Gearing Up II

Here's a few more items I gathered in preparation for an upcoming S24O:

The shoes that I bought a couple of years ago specifically for riding began falling apart soon after purchase, so what did I do, I went out and bought another pair from the same manufacturer. I couldn't pass up the mesh and lack of standard laces. Some people swear by their Keen sandals but I like to wear socks with my footwear. These are the new Salomon Rx Travel shoes meant for pre and post workout. Orange was the only color left in my size.

I also picked up an unobtrusive mirror for riding the roads out to the state park.

I stopped by a local military surplus store and bought a well used and very dirty Esbit stove (the only one left) as well as a unused surplus French army cook stove. I picked up a box of fuel tablets from Backwoods. I made out pretty well as the stoves were only $3.50 each and the fuel tablets were $7.00.

The kids decided to help out with the water boil test. It took me a while to clean out the Esbit stove so I lined the bottom with tinfoil to keep it clean. The fuel tablets leave lots of residue. I filled the pot with 16oz of water. This was probably too much as I went through two tablets and couldn't get the water to boil. I'm thinking that the tinfoil might also be a problem. It blocked airflow from below, there are holes in the bottom of the stove.

I placed a new fuel tablet in the French stove and had the water boiling in no time. Of course the water was still hot from the previous attempt.

The short support arms on the French stove brings the pot closer to the flame.

The most important new item, a French press. There's nothing better than coffee on a campout. I've never used a French press before so I thought I should practice beforehand.

Afternoon Ride 12-12-09

It was another cold and gloomy day but I felt the need to ride. I decided to head over to Backwoods to look for some type of cold weather headgear for next weekends ride. I didn't find what I was looking for at Backwoods but I did find an acceptable cap with fold down ear protection at Target. I met up with my lovely wife at Target and we took care of some of our Christmas shopping.

Crossing the Trinity River I got a look at the progress being made on the Trinity Trail. The trail has been lowered closer to the river and a fishing platform is being constructed. I'm looking forward to seeing the final results.

This is Backwoods new, much larger location on 7th Street. They were located further west across the street from the Modern Art Museum. They have a nice selection of camping gear and clothing. They'll occasionally have some great sales on footwear.

I took some time to discuss stoves and tents with one of the sales people. I like this tent in the display. I couldn't get close enough to tell but I think it's a Sierra Designs two person tent. The old tent I have now is a bit on the heavy side for bike touring. This one is sure to be much lighter and cooler than my old tent.

I stopped for coffee at, you guessed it, Starbucks. FortWorthology reported the sighting of a new coffehouse under construction downtown on Florence Street. I'm ready for something different.

While I was out riding I had the pleasure of meeting Russell. He recognized my bike from the blog and stopped me for a chat. Russell was in the process of tweaking his position on his Specialized Roubaix. He showed me the shorter stem he had just installed (I completely forgot to take photos). I told him about BABBLE and invited him to join up. Hopefully we'll be hearing from him soon. I also met a guy when I stopped for coffee, but for the life of me I can't remember his name (I forget my own kid's names sometimes). He told me about an old Australian track bike that he's building. He was a pretty interesting guy. We talked bikes for a while. He seemed to be genuinely interested in attending our next group ride. Hopefully we'll hear from him as well.