Merry Land II

For the enlightenment of anyone not living hillbilly land, this is a conversion van.

Great discoveries

Just to interrupt Kent's story of giant RVs (or whatever that monstrosity is that he's driving) and posting yourself bicycles, I thought I'd tell you what I found out at the weekend. If you can't afford to drink yourself into a stupor on imported lager, and the local Tsing Tao doesn't float your boat, just do a Sudafed and a half pint of Bombay Sapphire, and bob's your uncle, you'll look like this:

Merry Land

So, I am driving a Chevrolet Stealth SS conversion van (which is neither stealthy nor super sporty, but does have TV and a toilet in case I want to take a dump and watch American Idol while I am driving) from Ohio to Florida. On the recommendation of Little Lord FauntIeroy, I have already Fed-Exed a Nicolai Helius ST and a Commencal Supreme DH for Friday delivery at the place of business of my buddy in Frederick, Merry Land. After 81 calls to Fed-Ex during the day on Friday, I conclude that Fed-Ex has not delivered the machinery to the place of business of my buddy in Frederick, nor are they going to until Saturday morning, which is an issue, as it is a place of business and is closed on Saturday, and as I plan to be faacking riding Saturday morning. I arrange to pick-up the bikes at the Fed-Ex store in Frederick when they open on Saturday at 9:00 a.m.

So, Saturday morning I eat six Krispy Kreame doughnuts and haul ass from my buddy's house to the Fed-Ex store a hour away, grab the bikes, stuff them in the van and drive an hour back to the trailhead (which happens to be 13 minutes from my buddy's house) following directions from LLF. Upon arriving at the end of the directions I see a dirt parking lot with three guys circling on DH bikes. I dropped the window and announced my arrival with the inquiry: "Is this were the big boys ride?"

We unboxed and built the two bikes at the trailhead and took off down tight but flowy single track which eventually ran over a few rock piles before it dropped into a long straight rock-lined gully, with sloped sides that could be railed. The gully led to a sweet dirt jump / gap jump section which let out onto a long, straight, steep, wide open descent that allowed much speed to be developed and then quite abruptly demanded that much speed be scrubbed off to navigate a very sharp left turn at the bottom. A couple of more rock piles and a stream crossing, and one finds oneself at the end of the trail. A five minute drive (taking turns driving the shuttle vehicle) takes you back to the top. We did this more than once. LLF brought along his buddy Delmer, who, at first, I had planned to mock for being Johnny Match, but whom it turns out had a reason to be riding a Yeti AS-X and wearing a Yeti jersey. More later. (I just inadvertently typed "lager" instead of "later", and I take it to be a sign.)

Another reason not to buy an Intense

It will cost so much you'll be scared the paint might get scratched, so you'll cover the whole thing in cling film and then it was always look crap, rather than just after you've got it scratched to bits