The Houge family is at a very happy place when it comes to productivity. After more than a little bit of work our basement is finished which brings the move we started back in October (after buying our house in July and working on it up the move in date) to a close. Jodi and I both work from home and now we both have desks to call our own. It’s been a few years. Actually with the exception of our year out on Jodi’s internship, it’s been about 5 years. I finally got my little studio rig set up and tried it out recording and doing overdubs on yet another Erik Ritland EP. I can’t tell you how great it is to be able to leave all these guitars in the stand at the end of a session and not worry about how to stack the cases in the corner of the bedroom so that I can still get to my side of the bed, which is where my instruments have been for the last couple of years. There are more exciting music things coming up in the next few months, from playing in Jonathan Rundman’s band to leading some of my own music at the St. Paul Synod Assembly. I’ll keep you posted from the comfort of my own desk.
On Thursday I biked from Grafton ND to Walhalla ND. It was a more demanding ride than expected but I averaged about 15 mph which surprised and pleased me. It was a little windy but for the most part the wind was in my favor. The downside was that the wind kept me dry and I totally underestimated how dehydrated I was. I drank half a gallon of orange juice and water before going to bed and still barely had to pee the next morning… (Too much info?)So I took a day off the bike and drank a lot of fluids and went out for what was supposed to be a short 7 mile loop. But I missed my turn. Not a big deal ’cause I was cruising! I felt great, my legs felt great my butt felt great (Yes, Nate, too much info.) After a while I thought I’d try and find a new way back to Walhalla and made a right on a gravel road. Instantly I realized why up to this point I had felt so great. I had 20 miles an hour of wind pushing me along. Not anymore. Now it was pushing me off the road. Eventually I hit Highway 1 and made a second right turn. Directly into the wind and 3 miles of climbing in my future. I was in my lowest gear, pedaling hard and though I have no speedometer on my bike I’m guessing I was barely going 3mph. Some of the big gusts pushed me off the road. It became a very long ride. My legs hurt, my butt hurt and I think I spent the last hour never once riding perpendicular to the road. But hey, I got to ride my bike so no complaints.
Posted: April 10th, 2010
Categories:
Uncategorized
Tags:
bike,
nd,
ride,
walhalla
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