Traffic

Traffic where I live has become horrendous in the past 25 years. I remember growing up in York back in the sixties when this intersection had "0" traffic signals. Now it has 6 separate sets and I bet it averages at least one major collision a week. When traffic is light, I can make it to work in less then 5 minutes using the interstate and when traffic is busy-it can take up to a half hour. Yeah, I'd love to ride to work on my bike-but working 3rd shift and having time constraints in the morning during the school year.....it ain't gonna happen.

It's like that all over the county. I know our traffic isn't nearly as bad as larger cities but it still sucks nonetheless.

Less then 30 miles in either direction we also have Gettysburg and "Amish Country"-Lancaster county. I've ridden my bike to both places and during the tourist season, traffic is actually worse in both locations then it is in York. If you have to pick one or the other to visit-skip Lancaster because the traffic and main roads are some of the worst you'll ever experience just to see some fake Amish crap. Ya wanna see the real Lancaster County? It ain't anywhere where the tourists are.

Go to Gettysburg and take a bike. You will be able to see and visit more of the battlefields on a bike then you will by car or tour bus.

Just keep an eye out because nobody is paying attention to where they are going. Riding a bike in an urban setting is getting to be like a bloodsport. I've had folks cut me off, squeeze me out of lanes and turn right in front of me. I don't take any of it personally, folks just drive with a perpetual RCI.............tourist traffic blows.

On the bright side, my wife and my mother-in-law have completely gutted and cleaned our daughters room while she has been at college this summer............

Click da pics to make big......






Clean carpets, no longer smells like teenager :-)

Since I am on vacation this week and it's 900 degrees with 8000% humidity............why not stip all the old chipped paint off of my hardtail frame and repaint it?

I forgot to take a before picture, here's what it looked like 1/2 way through the "getting the old paint off" stage.........







I think I lost about 10 pounds of sweat taking the rest of the paint off, I never really liked the red paint it came with.

I was planning on painting the bike "Bass Boat Blue" but when I went to the parts store, I found this...........


Gotta love purple/green color changing paint..............

3 primer coats, 4 color coats and 6 coats of clear later................




The pictures really don't do it justice, whenever you or the bike moves-it changes shades of color or turns an entirely different color.

I'll probably wet sand off a coat or two of the clear and compound it out to get it nice and smooooooth-out in the direct sunlight it really does change from different shades of green, gold, blue and purple and it has huge metalflakes in it. It's sick, different and cool at the same time.

I like it way better then the red and somewhere I have the old Schwinn head badge from the first Schwinn I owned........I think it's gonna have a new home.

Tonight is "boy's night out". Our 11 year old and I are gonna go down to Baltimore and watch the Orioles kick some Texas Ranger ass. Maybe not, but it'll be a fun night out and we have 3rd baseline seats.

Till later........