Orange Blossom Gravel 2026
I looked at my phone at mile 85 and saw that ICE killed another American citizen. The weekend was full of friends and love. How do I manage this? Who am I to go have fun adventures while these things are happening? My heart feels heavy and I don’t know what to say about this weekend. Jess and Steve are beautiful humans with so much love. Lots of friends. Great route. The storm caused our flight home to be canceled. I was supposed to be home in time for my sons eighth birthday. I wasn’t. We drove 26 hours straight. Then back to work like everything is normal. I don’t know what’s what. Protest/bike ride is happening tomorrow. I don’t know if I can do it. We’ll see. Heres the pictures from my weekend. They are in reverse chronological order. Somehow that makes more sense to me.
Brother James
The song that you can’t get out of your head. It plays over and over. I’m not sure why but autumn is always the time when music hits a little harder. Feelings and memories all seem to have more weight. Sonic Youth is always a go to in my rotation but they are even better this time of year. Brother James has been firmly lodged in my brain for a few days now. In response, I made a NIGHTCAP with a line from the song. I made this for me but I may do a small run to justify / validate the time spent on this side quest.
Click this beautiful photo of Sonic Youth from 1985 to go listen on YouTube.
Nor'easter Nine
Last weekend was the Nutmeg Nor’easter number Nine. My favorite event of the year by a long shot. This event gets bigger every year and I always fear it getting watered down as it grows. I have yet to see any evidence of that happening. This year had almost 600 people. Damn. This year had primo weather and everyone was loving it. If you can make it work, come to one of these events. It really is that good. Below are some photos I took on the A7iv. I used a 40 prime with a soft filter and a cheap prism. This event lives in my mind in a dreamy way so I was hoping to capture that feeling. I think I got it pretty good.
ATW Baltimore Cycling Festival
ATW Builds Baltimore Cycling Festival
This was the second year that YellowBird attended The Baltimore Cycling Festival. Last year was a good time so it seemed obvious to do it again. This year I was joined by Matt, the newest member of team YellowBird. Heck, he’s the only other member. This one man show has recently doubled in size. So, Friday morning we loaded the car up with product and the display case. We strapped bikes on the roof and drove down the coast fro a few hours. We got to spend the afternoon at Velo Orange with some of our favorite people. For real though, VO is awesome. They have been so supportive, helpful and kind. Saturday was the show. We got an early start and set up the display at Peabody Heights Brewery. Such a cool venue for an event like this. Soon after we got the display case looking good, the people showed up. Such a cool crowd. I love bikes and so does everyone else at this kind of thing, but it really is the people that make these things. This year I did my best to snap lots of pictures of the friends, old and new.
The balancing act.
I’m going to start this with some rambling. Maybe I’ll clean it up. Maybe not. I have been having some big struggles with my mental health and managing the many things on my plate. Probably pretty obvious, but the state of our world and the nature of social media have been no help. I have felt, for some time now that I would like to have more info shared here on my website. But I usually default to instagram. That platform has a big reach and I tend to get good feedback. I have also found that sales on my website are directly driven by my instagram use. Gross. It makes sense but it’s still gross. I also find myself doom scrolling all the time and justifying it by saying, I need to keep YellowBird moving along. It’s not false, but it’s not good for me. I need to step back and find a way to be more intentional with all of this. Hence me writing a long winded post on my website instead of a picture with a sentence or two on the other. I wonder if people would check in more on this page if I were adding content on a more frequent basis. Who knows. Oh, does anyone reading this know anything about SEO (search engine optimization)? I feel like I should be able to drive way more traffic here than I do. If you know, hit me up! As I said, this is some rambling but I gotta get it out. Let’s change gears. Things to look forward to, I have a full size booth for Philly Bike Expo this year and I just nailed down a Booth for the MADE bike show in Portland this summer. So, good things to look forward to. I’m doing my best to keep things in check and moving along. I hope y’all are too.
Orange Blossom Gravel
I spent this last weekend 1200 miles south of my little town in Connecticut. I left behind the 27 degree temps in favor of some nice mid 50s in Tampa, Florida. Cold by Florida standards but delightful to me. I got an invite to the Orange Blossom Gravel event last year and it wasn’t in the cards. This year, I got another invite and I made it work. Steven shuttled my butt around and filled me in on the local history, points of interest and the best coffee around. I managed to sneak into an Air BNB with some good friends. The pieces of this puzzle all fell into place. I brought my Surly Straggler as my ride of choice. Single speed and flat bar. A less is more approach takes a lot of stress off for me when traveling. I guessed on the gearing and I got it right. A little skill and a little luck I guess. I planned on doing the 50 mile route. That sounded reasonable for my current lack of fitness. About 15 minutes before the start, I loaded the 90 mile route into my GPS and I deleted the 50. Can’t bail out if I don’t have the route. Haha. The mind games I play with myself. I felt like I was going to miss out if i didn’t do the big one. And off we went. The route was excellent. Lots of beautiful red dirt roads flowing through the orange groves. Got to ride with a bunch of old friends and got a bunch of miles hanging with new friends. Finished the ride up with Christopher from Atlanta. He was smart and suggested we stop for ice cream 100 yards before the finish. Wise move. Then we rolled into the finish and had a quick celebration and some more food. Then, back to the Air BNB. I was at mile 97.5 so I oped to do a few laps around the neighborhood. I rolled into the driveway at exactly mile 100. This was the first time I ever did a single speed century. I’m feeling proud of that one. Glad I made that last minute decision to go for it. The rest of the weekend was relaxing, hanging out, drinking more coffee and saying goodbyes. What a weekend. I highly recommend Orange Blossom Gravel. Here are some pictures I took with the LightLeak lens on the Sony.
ATW Baltimore Show
I got an invite from my friend, Neil to be a part of the ATW bike show. A handful of framebuilder and makers from Baltimore and the Northeast gathered at the Peabody Heights Brewery. The bikes on display were stunning and the people were excellent. Familiar faces and new friends. All together enjoying the world of bicycles. It was such a nice change of pace to get out of Connecticut for a few day. I like it here in my quiet little corner, but the lack of diversity can be painful. Baltimore is at the other end of that spectrum. So many people with different backgrounds, ideas and lifestyles. The people who renew my faith in humans. It’s that real, feel good stuff. I’m so glad I got an invite and I’m so glad I said yes. Here are some pictures from the weekend. I shot my Campsnap (newest version), the Sony a7iii with a Polerpro Lightleak lens and the Sony a7iv with the 90prime. Photos are in no order and I like it.
