All Good Things Come To An End...

...especially vacations.

On Saturday, I slept in and didn't roll out of bed until 7:30. I decided to skip the free breakfast and the Century ride, find a diner and eat breakfast.

I rode to town and had some bacon, eggs and hash browns, then decided to just tour around town and see the sights. I stopped at an art supply store and got some leads for my pencil, along with a new sketchbook (I probably own 25 sketchbooks...it's a problem I have). Then, I went to the bookstore, right where the track-stand concert had been held, and got a latte.

As I sat at a sidewalk table, drinking my latte and loading lead into my pencil, Steve Lambert walked by. At least I wasn't the only one skipping out on the ride.

I rode over to the marina and took a couple of vacation snapshots.

I think this looks like a 1970's catalogue shot.

I rode along the lakeshore, on the bike path, and eventually came to a bathroom. I needed a pit stop, so I went inside. When I came out, I ran into Jon (from Jonny Bikes), Rose, Jason the painter, Becka and another fellow whose name I've forgotten (sorry, dude!). We ended riding over to "the pie place" for lunch (with pie).

The pie place ended up being next door to the joint where I had eaten lunch with Tyler, the day before. The strawberry/rhubarb was great, as was the cold plate (chicken salad, egg salad, tuna salad and feta cheese on a bed of greens).

As we were heading back to the venue, Jon and Rose were leading the way, and Jason and I were close behind them. Jason and I were discussing the brakes/no-brakes question which often comes up with fixed-gear riders.

I said to him, "Well, mine are more like distant early-warning devices than actual brakes, anyway." With that, I squeezed the brake lever firmly and the brakes, as they do, let out a screeching howl that made Jon nearly jump off his bike. Jason got a good laugh out of it.

Next on the agenda was the Street Skid competition. I didn't participate in this, because, frankly, the technique for successful long skids scares me.

I just can't bring myself to completely unweight the rear like that.

After the skid comp, we lined our bikes up for the Bicycle Concours. Jon and Jason were the judges, and they inspected the bikes and made notes as we waited on the food for the big banquet.

The food was excellent, and a good time was had by all during dinner. Then, it was time for the door-prizes and Concours winners announcements. Imagine how honored I felt when Jon and Jason awarde a prize to "the Grinder Bikes Peugeot" for "jankiest brakes". I received a cool Jonny Bikes cycling cap for my maladjusted Mafac Racer.

After all of the prizes had been given out, I headed over to the workroom and packed up my bike. Steve gave me a ride back to the motel. Using his GPS, we managed to find it in under an hour (but not by much).

Next year, I'm staying somewhere easier to find.

The next morning, after a beautiful dry sunny week, I awoke to a gully-washer of a thunderstorm which actually knocked the electricity out at the airport for a while. The weather had calmed by the time I boarded my airplane, and I made it back to Denver with no difficulty.

Looking back through my pictures, I can't believe I forgot to post this picture from the top of the hillclimb:

The Flash...

That's a fleece hat with eyeholes cut out. It's amazing that he survied the heat and humidity on the way up!

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