John’s Ramblings

Man, it’s hot down here ( o.k., I promise I won’t go on and on about how sunny it is, and that the temperature is in the high 70′s, and that the prevailing winds are below 20 mph).

We arrived on Wednesday, and as expected my Lemond was here waiting for me.  The innkeeper here is a former cyclist himself, so he kept my steed locked away until my arrival.  The Thule bike case that I shelled out a few clams for worked to specification, and there was zero damage.  I did my assembly during happy hour on Wednesday and Thursday.  My test drive wasn’t until this morning, but as long as you don’t mind a constant left-hand turn, it looks like I got everything back together alright.  I adjusted the handlebar-steering tube interface upon my return, and I can again go straight without turning.  I am ready for tomorrow.

Our quest today was to pick up the “registration packet”, at the Palm Springs Pavilion.  The Palm Springs Pavilion is a building that no one knows the directions to, except for one helpful bookish fellow at the downtown library.  It happens to be miles away from the start line, “go right, look for this, turn on that, then left again to such-and-such”.  Inconvenient, but moderately functional once you get there.

Stood in line one (briefly), told that since I had pre-paid online I need to go to line 2.  A thru C line up here.  No packets, no maps, but take this wrist band and meet us in the morning.  We promise we’ll have the maps back from Kinko’s by then.

Yellow wrist band clutched in my sweaty palm, we headed over to the “Bike Expo”.  The expo was maybe 12 booths on the grass.  One was Crocs, one was some kind of freakin’ pressure washer that you would never use on a bike, and one was snowcones.  The rest were actually bike related, including a booth for Cycle Oregon.  In what has to be the king of all boondoggle trips, someone convinced the powers-that-be at Cycle Oregon that it would be a great promotion to let him drive to Palm Springs, hang out in the upper-70 sunshine, and ride a century “for the good of Oregon”.  Well done, lad.  I should be so creative.

Tonight’s carb load was an amazing risotto.  Yum.

The winds on Thursday came up about 2 p.m., today it was more like 10 a.m.  Guaranteed that half my ride will be hell, and I don’t think it will be the uphill part.  Wish me tailwinds, with a 180 degree shift in same come 11 a.m. or so.

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