Jay Richards

Jake and I made it over to Rollag for the first time this summer on Wed. The Rollag ride is a fast paced road ride south of Rollag on the edge of old Lake Agassiz with 6 sprints. Highlight of the ride was when we all grouped together after pulling in a attack then I attacked on a hill and Jake followed then he attacked and I hung on for dear life to stick to his wheel. (I was on the Salsa with slicks and he had the road bike) we built up a pretty nice gap and it almost stuck to the next sprint but Brian Dahl and John Stuchy fished us in about 500 meters to go. If I would of had more gears, our move probably would of sticked. HR topping out in the mid 190's a bunch of times so a good workout and perfect night for a ride.



Can't remember much of Thursday other than Jake and I working on the singletrack and sweating bullets and getting attacked by deer flies and mosquitoes. Think I was bit over 50 times this week. West nile? Friday afternoon road over to Long lake, the one near Park Rapids, to Jonell's sister cabin to meet the rest of the fam. A nice 55 mile ride, tail wind and some good wind pacing. Then went to Breezy Point to catch Jon's first hockey game in weekend tourney. Third period Jon cracked his blade. What the heck. Never seen that before. Jon was in tears. In bike terms, it would be like getting a flat when you had the win in sights. Coach of the other team was kicked out. Tossing the f word around. Come on, give me a break, It's 97 hockey, Summer, just for fun. Maybe on bikethrowdotcom its cool to toss the f bomb but this is a bunch of 11 year olds. Anyways, game over at 10:30pm and what to do about the steel. We had Jonell's sister and her kids along so we had to go back to PR but coach said he would find pair of skates to borrow. Jon got a pair but didn't feel right so rest of weekend was okay/fair for him. Also had checking which was first time for that so when Jon got cheap shot, he took it personal and starting running after everyone like they had Jake Richards on the back of their jersey and took four worthless penalites on the weekend. Told Jon to just play his game and don't worry about it.
Went back home, arriving at 1am. Would of stayed but had resort stuff to take care off Saturday morning. Did a few laps on Expert course in afternoon with new singletrack riding nicely, then took Jack and Jen son Kids Comp. Jens wanted to do it over and over and ended up riding a hour with him.
"Dad, what are you stopping for?, I can ride this" Jens was blah blah blah. "Dad, when we were in Duluth last weekend, I heard this girl fart. It was weird, I didn't think girls farted" "Dad, does the color of our eyes determine what our blood looks like" Hmmm, Jens stumped me on that one "Jens, God determines what the color of our eyes will be"

Back in the day, my dad surfed the Oregon coast and made a few trips south to Calif. He has a couple long and short boards. Jake tried to surf when we had some big wind a month ago but now Jack uses the board to tool around the lake. Saturday he was doing quite fine going against the wind. Darn near went halfway across the lake. Speaking of my dad, Saturday he went over to catch Jon's Saturday games and found this burger joint west of Nissawa..Today we went there after Jon's game today based on my Dad's high recommendation. I told Jonell I can honestly say I don't know if I have ever had a better burger. I had to think long and hard on that but when they ask how you want your burger done, you know they are doing something right. Ground in house and probably ribeye type meat...good stuff. Fresh cut fries and Sunfish, another first, top notch grease spoon action. Place is called Matty's. If I was craving a burger, I would detour more north like from a return trip from the cities but definitely on the radar now.
Capping off the weekend.