Notes from the RAGBRAI

I ended up on the High Trestle Trail bridge twice during my ride on the RAGBRAI this year.
But neither time was at night.
Dutch on the other hand made a trip across it in the dark.
It lights up.

High Trestle Trail Bridge during the day:



High Trestle Trail Bridge at night (video by Dutch):



I think another ride on the High Trestle Trail is in order.

Funemployment has come to an end

I popped into Midwest Cyclery this past week for a visit and sit down with owner/operator Bob Albright. I was looking for a job and I'd heard that Midwest was looking of a good employee. Bob seemed to like what I had to say although I'm sure it helped that I had several people rallying for me to work there.
And I'm pleased to announce that now I do.
After my 4 month hiatus from employment I'm excited to get back to work in a bike shop. More so for one that wants to benefit from my years of experience and my eagerness to work.

Midwest Cyclery opened its doors in 1973.

At one point in time they had 7 locations in the greater Kansas City area. Midwest moved to its current location a year ago after many years in Westport.

Bob decided to abandon the Westport location after the building had fallen into disrepair and the landlord seemed unwilling to fix.

Funny enough the 3850 Main location is the same spot (at least the same corner) where Midwest was back in the 80's.
Its a sweet corner space with two levels. Most of the showroom is on the ground floor with the repair area down stairs.

Midwest is old school style bike shop with lots of history and I am eager to get in and get to work. Its a great location, with more potential than I think even Bob realizes.
Bob is excited to have me there, I'm excited to be there & we are looking forward to a great spring.
Come see us at 39th and Main!

Catching up with the RAGBRAI in videos

OK so my RAGBRAI recap post never actually happened. Sorry.
But the other day I had a post with a video about touring so I've been thinking about it again.
Today when I had some free time and was uploading the video about the CycleOps Blender that we have on loan for KC Sprints I went ahead and up loaded my videos from the 2010 RAGBRAI

Day 6, drunk & a little behind:



Later that day still far behind:



Swimming hole:



After the swimming hole with Team Pink Floyd:



Ted post tire dip:

Oh my what a mess August has been.

OK.

So if you are getting texts from me in all capitals its because my phone broke & my backup sucks. It sucks alot.

So many bad things have happened (more on that in a later post) since I got home from the RAGBRAI... I wanna go back to Iowa and just ride my bike.

Was doing a little single track riding on my cyclecross bike Saturday and went down. I jumped up right away because I knew I had landed on my phone.

I cracked the screen & its a touch screen.
I was kinda pissed and then I realized what my phone had saved me from. I had fallen right on to a couple huge chunks of beer bottle that surely would have impaled me.
Thank you phone. I need my kidneys.
My phone still worked just fine.
No big deal I can deal with a crack in the corner of the screen for a while.

It worked fine the rest of the day (I use my phone alot) Went to a party. Got home at 2AM went to bed got up at 5AM to work an event (Tour de Shawnee)

Phone still worked.

By the time I was home from the event at 10:30AM the phone started acting funny. Then it started shutting off and not coming back on very quickly.

Now it won't come on at all.

Shit.

Not something I really want to invest money into right now.

Oh well.
I got out my cheap back up phone and charged up the battery.
It was being funky at first but now seems to be working just fine.

Monday morning I was laying in bed trying to, once again, set the time and date.
The back up phone randomly shut off, again, and in a fit of irritation pitched it across the room.
Right into the bottom of the full length mirror in the corner.

Shatter.
Shit.

So there I am at 7:30AM freshly out of bed squatting on the floor picking broken glass out of my bedroom carpet and I couldn't help but start laughing at how ridiculous my life has gotten in the past several weeks.

Whats a boy to do?

Heres to hoping that with August wrapping up today that things will start to look up for yours truly.
Even the things that have happened for which I don't know what the end result will be as of yet.

Cheers!