Thrills, Chills, and BBQ

This, of course, was Father's Day weekend.  Both cats and the dog forgot to get the Mr. anything nor did they seem vexed about it.  In fact, the dog thought that Sunday at 5:00am would be the perfect time to show Crazy George's skunk who's in charge and thus gifted both of us with the noxious fumes and two ruined collars.  So, we spent the early hours of the Sabbath washing him in Campbell's Tomato Soup because we didn't have any tomato juice.  If I had been more awake and less irritated I would have taken pictures for you, but, alas.  He's lucky he's cute.

Tip of the week:  If your dog gets "skunked" forget the tomato juice, and go directly to the Campbell's soup.  I think the High Fructose Corn Syrup does the trick.

Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself.  Back to Saturday.

We met the Mr.'s folks at the Hudson Blues, Brews & BBQ Festival this year for Father's Day.   It was the 2nd Annual fest and we'd never been.  Beer, BBQ, and Blues seemed like a nice combination and Hudson's ambiance has that added draw.  Hudson is one of my very favorite places to ride my bike.  Downtown and the nearby streets are an absolute pleasure to ride since, unlike most Summit County communities, it has retained its New England heritage and charm.  I love, love, love riding in Hudson!  Since the weather was nice, we decided to park the Jeep out by Rt. 303/Rt. 8 junction and pedal the four miles into town.  Hudson is chock full of bike racks shaped like Pennyfarthings and they even have a nice lane down 303 to and from the highway.  It would be a welcome break from our usual rides here in Akron.

We arrived in Hudson on the Redline and the Varsity (now expertly healed of it's derailleur ailment) about 2:10 and the Fest was nowhere to be found.  If I was having a festival in Hudson, I'd have it on the Village Green.  I mean, if you have a village green, use it!  However, they stashed the festival behind the First & Main Shopping center in a parking lot.  It was, needless to say, a little warm.  There weren't any bike racks there either.  So, we corralled them to a lamp post AK-Rowdy style and unloaded the Redline's panniers of all our Father's Day gifts and Germany/Lux souvenirs for the fam.  It was the first time we used the new set for the Redline.

Doesn't this parking lot look hot?

They are awesome.  The best part was that I didn't have to haul anything for a change.

The Fest itself wasn't that impressive.  The Kristine Jackson Blues band was excellent, but the beer side of things was pretty sad.  If you only have three beers, "Brews" shouldn't be in the festival title, especially when one of those beers is Labatt Blue Light.  The BBQ was ok, but certainly not remarkable.  It also isn't very good fuel for cycling and no one had any carbs  (except the beer tent, but that causes other issues), so our return trip was a little slower.  The Varsity was once again recognized, this time by Kevlarbikes, the man behind Car Less Ohio.

That bike is still a blast to ride, by the way.  It's tempting to take it out to The Valley one morning and let loose.  It gives me an extra 2-3 minutes in the morning without pushing it.  Needless to say, I'm quickly becoming a steel convert; it may be heavy, but it's smooth and fast- even in khakis and a blouse.

Anyway, Sunday we celebrated with my family.  After the dog soup bath incident, we rode over to West Point Market for the evening's fare and utilized the new cargo basket (forgot a picture).   I took the FX expecting to handle some of the food, but we were able to fit everything in the basket.  The load included a cake box full of chocolate mouse bombs, a large tray of twice baked potatoes, five steaks, a large salad and sundries.  Everything made it home in one piece; not a single bomb was out of place.  With the two panniers attached to the basket and my set on the FX, we could have carried much more.  Maybe one of these days we'll see how large of a shopping we could pull off by bike.  I look forward to the challenge of hauling a box of cat litter or a case of beer.  On a side note, after months of locking my bike to a pole at West Point, I finally discovered a bike rack tucked in a nook near the door.  Must admit, I felt a little goofy for not seeing it before.

I'm so thankful that we live near this excellent grocery store.  Its always such a pleasure to ride there and purchase my food where the staff and shoppers are friendly and classical music is always playing.  Really, you couldn't have a smugger shopping experience.

The evening with my parents was a pleasure as always, despite the rain that moved our dinner from the patio to the dining room.  They finally were able to see the revamped Varsity that they stored for me for many years.

The weekend was capped off with a very impressive tree fall on our street (no, not Crazy George's ash).  It narrowly missed a car that was driving by and another that was parked on the road.  Thankfully, it didn't take out any phone or power lines either.  Many of the neighbors were actually quite pleased since the owner of the tree is not the nicest gentleman on the street and his teenage sons cause all sorts of trouble.  There was much snickering and fist bumping.

Everyone's favorite neighbor (my second after Crazy George) berated the visibly pleased bystanders from his doorstep.

Of course, we had to watch the tree removal ceremonies from our porch since nothing this exciting has happened in a long while.  The city dispatched a humongous fire truck and 5 firemen who's only job was to put up caution tape.  They left and were followed by a city worker who erected some reflective barriers.

As of this morning, the tree was still blocking the road.

Good thing we have caution tape; not sure we would see the tree without it.

And I wonder why the City of Akron struggles with bike infrastructure...