Spent Labor Day weekend in Hickory, N.C. with Jenn while visiting her sister Aprill and soon to be husband Adam. Saturday was pretty laid back and which means my ass didn't leave the couch while we watched the opening weekend's worth of college football.

Sunday the girls pressured Adam into showing me some of the local trails. A pint of Jack Black the night before had him thinking he really would rather not but did anyway. We hit up South Mountain State Park. Wish he would have told him to pack my climbing legs. Ended up climbing about 1000ft every four miles until about the 10th mile or so and then as we all know, "What goes up, must come down!"

Pointed the bike down the hill and just held on. The Carver was handling great through the rough rocky sections which put that shit eating grin on my face. That was until, "psssssssssssssssssssss" and then silence once again. F! Reached in my jersey to grab the extra tube I had pulled from the bag and found many a pack of Jelly Belly Sport Bean. Double F! Did I lose it? Nope my opposite of brilliant tail left it sitting on the tailgate of the truck.

Started to run down the hill but then realized that I hate to run. Since the majority of the remaining loop was downhill, I decided I would just jump back on and nurse it back down the hill. Wasn't worried about the tire but more so the rim. Got to the bottom to find a little wear (surprise suprise) on the tire but none on the rim. Still as true as true can be!

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In other news, the final few pieces needed to finish up Jenn's first road bike arrived on Thursday and I was able to hang them before we left for Hickory. Looking forward to her first ride on Wed evening!

And just to leave everyone with component envy, I finally was able to complete the SRAM Force grouppo when I found these beautiful puppies awaiting my arrival back from NC. And to think it only took me a year to accomplish. Will get those installed this morning before heading to work.