I did a 40 mile ride on the SS today. It was fun but I rode the Santa Fe Trail and, ideally, I need a taller gear than 32x22 but oh well. I was going to jump onto the Air Force Academy and ride their singletrack but I didn't have my ID and was a bit nervous about getting caught. I've grown fond of my fingernails and I'm not sure how I'd hold up in a high stress interrogation. No pictures to speak of as I was too busy bouncing around on the saddle while spinning a huge cadence. I didn't look silly at all but, then again, I didn't care. I was too busy looking at things and listening to Uncle Tupelo's first album (No Depression).

There are so many cool skate parks around here and there's even a nice dirt jump park down along the trail. If I could guarantee a time where none of my students were going to be at the skate park in our town, I would love to go there with my board (yes...I can skate a bit) and play. A few years before I came out here I would routinely skate downtown and in the parking garages really late at night while shooting film. Anyway...I happened to see one lone campsite right by the dirt jumps. Reminded me of back home. In the mid-90's there was a restaurant (I think it was called Orlando Gardens). Behind this place was a creek. I don't know the real name of the creek but we all knew it as Shit Creek. There was a series of dirt jumps down there and there was one guy named Russ that I guess lived there. The kids thought he was cool and so they'd bring him food and stuff. Anyway...on special occassions at the original Big Shark location we would break out a VHS cassette that would have us all in tears. It was a very short clip and the name scribbled on the masking tape was, "Russ jumping Shit Creek". It was a huge gap. The poor footage showed Russ way back on a trail. He came racing down and sprinting for all he was worth. He hit the dirt ramp and right at the lip he launched. Even though the outcome was always the same I think secretly we all held our breath thinking that, this time, it would be different. Russ was airborne for what seemed like 5 seconds. He failed to make the the other ramp and cased it HARD onto the far bank with a "thud" that would send all of us cackling like little girls. If I recall, he got hurt pretty bad on that jump. Wonder whatever happened to that guy?