It's about that time that I tell the world...

...that I have a son.Actually that's a lie. Hopefully you're read at least this far into the blog today to pick up the fact that that is not my son.This is my best friend from college's son, Beckett. Beckett is as cute as he is tiny when lodged comfortably into my armpit. If you look closely you will recognize that we're thorougly engrossed in One Morning in Maine by Robert McCloskey - a unanimous favorite among New Englanders. Yup, the same Robert McCloskey who penned Make Way for Ducklings and the even more spectacular Blueberries for Sal. I'm as riveted to the story as Beckett here is, since I'm sure he's heard it seven times this month whereas I haven't cracked open this book in more than two decades.Fall is the silly busy time of year. For the sake of my sanity, thankfully the vast majority of fall travel is fun as heck. I'm pecking away this particular entry while taking the bus to Boston's Logan Airport en route to Vegas and Interbike. Most industry folk say that you should go to Interbike once. Well I was there three years ago and in the meantime I've forgotten how lurid Sin-City is, so I figure let's give it another whirl! I have a dinner party to attend Thursday evening and honestly not much else besides wasting a grotesque amount of money on craps. (No, not really; I just wanted to say craps. I'm a blackjack guy.) So rather than flying across the country for a single event, I opted to increase my cyclocross season by 50% and I'll be partaking in CrossVegas this Wednesday night. The way I figure it, I either have a super fun hour-of-power... or else I collect fan's dollar hand-ups and partake in this type of fun. Yeaabikes! And three cheers for fun.On the polar opposite end of the glitz and glam of Las Vegas is the bucolic landscape of central Vermont. After spending four days surrounded by the Green Mountains over Labor Day weekend before GP(s) Quebec City and Montreal, I opted to come on back and throttle - or get throttled, depending on your perspective - the Green Mountain Cyclocross Weekend at Catamount Outdoor Family Center. Thanks to people who take good pictures and make it look like I'm less terrible at cross than I actually am.The most accurate description of my cross-capabilities came from a fellow with a mullet and a 2007-cool mesh trucker's hat, who was heckling with vigor. He stated, "Ted, your fitness is INCREDIBLE! (...long pause as I take an off camber corner) And your turning is TERRIBLE!"As always, all of my fall adventures can be found here. And if that page isn't your homepage yet, we at iamtedking.com can't wait to see you change it.Then yesterday, Monday, the day when a normal person might recover from a tough weekend of UCI cross races before another UCI cross race in Vegas, I opted to hang out with my friend Chris and mountain bike the Northeast Kingdom. With some of the planet's best mountain biking just an hour's drive away on the Kingdom Trails and having never touched these trails in my life, I was presented with this choice: take the day off, drive home, and call it a recovery day or have an AWESOME time. I chose B.