Merry Krampus

Its has been a long time since I have posted mostly because I haven't had a lot to say. I have been spending most of my free time trying to finish up the book. The writing is done but putting all the pieces together. manuscript, maps, pictures, etcs takes a lot of time.

I still have been riding. Although the weather has been cool we haven't had many days below freezing or any snow so getting out on the roads for a ride has not been a problem. Most of the rides that I have been doing have been local as I don't venture far from home during the cold weather. Local rides for me usually involves heading east and south and crossing the Turnpike a number of times. Work on widening the Turnpike is in full swing which has closed a number of bridges that I normally use so I have been doing a lot of detours. Some of the new bridges are closed to being finished but I suspect it will another year before things are near normal.

Christmas Eve day I got out for a fun ride with most of the usual gang and evey a few people, like Mike, who hasn't been around much this year. A few people, like Cheryl pictured here, were dressed with antlers or like Jim had a santa hat on. I actually had planned to add a wreath to my bike but didn't have time because of a flat tire. It was a cold and windy ride with a couple of detours to get around the bridge construction but still fun.

With all my spare time going to finishing the book the holidays sort of snuck up on me. I was talking to a friend of mine who lives over in Europe about different Christmas traditions and he mentioned Krampus who is basically an anti Santa Claus and goes around at Christmas time punishing bad kids by stuffing then in a sack taking them home and eating them. That's a lot worst than getting coal in your stocking.

Enjoy your Holidays...