Part One

"It's just over that next rise. I think you'll be pretty surprised at what you see, and amazed."

The two men continued walking up the brush-covered incline. Legend had it that there was once a great city nearby, part of a huge civilization that once spanned the entire continent. But that was long ago, and there was only myth and shadow and the sparse evidence left of that ancient civilization. Building foundations and skeletal frames were visible in some places, and there were deep trenches and strange pipes that seemed to lead from nowhere to nowhere. Deep holes were found here and there, seemingly carved from solid rock, and a few short sections of stone-carved tunnels could be found scattered around. Every now and then someone would stumble upon some ancient artifact, and the people would try to divine a little bit more from that artifact, try to add a little more color to the stark outlines of what they knew, or thought they knew, of the previous inhabitants of that land. Mostly, though, nature had reclaimed whatever once existed of the ancient people. No remains of the ancient people had been found, and no pictures of them were known. How they had lived, how they had died, where they might have moved to: these things could only be guessed at, speculated upon. And in this manner, the people who lived there now had put together their own beliefs and legends regarding the ancient people and their grand civilization.

"We've been walking all day, and I still ain't seen nothin' interesting. You say it's over the next rise, but you been saying that for the past three rises. You sure you saw anything?"

"I know what I saw, and I tell you it's over this rise. Just a few hundred yards to go, and you'll see something you've never seen before, something amazing. Let me ask you, you ever been out this way, this far? No. No one has. We've been goin' right up to the edge of that gulley for years, but no one ever bothered to venture across to the other side, until I did it. And now you. Good thing we brought food and water. We may need to make camp and sleep out here tonight. You got the shelter in your pack, Jeb?"

"Yeah, I got it. And the noisemakers too. Sure wish we could be back home tonight, inside. This had better be worth a night in the wilderness, Zeke."

"It is. And don't worry about the wild ones. I stayed out here overnight and didn't see or hear a thing. Didn't smell nothin', neither. Why, I ain't even seen their tracks nor any other sign o' 'em. Like I said, they don't hang around here. Why, I'm not convinced that they hang around anywhere. I ain't never seen one, and them that claims to have, well, I ain't met a reliable witness yet. I heard the stroies, though, and I've heard some strange noises some night, but there's lot's o' things that make noises at night. Anyway, like I said, I ain't heard no strange noises at all last time I was out here at night."

Zeke and Jeb continued up the incline in silence. It had been a long hike to the gulley, then the climb down one side and up the othere, then more hiking. The ground had been mostly level with a few rises an dips, but the last few miles had involved a lot of uphill hiking. They were near the top now.

"Oh, this is gonna be good, " Zeke said excitedly. Just a few more yards. This is the spot. Here we are. What did I tell you? Is that incredible, or what?"

"Wha...is that...but...Oh my..." was all that Jeb could manage, as he stood, mouth open, transfixed by what he saw. He had never seen anything like it before, never even conceived of anything like it. Yet there, below him on the other side of the rise, was the most amazing thing he had ever seen...

To be continued?
bIsh

Back in The Saddle Again, Again

Well, I am back in the saddle again, again.

In a previous post, I told about how I am back on my Mountain Bike. I am now back on my road/commuter bike, also. This bike was down for a while due to rear wheel replacement surgery. Both of the wheels on that bike had come down with a bad case of worn-out braking surface - something I had never seen before in all of my years of bike doctoring. The braking surface on the rim of each wheel was thrashed, to the point where the brake shoes were picking up and retaining flakes of metal from the rims, in turn causing more thrashing of said rims. The front tire replacement went smoothly - I chose the (relatively) inexpensive Mavic Crossride, a standard 26" wheel. When I ordered a Crossride for the rear wheel, I found out that it is no longer available, except as a disk-specific wheel (I don't have disk brakes on either of my bikes). This being the case, I chose the Mavic Crossland - a slightly more expensive wheel, and definitely not a standard 26" wheel (unknown to me at the time). The Crossland arrived, and I tried to mount the rear tire and tube, but was not able to do so. A little reading of the manual revealed that I could not use just any 26" tire; I needed an ERTO-spec tire. I had never heard of ERTO before, so I did some research and discovered that ERTO is a European tire spec that uses milimeters instead of inches. The ERTO size for a 26" x 1.5" tire is 40-559 - 40 being the tire cross-section, and 559 being the wheel diameter (in mm). Thus, my standard, American 26" tire is slightly too small to fit over the rim of a 559mm wheel. After much searching online, I found a retailer selling an ERTO-spec tire in my size (26" x 1.5"/40-559). The tire came two days ago, and even though it is ERTO, it is a pain to mount and unmount. Long story short, the tire is mounted, the wheel is mounted, the brake shoes are new, and I'm back in the saddle again.

This was definitely a learning experience for me, and in the future I will probably not choose Mavic for my wheels.

Time to ride.
bIsh