I am currently enjoying nine days of vacation from my job. For lack of a better term, this was a "staycation." Visualize me riding a jetski in my backyard swimming pool.

Day 1: I did the Pride race in Godfrey Illinois. There was very little competition available but it was a fun day and the few people who showed up were very cool. In my singlespeed race, Dan Bruns showed up to take the victory. I came in second, unable to hold his wheel. But I came in second, winning most of my entry fee back. That was converted to Boulevard Nutcracker Ale. It was delicious.

Day 2: Was the epic Bubba cyclocross race at Queeny Park. It was probably the best and most satisfying race of the series for many of the participants (including this one). I came in third place behind Anthony Dust and Bruns. I was lucky enough to be given two bottles of New Belgium Ranger IPA from two different people. (That is two total bottles). As if that wasn't awesome enough...I converted my winnings into a six pack of Modus Hoperandai. It's the best beer available in a can...period.

Day 3: I kicked back and relaxed most of the day at my home. I was kind of bored with riding the jetski in the swimming pool, so I passed. I grabbed my bike around three p.m. and took a ride up to the Chain of Rocks Bridge for a total of forty miles. I was kind of surprised by how long the ride took but I was riding a singlespeed.

I'm not going to lie to you...the dreams were coming in hot and heavy at this point. I was dreaming there were ghosts in my house trying to contact me and all kinds of crazy stuff. When you get twice as much sleep as you usually get, really strange dreams are soon to follow. I promised my ghosts I would do anything for them (in dreams of course) but they have, to this point, not responded.

Day 4: I took a practically identical, but much different ride over to Horseshoe Lake for 42 miles. The weather was perfect and it was awesome. The ghosts in my home seem pacified. I'm happy if they're happy.

Day 5: I somehow got talked into riding my cross bike to the SIUE campus to do some off-road riding with my friends Jo and Andy. It was a thirty mile ride to get to the trails and I rode roughly 15 miles with them and otherwise. "Roughly" being the key term. The first place Andy wanted to ride was the old trails at SIUE. My recommendation is to never attempt to ride these illegal trails on a cross bike, or at all. I didn't sign up to ride them but I wasn't shocked that Andy would drag a guy on a cross bike onto them. The guy feels no pain. Jo was somewhat sympathetic as he discussed extremely boring and procedural fitness topics with Andy. I ended up riding a total of 75 miles. I can't remember the last time when I've ridden that much and it really, really hurt. I barely made it home alive.

Here is something completely and totally uncool that I have noticed that people do. On this particular ride I planned on getting home by four p.m., so I didn't bother to bring lights with me. As I was crawling home through the last few miles of my neighborhood around six p.m., I had several drivers buzz me, ride right up against my elbow, and fail to give me enough room to get around parked cars. Needless to say, they did not give me the required three feet as they passed. I did not have lights because as I said above, it was a rough ride. But I know they could see me as the streets were very well illuminated by street lights. They treated me like crap because they knew if they hit me they would not be liable. They pretended not to see me. Needless to say, I think they are a bunch of sad sacks of shit.

Here's to the rest of my vacation.