What did you do today...

[VermilionX]

Baked two cheesecakes and made a peanut butter pie.

sounds like what i need right now. just got back from a 30 mile bike ride. est calories burned: 2492.

[High_Side]

Celebrated the release of ACDC on I-tunes (finally!) by spending a bunch of money

[sapaul]

Well, actually Sunday, but here it is anyway.

My day actually started the day before as there is always a little prep work to be done, juice bike, check oil and tyres, decide what kit you are wearing and hydrate properly. Then most important an early night and set the alarm with a couple of back ups.

so duly the alarm goes off at 3 am and you start clumping around the house waking every one else up, except the dog who promptly jumps on your spot on the bed. The Goose was kind and got up to make me coffee and to check that I had everything like sun screen and a crash helmet. Duly the bike comes out of the garage and you warm it up with a few quick blips just to annoy the neighbours and wake up the neighbourhood dogs. All kitted and ready to go, your China's turn up and off you go.

I am happy that I made the decision to put an HID into the GS, the road lights up well and we make good time, making sure we are clear before skieting the red robots. I have always enjoyed night riding and I start to feel awake and alive and the senses heighten and I think about the responsibilities I have ahead.

We arrive at the meeting spot to see a sea of yellow and orange worn by the Marshals and I once again feel proud to a part of this group of dedicated people, who just like me, have Marshaling as a part of their lifestyle. We must be mad, but hey, life is full of mad people. At least our collective madness is coming from the heart. It is at this point that I get the news Ghosty is down from a tearful Vixen. Not good news, but he is not badly hurt.

The briefing is concise and informative and I am riding with The Pope and we each have a noobie to be responsible for. It is Danny's second event but first cycle one and it is Silravs first event. @ 5:15 we have a quick word with the Ulysses guys and then we are off on the route.

It is slightly eerie to be riding on a 4 lane highway, with no traffic, no speed limit (whoo hoooo) and a **** load of responsibility. Our job is to make sure all the junctions are closed, bales in place, no vehicles or dangers on the route,junctions manned and foot marshals awake. We make our way around the course, stopping often and calling in problems. One in particular where we had to drag bales across a road to close off an open manhole cover that could have eaten whole any cyclist that dropped his wheels in there. Thankfully, this year we had no fights with errant bus or taxi drivers and we got around the route with no major incidents other than having to close some junctions ourselves because the officials there were, quite frankly, inept.

The Crew welcomed us with a coffe and some yummy stuff for brekkie and did their usual fussing and loving before sending us off to go do (ding ding) round 2.

The wind was blowing, we knew that the cyclist were going to suffer, especially the social guys later in the day with the heat and the wind. Our group of four set off again and all went well until we got to Jan Smuts Ave. I was waved down by a spectator who pointed me to a cyclist who was man down under a tree surrounded by spectators who made it very difficult for us to see. The other 3 guys went on and I stopped to assist. Just as well some of us have strong stomachs, this guy was busted up badly and in real pain and having difficulty breathing. I cordoned the area, chased away the rubber neckers and called it in. It took a good 40 minutes for an ambo to arrive, all the while, the public were berating me and the EM service in general as to how long it was taking. I shepherded tha ambo and cordoned again to let them work and to keep the cyclists from running into the scene and then got back to work.

The next 40 kms were incident free and I made quick time looking to catch the rest of the team which I did just past the one water point. Here I find the three guys splitting the cyclists left and right around 2 guys down. One of which was a pedestrian who thought that standing in the middle of the road, on a down hill with a cell phone to his eye, with cyclists powering out of the water point with their heads down, was in fact a good idea. The cyclist that hit him at 40 kmh may also realise, when he wakes up in a hospital bed, that picking your head up from time to time and looking ahead may help him to avoid obstacles.

2 of the paramedics from the water station were on scene and attending, both guys were bleeding buckets and they struggled to stem a nasty head wound on the pedestrian and some severe lacerations on the cyclist who apparently went over the handlebars. Working with the Marshals can be hugely satisfying as we saw how easily this happened. Cyclists were coming out of the water point, heads down, mp3 players firmly screwed in and oblivious to anything. They were on top of us with the Marshals shouting, whistling and arm waving for Africa before they realised what was going on. There were quite an number of red faces as we shouted "wakey wakey" to those that were "awakend" at the last minute. It took over an hour and 2 ambo's to get this one sorted out.

Hot, dehydrated and tired, we mounted and set off is search of more to do.

[totalmotorcycle]

Just about to jump on my bike for a quick ride to the dealership to pick up some 10w60 oil... expensive stuff ($14/l). Andrea and I are in disbelief that we are still riding in mid-November and it's 27°C out! Winter? Christmas? Snow? Seems like such a foreign concept!



http://www.totalmotorcycle.com/travel/h ... eather.htm

Mike

[Ninja Geoff]

^That's about what I paid for 10w40 synth/dino blend. Good thing I only needed two quarts.

Filter was only $4, instead of $12. Yay friends who manage auto parts stores.

[totalmotorcycle]

Today is house painting day! Well, at least livingroom painting day.

^That's about what I paid for 10w40 synth/dino blend. Good thing I only needed two quarts.

Filter was only $4, instead of $12. Yay friends who manage auto parts stores.

Great deal on the filer for ya, well done! Ah, nothing like the price of high quality oil then eh? haha.

[VermilionX]

workout before pigging out for thanksgiving.

only 11.58 miles but it had 1,100 ft of climbing though.

[totalmotorcycle]

Painting, painting and more painting... then we ran out of paint, ran to Home Depot (http://www.homodepot.com <- Yes, it's safe, try it) and they were CLOSED! Argh.

Mike

[Ninja Geoff]

It's Thanksgiving in the states! You should be pigging out on turkey and stuff.

[Wrider]

Ummm, ya may want to edit that url there Mr. TotalMotorcycle...