Cycling in Winnesota.

The past few weeks have been CAAAARRRRRRRAAAAAZZZZZZZYYY!!!!! With a whole slew of concerts new developments and even a little bit of riding.

I played my first jazz concert this year last weekend. It went quite well. I didn't feel as solid as i did through much of the rehearsals this year but I'm sure that I most definetely played out more (which is important when you play baritone sax) then i did all last year. I really hit the ground running in jazz this school year and have recieved several comments from friends on the matter. The next Jazz concert will be on Nov. 11th and i will have to play my first improv. solo since high school.

I've been trying to do workouts on the bike. The riding time has definetely been cut down but nonetheless i refuse to give up riding. The important thing for me now is just to try to keep somewhat sharp for IceMan Cometh, coming up the first weekend in November. I found some gorgeous country roads and have been enjoying night rides and the like. There sure are alot of cows around RF area!

Yesterday I bought a brand new horn. Its absolutely gorgeous. Its a Yamaha 875 Custom series alto sax. My own saxophone professor hand picked it from several identical horns at the Yamaha factory when he purchased it ten years ago. I bought it from a former student of his and he sold it to me for a great deal, $2,000.

The symphony band also played a concert last night, as well as one during class on Friday, at which I thought we sounded pretty good. Me and the other bari sax player Mike really locked stuff in and played the whole concert really well, besides one mishap.

Other than that i've been trying to keep decent grades, mostly Bs which are certainly nothing to brag about, and attempting to keep what little social life i now have.

What a crazy weekend. I headed back to Spooner on Friday and went to dinner with my family that night. Then on Saturday, after tuning up my mtn. bike and fixing a road wheel that definetely needed some lovin, we all headed up to Bayfield for Applefest. We only stayed for a few hours and in that period probably all consumed 2000 calories worth of apple junk food. After that me and my dad headed down to RF. We passed by my dorm and headed straight to Pizza Hut. After the 6+ hours in the car we were both feelin' a little cramped. we split a family order of breadsticks and a large veggie lovers pizza, BAD IDEA.

We got up early and headed for Red Wing. We ended up taking some backroads, because of my poor navigational skills, and I found a sweet ride route full of rolling hills hairpin corners and beautiful scenery.
We arrived at the race venue, at Bluff Park in REd Wing, the site of the dreaded MNSCS race that i just about died at earlier this season. I had to pay 10 bucks extra for a day license, which sucked cause my time ended up not counting. We lined up just before 9:00 and off the line DAve, the other RF guy, was gunning it. I stuck with the lead group for as long as I could but the pace was too much. I fell back to about 10th and finished off the first lap, which was hell. The second lap felt much faster, though it was only by 30 seconds, and i passed 3 riders. The third lap i rode almost exclusively alone. I ended up almost catching an Iowa rider on an uphill but he attacked and I couldn't match it. i finished off either 6th or 7th in the collegiate mens A (expert) race. While Dave took 2nd. What else can i say except that it was nice to get some revenge on that awful course for kickin' my ass earlier this year.