Nirvana By Singletrack

So I played hooky today from work starting at 11:30AM. I went in for a meeting, made some money, and snuck the heck out the door. I took off to run some errands, had somewhere to be at noon, picked up a bike rack that Gary so kindly let go on the way cheep, came home, and promptly kick out the door on the Rockhopper. The grass was high, the birds and insects were out in plenty, and it was warm-but not hot. I'd say mid-seventies with virtually no humidity. I rode some street, some gravel, and some sweet singletrack that I'm pretty sure I shouldn't necessarily have been riding on. In fairness, it didn't say I couldn't, so... I know, that's probably not the right attitude to take. You know what, tough! It just felt so good being out on a fairly serious ride. It was about an hour and a half, probably slightly better than that actually, and it was just nirvana. I've made a decision today, I hate crushed stone. It sucks, all kinds of huge sucking, sucks. The only two problems I had today were while riding on gravel, and its where I wrecked last month. I haven't had too much time on just straight up dirt, so after almost wrecking out on a dog today I saw this primo chance and I took it. I jumped on this singletrack for a while and just went. Either side of me was four to six foot grass and brush, I heard all sorts of animals running around it the brush, bird and bugs out en masse, as if they were all out to party. It was just so cool, I can't think of a better way to spend an afternoon.
As a sidebar: Bluenoser, I'm getting the freakin' book, OK! (Says with a chuckle and a smile.) I guess I just need to be careful what I wish, right? Thanks Bluenoser, Judi and Jared for helping to keep me in line a bit this week. Oh, and Jared: I rocked the HTFU band.