Found: Ride Randomness/Tid Bits

I'm a big fan of "found stuff" like you find (coincidentally enough) on the Found Magazine website. Finding photos, notes and strange objects along the road always crack me up and gets me thinking about how some of that stuff gets there. It can sometimes add a little spice to a long ride or breathe new life into a familiar road loop. Granted most of what I see is just ballz out trash that folks feel is OK just to toss out their car window. And THAT just makes me mad and depressed.

This past weekend was a good one for road side strangeness. These are some things I saw along the road and some observations that kept my mind going.

• 1 whole "fund raiser" hoagie still in bag in the middle of the road.
• 1 entire Giant Eagle birthday cake still in box. Who the hell throws a birthday cake out the window of their car?
  
• 1 tube of KY Jelly (not the same one I saw last year. Lots of back road "lubrication issues" in these parts I guess)
• 1 cheeseburger with 1 bight taken out (I noted the local of all food for possible bonk relief later).
  
• ONE latex glove (not by the KY, so I'm ruling out any roadside rectal examination).
• 1 tennis shoe.
• 1 work boot (why is there always just ONE. Where's the other one??).
• Four empty cases of Miller Light in one 200' stretch. The White Oak back roads partier seems to prefer Miller products, while the Scottdale area back road partier seems to prefer Bud products.
  
• So many McDonald's bags I could not keep track. Nice. Real nice. Food that kills AND makes our country look like shit.
  
• Numerous plastic "adult toy looking" cigar sheathes along the road. Who knew there were that many cigar aficionados in the White Oak area?? Yeah, I'm thinking blunt too.
• So many empty plastic water and pop bottles I could not keep track.
• The realization that most Americans have not one ounce of respect for where they live and treat the area they live in like a f*cking dumpster. Damn shame.

____________________________________________

In other better tid bits....

I got my Dos Niner and Mamasita back from Master Tom today. Looking sweet and feeling good. I can't wait to get some dirt time on them soon. A nice bit of work done by Master-T. Too bad come April 19th I will start my season of thrashing them. But hey, that's what they're for right?

I have ruled out any future purchase of the Mavic Crossmax 29er wheel set. Just too much jing and too many "questions" for me and my style. If I get my hands on a 2nd lighter wheel set in 2008 it will be Salsa Delgado 29er Race rims and DT 240 hubs for sure. Given the unfavorable feedback I got from Wifey this might be a 2009 purchase. I might have to kick up the charm (or FIND some charm).

____________________________________________

I got hooked up with some new products to test out this past week...

Nuun hooked me up with some BIGGER Nuun. Bigger Nuun is made for hydration packs. 1 tab makes 32. oz electrolyte goodness. Fill your pack's bladder, plop a tab, let it fizz and you're good to go. No need to worry about stank bladder either. Nuun won't gunk it up with nastiness and cause any 2 a.m. bacteria fueled trips to the race venue porta john.

I saw that to help promote the new BIGGER size and give endurance/adventure racing bladder suckers a chance to get their hands on it, Nuun has also hooked up with Deuter USA and is offering a free tube of Bigger Nuun when you purchase a Deuter pack. I had never really heard of Deuter until I started researching products from Nuun. Now I kinda got my eye on the Deuter EXP Air. Bike lust, wheel lust and now hydration pack lust! WTF! I'm such a freaking geek! It really is sort of sad. Yeah. Sad.

I also received some regular sized Kona Cola Nuun with caffeine. I'm a big fan of Zym Catapult with caffeine so I'm anxious to try out this caffeinated flavor of Nuun. Also curious to see what it tastes like. I hope to give both of these a try this week.

Lastly I got my toes on some Bridgedale socks.

The folks at Bridgedale threw some X-Hale Multisport sock at me to try to put a thrashing on, they also thew in a pair of chick flavored ones for Wifey to get her tootzies in. They look top notch and have great feel with a fiber blend that is 28% Merino wool. Mmmmmm wool. I'll keep you posted on what our feet think of them.

Lastly I leave you with this pic that I horked
from Jason over on the Salsa Amigos site.

This was taken by J. on a recent trip to China.
Next time you're in your local shop, imagine livestock milling about!

Oh well, that's a "rest day". Time in the Stankment® or on the road beckons tomorrow.

Later.