Bike Tour Book Review IV

Today brings us the fourth installment of the bike tour book review.

Vietnam - An Epic Tragedy 1945-1975

Everyone thinks of Vietnam as a late 1960's war but for 30 years the Vietnamese fought to make a country for their own. I was hoping to get some additional insight as to why the U.S. got involved but the book failed to supply that. It told the truth.  There was no threat of this small, beautiful country invading our homeland. They wanted a communist regime, have at it.  It wasn't hurting our side of the world. Yet our American egos thought we could take anyone down, anywhere.  We had no idea how jungle war would play out and that the north was not going to quit; ever. Mix that with the south Vietnamese having a government they had no faith in fighting for. It was a no win situation. Yet we still continued to send individuals over to fight. 

I love my country but if I was 18 in 1960-whatever and you sat me down with the information noted above, I would find whatever means to avoid fighting someone who is no threat to my homeland. The government would tire after the 10,000th time of me asking "Why?"

Great read.

Hillbilly Elegy

A non-fiction account of one person's view growing up in more or less, the sticks, and working his ass off to get out of said sticks.  People from his area weren't supposed to go to college, let alone an Ivy League school. He was the less than one percent that made it; with a few bumps along the way.

Relating to my grade school time, I'll put money there were some of my classmates that had some form of hillbilly upbringing and went home to something different than what I had. I wasn't richy rich but never thought twice about missing meals or having the heat off at home; they were constants for me and not sure others had the same. I never thought twice about it at the time as if you could play kickball worth anything, talk about meals or lack of heat never came up. 

Striking Back - The 1972 Munich Olympic Massacre and Israel's Deadly Response

It's never over. That pretty much sums up the book. Those that were behind the terror paid, even if it took the locals their entire lives to do it. A more fact-based account (a shi* load of research) of the massacre versus the Hollywood puffed up version, 'Munich'. 

Greg Giraldo - A Comedian's Story

The story similar to many other comedians on the road.  Searching for the next bit, drugs/booze, loneliness, repeat.  

Then death unfortunately in his case. He was one of the best roast comedians. Always prepared.  Do a search on the person and you'll find some of the funniest roast lines. 

Feeling Well

Next year will be my 30th with my employer and I'm here to tell you things have changed since the 1990 work experience.  

Case in point of my recent discovery of a 'wellness' room on my floor. As we don't have any nursing mothers on the floor, it's a room for stress relief or nursing a post thirsty Thursday dehydration bout.  Pictured below is the room. I think it needs a couch versus a chair. Walking back out on the floor with pillow hair wouldn't be a good look though so the chair will do. We have been in our current building since 2015 and if it wasn't for a recent e-mail from one of the assistants advising that the room needed to be reserved for use (as too many were abusing their privileges), I would think nothing of that room by the color copier even serving a purpose. I didn't know it existed. I'm too busy making color copies of mountain bike maps to worry about being well I guess.

All kidding aside, it's a great idea as when I started working here in 1990, the wellness room consisted of the lunchroom where inside smoking was still allowed so the second hand smoke made you feel....well. 

Trail Head 

the 'lounge'

wellness fridge - don't even think about
putting your tuna salad in there

Global Fat Bike Day (and who is the 'Oz' making up these days?)

A perfect environment for early December mountain bike riding in Michigan as while the temperature was below freezing, there was no wind so the Global Fat Bike Day locally at Island Lake Recreation Area was a treat this morning. Nephew Jackson rode along and respected his elders in waiting up for me along the trail. 

My quandary is who is the person behind the curtain making up these 'days'?  Global Fat Bike day. National cookie day. National burger day. National taco day. National spaghetti day. National milk day is January 11th if you need to set the reminder on your idiot phone.

No mas.

Trail Head

urban rider Jackson 

Good Dog

Jimmy cracked corn and I don't care but the attached video will draw a few hold backs on the tears for those that dare to tease me. I ragged on the attached player (and team) quite a bit over the past couple of years but losing both mom and dad while going to school over a thousand miles away from home and not quitting is quite an accomplishment in perseverance. It makes the crappy play of my alma mater a little less important. Love those dogs.

Trail Head

Hall of Famer

A shout out today to my sister for reaching the mountain top of her profession this past Tuesday evening, the Public Relations Society of America's Hall of Fame. I always kid her for what she has to put up with daily and her innate ability to laugh at very bad jokes during her thankless job tasks.  But damn, she is quite good at what she does. She has the gift of gab; a trait yours truly does not possess. You can say this and that about how Detroit got out of bankruptcy because of X and Y but I have reason to believe my sister's efforts bringing past and present Detroiters (Detroiters with clout) together in joining as one helped the city recover.  

Proud to say I'm her bro.

Trail Head

Feeling 52

In celebration of my 52nd year on earth, the bike tour headed south out of the Michigan November snow....to the Ohio November snow, but not as much. The destination, Mohican State Park in Loudonville, Ohio, a little east between Toledo and Columbus. The park maintains a 23 mile mountain bike loop (largest in Ohio) that this large headed rider had yet to experience. I wish I had experienced it when I was turning 40 as opposed to 52 as it was a bear. The first couple miles are a climb up to the ridge and then you level off somewhat with smaller hills. You think of Ohio as flat but the Mohican State Forest has some serious hills. I would compare it to a larger Pinckney Recreation Area with more rock gardens that this rider cares to see. I didn't plan on making the full 23 miles but even the abbreviated ride had me dragging ass more times than not. One of the drawbacks of riding solo is you don't have the other rider(s) to feed off of to get you past your ass drag (then again, maybe that is a positive - ha). I attached a short video of my ass dragging along with a cool view of the gorge within the park. 

gorge view 

The trip was not restricted to bike riding as I put the tourist hat on Thursday and took the Shawshank Redemption tour at the Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield where a portion of the picture was filmed. The tour took you to the warden's office where Andy played the opera music and the warden blew his brains out, the parole board room where Red got reviewed a few times and the post prison room where Brooks and Red stayed. Cool tour.

Nightlife in Mansfield Thursday had me experiencing what I was expecting with the local Cleveland Browns on television that evening. I knew the Brown faithful were VERY passionate based on the handful of Lion-Brown games I have experienced over the years. My conflict was that Michigan State had a basketball game at the same time Thursday evening. I could watch it in the hotel but being cooped up in a hotel room is no fun. I wanted to see some Mansfield-iens. A few blocks from the hotel was a sports bar and I left towards there thinking maybe a 10% chance that I could get a secondary tv to show the hoops game. My 10% turned to 0 upon entering the bar as pretty much every patron had some form of Brown merchandise on. I didn't even bother asking and just took it all in while these passionate son of a guns were cheering on their 3-6 team (soon to be 4-6). They were even doing group cheers. One guy bought a round for the entire bar so....go Browns. Fun experience.
Trail Head

Ohio State Reformatory

warden office

chapel

some seriously close quarters

Free At Last

I left one of the social media sites today. As my last post advised, I hope I don't end up like the characters in the movie "The Firm" after clicking the 'remove me' button. It was a good decade run on the site seeing people via the information superhighway you hadn't seen in awhile. 

On with the sarcasm. I will miss seeing friends that have 1,000 friends on there but none when the computer is off.  The bumper sticker senders; and who is making up these bumper stickers and their sayings? The helicopter parents; stop hovering. The attention starved ones who send a picture of themselves with the text, "caption my photo." "I need attention" is the caption that comes to most minds but don't dare send that and get publicly flogged on the Internet. The ever-so-popular changing of the profile picture every other week person. The political pushers. It's all there. 

In all seriousness, I will miss the many dog pictures and the mountain bike trail information. If it could only be that.  

So sorry Russia, you have one less voter to manipulate for the next election.

Trail Head