The weekend.

My weekend went by in a flash....as usual.  I knew something was brewing on Friday, because I encountered the love bike cruising down First St.

The next clue was encountering about 20 fixed gear riders as I headed up Washington St.  The only question remaining was what draws this kind of crowd to Reno?  There was of course only one answer...

Yep, Scalleycat was in town this weekend.  If I'd been adventurous I'd have headed out Friday night to see just how much PBR these guys (and gals) can drink and still stay upright on a bike.  Instead I waited til Saturday afternoon to head down to the Fort and check out the event as it came to an end.

The end for me involved my own challenges to say upright on my ride home...all in all not a bad weekend.

Weekend wanderings.

Sunshine, temperatures in the 50's, and Craft bottle shop celebrating a one year anniversary.  Sounds like a good excuse for a bike ride!  So Sunday afternoon was spent with a leisurely ride down to Craft to enjoy time with friends, some premium home brew from Jeff Currant, and the goat parking.  Yep, goat parking.

You're not the only one who is confused.  It's a bike blog and we're talking about goat parking?  When we arrived there was a clearly marked sign being hung on a pole by Ty (owner of Craft) that said "Goat Prkn".... and below on the sidewalk was a nice 6ft by 4 ft carpet.  We often lock our bikes up to this pole so I thought maybe this was some strange reference that a younger, hipper cyclist might recognize.  I decided not to risk an misinterpretation and locked up the bikes along some adjacent sidewalk.

We were joined shortly afterwards by several other sweat rides including this beauty.

For long time readers of this blog (all 5 months of it) you might be interested to know that this is the leisure suit preachers newest ride.  Perhaps on a future biking to bars ride he will read from the good book (the cyclist manifesto) while being chauffeured through town!

However, back to the parking situation.  Turns out goat parking is exactly what you think it is.... it's where you tie up and park your goats while popping in to the local bottle shop!

These guys are feinting goats and were definitely the stars of the afternoon (well really that was Jeff Currant's beer).  But once you have a beer in hand, how can you resist heading outside to pet some goats!  They were popular enough that chairs were brought out and a crowd formed around the goat parking for the better part of the afternoon.

Unfortunately, as we were gearing up for the ride home later that evening, animal control paid the goat parking lot a visit.  Apparently, this parking arrangement isn't in line with city ordinances.  I for one am more than willing to share the parking pole with the goats!

Weekend wanderings.

Well, I didn't accomplish anything this weekend....  It's been a while since I've had a lazy relaxing weekend and I must say I really did enjoy it.  So with that in mind Saturday went something like this.

Got up....had coffee...made breakfast (Homemade buttermilk pancakes, bacon, eggs, and maple syrup).  Rolled out around 11 am for Patagonia (we have coupons!).

 

Found ourselves on the bike route down by Idlewild park and made our way to the bike path that leads out from Chissy Caughlin park.

The path just out of Chrissy Caughlin is really looking like it's been bombed out.  Lots of circular failures through the asphalt.  Anyone know what does this....some bomber plant punching through?....thin paving over large rocks???  Anyway, after winding our way through the paths and bike lanes on Mayberry (which are awesome), we ended up out at the Patagonia Outlet.

Sorry, stock photo...forgot to snap a new one.

Oh, and the parking lot didn't look anything like this.  Turns out Patagonia was having a Veteren's Day sale and every single parking spot was taken.  Good thing we were on bikes....we parked about 4 ft from the door!  It is however a little disappointing to see all the Patagoochie wearing locals drive out for the sale....only one other sole ventured out by bicycle.  Needless to say it was nuts inside, but we did find a few items (nano puff rules)!  

So after our shopping adventure, we headed for home.  It had been sunny on the ride out, but clouds and a steady breeze appeared to challenge our warmth and progress on the ride.  So we did what every intrepid cyclist does best.....detoured asap to the local pizza place (Eclipse Pizza in this case) to wait for sunny times to return while having a beer.  

Beer turned into beer, calzone, and wings.  Some of the best in Reno in my opinion.  If you haven't tried Eclipse you really should.  Anyway, with sunshine returning we waddled our way back to the bikes and headed up Mayberry on those lovely new bike lanes.  Right out of the Eclipse parking lot at the first intersection I just about fell over....not literally, but I believe I found the first embedded signal trigger in Reno!!!

Put your wheel here and you get to pretend you are actually traffic that maters!  Meaning that you don't have to do the shuffle of shame to push the pedestrian crossing button or wait for a car to trigger the light.  Ironically, you'll pretty much never be at this intersection without a car next to you....but it is a sign of progress, so I'm all for it!

The route home eventually lead us through the old southwest Reno neighborhood and we realized we were awful close to the Reno Homebrewer and hadn't made our regular donation of cash for beer and / or beer related products lately (ok, it's been two whole weeks). So yet another detour was embarked upon.

Upon our arrival, it was the usual mayhem.  Wine presses were out and juice was flowing.  Dogs ran rampant and grain dust was in the air.  Once we did the meet and greet with all the regular club members we found a spot at the picnic table and enjoyed a nice Grand Tetons Saison!  Ah, and for the record the bike count at the Reno Homebrewer was higher than Patagonia (four counting us)!

After finishing our beers and picking up some farm fresh eggs and barrel aged sour beer to go, we managed to actually finish the ride the rest of the way back home without additional shenanigans.  All in all a complete  waste of a good portion of the day, but it sure was fun!  Hope your weekend was half as worthless as mine!