Nothing makes you feel older than seeing an odometer click over. Because I ride a lot and split my riding among four bicycles, I see several odometer events every year. Today, my Crosscheck clicked 13,000 miles, for instance.
I think it may be time to get new brake pads, don’t you?
Earlier this summer I went to the National Mall to see a projection of the Apollo 11 Saturn V rocket on the Washington Monument. It was pretty cool.
While I was out of town, the Smithsonian celebrated the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 by having the rocket take off with all kinds of extra audio and video stuff. It was a real crowd pleaser. I didn’t mind missing it though. I was a space junkie when I was a kid. I saw Apollo 11 live.
Another thing I saw live as a kid was the Beatles on Ed Sullivan. I wasn’t much into music at the age of eight but my older brothers were. When one of them yelled down the cellar stairs that the Beatles were on, the rest of us scrambled up to see the big event. I had no idea why they were so worked up. I was expecting to see some sort of beetle act, after all Ed Sullivan had novelty acts on all the time.
As I watched the performance, I didn’t get the big deal. They looked strange and sounded even stranger. They sure seemed to be having fun though.
I never saw them live of course. And I have shied away from those Paul McCartney arena shows because hearing him sing now is a bit depressing. But when my friend Paul asked me to join him to see Ringo at Wolf Trap I decided I might as well go.
The show featured about nine or ten Ringo songs and 12 songs by his band which included three members of Toto and one each from Santana, Men at Work, and the Average White Band. In fact, the AWB member was Hamish Stuart who toured with McCartney’s post-Wings band.
Ringo is pushing 80 but seems much younger on stage. He runs around a bit and even did some jumping jacks while clapping his hands to the beat of a song.
The crowd was gray and white.
Lately, for some strange reason, I’ve had the urge to rent a cottage in the Isle of Wight.
A Few Spokes Shy of a Wheel 
…if it’s not too dear.
My folks didn’t let me watch the Beatles’ Sullivan event- they had no use for rock ‘n’ roll. i do remember where i was when Apollo 11 touched down- in the back seat of my brother’s car somewhere along the Ohio Turnpike. We were all holding our breath until Armstrong announced, “Tranquility Base here, the Eagle has landed.”
I was thinking that same thing about holding the breath. I didn’t breathe for days.
One of my favorite Beatles moment was at the Grammy’s a few years ago. It was following one of Kanye West’s rants. A country singer was presented his Grammy by Ringo. During his speech he said “this is so cool getting a Grammy from a Beatle.” Kanye, did that ever happen to you?”
I was a wee lad of 5 for Apollo 11, my parents got a new Color TV, their first, to watch the landing….in B&W lol. I am in awe of your ability to rack up miles on your various bikes.