Lao Tzu Cycles: A months worth of posts all in one

At Disney Land I some how turned off my instant upload of pic's to Google. I suddenly could not upload from my phone from a regular computer without minor inconvenience. That and being kind of busy has equaled poor posting habits. I am back at it like it or not.

At Halloween I kept seeing cool pumpkin carvings. We were throwing out this one that was about the sized of a baseball so I gave it a go. Harder than I thought but also more fun. Would be a great way to learn how to carve stuff.

The girls didn't have school yesterday so we went to the Mall of America to ride some rides.

We ate lunch at Tiger Sushi. Being located in the hallway of a mall it is unexpectedly one of my favorite sushi places. Midori's floating world cafe being my favorite. The girls tried a lot of wacky stuff.

They like to take pics in front of stuff.

The fog a few day's ago was pretty but I am rather mad at not having a winter last year or yet this year.

On December 1 Heath and I rode with 50+ other fat bikes in the Global Fat Bike Day ride along the Minnesota River. With another large group starting at a different spot on the same trail it is estimated 80 people were on Fat bikes on that trail on December 1. It was started by a simple suggestion by a guy in England in the MTBR forum People from Australia to Finland participated with Minneapolis being the largest group of fat bikes to ever ride together.

First pic is under 494 on the south/east side of Minnesota River. The tree pic is from a part of the trail Heath and I had never been on between 35W and Cedar Ave. This trail is close to the river and avoids the nature area further inland.

Panoramic just before crossing Cedar. I really liked the Fat bike folk we met and rode with.

Crappy pic of my first try at a spiral tree light. Ella and Maya keep shaming me about not having better lights and a bunch of lit up figures in the yard "like every one else has."

I made my own energy bars and am really happy with how easy and cheap they are to make. I guessed it was basically just a rice crispy bar with other stuff in it. I toasted 4 cups oatmeal and some sesame seeds. I then mixed that with 2 cups of rice crispies, some flax meal, chia seeds, dried blueberrys a little cocoa and some walnuts. Instead of just marshmallows and butter for the sticky part I substituted in some coconut oil to keep them chewy and to use less butter and some honey in place of some marshmallows to keep it soft. Melted the sticky stuff stired in the dry stuff and spread it in a 9 by 13 pan to cool. Vacuum sealed them to preserve them. They are high in good carbs and very high in fiber. I may add more nuts or almond butter next time.

15 people and 5 dogs at the house for thanksgiving. Great time and only 2 pee's and one poop out of all the dogs. Barkley is Krisy's dog and is very hard to photograph

Shelly and Mike have the loveable Miles

John and Vic brought cute little Sammy a Havanese.

Mazy was a very good host. All the dogs got along great.

Lynn and ArNetta brought Tiny the ity bitty poodle.

My Moonlander got some new Bud and Lou tires. The biggest most bad ass tires ever made for a bike that is. So far they roll great off road.

Heath and I went riding down along the Missisippi. The fat tires rolled great over all the surfaces from sand to big slate rocks. Found some rocks with fossils.

I went to a class at the Midwest Mountaineering expo taught by Ed Bouffard of Skipulk.com. I learned how to make my pulk in what I was told was Ed's last class he will ever do. A pulk is basically just a sled you pull stuff in but Ed has developed a system that is very well thought out simple and effective. His sleds have been to the poles on actic expeditions. I hope to use mine with snow shoes to pull Maya to make a track that I can then later back country ski on and fat bike on.

With my La Cruz Cyclo Cross bike taking up all the road and gravel duties and my Moonlander being used for all offroad and snow my El Mariachi was left without a purpose.

So I decided to make it a grocery getter of bikes.

The thought of figuring out bags, lights, special ridding clothes etc before using a bike to do in town errands has been a major deterrent. "I'll just drive."