Stubs Stop

The heat was ratcheting up now. We are in 'Colorful Colorado.' 2pm as we pulled up to a garage to fill up. "Stubs Stop" the sign said in red cursive.

I stood in the queue waiting to order something to eat. The two guys in front of me were exchanging body injury stories. "I have no pelvis! Black ice...." the guy in the pink shirt said knowlingly.
"I basically had no bladder for over a month. Hit a semi on the north interstate" the shorter of the two shot back for measurement. His low slung belt hosted three cell phones and his long oily hair clung damply to his shirt.

I was sure I would not have much of an appetite for my burrito and two beef tornados!

"What is a Canadian seal's favorite drink?" Jerome suddenly asked breaking the easy silence in the van. ...."Canadian Club on the rocks"

20 miles to Denver and we can see the mountains in the distance now.

(Sent from mobile Treo 650)

Evolutions In Design

Mara’s images were stunning. Each mounted in an old wooden window against the red brick wall of Evolutions. Many people we know came down to say hello as they walked the block. Bobby, James and I strolled up to Van Dolfsons to see Bruce’s display of paintings, remarking how amazing it was that we could imbibe openly on a Wausau street

At 9:30pm we all met at Randy’s place, packed in the last of carry-on gear and were off! The spacing in the van worked out pretty well with 2 sitting in the front, one each on the mid-benches and one kipping on the back bed.

In no time at all we had Randy’s new JVC XM-ready AUX enabled stereo hooked up to Mark’s laptop playing Zappa as we headed south for the exit to Coloma. At one point, Randy dimmed the music and said “I have somewhat of an announcement to make, and I’d better do it now as I won’t be able to keep it to myself for the whole trip.” He was greeted with a cheer. See Zara for more details!

“Where’s the porn?” Jerome asked Mark as the next song was selected from the laptop playlist. “I brought porn audio cassettes” Randy piped up from the front. “You know when you real tired, you just listen to porn and drift off to sleep……” The conversation dropped into a sewer from there, so I shall spare the blog due to the sensitive nature of some of our readersJ

We took turns driving through the night. The harsh staccato of the rumble strips had me up bolt upright in the back. Randy had been looking for his ‘Good Sense’ Roasted & Salted sunflower seeds and had wandered off the highway! Shite!

We have just crossed the Platte River in Nebraska. I have been watching Randy while he has been driving. It is an endless but simple cycle. Handful of seeds into mouth. Few chews, workarounds and then spit out the husks into paper cup while nodding his head to the Stones.

Well...kinda packed

The nip was definitely in the air as we made rendezvous at Randy's house last night to pack his monstrous white van with 10 bikes, wood, ice cooler boxes, myriads of sleeping bags and camp chairs.

As Mark—headlight firmly strapped to his forehead—fitted fork clamps to the roof racks, Jerome complained of a broken toe and Randy ran back and forth trying to be as productive as possible. Tim and I held onto our Old Styles and sipped. After an hour or so we had 7 of the 10 bikes in place up on the roof and the area under the bed at the back of the van was jammed full of gear.

I was especially pleased with the fitment of a new stereo in the van complete with XM-radio, good stuff Randy-o! When Jerome mentioned something about it being ‘foot-stomping’ time back at home, I agreed and we both took off saying our goodbyes.

We plan to meet at Evolutions in Design this evening where Mara has her ‘BODYPARTS’ solo photography exhibition. We will leave for Fruita from there! Long time planning and dreaming of this epic trip with mind-blowing mountain biking…and here we are!!!!