Mobius Arch, The Alabama Hills

Here is a shot of Mobius Arch in The Alabama Hills just before sunrise.  The Alamama Hills is located a few miles from the town of Lone Pine, California.  The Alabama Hills is where most of the westerns were filmed as well as some of the space movies.  Mobius Arch is one of the draws to the area and is really nice in the winter with snow on the mountains.  I will have to come back here at a later time of the year next time.

Equipment: Canon 7D with Canon 10-22mm lens.  Post camera processing in Nik Color Effects Pro and Photoshop.

Me at Mobius arch.  It's not very big as you think it is in the photograph.  It is a real wide angle shot, at least 20mm or so.  It's always nice to know these things before you get there!

-mark

Just bought a used Salsa La Cruz a few weeks back and so far I really like the bike. My local bike shop guy tried to get me not to buy it because it was too big for me. I rode it around the block a few times and enjoyed the feel of the bike.  The stand over height is a little tall, but it works for me.  After several hundred miles on the bike now, I can say that it is a great ride.  The problem is that it is about an inch too long compared to my other bikes and causes me some some bake pain on longer rides.  Sell it or try to modify it?  I decided to put Surly Open Bars on it as well as new shifters and break levers. I will upload a picture of the finished mods when I get them done.

Back on the horse that threw me!

Well it's really the bike I was riding when I fell and broke my leg playing bike polo.  It's been 60 days since the accident and I am healing well.  It will be a month or so we fore I am back to full speed on my bike, but any speed without pain is great news!  After a tibal plateau fracture, I am glad to be back riding and almost walking.  Take care of your bones!

Back on the bike!

It has been 59 days since my bicycle polo accident and today I rode my bike for the first time since the accident. It was only 4 miles but it is a great start. Now if I could get back to walking without a crutch, I would be back to the old me.

Start walking again today!

48 days since my bicycle polo accident where I broke my leg. I look forward to getting back on the bike. I think polo is out of the question for now!

28 days since the bike polo accident

Physical therapy is going well, but I am still weeks away from walking. Leg and knee is having some swelling issues, but I am making good progress in PT. I hate not being able to be mobile.

14 days since the bike polo accident.

The staples were removed today and I get to start therapy tomorrow! Due to the major type of break, I am still months away from full recovery.

Day 6 bike polo recovery

Leg still feels the same and is good considering all it has gone through. Had several visitors over the past few days. Go to the doctor next Monday to see what is next. Some bruising showing up around the knee.

Day 3 of recovery

My staples look clean today for the bandage change. I am in a lot of pain today and I have to have help doing almost everything. It was a nice day outside and I wish I could ride my bicycle today.

Day 1 of recovery

Home from the hospital and it is good to be home. My pain level has been down from yesterday which is good. I can't put any weight on my leg for 6 weeks. I will try to update here with my recovery.
My favorite gift while at the hospital, maybe a bike polo player?

Bike Polo

I played my first game of bike polo last night in Russellville. It was a blast and now I need to make me a mallet. One note, use an old bike for the game because you will take a few tumbles in the game. Helmet and gloves are a must!

Had to ride on this warm Arkansas day in Jan!

Today was one of those unusually warm days in Jan here in Arkansas and I had to take advantage of it and ride the motorcycle.  We had a great ride out through the country side and ended up on Mt. Magazine.  There was a little bit of sand on the road from the ice and snow, so we had to be carefull in the mountains.  Here is a link to the GPS route today. I love using GPS for my travels and have wanted to get one of the Garmin motorcycle GPS's but they are around $500 - $800.  So I opted to get a Garmin Nuvi 255W, which is around $100 or less and use it on my motorcycle.  I know you are saying it's not waterproof, but I can place a zip lock bag over it and continue to use it or just put it away.  The way I look at it I could buy several of these and still not spend a lot of money on them compared to just one of the motorcycle GPS'rs.  It was easy to read and was not in my way at al. I bought a RAM mount for it and it is very secure while on the motorcycle.  I already had the GPS for use in my car, so I just bought the mount and it works great.  I would buy one of the motorcycle GPS units if they were not so exspensive.  Also attached you can see my Garmin Forerunner 301 which I use to upload my tracks to "Bike my GPS" website.  It is very easy and I really like the easy to use inerface.
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New GPS site for bikes and motorcycles.

I found this neat site that alows me to share my rides with other riders it called Ride with GPS.  It takes data from my Garmin Forerunner GPS and uploard the data to the site.  You can view the route on Google Maps and it is just a neat way to share rides and keep up with rides.  You can share the data on Facebook also.  Here is an example from one of my urban rides around town.  http://ridewithgps.com/trips/159298

Their web site is http://wwww.ridewithgps.com

They have just started the site and it is growing, I hope you will enjoy the site.

-mark

Happy New Year! (a day late)

Had to start the New Year off right by riding my bike.  While most folks think it's too cold to ride when it is 31 degrees out, I don't mind a ride in the cold weather.  We meet up at our local bike shop (Poppa Wheelies) in Russellville and went for a nice urban ride around town.  The sun was out and it was rather nice out even though it was a little brisk out.  I had to start the new year off with a ride on my new single speed bike from KHS, the Urban Soul.  A nice bike for the price, and it was a blast to ride around town.  We rode about 18 miles and ended up at the local Starbucks for some hot cocco and a blueberry muffin.  A great way to start the year!