Screw the truck

Not too much to update since I left Milwaukee on Tuesday. Driving all day is really getting to me. The route to Arizona is particularly boring too, although I can add another state to my "been there" list. TEXAS. Don't mess with it. All my ex's live in Texas. Now that we are in New Mexico the scenery should be getting better and we have about 8-9 hours until we can stop in Tempe.

Holiday Inn Express are the best places to stay. Great beds and sheets. Good breakfast with more choices than just a dry danish and crappy coffee like other "continental breakfasts." I'm thinking of becoming a spokesperson. Need to come up with a pitch and present it. Any ideas out there? Should I get an agent before I'm famous or afterwards. Actually I'd really settle for some sort of sponsorship. I wonder if I could do that? Hmmmm?

Oh no! Poodle alert in the breakfast nook.

While sitting in the truck these past two days I started thinking of things that could be worse than sitting in the Timex truck:
1. Learning to play golf. No offense. I just don't see me playing that game.
2. Antique-ing (shopping for antiques). Is that some sort of huge industry or what. Seems like there are antiques barns all over this country. Maybe if they called it "useable junk shopping" it might appeal to a different kind of person. Again, I realize we all have our thing to do. Some people really enjoy it. But if I'm ever in a relationship with someone and we are spending the weekend to drive around looking for antiques, somebody please smack me. Sorry ladies!
3. Waiting in line for a table at a mediocre restaurant. Waiting sucks. I'm outta there if the wait is over 30 minutes. I can hold out for 40 minutes if need be.
4. Having a desk job.
5. Assembling Huffy's at Walmart, K-mart, etc. (Although a friend of mine did that once and made some good money for a few weeks since they paid by the work done).
6. Giving Tune-ups on Huffy's.
7. Having a cat sneak onto my pillow during the night. Ah choo! I also don't care to hear a cat purring near my head in the morning. Again no offense.
8. Being bit by a rattle snake or other venomous creature while out in the backcountry.
9. Having to wear a tie and jacket to work. I'm okay with getting dressed up once in awhile but glad I don't have to everyday.
10. ?????????????????

Time to get the show on the road.

Cheers,
DJB

Madison

Candice was teaching me how to look "good" in a photo. Most of the attempts were ridiculous.


I got a cold after Madison. When I feel like I'm getting sick, I down a clove of garlic. It seems to work. Except for the coughing part.


People in Madison are really friendly. It's true what they say about the midwest. (The skeleton in back is the white Ben Harper)


Tom Schuler did Ironman Wisconsin with his two brothers. It was nice to see the brother thing. Good work fellas!


This was a little going away party for Dave and Candice who are opening a bike shop in Tuscon. Cool now I have a place in AZ to crash at.


Sweet bike congloberation in Madison.


They call him whiskers because he's curious like a cat!


Well, it has been about a week since I’ve returned from Madison, WI. I was in Madison for another Ironman event. Madison is a wonderful place. I think it is classified as the “fittest” or “healthiest” city in the U.S. Anyway you look at it, Madison really encourages the use of bicycles for fitness and transportation. Seems like everyone is commuting by bike. There are plenty of bike racks to lock your bike at every store. They have a great system of bike paths, wide roads with bike lanes, and miles of roads outside the city ideal for riding. The city itself has lots of shops, restaurants and places to chill. Whatever you want it’s there. (What happens in Madison stays in Madison.)

From a mechanic’s perspective, the week was pretty tame. All the athletes brought their bikes in good condition. Mainly, I just gave them a good polish, tweaked a couple of derailleurs, and changed the training wheels for race wheels. Last year Ironman Wisconsin was considered the hardest event of all the Ironman’s. It was 95 degrees with high humidity and very windy. This year’s race was equally tough with the exact opposite conditions. It was raining hard all day and in the 50’s. It was one wet day for sure. It was probably harder on the spectators.

In case you didn’t know, race day starts at 7am and goes all day until midnight. From 9pm until midnight the finish line takes on a party atmosphere. One thing that Timex contributes to this spectacle is called “the free schwag parade”. This is where we throw out hats and t-shirts to the crowd. I often don’t take part in the madness, but this time I was into it (it was a way to keep warm). It is amazing how 500 people become your friends when you have free stuff for them. It was fun to get the crowd yelling and screaming. Of course, I try to find the kids and mom’s in the crowd first. Some people are really grabby too. Practically reaching over the barriers to claw at you. Freaks!

Life at the shop has been equally busy as being on the road. We are already getting stuff rolling for next season. This is the time of year for renewing contracts or acquiring new riders. It looks as though the Colavita/Cooking Light team is finalized for next season. I’m not at liberty to talk about the roster but it looks like an awesome team talent wise and personality wise. Some great people to be around will be on the team.

Ben “Seal Man” Harper and I have been packing for Hawaii. Basically, we have to ship the expo and all the bike related stuff I’ll need for the Ironman World Championships. All the “crap” has to be loaded onto pallets and crates for the boat trip. I think we got it all done in 2 days and is expected to take 3 weeks to get there. Guess how many hats we are shipping? Something like 4,000 hats will be given away. Just for yucks, Ben weighed the pallet and it was 482 pounds. Wow, we are giving away 482 pounds worth of hats. Crazy! Fortunately we have a forklift to carry these things around. In college I had a job at Kodak that involved driving a forklift. I went to forklift school and passed with high honors. The moral of the story is to never pass up the opportunity to attend forklift school (or take typing class). My dad was big on me taking typing class in high school because he believed its something you’ll always use (who knew?). On an even more random tangent, the first thing I did by myself while working at Kodak was to carry a bottle of chemicals on a delivery. The guy who was training me said it was important to put this particular bottle in a “bomb bag” because if I happened to drop it, I wouldn’t have time to outrun the poisonous gas cloud. I always remember that day. It only got better from there on.

Here's is my intinerary for the rest of the month. Tomorrow I leave with SealMan to drive the Timex truck to Tempe, AZ for a triathlon being held there. After that we have a few days to play before driving to Vegas for the Bike Show. After a few days of wheeling and dealing at the bike show we are driving to Park City, Utah for Keith's wedding and more playime. Then it's back to Milwaukee the first week of October (then off to Hawaii, yadda, yadda, yadda).

Keep checking back. I'm sure to have some good pictures and stuff from the bike show.

Cheers,
DJB

Riding in the truck

[I forgot I wrote this last week. Not quite current but nonetheless it’s an update]



This is what part of Washington state looks like. Nothing but wheat fields.



This is a forest fire somewhere around the Canadian/US border in Washington.


This is exactly what things looked like near Big Timber, Montana. A real eerie feel to it.


I’m typing this from the cab of the Timex truck (aka Black Falcon). I must express must distain for sitting in here any longer. I left Tuesday around 11:00 am and it is currently 9:00pm on Thursday. With the time changes I don’t know how many hours that is. All I know is that I’ve been sitting in the truck for three long days now. The only time my feet hit the ground is when stopping for gas, food, and using the restroom, which is usually all in the same stop. Well, we do stop at night to sleep for about 8 hours.

Not much has happened to me the past few days. Getting across the border was fine. This year they had a new machine that passes over the truck, which I guess is like a big x-ray machine. When I asked the border patrol guy if that was some sort of x-ray machine he replied “yeah something like that.” I figured by his tone that he wasn’t about to tell me all about it and take me on a tour. National security you know. Very hush, hush,

In case you haven’t heard on the news, there are some big forest fires going on out west. On Wednesday we drove by one of the biggest right now in Big Timber, Montana. The s sky was obscured by the smoke. Apparently it got bigger and I-90 was shut down after we had gone through. Lucky us. Actually if we got stopped I wouldn’t have minded. It would have been a good reason to stay another day in the west. I always feel a little let down driving east because you know you are leaving the mountains behind you. I like the mountains.

I bought an excellent latte in Missoula, MT at a drive through coffee shack. Much better than Starbucks. Why was it good you ask? For one, the medium size had two shots of espresso in it. At most places I have to ask for an extra shot. In addition I think it was cheaper than Starbucks too. Lastly, the lady was nice. Not that people at Starbucks aren’t nice. I’ve always encountered nice people at Starbucks.

I’ve got to go now. There is about three more hours to go before Milwaukee and Ben has just informed me he is “spent.” I guess the kid needs me to bring it on home. I think this call for some trucker songs. A little Junior Brown and some Pupy Costello and His Big City Honky Tonk Band ought to do the trick