A Day at Yellow Creek

Another beautiful day in Indiana PA today. The weather was perfect and I have Mondays off so what to do. My son proclaimed it to be pajama day, so he and I just slothed around until my wife came home from work. So after a quick lunch and clothing change we headed to Yellow Creek State Park Swimming Beach for the rest of the afternoon.

I often times forget how blessed we are here in Indiana County and what it has to offer those who enjoy the great outdoors. Biking, both road and mountain, hiking, fishing, boating swimming and so much more. So needless to say the beach at Yellow Creek did not disappoint. The water temperature must have been around 76 Deg. and after a little splashing around with my son he made a couple of friends and I headed for the blanket to let them play.

The short list of parks within 15 minutes of Indiana are....Yellow Creek State Park (Mountain Biking, hiking, Fishing, Boating and Boat rentals, Swimming and cabin rentals, there are also 2 camping areas near by) Whites Woods & IUP's College Lodge activities area. These two parks are smack up against each other with connecting trails . Hiking, Mountain Biking and Disc Golf are all activities that can be enjoyed by combining these two parks. Blue Spruce Park (hiking, fishing and picnic areas). And if you want to travel a little further the Roaring Run Watershed Association has some phenomenal single track as well as a rails to trails for family fun. Dogs are also permitted at most of these facilities so long as they are on a leash.

There needs to be some sort of litmus test........

So there we are at the beach, and I will be the first to admit the the perfect body is something that I don't have, as most people out there but when purchasing a bathing suit it should cover a certain percentage of the body. Now I know some of you guys out there would scream foul but how often do you really see something worth looking at? And for the ladies.This is usually what you get.....Sorry all PG rated photos on line are too disturbing to show or link......but i think we all know what I am talking about. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not dissing overweight people , just wishing that all would dress appropriately.

XTERRA Appalachia and Sunday ride report

Did the eastern shore loop this afternoon with Andy, Zewacki, Matt and Sean. Had a pretty good ride for the most part except that I did have a little heart flip about 14 miles in. I did a pretty hard effort on one of the climbs and let up before I reached the top. About a minute later I was in affib. It only stayed out for about a minute or two then came back and was fine for the rest of the ride. I was able to ride pretty hard from that point on except for the fact that the salad that I had for lunch left me with little energy for the last 7 miles or so.

XTERRA Appalachia.......

Yesterday was also our second annual XTERRA Appalachia event. We had a pretty good turnout, I'm not sure if it was as many as last year but with the cost of travel these days I would say that it was pretty good. We had people from as far away as California last year, this year I spoke to some people from Maryland and the Poconos in the Northern part of our state.

I went out early with my son and Sean to set up in case anybody needed repair work, also a couple of guys that came to the race, this must have been their first XTERRA, didn't bring their helmets with them so I sold them a couple since I'm pretty sure that they did not own one. The other thing I don't get about this particular event, and I am not sure if it is this way at all of them, but , I have been to allot of races in my time and I have never seen so many people need repairs done the day of the race. Everything form brake adjustments to one guys brakes needing to be bled to another guys front brake pad rubbing a hole in his front tire.How can you go to a race that involves riding a bike and not bring a bike that is working properly?

We weren't able to stay for the end of the event of the reward ceremony but we did stay long enough to see the winner cross the finish line in under 1 1/2 hours. These races are fun to watch and I like to sit where I can get a good view of the transition area. Its funny to see how exhaustion and hypoxia wreak havoc on your ability to follow even the simplest of instruction, even with people pointing and telling you were to go. Even watching the participants dismount their bikes is comical, I saw so many people unclip swing a leg over the bike like they were going to take off running to the transition area only to stop and stand there like they were done or something.


A funny thing happened on the way to work the other day.......

So my son and I are on our way to work the other day and we are just kind of meandering down the road and chatting. I happen to glance up into my rear view mirror just in time to see this little black kitten pouncing across the road about 200 yards behind me. Now one of our cats had kittens not too long ago and one of them happens to be black. by the time my mind processes all of this, remember it is early in the morning, I realize that said black kitten is probably ours. I am guessing that she had crawled up under the truck and decided that this would be a good time to get off. Fortunately it didn't appear that she got hurt, unfortunately we have still been unable to find her. I am sure that somebody found her and took here in , there are allot of houses and apartments around.


Tennis anyone?????

Found a couple of interesting articles on the past couple of rides. Now I'm no Beachcomber, but if I happen to spot something worth picking up I will. I found the racket cover on Thursdays ride and the tennis ball on Sunday.