Walnut Creek Ride

Walnut Creek is one of my very favortie mountain biking locations. Part of it is due to the fact that it is only 10 minutes away, but it also has easy to pretty extreme technical features. If you want speed, you can find it. If you want jumps, you can find them. If you want a whoop-de-doo pit, you got it. If you want rocks, roots, drops, heart-pumping climbs, tight spots between two trees, you have them all. The Austin Ridge Riders have done a really good job developing and maintaining the trails. Today, I went with my friend Scott for a ride and decided to go on some trails that we've never been on. That's the other thing I like - I've ridden there many times and there are still trails I haven't been on or only have traveled in one direction. We rode for about an hour and a half, found two geocaches along the way, and depending on who you believe, went 5.7, 6.5, or 6.6 miles. My GPS said 5.7, Scott's bike computer said 6.5, and my computer said 6.6. I don't really know which one to believe. I also don't remember if I started the GPS at the same time as my computer (I rode up to the bathroom before I started my GPS and can't remember if I reset my computer). Anyway, here is the route we took today and the profile.

Food Friday

Down in Port Aransas, we headed to a restaurant called Big Kahuna. Becca and I split coconut shrimp and flounder with blue crab and shrimp stuffing. The picture isn't that great because we had already made the split and my whole family was making fun of me pulling out my camera at the restaurant. Becca has gotten used to waiting a minute for me to photograph some of my meals, so it was my parent's turn to experience it. Hey, it was kind of fun acting like a food critic.
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Before we left for the coast, I made some penne rustica so we could have a good meal for mother's day. The recipe is below. Again, the picture just isn't that great when you are trying to transport food that you've made, frozen, and packed in a cooler.
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Penne Rustica (Macaroni Grill)
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Gratinata Sauce
3 T. butter
2 T. minced garlic
3 T. marsala wine
2 c. heavy cream
1 c. grated Parmesean cheese
1/2 c. milk
1/2 c. chicken broth
1 T. corn starch
1 T. deli mustard
2 t. minced fresh rosemary
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. minced fresh thyme
1/4 t. ground cayenne pepper
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1 pound penned pasta, cooked
12 med. shrimp, peeled and deveined
2 skinless chicken breast fillets
1/2 c. (~2 oz.) thick-sliced prosciutto, chopped
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Topping
3 T. grated Parmesean cheese
1 1/2 t. paprika
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1. Preheat grill to high. Pound thick side of chicken breast so the fillet is uniform in thickness. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Grill (5-6 min/side). Skewer shrimp and grill (2 min/side). Cut chicken into strips.
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2. Cook pasta following package directions. They should be al dente (not mushy). Strain, set aside.
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3. Prepare sauce by melting butter. Add garlic and sweat for about 5 minutes (med-low?). Be sure the garlic doesn't brown. Add the marsala wine and cook for another 5 minutes. Add the remaining ingredients and whisk well until smooth. Bring mixture to simmer and keep it there for 10 mintues or until it's thick. Remove from heat.
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4. Preheat oven to 500 degrees F. Combine pasta, meats, and sauce. Place in large, shallow baking dish. Sprinkle with topping and cook for 10-12 minutes (until the tops is brown).

My first

After going out to dinner tonight in Port Aransas, I convinced my parents and Becca to help me look for a few geocaches. We couldn't find the first one we looked for. And then ... Eureka! We found my first. We found another one later on top of a hill near the coast where they used to have a battery of guns to protect the good old US of A from German submarine wolfpacks. It was nice to learn a little history and see the town a litle bit while searching for the caches. So, two down, 499,998 to go (ok, I don't know how many are out there in the world, but I thought I heard half a million at some point - maybe it's more).

Flowers Out Front

We have some great looking flowers out front. Can anyone identify them? We think they are some type of lily, but they also seem to have some iris in them.
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Barton Creek

This afternoon I rode at Barton Creek. Last time I rode there was more than a year ago and it must've been dryer because the creek was a lot fuller this time (last time it was dry where the bike route was) and there was a lot more brush/weeds. For some reason, at some places there is water and then it disappears and then reappears downstream. I had something like 4 dry creek crossings and 4 wet crossings (up to my knees). At first, I tried to avoid the water as much as possible and it led me down a trail that I think is more for hikers than bikers because it had a 2 foot wide rock ledge 20' above the water with a chain bolted to the wall. Needless to say, I had to carry my bike on that part. I tracked my route on GPS and it looks pretty good, but I think there are a few points that are off, maybe because I was under heavy brush.
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Cold Turkey

Last week, Becca cut my hair (which she usually does about every 6-8 weeks). I decided that I've been too anal for more than a decade about my hair and that I was going cold turkey on hair products. So, I haven't touch gel or paste for over a week. I have to say, it's kind of nice. My hair is soft and so what if some of my hairs stick up or don't behave? We'll see how it goes when it gets a little longer and if I'll look like a big dork (quiet! I know what you are thinking - "your hair won't matter, you are a dork anyway". No comments from the peanut gallery). Now, when I'm going in for a job interview or something, maybe I'll use some paste, but I think the days of gel + wet hair = crunchy hair are over and softer, more natural looking hair has begun. Rinse and repeat.

Food Friday

Becca decided that a picnic would be fun. She made us a some turkey and cheese paninis, grapes, chips, and dessert. Riley was a real pro. She just sat and ate and looked around the yard.

Panoramic 2

Ok, this is better (manual setting with a tripod).

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Panoramics

There's a possibility that we might sell our house in the winter and our yard is one of the best assets. There are many mature trees and the backyard is nice and green and shady during the summer. I've been wanting to create a panoramic picture for a while, so I thought I'd give it a go. Of course, I have a small obsession with the yard looking nice. I'm embarrassed when people come over and the grass hasn't been cut and edged. I guess we all have our quirks (Becca has to make sure the inside of the microwave is clean). So, I waited to take pictures until I had mowed, edged, and trimmed the bushes. Anyway, here is a panoramic view of our backyard. I still have to get better at my technique. I was lazy and didn't use the manual setting, so some of the exposures (lighting) is different. I also just shot by hand, so that's why our house looks like it got bent in half. Anyway, for my first try, I don't think it's too bad.
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(from 12 photos)

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I also did the side yard (check out the branch that ends and starts in thin air) and the front (I also put a single photo next to it - I think that this one didn't really need a panoramic view).

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(from 4 photos)

(from 3 photos above vs. 1 below)

GPS

Meet my new toy. It's a Garmin eTrex Vista HCx. It's a GPS unit. I have been interested in getting one for sometime now and finally pulled the trigger last week (ok, I had to save up allowance for it). I also got the topographic maps. I'll eventually get the road maps too, but I am mostly going to use this for geocaching and tracking bike rides. I played around with it a little to get used to some of the functions. When I get a track, I can map it on the topo map and even see the elevation profile. Does anyone else out there have a gps and how do you use it? Do I need to get a bike mount or can I just start it and drop it into my camelback?

I loaded a geocache nearby. It was in a park closeby, so Becca, Riley, Bernie, and I went on a walk on our first "treasure hunt". The gps told us that it was in the grove of trees that had some large boulders scattered around, but after looking for about 20 minutes, we gave up. I came back home and looked at some of the clues and I guess it was a harder find than we thought. There was a lot of growth that made it hard to search between the big rocks. Oh, well.