2012 Rides from Charles Showalter

I finally got to meet the famed Charles Showalter at CIRREM last week. He is every bit as awesome as you'd think he is, plus some. Probably the hardest drinkin', smokin', ridin' fool you'll ever meet. Craig is absolutely spot-on in calling him the PowerGoat! See attached photo of Charles riding motocross. Here's what he had to say about his 2012 rides:

I've been off the radar since Trans Iowa.  A lot went on in my life between May and January, but sadly Cup rides weren't part of it (just two metrics since Trans Iowa).  Here's my recap from 2012, which by my calculations earns me a Cup in the "12+ Metrics" category:

The ones we've already counted:

1/1/12 metric: this was the New Year's Day Hangover Metric with Courtney, Craig, and others riding a modified version of the CIRREM course.

1/7/12 metric: nothing special to report here, just gravel with some CR roadies.

1/8/12 metric: this was a pre-ride of the Triple D course with Dave Giegerich and Craig.

2/12/12 metric: metric with Craig, him on a Pugsley and me on his old mountain bike.

2/25/12 metric: CIRREM.

3/18/12 metric: Craig and I did the "Amana ride."  I originally counted this as a century.  I'd like to switch it to a metric. 

4/28-4/29 five metrics: this was Trans Iowa, approx. 330 miles of gravel.  I originally counted this as three centuries.  I'd like to switch it to five metrics.  

Previously uncounted rides:

4/1/12 metric: Me, Craig, and Courtney rode from Courtney's place in West Des Moines to the Missouri border and back.  It started out as the "April Fools Ride" but by the time we got back we just called it the "Fools Ride" because we were fools for doing it.  It was unusually hot that day--got into the 80s.  We got lost about a dozen times.  We ended up with something like 210 miles, with about 100 of that on gravel.  I'll just count it as one metric because I can't remember exactly how much was pavement. 

9/15/12 metric: This was a pre-ride of Craig's Moonshine Metric course.  We rode it on fat bikes.  I was toast by the end.   

9/29/12 metric: This was Craig's Moonshine Metric.  The weather was perfect, full moon, clear night, lots of fun.  A little dusty, but fun.  

Total for the year:
So that gives me a total of 14 metrics on the year.  Thanks for the chase, it was always fun to have an excuse to ride at least 60+ miles instead of bagging it early and heading home.  And I really like riding gravel.

Charles is probably even faster on a bike than he is on a moto.