We traditionally go down to Moab for Thanksgiving with Tim. Due to our family situations, we could have a traditional Thanksgiving, but we also have the option of riding right through it. We opt to do both. Tim though does not have so much family in the area and misses out on the whole turkey and potatoes thing. This year though he made sure he got it by bringing dinner down.
The weather down south did not look good on Thursday so we stayed and rode at home and then took off on Thursday evening. We had Thanksgiving dinner at the hotel. We had a rotisserie chicken, mashed potatoes, fruit salad, pumpkin pie, and Martinelli's cider.

Tim having Thanksgiving dinner in Moab

and Chris too

I also made some changes to my bike before I left. It kept making this creaking sound. We were convinced it had to do with my worn out drive train. So we replaced the cassette with a sram 12-23 road cassette we had in our spare parts, a new chain, and chain rings. I actually only replaced two chain rings—the small and middle. No more big chain ring. I had not used it for probably two years or so. Now instead of a big ring, I have a bash guard.

Going 2x9

Sram road cassette for winter training

I also added a cape. I just thought because it was Superfly it needed a cape. Chris insists that it is a mud flap. Cape, mud flap, fender whatever, it kept the mud off of me.

a cape for my superfly

I was inspired by Canyon Kris' recent trip to Moab. He had some great pictures from Slickrock. I have not ridden Slickrock for a long time so we put it on the agenda and we started off on the most famous trail in Moab. It was a short ride time wise. It was even shorter for Tim. He came off this ledge a bit side ways and lost the bead on his front tire. He could not get it to reseat so he had to hoof it back to the car and go see about fixing it. He had a spare tube but it did not have a long stem which he needs with his rims nor did he have his extender. He actually could not find what he needed in town but put a new tire on it and did not have any further issues. Slickrock only took us around 90 minutes.

We then rode Amasa Back. Chris and I switched rear wheels because the new drive train did not stop the creaking. It is an odd creak too because it is only on climbs and after a bit of riding. The switch stopped it somehow. His bike did not creak and neither did mine. At the top Amasa Back we switched back because he did not want to descend with my rear wheel's low tire pressure.
We then went back to the hotel and had leftover Thanksgiving dinner. It was almost as good the second time. We did some walking around down town and visited some of the shops. It was good to get out and about before sleeping.
Then we did our classic Moab ride. We rode Sovreign from town. Now that they built a bridge over the river and we don't have to cross with traffic, we parked at Lion's Park. We rode the trail to Bar M until veering off on Rockin' A and Circle O. Then back to 7 Mile Canyon and Sovreign. We rode Sovreign out and back and it was so good. With the recent rain, the sand was in great condition.