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Couldn't think of a better time than tomorrow morning to start this thing back up! I'd be good with either a 7:30am or 8am start time if anybody is interested.

No doubt! Went out at 2pm for a quick lunch ride. It was warm but arid, very pleasant. And not a soul in sight with the exception of a few hikers on Picnic! No encounters at all on DD or Rim. Hope the drier air is here to stay!

Another trip to TW this weekend and picked up a couple of bourbons I hadn't yet tried. I've enjoyed the GD #12 on the rocks in the past, but hadn't tried any Dickel product since I started drinking whiskey neat. Saw both good and bad reviews on their new 8yr BOURBON (yes a Tennessee whiskey labeled bourbon). At $29 it was hard to go wrong. It's not bad tasting, but seems watered down to me. Has no chance of becoming a daily drinker when I can spend a bit more and get Four Roses Single Barrel. The Breckenridge 105 is actually really good and has that creamy mouth feel that I've grown to appreciate. I admittedly have not advanced my tasting skills enough to pick out specific flavors on the nose or palate, but I know when something smells and tastes appealing. Worth picking up for $52.99, but there may be better options at that price point. I'm by no means a whiskey connoisseur, but my collection is finally starting to grow, with 4 bourbons and 2 ryes in my cabinet right now. I'm at a point where I'm still trying new stuff, but also going back to the shelf for the value bottles that I know I'll love, like Four Roses Single Barrel and OF 1920.

Got out this morning about 7:30 thinking I was going to have a glorious 2 hours on the bike, but then realized after already finishing Picnic and half of 1/4 Notch that I left my water bottle sitting in the garage. Short ride, but still beat the hell out of 30 min on the elliptical. With the cool early morning temps, I'll definitely be back out there over the weekend.

Sometimes the best videos are the ads!

Haha yeah! When I first started doing it, I just focused on the drop and being able to stop before slamming into the wall on the other side. It took me quite a few tries before I could tie it all together and get back out the exit without stopping.

This is really great advice for folks just getting into more technical riding. It took me a few solid years of riding 3-4 times per week at BC before I was able to conquer most of the features. My approach during the developmental phase was to go out with the primary objective of having fun and staying fit. Secondarily, I would focus on one or two features per ride that I thought I should be capable of tackling. Initially when I couldn't clear something the first try, I was trying 3-4 times and just getting frustrated. Eventually I adopted the approach of never trying a particular feature more than two times per ride. As my confidence grew and I started clearing more and more features each ride, I adopted the approach of never trying a particular feature more than once per ride, and if I failed, I would focus my next ride on making sure I attacked those same features that tripped me up the last ride. Speaking of BC features, there is one that I love that gets little attention or discussion on this thread. It is the alternate drop when coming E-W on Picnic at the point where you would otherwise turn left towards PicnicX. It's a steep, rockface that requires some finesse braking and cornering, without which you'd be slamming into the adjacent rockface. You also need to maintain enough momentum to get you up the incline at the other end of the horseshoe. Not sure if it has a name, but it's a great feature.

Post-ride refreshment

Do you really mean "inward"? Seems the straighter the bar, the more outward your wrist will be positioned. Adding sweep would point your wrist more inward I think. In any case, you should start by rotating your bars as @ATXZJ suggested. Rotating the bar will give you slight adjustments in sweep (up and back), as well as the position of the grips relative to your bottom bracket and saddle. Some bars come with a scale that measures the rotational movement forward or back from neutral. Lightening your grip and keeping from putting too much of your weight on the bars will definitely help as well, to relieve pressure on the nerve endings in the palm of your hand. Using winged grips can help, but personally I have found that to be more of a crutch than a real solution. If nothing works, you may have to start looking at bar width and stem length as a possible solution.

It does, and I found a setting where the watch was using both the Altimeter and Barometric Altimeter in Auto mode. I set it to use only the Altimeter, which appears to be recommended for activities that involve frequent changes in elevation. Will see if that helps. Thanks for the input!

I've been a paid subscriber for a good while, primarily for the beacon feature. Now I have a Garmin Instinct watch, and I'm using the tracking feature via the Garmin Connect App. It's actually pretty cool because the way it integrates with Strava, it automatically triggers both the Garmin Tracker Email and the Strava Beaon text once I start my ride from the watch. Of course my heart rate data comes over to Strava as well now, which is nice. The only problem I'm having since switching over to the GPS tracking via the watch is that my rides are recording much greater elevation gain than what I believe to be the actual elevation. Strava has a nice feature that lets you correct the elevation from within the App once the ride is recorded, presumably based on all of its collected data for the given route. Still, I'm perplexed over why Garmin thinks my elevation gain is more than twice what it should be. I changed the settings on the watch to check GPS every second and also to supplement the GPS with Galileo. Same result today though. Anybody have insights on this?

Was this bike parked next to the scooter, or is it a scooter battery mounted on a bike?

I was mistaken about the mash bill on the Stellum bourbon. The 99% corn is only from one of three MGP sourced bourbons in this blend, the other two being high rye. Then there are additions from Tennessee and Kentucky blended in as well. Apparently there are bourbon selections on the market that are made from 100% corn, not to be confused with Corn Whiskey. Might seek out a bottle of the Balcones Texas Blue Corn Bourbon to see what that is all about.

Had a chance to try a few try a few new whiskies at Total Wine today and walked away with this Stellum. I had actually never even heard of it before, but apparently it is a more affordable ($54) version of Barrel whiskey. I really loved it on the nose and palate. Believe this is the highest corn content (99%) I've ever had in a whiskey, and that must really be to my liking. The finish carried through all the way home from the store, and at 115 proof, left a nice warm feeling in the gullet. Can't wait to really get into this one!

If you've never tried it, you should muddle a fresh serrano pepper and introduce some of the juice into your margarita. It's not for everybody, but I love the way the spiciness counters the sweetness / tartness.

Haha yep that's the same set I bought under Prime - free shipping and had 'em in 2 days. Only problem is that I'm using the new glasses as an excuse for drinking more whiskey!

I bought the pair for $17.50, which seemed reasonable, but then again, I've never shopped for glassware before. Every other glass we own came in the form of a gift, except for a few promotional beer glasses I've picked up at festivals and such.

Been drinking whiskey neat now for many months, and finally got around to getting some proper Glencairn glasses. Tonight I'm tapping a couple of sister products - Russel Reserve Single Barrel Rye and WT Rare Breed Rye. Slight nod to the Rare Breed Rye, but both are damn good IMO.

Been enjoying this Blonde out of Brenham. On the light side at 5.5% - not that there's anything wrong with that.

Damn does it really have to be this complicated? If you're thirsty ... drink. If you're not thirsty ... don't drink. If your piss is dark yellow ... drink. If your piss is clear ... don't drink.

Diggin' the Union Jack as I wind down the work week!

Is one of those two remaining drops shown in the pic called "Basket"? I go off of both of those routinely but have never figured out if they have names (not that I really care - just curious). By the way, big thanks to whoever cleared that low hanging branch beneath the exit on that first one (easternmost). I recall they even created a bit of a log roll from the cut lumber. Just noticed that this past weekend.

I had the Rare Breed Bourbon before but this is the first time trying the RB Rye, based on @Barry's suggestion. Sipping on some now and it is really smooth and tasty. The 112 proof is a bit low for a barrel proof, but it packs plenty of heat. The nose is fabulous, and the combination of flavors on the palate is indescribably good to me. Just enough spice on the finish to let you know you're drinking a Rye vs. Bourbon. I was tempted by the WhistlePig 10-yr, but for now I'm trying to stay at or under $60 per bottle given how much I've enjoyed what's available in the $45-$60 range. Suppose that will change over time. The guy at TW tried real hard to convince me that I should get this one. Let me know if anybody's tried it. For now I'm really pleased with the RB Rye and glad I picked it up.

Trip to TW today!