sat there watching the world as I rode through . Fascinating . We had a few issues , on Friday evening as I rode down Canal St on the Streetcar track ,the side facing coming cars so I can see them and they can't sneak up behind me, I was clear , one was coming from way off, I was gazing around and heard that familiar clang, clang, clang, I looked up in time to see a one eyed disaster coming at me, my first thought was, its a head on crash, try to miss the headlight so I don't get cut, my second thought was hard right and hope no streetcar is in the right lane, that worked, a close call like that makes me pay closer attention for at least 15 minutes then back to my non chalant what the hell attitude. Found some new places to pee but I'll keep them secret. Made a pass down Rampart , I worked and played a little there , most places have changed over the years, bums still linger but hey everybody needs a place to hang. The New Orleans Athletic Club now accepts women, I wonder if they have to swim naked in the artisian pool like we did, but then they probably don't have the spectators we young boys had . Took a picture without my helmet so everyone can admire my bald head, plenty of stress, hard work, and few bad genes, but it's ok, no more Brylcream, hair spray, Vitalis, making sure I have a comb when I leave home, no touch ups when the wind blows, no 30 dollar California Concept hair cuts, it's a good thing.
I received an e-mail from the Security Department at Audubon Park, seems someone reported a bear escaped from the zoo and was dancing at Shelter 3 , they turned on their security cameras and caught me doing the Valium boogie, they found me through my bike shop, they have my e mail, the Park sent me the security video, they asked that I not do it again , Saturday morning they found 27 dead squirrels in the area, they think some saw me and lost their sight and fell to their death, and some just jumped in a suicide rage to end the misery. Damm, I don't remember if it was Mary Wells singing "Beat me to the Punch, Eminem rapping "Without Me" or Tab Benoit doing "I'm Guilty of Loving you", but sometimes you just have to get up and dance, grant you it is a sight that will teach kids not to take medication with out a doctors supervision, or risk flashbacks from 72.
Enjoy the Music, Enjoy life, don't be ashamed to live, if it feels good do it twice.
live on the edge and out the box. Its risky , its also an adrenalin high.
Later
gary.

click on the pics to enlarge, 2 videos at the end.

The Long Hot Summer without Paul Newman or Don Johnson

The last few weeks I've managed 35 or 40 on Friday Night and a hot 60 on Saturday, This last weekend I had to work Saturday so I was limited to 40 and 40. I'm registered for the MS Tour, have my first donation and my motel room reservation, will put my bike in the shop in a couple of weeks for a check up , new tires, pedals brakes, chain and gears. I'll try to build up to a peak of 60 and 60, comfortably. I'll be assured of having a good time and not struggling to ride the tour. The scenery is great, the other riders, the hills(ugh!), the smells of country living. All good clean stuff, plenty road kill to admire , rows of Porta Pottys, Dairy Farms stench of manure, I'm excited and looking forward to it. These last couple of weeks the heat has been the predominate factor in any outside activity, on a bike while your moving there's a breeze made yourself , you still sweat but its evaporated right away and your biking apparel promotes this. Sooner or later you have to stop and it's similar to climbing into a browning bag that the turkey has been in for 4 hours and joining him , just lay in those onion and potatoes and cook. Suddenly sweat just appears all over your body, the heat comes up off the cement and envelopes you . Hurry up and eat, drink, tinkle and get moving again. It was so hot Saturday my hair fell out. The heat does things to your brain, I think the fluids in the brain start to boil and the serotonin and endorphins stick to the cell walls instead of bouncing back and forth, you get stinking thinking, you imagine things, or not, I rode along the levee headed to Audubon park and a young man pulled alongside me, he had an old red bike with balloon tires, no fenders, wooden pedals, wide handle bars, he had his right blue jean pant leg rolled up to keep it out of the chain, his T-shirt was mostly dirty and anything printed on it was indishtingishable, his black high top tennis were pumping hard .. I turned to face him and he did the same after knocking the ashes off his Winston , I looked him in the eye and he was me. Wow! , this is interesting !. He pulled away from me and I was relieved and gave no chase. I got to ride this Friday night , did 40 , Saturday was a washout , it rained all day, all I could do was wish I was riding. I spent about $20 on I tunes buying some blues, but it was money wasted I already had the blues, nothing Buddy Guy could do for me today.
Bought a Dilbert McClinton song that hit me right in the heart, "I never lost you, you were never mine" what a soul finder. He sings " I'll have you till the end of time ", "when I hold you in my dreams", "cause you were never mine". Patty Loveless sings "You'll never leave Harlan Alive",
I've never even been to Kentucky, but the song has soul, blues, you can feel the pain she sings about the coal miners. I've already asked that when I lay in that coffin that I have my MP 3 player attached and on, I have to hear music eternally, it keeps me alive now, I can't survive death without it . Death, the only thing in life I haven't experienced yet, I know in my heart it's terminally climatic, I just want to take "3 Doors Down" with me. Bury me in a Pyramid along with my servants, pets, bicycle, MP3 player, some urns of fragrance,, food and water for the journey. Just another journey, maybe. Back to biking, less morbid type, rode fast last night, good legs, the weather should break tomorrow, after church I'll hit the street hard. Hope full when I'm on the river levee I'll see Andy and Opie fishing on the bank of the River and I'll know I'm back in gary's psycho world where I belong. The last picture is a video of a walk down Bourbon , ran over some railroad tracks and took a spill , usual blood and guts, Pics of a halo in the sky, probably an omen, and some sunsets at the lake.
Done for now.

It's the Heat.

Last weekend and this weekend were relatively related. Fri night was 35 miles each week, last week Sat was 60 miles and this week was 65, did 10 Sunday to ice the cake. It was hot , I stayed hydrated, plenty Gatorade, Propel, Water, ice in my Camelpak. Anything that empties gets filled up at Audubon Park. The Levee is sunny and hot but Audubon Park, St Charles Ave, Uptown are all well canopied by Oak trees, The Quarter is cool because all the open doors to clubs air condition the street. They pump out beer stench , cocktail aromas, flowery cheap perfume, old spice cologne mixed with sweat, cigar and cigarette stale, and the ever popular "I've been drunk for two days body smell mixed with dried vomit. Friday nights are no problem but Saturdays are in the heat of the day, full sun, plenty gamma rays. This last Friday night I hit a thunderstorm, lightening popped all around me but I kept moving. I sought shelter behind an oak tree on canal street, didn't help, found a parking garage to hide under till the lightening slowed down to an occasional flash.. My new motto is " suicide by life" .. Hey, it's not "Splendor in the Grass " but I like it. 10:pm on Canal st in Mid city is a lonely place, keep my eyes peeled, don't stop for anything , unless I want to . Who am I kidding, I stop in Audubon and City parks at night , just part of the furniture, not out of place. It was almost dark Friday and I was speeding down the levee toward the park , I was in the Harahan area, on the right about a half mile down I saw something brownish strolling toward the woods, must be a man in brown clothes walking toward the batture, I got a little closer and I smelled a horrific odor, it was a cross between a wet dog, and a dried fish . I sped up as it approached the edge of the woods to get a good look and pull out my camera, it all became clear , it was just another Big Foot sighting . Those things are all over the place. I did get a picture of it's opening where it went into the woods, brown, tall,, walks like man, big arms, yells a lot, not unlike a gentleman I work with. I'm sorry I confused the smell , it was cigar man sitting on the side of the levee smoking his fat nasty cigars, in his white shirt , suspenders , gray slacks, puffing like a laboratory test monkey. He wears headphones but I swear I saw smoke coming out his ears. He's probably listening to "smoke gets in your eyes" by the "Platters". On Bourbon street a cop told me to walk or get off the street so I told him to take my picture and I'll leave when I'm ready, he agreed. HaHa. On Saturday,laden with drinks and still needed a snow ball at Audubon park to lower my core temperature. There's only one flavor of snowball, "cherry". anything else is uncivilized. I keep checking my legs for clamminess, once they were a little dry and clammy so I stopped and pumped down some gatorade and rested under a shady tree at St Charles and Louisiana, if you want to see the other side of life hang out there a while. City park was low on people but the lakefront was heavy. I rode around the quarter a while and enjoyed the sights, it's not as good as Walmart but there's plenty to look at. Notice how I'm jumping around ,that's how my mind was when I was riding, the heat had my brain juices boiling and those synapses were popping back and forth at record speed , my serotonin uptake was outrageous, I had high speed AADD. (Adult Attention Deficit Disorder) or ( Adult Ain't Dealing a full Deck). It' s all part of "Suicide by Life" the book s in the works.. I passed Dauphine and Ursurline and on the corner is the "Good Friends Bar". Their all good friends too. The next 2 corners held 2 of my old hangouts, I worked on Rampart and Ursuline, one was "The Roach" and the other was "Cosmos Factory", both reputable french quarter bars, hole in walls loaded with bums, hippies, drug heads, hookers, undercover cops, drunkards, and me. I'd have one drink, breathe the air and laugh a lot . One drink was all I could stay in there for. When it was time to relax I stopped at Gazebo's on Harrison Ave. Poppa Pizza was next door so we had Vodka Sours , Ground meat and onion Pizza, it was there we watched man land on the moon in 69. I barely remember the bar maid, I think she was Sue, 23 years old, had a 3 year daughter and lived in the Quarter, blonde hair , blue eyes, big smile. She shopped at the store I worked at and lived around the corner. Just think next year I'll be 18 and be able to do all this legally.. I'd get home about 11;00 or 1200 every night and did my homework in homeroom. Who didn't , oh those with good grades didn't. My Mp3 is playing "you got me going in circles" that was B6 on Frostop Juke box. Neither is there, but the song brings me back, the smells of greasy burgers sizzling on the grill, the fake orange juice, and weak root beer , the fries were great, clean your own table , sure to be some Sacred Heart girls there to flirt with. At the Natchez launch they've put water hoses in front of the fans , blowing a cool mist across the shelter, I caught some of that action. on a break, have a picture of that contraption , also have a pic of Royal Street by the Old Courthouse were we gathered for night parades and other stuff, we traveled in groups of 5 to 10 , kids from the neighborhood, kids from school, we were packed on the sidewalk in our trench coats with honeys at our side, the flambeaus swung by, you had to duck or your hair would catch fire. Floats were 2 feet away from you. A parade at night on Royal street was not what you get on Veterans during the day and if you got home early enough you could check channel 6 to see if you made it on TV. I'm listening to a blues guitar /vocal song by "Joanne Shaw Taylor" called "Blackest Day" from her album "White Sugar". She's not Lucinda Williams calibre yet but very close. She wants her heart back that she gave to her lover. It's the heat, the heat, the heat, it boils the fluids in your brain, makes me think funnier than I usually do. I can envision that Serotonin flashing across those synapses and banging into the back wall of my brain cells then bouncing back. It's called re uptake. phenomenal, the brain, just a bag of fluid and cells filled with chemicals taking direction from nothing and no one. We can use our brains but we can't control them, it can take a tangent anytime it feels like it , a friend blew his brains out in his back yard last week for no apparent reason. Known him for years , happy , normal, nice guy, good father and husband. I say it again "suicide by life". the books coming. We're in a rain spell right now , probably won't ride as much till this weekend, then get at it. One of my lifes dreams is to be a Barker on Bourbon Street. I want to wear a red suit, red stovepipe hat, red leather shoes and a big clock like Flava Flav, sunglasses in the dark and white gloves. What's all this got to do with bike riding, it's what I think about while I'm riding. First a Chupacabra, now Big foot, next week maybe Godzilla or the 50 foot woman. My bike's dirty, need to clean it and make some adjustments , lube it up , Archie Bell and the Trells ,now that's some Grammy winning stuff. Hey do the tighten up . I head to the Lee Shore. If you see me on the levee, throw a rock at me and I'll wave at you with one finger affectionately.

later

gary

ps. if you didn't read last weeks , go back it's a good one.