July | 2015 | Steve Tilford

I am pretty surprised how beat I am, a week after doing a 100 mile MTB race. I was starting to feel rundown before the race, so maybe I was already going to be feeling mediocre even if I didn’t do a 5+ hour MTB race. I do have all the symptoms of allergies and everything is covered with a layer of green pine pollen up here in the Northwoods.

Anyway, I’m still plodding away, trying to ride easy for as long as I can physically stand it. I rode 70 miles a couple days ago and 50 yesterday. I’ve been cramping some at night, in my sleep, but I’m sort of in denial, so I dismiss this as a issue.

The 4th yesterday was great here in Cable. Like I wrote yesterday, lots of holiday festivities. I participated, mainly by watching, a ton of them. I watched the run early, then the parade, ate the picnic lunch, then rode, and finally the fireworks at 10 pm.

Cable has a pretty unbelievable fireworks display for a town of 800. It was pretty constant for 20 minutes, with a great finale. There were a lot of mosquitos trying to suck our blood, but we had some Avon Skin-So-Soft with us, so we didn’t get too destroyed.

I’m watching the Tour now. Seems like a pretty hard day for the first road stage of the Tour. Side winds and rain in Holland isn’t a real surprise. Seems like some GC guys are going to lose time today, but there is still an hour left. Not sure about BMC leaving the yellow jersey to fend for himself.

I’m going to go for a ride this afternoon, the to an outside concert of Molly and the Danger Band. I’ve seen Molly play quite a few times now and it is always super.

Okay, the Tour is getting interesting, so I’m going to watch now. Enjoy.

This little girl was great. This is during the Star Spangle Banner before the parade.

Rivers Eatery entry into the parade.

Nice firework display.

My calf has become a little infected after a crash before the Lutsen race last weekend. Maybe this is why I’m feeling under the weather.

I am sitting in Cable, eating pancakes with blackberries, watching the Tour de France and told Dennis, who was making the pancakes, that very soon, there is going to be carnage. It was so obvious that…….

Okay, I wrote the whole post and it completely disappeared into cyberspace. The paragraph above is all that was left. I don’t have the mental tenacity to rewrite the same thing again. I was done with it before I did it the first time.

Needless to say, the Tour was strange. Neutralized by the organizers after a crash. Never heard of that before. Not sure I agree with that.

So, change of subjects completely.

It is down pouring rain in the Northwoods. It is supposed to rain almost 2 inches today.

Yesterday was super. Bill, Karl and I rode the Firehouse 50 course and ended up at the Rookery, a nice restaurant with an outside venue for music. Molly and the Danger Band was playing. Below, there is a short video of a new instrumental she is recording this fall.

I love listening to her sing. She is so talented. She played at Pat and Gwen’s wedding and makes beautiful music, plays the violin, mandolin, guitar, and many other instruments incredible. I could listen to her play all day.

But, we had to ride back and get back to the Rivers Eatery and watch the women’s world cup finals. By the time I got there, the game was pretty much over. Nice.

We moved outside and Beth told me there are a bunch of stray kittens, small cats at a house that is most likely going to be demolished soon. So she grabbed a bunch of cooked chicken they didn’t use on pizzas and we walked over.

Two of the kittens were together, checking us out. They are not quite feral, but close. They will approach and I could touch a couple of them on their heads. They don’t stand much of a chance up here, with all the predators lurking about. Plus, the harsh winter. Anyone need a new cat? They are very cute. I could catch and deliver.

Okay, better watch the end of the race. The finish is going to be exciting.