AB has himself a YouTube thingy.  

Check him out at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdzaZXrTeLj40FnmISz83iQ.  You might even have a chance to stare at my butt on a ride for 10 minutes.

Spring break for me normally means tagging along with the wife and girls for some fun out in California.  Days at the beach and pool.  Nights by the firepit, beer in hand.  Unfortunately, given some issues with staffing in my office right now, I didn't have the luxury of taking the time off to head to Cali.  

Saturday morning saw the wife and kids hit the road.  My wife let me know on short notice that she was still going to go so I didn't have the lead time in planning that I normally do for this type of situation.  Nothing was really coming together on Saturday so I binge cleaned my house.  I talked to the Gov a bit on Saturday morning and bounced the idea of bombing the canal by our house up to the airport to grab a bit of Barrio Brewing.  Finally, a partner in crime.  

Kids were napping and we hit the road.  After some finagling our way through the myriad of canals and roads to get there, we were greeted with some of Tucson's finest beers in a great setting by Mesa/Gateway Field.   

After a couple brews, we decided to ride back into increasing cloudiness.  No one that lives in Arizona puts much stock in the weather forecast when they call for rain but towards the end, we started to get spritzed on.  Of course, when the weather turns, something mechanical inevitably happens.  Sure enough, I wind up flatting.  Fortunately, even though I had switched to what I was advised by someone who will remain nameless would be a foolproof system, I had an extra tube with me.  A few thousand pumps later and I was back on the trail to more beer in my fridge.

Sunday opened with a more well formed action plan.  Or at least that's what Scotty B, Baker, Bryan Doyle and I thought.  The idea was to throw down a chunk of Brown's.  Unfortunately, the unreliable Arizona weather that I mentioned earlier reared its ugly head.  Hey, you take rain when you get it.  Fortunately, Brown's and the decomposing granite that it consists of drains super well.  Ride on.

It wouldn't be a Sunday funday without a couple of post ride barley pops with the Gov.  Viet even made an appearance.

Usually, when we do a Brown's Ranch ride, or any ride in general with a group, things tend do de-evolve into a back and forth over who wants to do what.  Ivie and I talked earlier in the week about doing a cx ride from his house to Brown's Ranch and when that didn't happen, I was fortunate that the group let me do some intel and design a ride for this last Saturday.  The objective was to throw in some new with some old favorites and try and hit all corners of the park.

The goal was 8 am at Fraesfield Trailhead.  I like using it as a starting point due to the fact that it isn't usually crowded and it is a good start and finish point for a myriad of different rides.  I showed up with my usual co-pilot, the Gov in tow.  Ivie was there with the Strat man. 

Somehow, we managed to link together a series of awesome old (to us) trails and introduced us to some new (to us) trails that we had never ridden.  West Express was a riot.  We managed to break off a big chunk of Stagecoach which was new to me.  The only regret was a relative lack of time and the fact that I missed the turn to Stagecoach from West Express.  I must have been to busy having a blast.

As we say, it's hard to mess Brown's up.

Here's to next time.

Now that we're into 2018, I figured it might be cool to put some new designs out there for anyone that is interested.  We have full kits, head to toe, available for both road and mountain.  The more we buy, the better the pricing is as well.  

Here are the designs along with some input on the pricing:

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The pics kinda suck so if you want more information on the designs or a better look at them, let me know.  This stuff really pops when you see it properly and it's all really well made stuff.  My goal is to have an order places by 3/15.