Cue the Willie Nelson

Finally my blog title is applicable again. As of this past Tuesday at noon I am officially homeless once more. Residence: the road. Forward all mail to 1998 Windstar Blvd Open Road, USA. Let the adventure begin!

There are a few key aspects of my life that separate me, the adventure seeking open roader, from your run of the mill, cardboard box squatting, wine-swilling hobo. First of all, I have a van. Boom! Second, and more importantly, I have a plan. I'm not wandering aimlessly, I'm chasing the dream. And I have some good friends helping me along the way.

After a long weekend of racin' bikes (hey, something new and different!), I spent two days packing up all my worldly possessions and loading most of them into Joe's Wan Hai. Joe is the owner of Davis Wheelworks, as well as the patron saint of elite cyclists. I don't actually have that much stuff, but my atrophied cyclist arms made moving both difficult and comical. Phil and I actually got everything packed and cleaned in time and then headed out for Adventure Part 1: TNT.

The Tuesday Night Twilights are a great little race series held primarily at the Fairgrounds in Santa Rosa. Ronnie Lenzi, photog extraordinaire and crusader for all things cycling, runs the show over there and puts on one hell of an event. Phil and I rolled over to reg and were greeted by a table full of tasty treats, from bananas and oranges to peanut butter pretzels and popsicles. Solid! Sterling took us for a little loop around Santa Rosa and then it was game on. The course is just about the craziest I've ever raced on. There's a long false flat headwind stretch to the start/finish followed by a speed bump, two sandy right-handers, a downhill chicane where the bottom falls out of the second turn and you get that stomach-floating roller coaster feeling, a huge sweeper around a tree island a sharp left around a building, over another speedbump and a gutter, around a sweeping off camber 180 and back to the S/F. Whew! Now picture all of that on bumpy pavement looping between unprotected and very hard looking buildings and poles. Chaos.

A field of 25 doesn't sound that large, but on this course it can get a bit crowded. Mooney and I lit out pretty hard and didn't stop until he was off the front with J-Rad. Those two smashed each other up until one to go when PM rode away. I limped in for the last podium spot, though that's a figure of speech; there's no podium, just cash, Chimay and a snack buffet.

Ronnie not only put on the race, but offered to put up Phil and I for the night, so we finally got to experience the splendor the is the Chateau d'Lenzi.Pete and Ronnie were about the most welcoming hospitable people I've encountered and after a delicious home-cooked meal, a tasty brew, and some quality hot-tub time I sacked out. Best day ever? It was a little weird sleeping inside a temple dedicated to the worship of Lance Armstrong, but the mattress was comfy and I was dead tired.

Great hosts: Ronnie, Pete and Ozzie

Adventure Part II, in which Ryan lives the dream. After a solid breakfast, a whole pot of coffee and some good palavering with Ronnie, Phil and I headed down to Tiburon to meet up with Amatron and T-Dibbs. Its been unusually hot around here lately, making for some amazing days on the coast and we took advantage. Long easy ride along Highway 1, up Tam and around the Paradise Loop? Check. Delicious curry and rice from scratch courtesy of Am(azing)y? Check. Prime prize Chimay paired with ice cream with warm brownies? Check. Bay view, fire-side bullshit session with good friends covering everything from Vonnegut to squirrel fights and bear maulings? Check. That's living.

Mountain bikers are so hard core.

As I sit here writing this I'm halfway through another possible challenger for best day ever. Brekkers, great coffee, home-delivered New York Times, Moby Dick, and freshly made pesto pasta for lunch. Those over-achievers already went out for a MTB ride, but I'm just gonna ease into this one.

Southpaw?

Sure, I don't really know what I'm going to do with my life after October, but its hard to be concerned with things so far down the road when the here and now is idyllic. I think right now the plan is maximum enjoyment, one day at at time. Some things I will hopefully be enjoying in the coming weeks:
-Final NorCal racing of the season.
-Visiting the sis in Denver (read: Cowboy Bars and long rides in the Rockies)
-Caribbean Cycling Island Insanity, aka Tobago Cycling Classic.
-The off season

Yup, its good and getting better.