Christmas Day/Beaty the non boring way.

Once again another holiday arrives and I am bestowed with the gift of time to go out on a bicycle ride alone. I had 4 hours from noon to be back so I decided to take off on my fixed gear Lemond Filmore with a water bottle, small flat kit, 10 In God We Trust Units, ID and a phone. I rode out of Dooleyville and hit Idlewild extension for East Harris to Idlewild then that funny development behind the Food Lion that leads me down into the Mcalpine Park Greenway. I traversed the Greenway all the way to Sardis only seeing one other pair of riders who wished me a Merry Christmas. I took Sardis up to HWY 51, went left there, then right onto Fullwood which is a sneaky way to get to Weddington Rd that I learned on the weekly Ultimate road ride out of Mathews. Weddington, split right over 485 up to and across McGee Rd for Francis Beaty mountain bike park even though I was riding my work bike with skinnies. As soon as I got there I topped off my water bottle and then started around the course backwards. It was jittery going with 110lbs pressure on the 25's. I kept thinking the entire way around that I promised myself I would never ride trails on 30 dollar work tires again. The Continental Gatorskin is my favorite work tire for the past three generations, it lasts forever as long as you don't take them in the trail which I already learned but was presently unlearning as I watched the front thread through the poky rocks.
Out of the trail, refill bottle, and exit the park left onto Weddington, Left on to McGee towards Tilley Morris where I merged righty and soon crossed Providence Rd. Now I was south of the city on Ballentoon Commons Blvd headed for Rea Rd where I made a right. Next was Colony, a bike lane for a little while then congestion and a familiar sight from Ilan's best idea ever. I hit Selwyn, looked into an empty shop window and then dove down behind the shop for the Little Sugar Creek Greenway which ran me to Freedom Park where I came up behind the original Charlotte messenger riding a long board next to his 283. I stopped and chatted with the two of them for a few minutes and then kept on for Moorehead to Hensley Rd, then up to left on Queens, right on Colonial up to Caswell. In front of the hospital I was passed by a big car then the passenger in the back seat yelled out, "Hi Bill!" It was Andrea who is a Nova original and I had not seen her in a year or so. How funny, she was on her way to visit a sick relative and I was just out there and our paths converged. I got up to Commonwealth off of Caswell/Pecan and did the normal commute East side stay alive home from there. I walked in the door 3hrs and 25minutes after I had left and was feeling great.