It was a wonderful day in Dicky's neighbourhood

I'm going to have to work backwards on the NC trip . . . Curvy Butt has all my video and photos, except our last ride with Dicky, Big Worm and Josh on Saturday.

'The Plan' was for Dicky to come down to Pisgah to meet up with us on the last weekend that we would be in and around the Asheville area of North Carolina.  However, a Daddy Daughter Dance and some sort of marriage-anniversary-date listening to a barber shop quartet at a mall took precedent over our annual trip to the south.  So instead of Dicky coming to us, and after a generous offer to sleep on his floor, we came to Dicky.   

The drive to Charlotte is only about two hours away from Asheville, but put us one hour closer to home.  Win, win!  After an evening getting to know The Pie and The Fajitia we headed to a local watering hole, which more importantly served greasy pizza to fuel the engine for Saturday's ride at Charlotte's finest single track.  Whether it was the greasy pizza or sleeping with the many adoptable dogs on the chesterfield (that's Canadian for couch), I didn't sleep so well and awoke to the hustle and bustle of Dicky swapping out stems, measuring bottom bracket drops and the Vegan Vagabond snooping into his big blue bins. 

What three locals could not ride, three Canucks rode with confidence, panache, grace and style.

We rode two trail systems (can't remember the names) in/around Charlotte - both super fun and very different from Pisgah.  The trails were super buff, twisty, bermy, tighty fun with very little elevation gain with the odd technical feature thrown in to keep you on your toes.  My legs were thankful for the break from all the climbing that we did in Pisgah and relished (mmmmmmm, relish) the smooth, fast trails.     

Double chin?  Pffft, it's April.  You should see my gut! 

Dicky assured us this was the most rad'est, hardest, technical feature on all the trails in and around Charlotte.  Seemed he had difficulty with most everything Saturday, even putting his bike on his rack properly (can you spot the problem?).

Big Worm (a.k.a. Bill) rolls over the same rocky pile with ease.

Whooopty Doooo . . . . diddy doo.

Me soo hungry.  Me eat long time.  (Post ride Asian meal . . . pfffft, who eats Asian after a ride?!?!)

Visiting with Dicky, meeting his family and riding in Charlotte was well worth the trip from Asheville and was an awesome way to end our road trip.  Cheers Dicky for being such a good host!

Every year I look forward and love my trip south, but as it draws to a close I look forward even more to returning home to my little family.  This was a nice surprise when I walked through the door early Sunday evening.