The Story of Tomato

I wasn’t going to write until after Christmas but I have had such good rides lately I thought I would share a story .

While we were adopting Shade from the center, a stray dog was brought in by a lady that worked at the center. The dog was very afraid and had obviously suffered some serious abuse in his life. The lady asked if I would mind going in the holding room to console him and name him, I obliged. As I walked into the room, I heard Kristin laughing.

He was very scared and after a few minutes of me sitting on the floor, he ventured a smell of my arm. We greeted each other and his gentle frightened nature pulled so hard at my soul that I forgot my mission.

When I walked out of the room Kristin said “Guess what they named him?” I said “What?” Kristin proceeded to tell me that they named the dog “Tomato” right as I walked into the room with him.

Tomato is still at the adoption center in Columbia and my thoughts go out to him on this day.

Tuesday night I needed something different, something fresh. I loaded the car up with shade and my bike, drove downtown and let Shade wander in the dog park. Well, Shade really doesn’t like the dog park so after a few minutes I leashed him up and ran him beside the bike up and down the paths at Cleveland Park.

Then Andrew, Chuck and I all went out for an urban assault. It was fantastic, we hit some steps, I tried to screw up some stone wall rides and we just generally bs’d around town.

Last night was the weekly edition of the Wednesday night ride at Dupont. Dennis, Jeremy and I went pretty hard and pretty big for a cold December night. If you haven’t ridden the newly re-routed Ridgeline, go hit it. If you are disappointed, please don’t ever read this Blog again. The ride stats are pretty impressive considering the Goat bonked and Dennis hit the ground pretty hard. We were hauling up and down.

So that’s it folks until after Christmas. Everyone travel safe and if you are down for “The Most Horrible Thing Ever, Training ride # 2” show up at the Black Mountain Trailhead on December 29th 8:00am. Plan to ride into the wee hours of the evening.

Peace