The Last Day of Summer

The foundation

 For some reason Mother Nature decided to give summer one more go on Saturday. Yesterday was around 70 deg F, and as I type on Sunday night, the temp outside is 26 and dropping, hmmm. It was nice to get out and enjoy it.

All finished, Big "D" relaxes inside on the couch,  I mean log

 In the morning it was raining, our caving trip fell through, and the only thing I had planned for the day was sleeping in. G-man was off at gymnastics, Lynn was at the gym, the boys and I needed something to do. I don't usually need too much motivation to do anything but Saturday I turned to the internet to see if any programs were going on at the local parks for a couple young boys and myself.

The best fort of the bunch

 A few clicks later I found something called Fabulous Forts at one of the Three Rivers Parks. It was in Victoria, 45 minutes from my house, staring at 10 am, which gave me only 20 minutes to get ready. No problem all we needed were the Nintendo DS' and a rain jacket. We didn't need food since our 5$ registration included  marshmallows roasted over a camp fire after the program. 

Super"Y" and Big "D" adding finishing touches to the remodel

 I know what your thinking, why would anyone pay five bucks and drive forty-five minutes to build a fort out of sticks you can find laying in any forest, one word, "motivation", or lack there of.

Some other kid's fort, the flag was a nice touch

 I was skeptical but had a ton of fun building a fort out of sticks with my boys. We even got a little classroom time before the construction phase so I guess it was educational too.

The entryway

 There were several other families there for the program, and when we were all done building, we had a sort-of, Parade-of-homes, where each builder would showcase their dream fort, and all the amenities inside and out. Super "Y" didn't want to build with Big "D" and I, so he went off to "remodel" an existing fort. We started from scratch and built one of the finest forts out of the bunch. 

Only two marshmallows each

 After the showcase it was on to the marshmallows, we were only allowed two each so there was no way we were getting our money's worth out of this program. I made it up to the boys with some hot chocolate at the gas station and some fine lunch items from under the heat lamps. Fabulous Forts was a lot of fun and has motivated me to head down to the river with my boys and build some forts for free, and bring a whole bag of marshmallows just for us.

Getting educated in the park's interpretive center

 Once I got home from the fort building I headed down to the basement to finish up my build on my geared Surly 1X1. I've had this since last year but have not ridden it since I was robbing parts off of it. I was happy I didn't have to steal any parts from any other bikes to get it rolling. I've had a bunch of shit laying around from various upgrades, the bike swap last February, and stuff I didn't even know I had. I threw on some old Mavic wheels with XT hubs, some corroded BB7s that work great, a brand new set of Conti 2.5"Petrols which are out of production, an old WTB Ti saddle, and a set of ISIS spline Bontrager "Race" cranks, as well as new cables all around.  It's a really fun bike to ride with the fat tires, I think it looks cool too. Did I mention it was 70 deg outside in Minnesota on November 10 and I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt riding my bike.  Hells yeah!

I'm ready for this lake to freeze so I can ride it  

 

I'm a sucker for orange bikes