El Tour de Tucson

107 miles. 6 hours 19 minutes and 20 seconds.  And see here for official results. And go here for some official photos! Simply search 'groff' and select '31st El Tour de Tucson' as the event.

The 31st annual El Tour de Tucson was my first ever mass start and it quite the ride! Wet and cold were the defining words of the ride. Rule #5 was mantra. I was wearing wool socks with bags over them, tights, underarmor shirt, leg warmers, arm warmers, long sleeve jersey, bib shorts, a rain jacket, and pants sprayed with waterproofing stuff. And I still was soaked through to the skin within the first 45 minutes! It was so cold (I am so poorly insulated) that there were times when I had to use my whole hand to shift since my fingers lost mobility.
Friends Mike and Dustin were also riding that morning and so I made a point of finding them in the lineup and rode with them as we started. After spending some time with them I began to pick up the speed, soon found a solid paceline and fell in. Despite having lost my speedometer a couple of days before I still think its fair to say that it was a pretty good pace. They were solid riders and also friendly, taking turns pulling and all the good stuff. Maybe cruising around 20mph or so. But I was beginning to get cold, the bags on my feet were doing more harm than good and I decided I could really go for a banana right about then. I pulled off at the next aid station. Although I didn't stay long I lost the group.
Riding alone sucked. Sure there were still lots of other riders, and sure it was great to pass people, but I really just wanted a wheel to watch. Even if it did mean getting water and road gunk thrown directly into my mouth.
Eventually I did manage to find another group, but at some point lost them as well. As you can see in the pictures there was a section in which we had to dismount and walk the bikes through a wash, which in normal Tucson times would be dry but in this case was not so much. At various points in the rest of the ride I found and lost a couple different groups of varying degrees of skill, groupthink, and speed.
In the end I am happy to say that I am happy with the ride. Through the harsh weather I rode hard and made a good time. I had no mechanical issues (or at least no debilitating ones). If I had gotten a flat I doubt my fingers could have been able to open my saddlebag. let alone get a tire on! I do think I could've done a bit better. Maybe didn't need quite as many breaks as I took, but of course its easy to say that a week out sitting in this comfy red couch. I am also convinced though that having a partner to push and push against could've made up a lot of time. Next race I'm determined to have a riding buddy!

In other news, Porch Fests, specifically the Dunbar Springs one, are awesome!!! Some of my fav's were people like Mik Garrison. His Words was really cool. Especially live!
Kiri of Aztral Folk was also there earlier in the day. Heres a small smaple.

But there has also been so much other stuff to tell you all about! Thanksgiving was great! I had three (3!) thanksgiving dinners with turkey potatoes, and all the good stuff. First with Casa Mariposa et. al. then with the Shalom crowd for lunch on Thursday, and then with my cousins and Aunt and Uncle for dinner! What a wonderful time with wonderful people.

And last but far from least; I recently got a tandem!

And while this may seem simply like news of yet another bike in Tyler's quest to fulfill Rule #12, I assure you there is more to it than just that! If you haven't figured out why yet, take another look at the raceday photos.
If you haven't figured it out yet... I'll just happily tell you that Emma, one of my best friends and I, have recently started dating and intend to use the aforementioned tandem to its fullest potential!
And so, with that I am calling it a night. Consider yourself updated.
Until next time,
      Groffsdale.

Some fun stuff, and Life Plans!

I went camping and mountain biking and didn't even write about it!

I need a new front tire. Terrible traction equals several needless wipeouts!

There was lots of Hike-A-Biking. and it wasn't only because of downed trees.

I also hiked the tallest mountain in AZ last weekend. And had a snowball fight with Emma. And didn't write about that either!

And played pingpong at a bar in Flagstaff with Tracy and some of the Mennos. And didn't write about that either!

I'm also living in a great community house with four others, I have chickens and a back yard and a huge house that is a lot of work to take care of. We've got meetings and community meals.
But to top it all off I have a fixie!!! So now I guess I'm kinda writing about it:

One of my students works on car painting so I paid him to do the frame!

Then I bought some wheels off of craigslist. I think I paid too much, but I was getting anxious...

And soon I want to paint accents on these cool parts.

But actually, at this point it isn't even a fixie. Just a single speed with no brakes. Riding it to work the other day was a bit harrowing.
So now the count is up to four!
1. My trusty ol commuter, the great Windsor Dover. My first road bike. Trusty travel partner on several bike trips and now my heavy commuter.
2. The RockHopper! My college grad gift and source of many grand adventures. The bike that has been mtn biking all around Harrisonburg, at a trail park in downtown Houston TX, in Whitefish MT, all around Vancouver Canada, over the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, and of course on many trails here in Tucson.
3. The Fuji Newest. Its been my speedy steed. Taken me up and down Mt. Lemmon, and actually got me into cycling in a real way.
4. And now finally the newest member. The pretty bike, the barebones, fun bike. The pretty fixie. Keep your eyes peeled as it develops and gets some new accents!

But of course life isn't all about the bike. (sorry Rule #4) Its also about Brazil. For those of you who live under a rock and can't read this blog anyway, I'm determined to get to Brazil for the world cup in June! I'm not sure how its going to happen, (just kidding, I totally have a plan) but assuming I can get myself to stop buying cool things and get someone to come with me... wink wink. I'm totally going!!!

So now of course I find myself at the place in my mental monologue where I start thinking about what comes next in life. Even I, renowned traveler that I am, am not interested in traveling forever. Although I really can't say how long I might manage to putz around S America, eventually I'll need a place to settle down in again. Over the past while, of thinking and pondering and talking and more pondering, I've realized that Harrisonburg VA is where I think I will want to be next. At this point its really just a question of logistics. First and foremost, I'll need a job there. With my bike shop experience I might try to continue that line of work. Ideally I'll be able to magically time the ending of my S. America adventures with the start of a job in Harrisonburg. But I also recognize the potential difficulties. I'm afraid that means I'll have to save up even more before I leave.
But, assuming job things get worked out in someway or another, I find it pretty easy to imagine life in a pretty good light there. Assuming my friends and dear readers don't all up and move away too soon, and assuming nobody has too much faith and moves the mountains, I think I'll be able to find lots of great life giving things there again.

So thats pretty much the plan! Now I need to think about how to get back to the E. Coast for Christmas and Nicole's graduation!!!! wow. what a great thought.

Friends New and Old. The short edition.

Its been awhile. I've had some good times and some good adventures so thats cool. But more importantly, my Tucson life has been undergoing some drastic renovations.
First of all a word on how great it is to visit with good friends.

Hannah, Larisa and Emma (in reverse order to keep you on your toes)

It was great!
And now a word on the importance of being prepared:

Hey look, a spare tube!

Carry a spare tube, and dont rely on patched tubes.
Well, now that precedent has been set on saying more than a word, I guess I should also add that spending time with wise friends in who are in various circumstances yet comparable life stages was very refreshing. Over the past many months I've realized that I often go quite quickly from the top of the world while biking up Mt. Lemmon, or having a good day at work, to pining for old friends in Harrisonburg when I get invited to cookouts at Rocktown Bikes, to longing for my next grand adventure. And so, getting to spend time with Hannah and Larisa not only help provide good company and a good hike, but also a sense of perspective.
Friends from years past, are still friends. Its ok to be unsure whats next. And dreaming big is more fun with others!

That was two weeks ago. Since then its been all about meeting new friends. Specifically new housemates.

Sadly my house's roof is not quite as cool as Brandon (the YAV coordinator)'s 

From left we've got Brandon the YAV coordinator, Kathryn, Heather, Ariel, Amy Beth and myself. In addition to the above we also have another non-YAV, Steph, living with us. They are all super cool so you should just meet them yourself. Undoubtably you'll hear more about them in posts to come. Look forward to it.

Lunafest!

Tuesday night I went to Lunafest with Kat and Carrie. Lunafest is a film festival 'by, for, about women'. It was totally awesome. There were nine short films, all really well made. Some of my favorites:
Whakatiki - A Spirit Rising - Was really powerful, and magically touched on so many powerful themes without explicitly addressing them that I was just blown away. There were themes of body image, family, freedom of the spirit, and it all came together in about 12 minutes.
Chalk - This one was also largely wordless. It was kinda weird to watch a young girl go through the process of having her first period, but it was still a very good video. It followed the story of two young girl gymnasts who are at a competition or something. They are clearly close friends, but then they start to fall apart. There is a boy, the one friend doesn't make the cut, and there is the whole thing with the period. In the end though they come back together and its quite touching.
Flawed - Was another very good one. It was funny, but yet still quite serious in how it dealt with the topic of plastic surgery and how we view ourselves. In the end though I thought the message was a bit shallow; basically your big nose is a part of you and makes you who you are. 'Why try to be ordinary when you can be extraordinary!' was, I think, a line from the end of it. I wasn't convinced. It seemed very much like a grownup trying to make the awkward kid in middle-school feel less awkward even though its the other kids, not the grown up, that has any say in the matter.
And then there was Lunch Date which was just funny and sweet. About a girl who gets dumped when her boyfriend sends his 14 year old brother to pass on the message. There's not so much to say about it except that it was a lot of fun.

As a follow up to my last blog. The hymn sing was great! I think hymns are pretty much the best. Such great poetry, but even better because they are put to such great music. And even better still when sung by a group of people who really enjoy it.

Also, Ben, I'm sorry to report that I have no good mountain biking pictures because I did not end up going mountain biking this weekend. It proved to be just a bit too much of a chore. Mountain biking for me requires switching my tires (not a huge deal, but still a pain) taking my rack off (which I guess I wouldn't have to do...) and then biking at least 45 minutes to the trail head (which is definately doable, it just didn't happen this weekend.)
So I went road biking instead! I biked on over to a park with Kat and Emma, they went running, but I didnt feel like running in biking shoes so I sat by the lake and listened to the Dianne Rehm show on the topic of the legality of the torture of terror suspects. It was very interesting. Evidently the rulings handed down from the military/ secret courts were often thrown out by other federal courts because the courts or the processes themselves were ruled unconstitutional.

Sitting by water is nice.

This park had lots of kids running around and made for good people watching. 

In other news, we got a whole bunch of donations from a recycling center. Its good that we're getting stuff. Our meager shop needs more bike things, but this is some of the stuff that was donated:

We salvaged a couple parts from it!

I don't think the brakes worked very well...