A blast from the past

I talked to my 2 friends Paul and Tryon the other night. Been a long time since we connected. I really miss the fun things we used to do together, but hey, life goes on and we can still get together, right? Paul told me he now has a lake house, cool! He also sent me some shots from France. Wow, I really need to go back. This spring I plan to travel to Europe for 6 weeks or so. Hopefully most of that time will be spent in Spain with my Dad!!

DSL is on the way

Our house has stepped out of the 20th century and into the 21st. I
found out yesterday we were now eligible to get high speed internet
via DSL. We signed up immediately. What does that mean? It means I
will be able to update my website on a daily basis if I so choose.
There are many things I would like to put up, but just don't have the
time to sit here and wait to load up to the server. So check out the
site after the new year.

New Pics Up

There is a new picture gallery on my site, check them out.

When you click on the yellow star on the welcome page, or click on the new gallery link on the gallery page, a new window should open. I am trying a new flash animation slideshow program that integrates with iPhoto nicely. It does take a while to load, but that is because I am using large picture files, I think it looks better than the small files. Plus, as Americans, we all need to relearn the old adage "Good things come for those who wait" 

http://www.tonycamblor.com

End of the semester, finally

The end of the semester is finally here, and here is the lowdown on
what's up with me. I am taking two classes, nursing in the community
and mental health nursing. In the community class, I have one clinical
day (home health visit) and a final exam (Dec. 13th) left. In mental
health I just have the final on Dec. 10th. I pretty much have an "A"
locked up in community, but in mental health I have to get a 94 on the
final to get the "A". I am studying hard, because this will determine
wether or not I graduate with honors, and I want the honors. The only
thing I have planned for the break is to finish the roofing project on
the house I started last month, yuck.

We have a tree

Our tree this year is an 8 footer. Fatter than last year's for the same price!  All the new ornaments look really great on it. Jennifer purchased $40 worth of new LED lights at the store, and took them back as soon as she saw them on the tree. Something about them being too bright. I must admit, I do like the look of the regular old lights, even if it will cost us an extra 78 cents this season!

 

 

 

 

Heat Woes

For the last few weeks we have been without heat. Not because we
can't afford it, but because it keeps breaking. The heating repair
guy has now been here 4 times, and it seems to finally be working.
The last time he was here was yesterday, and right after he left the
house filled up with smoke and all of the wires inside the air
handler in the attic melted. That is what the photo is, one big blob
of wires. I took one look at the mess and figured we would surely
need to replace the whole system, but the workman was diligent and
fixed it. He replaced everything! And with parts that normally go
into a much nicer unit! Now we have heat, and Jennifer is happy.

septic: no worries in Black Mountain

Jen and I visited the Department of Health in Asheville today to see
about the septic situation on the land we are under contract on. We
gave the helpful people in the office the name and address of the
owner, and they were able to give us a tiny little map that shows the
basic location of the septic system. It is almost worthless. The good
news is that because the land was already permitted for a 3 bedroom,
they do not have to come out and do it again. They told us that if we
could locate the old system, they would come out, inspect it, and
sign of on it for $65. It will pass inspection as long as there is
not a mound of dirt or tree growing on it. It dawned on me while I
was sitting at a light next to a construction site that was pouring
concrete that the septic tank was more than likely concrete,
reinforced with rebar. Now if I could just score a metal detector I
could locate it! At Dick's sporting goods the cheapest one was $125.
At Target, a toy version that will certainly work was $14. I know own
a toy metal detector, stay tuned to see how it works!

under contract

We are under contract for the property we found in Black Mountain,
NC. Jennifer and I could not be more excited about this!! I don't
have a really good picture of the land, but the shot included here
should give an idea of the deep woods feel it has. We are considering
building a round house from Oregon Yurtworks, you can visit their
site at www.yurtworks.com
We have till mid December to make sure all the standards required to
build are met, then we close! Yea for us!
I went to visit the property with a friend yesterday, and we brought
our road bicycles for a ride in the area. We saw no less than 20
other cyclists while we rode in Black Mountain, and I'm not talking
about some dude on his way to the grocery, I mean serious cyclists in
full regalia. That's out kind of town!!

land deal today

I have not blogged in a while, I know what a slacker. Well, there is
a good reason, we have been busy putting together a land deal in
Black Mountain. OK, that has not taken up all of my time, I am still
a slacker with the blog. The land is 10 miles from Downtown Black
Mountain, and has everything we want: 2 creeks, mountain view, flat
homesite, 5 acres, and best of all....... no neighbors! The bottom of
the land borders a 175 acre land conservation easement, so we are
hoping that no houses will ever be built there, although you could
not see them from the homesite anyway. Mom came out and looked at the
property and really seemed to like it. Bill Reinert came next and
pointed out some really cool options we had not considered.
The area seems to be ideal for cycling, and we are going to give that
a try today with Brian Burns. All in all Jen and I are really excited
about the prospect of building our own private house in the woods. We
both understand that it will be a challenge, and we are bound to
argue about the details, but we have always been able to work it out
in the past, and compromise. I'll post pictures soon.
TC

We made it!

I plan to put a complete write up with pictures and background on my
website, but until then here you go! The Tour de Tuck ended up being
105 miles long with over 11,000 feet of elevation gain. It took just
over 8 hours, and every bit of energy I could muster. I must admit
that I did not think it would be possible to finish when we signed up
for the ride. I trained hard, it made me feel great, so I trained
even harder. The first shot is of us at a field full of Christmas
trees in Little Canada (Jackson county) about 25 miles from the
finish. The second shot is of Jen and I at the finisher party. I
already want to do it again!

Pizza!!

Tonight we are having pizza! This is a special oatmeal whole-wheat
crust with olive oil, garlic, tofu, fresh basil, and tomatos. YUM!
The ride is soon, we only have one more day to rest up. We are both
bursting with excitement.

The ring of hades

Today was our final training/scouting ride in preparation for the big
TdT ride next Saturday. We rode the ring of hades from downtown
Sylva. Here are my stats: Max 46.6 mph, Ave 14.1 mph, Dist 74.01 mi,
5:13 in the saddle, and 6664 feet of climbing. This was really the
best ride I have done all year. The weather was perfect, the route
was super, and the group worked well together. Jen and Deb are really
impressive, I am pretty slow still. Charley's creek was a nice
challange with a 16% grade that lasted for just over half a mile. It
hurt, but my new cranks are made for for it. I must say I am sold, it
is the way to go. The shots are at Richland Balsam, on the way to
215, and Charley's creek. The scenery on Charley's creek is really
beautiful. So much so that you don't even realize you are suffering.
The three of us gave today a thumbs up. Let's see what we say next week.

I've gone compact

Well, after quite a bit of thought, I decided to put a compact
crankset on my bike. With the 34 tooth front and 27 tooth cassette,
it is 34 inches of chain. In layman's terms, that means I will now
have an easier time of it on the climbs. My intent is to remove the
16 on the cassette, and add an 11 tooth. That will give me a bigger
gear than what I had on here before. I bought the crank used from a
nice guy in town, so if it doesn't work, I can return it. Everybody
tells me I will love it, we'll see. I'm going to go give it a try
today, and tomorrow I'll test her out on 6000 feet of climbing.

our strange cat

We have one strange cat, Andrews. Today he got into a gym bag that
was lying on the floor, and refused to get out. Jennifer carried it
around the house to see what would happen, and he just stuck his head
out the top to see where we were taking him.

65 miler, 5000 feet of climbing

Yesterday Jen and I rode the Ring of Fire from the house. 65 miles
and 5000 feet of climbing. I felt fine till the climb back up Elijay
creek. I did not eat enough before I left, and teetered on bonking
the whole time up the mountain. We got home and I went straight to
bed, after checking my weight. I lost 3 pounds on the ride, not good.
I tried to rehydrate, but could not muster the energy to drink much.
I feel better this morning. I must admit, I do love that ride though.
Till next time,
TC

More on Waterrock

Here is a shot of the gang on the way out through Dillsboro. 8 made
the ride, and I'm happy to say we all made it. At the top we took a
break, some of us ate blueberries, and chatted about the climb. Its
another 5 miles to the top after you get to Soco. Back at the house
we logged the cyclocomputer's final stats at 73 miles, 5:10 time in
motion, and 6130 feet of elevation gain. That's only half of what I
need to be able to do for the Tour de Tuck. I can see this one is
going to hurt. I think I'm going to need more gears!

Cherokee-Waterrock loop

Sunday a group of 8 rode the Cherokee-Waterrock knob loop as a
training ride for the upcoming Tour de Tuck. Jen and I are at the
5th, and last tunnel before the descent to Soco gap. It's 11 miles of
climbing at 7-8% to this point.

Bent Creek ride

Yesterday was my first time riding at Bent Creek, and I was not
disappointed. It took me some time to get my bike back in shape after
a few years of disuse, but it proved itself ready for the task. I
completely forgot how fun mountain biking can be. We rode Ingles
fields gap and around a longer loop back to the car. The fun ended
way too soon, I would have preferred to ride some more.

Studying at MAHEC

Today I am at the Mountain Area Health Education Center studying and
doing research for a class project. This afternoon I'm headed to Bent
Creek to mountain bike with my buddy Brian Burns.
Here's a shot of me during a study break.

Praying Mantis are alive!

We finally decided to mow the grass. Only the second time this
summer, it was bad. Jennifer had to go around with a rake to make
sure there were no turtles hiding in the tall grasses, I mean weeds.
We found no turtles, just a few mature male and female Praying
Mantis. We were scared that after the late freeze in April, the one
that killed all the baby mantids, we would not see any this year.
Well, here they are!

Tuesday night group ride

Tonight's Motion Makers ride was a hoot. I made it up to the post
office at Balsam gap in 53 minutes. Not bad for being out of shape.
Here are the fast guys waiting at the top for the others to join. Its
a nice gesture, that really makes this the best group ride around! I
was out of position and got gapped when someone jumped on the way
back in. There is always next week....

A day with dad and the big trees

In the far western reach of the state is a wilderness area called
Joyce Kilmer, that claims to have the largest trees east of the
Mississippi river.
Not many people know about this place, but I think everyone should
see what the trees looked like before we cut them all down.
Dad and I really enjoyed this visit.

on the parkway

Here we find a shot of Jennifer eating blueberries on the Blue Ridge
Parkway last week

training ride on the BRP

Nothing like a 70 mile ride on the Blue Ridge Parkway in the summer!
We met at the coffee shop, 6 in all, even a cyclist from Raleigh! The plan was to ride the Tour de Tuck metric century route.
We stopped in Cherokee to top off the fluids (the ranger station on Waterrock knob is now closed, thanks Bush!).

The climb to Soco gap is 11 miles. When I say 11 miles, I mean 11 miles of constant 7 or 8% grades. I stopped once to put my rear light on, there are 4 tunnels on this section, and once more before the gap for a 2 minute rest and some photos.

At the top we encountered a major storm, so we decided to wait it out. I wish I had gotten this message, as I thought we were abandoning the ride. I dropped off of the mountain on hwy 19 into Cherokee. About 10 minutes later I realized I was the only one that abandoned. Jennifer called me to tell me they had taken refuge in a gas station near the pass. They continued on, I rode back through Cherokee and on to Sylva. I was steaming, not mad, but from the heat. They were enjoying temps in the upper 60's and I was in the 90's for sure.

I met the gang at Annie's Bakery in Sylva for a post ride bagel and some sugary treats.
Jen and I cleaned up at the house and went right to sleep. My legs are tired.
Till next time,
TC