Thursday, July 30, 2009

More from Bend


A NICE SCULPTURE TO RUN ACROSS OUT ON THE TRAILS


SKELETOR LOG




MOVING THROUGH THE PELOTON TO THE BREAK

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Hey there,

Here is a quick re-cap of the last two weeks. Drove from Milwaukee to Bend, OR for the Cascade stage race. Long drive. Interstate driving is pretty uneventful so I decided to take highway 12 from Missoula, MT through Idaho on over to Oregon. That was a very scenic drive but it took me all day to drive only 400 miles as it was a twisty two lane highway through the mountains. Not sure if I'd do that again in the truck.

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Route 12 somewhere in Idaho.

I love coming to Bend. Always meet great people here. The race went well except for those darn Shimano shifters that keep crapping out. Fortunately, Ryan at Shimano Neutral helped me out with a couple of new ones while I try to bring them back to life.


Caravan Life


Hotel Life

Enjoying some time in Bend to do as much mountain biking as I can. Linsey Corbin hooked me up with her parents, Tom and Betty Pickell, so I've had a free place to stay and sleep. Hot weather here so trying to stay in the trees as much as the trails allow. Water, water, water!


Thanks Linsey! You Rock!


Riding the Deschutes River Trail in Bend, OR. Benham Falls then Bonking Falls.

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Catching Up A Little

I should have a lot more of this and that to update soon. For now I wanted to see if this might upload okay. It's from the Quebec City stage at the Tour de Beauce. I apologize for Gord's french. Enjoy the behind the scenes and the view from my "office".



Ah what the heck! I'll take a break from gluing some tubulars to update for all my loyal peeps! On my way back from Quebec I stopped for a sweet ride on the Kingdom Trails in East Burke, Vermont. All I can say is I needed another 3 days to ride more of the trails. I've often read about this place in magazines. They don't lie. If you are on the east go there soon. Tons of east coast singletrack. My 5 second movie does it no justice. This particular part was more hairy than it looks. It was slick and rooty with a big drop-off to my left. REALLY IT WAS TRICKY ONCE I GOT PAST THE CAMERA!


This picture of me and Gwen is from April. I stayed with Candice and Dave in Tucson and got to become pretty good pals with Gwen. A real cutie!



Got to love the front door parking. Early bird gets the worm. The overhang kept me out of the rain but my location meant that every hotel guest walked by and asked questions. I don't mind really, but if you choose to ask me if I can leave one behind for you or if they are for rent or some other witty remark don't expect a big guffaw from me as I hear that one about 3 times a day. If you are a bike racer and ask nicely chances are I can diagnose your problem. I had a blast helping out quite a few athletes that were at the race without their normal support or are a category racer and were blown away that I could help them out.


My pal Shane is starting to build some stringed instruments. I'm in awe. My stay with Athena and Shane wetted my desire to attempt bulding a guitar of my own sometime. This is the Telecaster style he made. In the evening we spent several hours "jamming" with 5 of us. Who knows if it was any good but probably one of the best times I've had. I was bummed when we went to bed. I could have stayed up all night. So much fun was had. Shane and Athena are like that. Good friends you can start right up where you last left off. I haven't seen them in more than a year. Maybe even two.



I joined Athena and Andrew at the station. They volunteer at a community radio station in Massachusettes where they live. We had another good time talking about being a Pro mechanic, Lance at the Tour, why Frank SInatra is cool and even got to bring in some tunes to play. I was impressed that their local station is all volunteer. They feel strongly about acting locally to bring about change. I have cool friends.


MY MOM!!!!! Enjoys her card night. I was told she is quite the shark. It was good to see my mom for a bit and visit her new home. It was a big change for her, but she seems to be getting into the groove and able to enjoy herself at some of the activities.

Cheers,
DJB



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