My mind is saturated with thoughts about this weekend, so in faux-journalistic fashion, I am going to post in parts over the day and recap in sections.
Friday started off on a high note. About a half hour before Sam picked me up, I was walking to Leon's to pick up a bottle of wine for the folks who were bunking us up for the night, when I saw Butch walking to Leon's from the other direction. Smiles, laughter and a bottle of 40lb Rooster Wine later, I walked back to the house, walked Seven to school and Sam arrived as I was walking back.
The drive was fun in the truest sense of the Hangout Factor. Good conversation, underlined with excitement and concern for the weather. We stopped in at the Trek Store, chatted with
MOD about bikes and snowflake displays in April and headed out again.
At some point after leaving Omaha, Dave turned into the Spider Monkey photographer and was snapping shots at all angles around the van, a few of which are up on
MomBok. The drive remained pretty faceless until we hit Route 12 in Iowa. Scenic Byway doesn't do it justice. River on your left, Bluffs on the right and greenery all around. Sam commented several times it would be a sweet road ride. Absolutely right.
When we arrived in Hawarden, we drove about for a bit and then found our host families house, where Tom Kane was waiting for us with a big smile and "how-can-we-help-you" attitude. I have been very lucky to stay with them the last two years. Tom and Elaine also had several bikes hanging in their garage. Word.
After we settled things in, Butch, Dave and MW took a spin around the town, while Sam and I went downstair, tilted back a couple of recliners and napped. Consider the had to get up at 2:30am to get ready, I was pretty stoked to have fallen asleep. Unfortunately, the chairs also reminded me of the Chandler and Joey chair setup from friends.
From there, we headed to the Pizza Ranch for the pre-race meeting. Too be continued.
Time to head downstair and continue cleaning my bike. My chain is rust-red. My clothes smell like a drowning pool.