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Much better. Sam picked me up around 8:15 this morning. I was a little out of it... like I am every morning, but he pumped some espresso in me and we headed off to Lou's. Lou always runs late, so we weren't worried about getting there too early. No matter what time you get there, he's not going to be ready. Somewhere around 9:30, three guys and three bikes were zooming off to Smithville for some off-road rampage. I'm the baby of the group... Lou used to race here in the States and Sam was sponsored and raced with the big dogs in Switzerland (where he grew up). I just go and have fun... and try not to break anything. I was listening to Sam's Donnas CD and trying to wake up as I cradled my coffee along the way there... I really didn't pay much attention to where we were or where we were going. Once we arrived, I was good to go and we started the day with "Fat Chuck's Demise". O. M. G. ! ! ! The last single track Sam and I did was Double Lake north of Houston and I did ok on that... this trail was kicking my ass within the first 5 minutes of the ride. No wonder Fat Chuck died... that rocky, steep, fucking difficult, and dangerous trail was a bitch. The next trail was "EZ Pickens"... it was a good intermission after Fat Chucks Demise. I felt like my heart was going to explode. We were dumped out at the onset of "Off the Lip" which I really dug. It was medium difficult with enough technical cut-backs and altitude changes to keep you thinking. We continued to do "Longhorn Loop" and then part of "Tris Cross". I say part of because Lou was leading and managed to get a significant lead while Sam waited for me to pick up the pieces of my body off a rather large drop in the trail (hence, the bleeding). Sam and I were ready to call it a day and we had all agreed to head back to the base camp area at the next fire road. Unfortunately, Lou didn't see the thru-trail to the fire road and kept going. Since we were split, Sam and I continued back in the direction the map showed a long, smooth straight trail... the map lied. We went through some of the roughest single track of the day in the middle of that lie. Sam probably didn't care to much with his $3K full suspension Yeti... I however, was receiving quite the ride since my little Gary Fischer was only equipped with some fork RockShox. We hit "Mini Me" before reconnection to the main roadway along the fence leading to the camp. It started to rain. By the time we all reunited at Sam's SUV, food and rest were the only things on our minds. Well, not the only thing on my mind, but she couldn't be there to see the cool trails today, so I guess wishing she was there doesn't count. We stopped at this little bar-b-que joint outside La Grange. It smelled like sour milk and everyone in the place but us was wearing some form of camouflage and/or plaid mix. At least half of them didn't have all their teeth and had some type of buck (as in deer) pattern mixed into their clothing ensemble. There were inside flies and outside restrooms. There was a lot of beer drinkin' from cans and hootin' and hollarin' at a 19" television suspended from the ceiling about 20 feet from the nearest viewer... playing some form of sport... maybe football? We ate and enjoyed it... despite the new buck rack regulations posted on the wood paneling wall... not to far from their sign notifying patrons about their knife sharpening service. It was a bar-b-que restaurant with a gas pump in front. I was in redneck hell. But there was food... at least there was that. Work called on the drive back to Houston. Fuck. I hate that shit. As it turns out, Joe is going to have to drive about 8 hours tonight to repair something in one of our offices in Louisiana. If I would have been home, it could have been me... I would have done that for him any day. He has a daughter. I was eager to get home and clean my wounds, get cleaned up... but mostly, to call ErinLynn. It was really good to hear her voice... especially her laugh. I could listen to her laugh all day. She laughs like a child... I don't mean like a little kid laugh, I mean from the heart. So many people have fake laughs these days... like they laugh out of obligation. Hers is the way a laugh should be... perfect. I could write a novel about how she is amazing to me... but instead, I won't. I'm a dork. I'm really tired... and surprisingly, hungry again. Yeah... if there's food in my mouth, I can't say anything stupid. I like that.