A Close Call and DocStock 2019


After more than 15 years, I'm going to let my domains www.kevinandtammy.net and www.grapevineartglass.net expire. I haven't done anything with either site in years and I can't justify the cost to keep them. Plus, I built the sites with Microsoft's Frontpage program which my GoDaddy host no longer supports—meaning, I can no longer use the program to update the sites if I wanted to. The one problem for me, though, is that I've got so many links from my blog directed at my kevinandtammy.net site where I've archived photos. I'm in the process of archiving those photos on my Google Photos site and I'll link to them there. It's going to be dozens of hours of work.

I had a close call on my road bike a little more than a week ago on only my 2nd road ride of the year. It was Saturday mid-morning and I was coming out of St. Paul on a 4-lane divided highway when a driver proceeded through an intersection and appeared to not see me until the last second. I was certain they weren't going to stop in time but they did. (Here's video from the close call) I'm quite sure it was the blinking bright white strobe on the front of my bike that caught their attention and saved me.

I used to say that at the end of the year, it was only ever a handful of drivers out of the hundreds of thousands that passed me that ever posed a problem. I don't say that anymore. It's never been riskier to be a road cyclist than it is now with so many distracted drivers more focused on their phones than their driving. I still love to ride pavement and I'll no doubt do my share of miles on it this year but for the most part, I've transitioned to riding gravel and I'm loving it, especially my Tuesday night gravel rides with the guys out of Northfield. I'm never more alive than when I'm riding with these guys! (See video embedded below for last week's ride). I can ride gravel roads for mile after mile without seeing another vehicle. The occasional loose dog is about my only concern. Another bonus to riding gravel are the many additional options I have of roads to ride—gravel roads I couldn't easily ride on with my road bikes because of their skinny tires now beckon me. I sometimes feel like a kid again when I'm on my gravel bike exploring new places.

We attended DocStock 2019 on Saturday at Drew's parent's home south of Rochester. What a fun time that was! DocStock is a play on the Woodstock name. "Doc" is Drew's father's nickname. Drew's band, Francis Jennings and the Seisable Johnsons led off the show followed by his brother Colton's band, Hawk45. Both bands did a great job of entertaining us. Tammy bought some cowbells just for Hawk45's cover of Mississippi Queen. They were a hit! ...as were the inflatable guitars we brought along for people to take their air-guitar skills to the next level. We're already looking forward to next year's show.

That's all I've got.



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