Thursday, July 22, 2010

Stay-Cation 2010 Update

With yesterday being a rest day for the Tour De France, I didn't have anything keeping me from heading out for an easy morning ride. My bike seems to automatically find its way to Starbucks. An Iced chai latte or an iced coffee is perfect in this heat. Actually anything with ice in it is acceptable.

I came upon this beauty as I searched for a spot to lock up my bike. I couldn't find a good angle to photograph it from. I believe it's a Raleigh Sports . The decals are faded and difficult to read.

The cranks have been replaced but other than the saddle, grips, and tires, it appears to be mostly original.

Heading back home along the Trinity Trail I encountered a slight detour. The supervisor in the hi-vis vest wasn't very happy with me taking photos of the construction site. He asked my why I was taking picture, so I asked him what he was afraid of (I kind of knew what he was worried about, I just wanted to make him say it). He told me that everytime somebody takes pictures of his work sight he ends up getting complaints from his boss. He had just been griped at by a women who was upset that the detour was not been paved. The poor thing had to walk her bike through the gravel. After I convinced him that I had no intention of complaining we had a nice conversation about all of the construction taking place just north of the trail west of the Hulen bridge. He believes that the area north of the trail is going to be a large city park. I had heard that it was going to be filled with shops. I'll have to check Fortworthology to find out for sure.


Ahhh, nature. This is why I choose to ride the trail.


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So you're probably wondering what has RTP been doing when not on the bike? Well, I'll tell you. I've been catching up on the first three seasons of Mad Men. The fourth season premiere is this Sunday. The show is much better than I thought it would be. Me and my wife usually don't start watching a series until it has been on for a while and we've read good reviews. We like renting the DVDs and catching up all at once.


Movies viewed while on stay-cation:

Two Lane Blacktop-After reading about it on The Selvedge Yard I had to watch it. It's a little slow but the cars are awesome! You can watch the entire movie onYoutube. The 55 Chevy in this movie is the same one that Han Solo was driving in American Graffiti (another good movie you can watch on Youtube).



Topaz-It's a cold war thriller directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The story is interesting but in my opinion it didn't strike me as one of his better movies. It was kind of like he was going through the motions. This would probably be a good candidate for a remake.


Three Days of the Condor- It's an excellent thriller that I've seen a million times. It's now out on Blu-ray.


Max Von Sydow is a cool dude.

7 comments:

  1. Doesn't Redford ride a motorized bike in "Three Days?"

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  2. We do the same thing -- discover shows way late and play catch-up by renting/downloading episodes. It's really nice to be able to watch an entire season, or even series, on our own timeline, without having to wait for new episodes to come out, or wasting time on commercials.

    The Raleigh looks really nice! Sounds like you're having a good break. Enjoy!

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  3. Yup Raleigh Sports probably about a 1975/6. The crank has been upgraded to a more modern 3 piece. It is also a 21" frame... Obviously well ridden.

    I would try a stacation but because I spend so much time on the road it ends up being a workcation... :-(


    Aaron

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  4. Steve A-Yep, he rides it it NYC traffic.

    Apertome-Catching up on DVD is the way to go. I think Lost is the only show we've ever watched from the beginning.

    2whls3spds-I figured that I'd hear from you about the Raleigh. Without the decals I can't differentiate between a Sports and a Superbe, other than the obvious leather Brooks saddle.

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  5. Not really a whole lot of difference between a Sports and Superbe. If you strip the generator hub, lights and switch the Brooks B67 saddle to a B72 you have a Sports, and in some years the Suprebe came with the B72...go figure. I have seen Superbes with the vinyl Brooks mattress saddle where someone didn't like the original leather Brooks.

    Aaron

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  6. Oops forgot...the Superbe usually has a fork lock built into the left side. That is probably the main obvious feature.

    Aaron

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  7. Re: The work where Hulen crosses the trail- I thought this was part of the Southwest Parkway. The Hulen street bridge over the Trinity/train tracks will be demolished and reconstructed as part of the parkway interchange. Also, Stonegate Blvd. will soon be extended over the river with a combined motor traffic/bicycle bridge (bikes get a separate span below the main deck... in the shade. The area between the train tracks and the river is going to be developed between Hulen and Bryant Irvin.

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