A Mid-Summer Vacation

I left the house at 4:15 this morning for Colorado. I was totally pumped for this trip and so far so good. The days highlights:

*The flight was on time, no obnoxious passengers and my baggage made it

*Stopped at a Denny's in Thornton. The waitress was seriously drunk (9am). Across the room a woman was on her cell phone talking very loudly about a 7 year old restraining order against an ex that he had violated recently. That segued (sp?) into a conversation about the custody issues surrounding three of her children - sounded like Children's Services was in the process of placing her children outside her home. Forunately the food was what I needed - I'll probably be sick as a dog tomorrow...

*Stopped at Mark Nobilette's in Longmont. For those who don't know, he is a frame builder of the Richard Sach's/Peter Weigle reputation. He does great work. He is in the process of building a cx frame with an S&S coupler for me. The purpose of the bike is to provide me with a bike that I can travel with easily without paying the airlines through the nose to take it with me. Mark is so low key it is amazing. Here is a picture of his shop:



The inside of his shop looks very similar to the exterior. Organization/cleanliness are not his strong suits. Building sweet steel frames is.

*Went from Longmont to Boulder. What a cool city!! Think Ann Arbor vibe with mountains in the background. I drove around the UC campus and generally killed time. Drove up a road called Canyons without any destination. It literally went up into a canyon. I pulled over into a roadside parking spot next to a stream. Here is a picture of the view from the rock I took a nap on:



Might have been 3 miles from the heart of Boulder. Twist my arm and I am moving.

*On the way back to town I ran into one of RS's buddies:



*Had an early dinner with an old babysitter for my daughters who just graduated from UC.

*Drove to Steamboat Springs for the next few days. I love driving in the mountains. Of the 3+ hours of driving, only about 30 minutes was on an interstate. I even passed a sign in one canyon that said to "Climb to Higher Ground in the event of Flash Flooding". You don't get those very often in Ohio.

Tomorrow I show up at Kent Eriksen Cycles to build up my new bike. Hopefully ride it some tomorrow. Hang out with Kent and Katie. Andy and Steve Hampsten are supposed to show up some time on Friday. Ride with them Friday and Saturday. Head to Breckenridge with Katie on Saturday and then get my legs ripped off on Sunday in the Breckenridge 100.

Updates as they occur!!