Back to Business

After a good visit to the city visiting the fam and eating like a king Fred and I were back on the road. I did a lot of driving in the city before we fled and I have to say all that crit racing really paid off. I felt like an old pro driving through manhattan, blaring my horn and darting in and out of traffic. I think it helped that we don't have plates on the car, so no one knew we were laid back californians. Ha!

On the way back we stopped for the night in State College, PA, only to find that there was reunion week ramping up and a blue chip basketball festival winding down and that left not a single hotel room in the whole place. We stopped for dinner anyway before heading on the the next town, but we decided we had to have at least one beer in the home of Penn State before hitting the road. Well, one beer turned into a couple, then a few and so forth and we ended up making friends with some people who put us up for the night. Alcohol really is a social lubricant.

We drove like madmen all of Tuesday and still didn't make it to Lake Forest until pretty late and just hit the sack. I got up the next day absolutely gleeful at the thought of taking a long ride anywhere that wasn't New York City. Alas, the weather had other plans. It was chilly and pouring rain... crushing! We managed to get out for a bit of a spin, but spent most of the day daydreaming about sunshine and hanging out.

We finally got in a solid four and a half hour ride yesterday, going down along the water into Chicago and seeing the sights before heading home. Open roads with temps and the mid seventies and nothing but sunshine. Finally! I couldn't believe how many people were packed onto those beaches on a Thursday in the middle of the day! I guess if you look that good in a bathing suit you don't have to have a real job. If only I'd been born beautiful I could be spending every day on the beach. We rode all over the place looking for the bean sculpture and after a few false alarms, "Its right by some trees and a building! I remember. This has got to be it this time!" we ran into some Polish guys who could barely speak English, but were SO fired up about seeing real cyclists. They somehow managed to convey that they had been racers for 15 years back in Europe and spent 15 minutes chatting us up and taking photos of us. We're going to be HUGE in Poland! They also finally pointed us in the right direction. Funny, it took two guys from the other side of the world who can't speak our language to send us to a famous landmark. Ha.

We're out here staying with Fred's relatives and they are super nice. We stayed with them for Crit Nationals last year and they're still willing to put us up again, even knowing what they're in for. Well okay, we're pretty easy-going, but they still go out of the way to make us feel welcome. Fred's uncle has been cooking for us every night and he's something of a Wunderkind. Delicious meals. Absolutely delicious. Between that and the fresh berries with cereal they're taking good care of us.

Also, and perhaps most important, they have a huge TV and the Versus Channel. Holy Hell! I don't know if the rest of you have been watching the Tour de France, but it just keeps getting better and better. If you haven't been watching, shame on you! You should go check out the highlights online. If you've never watched the tour, do yourself a favor and go find your local cycling fanatic and watch a stage with him or her. You'll get a new level of insight into the race and it'll be a lot more fun than just watching some guys pedal around in funny outfits.

Okay. Its time for me to get out the door. We're off the the first of 5 races we're doing here before we head back West. On the menu tonight: The Beverly Hills Classic, my very first Superweek race. Most of these races, including tonights, are 100k crits. The longest crit I've ever done was 80k so this is gonna be something new for me. Its not cold outside, but it is raining, so we're just gonna have to see how this all goes. When I know, dear reader, so will you.