What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.

I stopped by Vegas for interbike and, of course, 'Cross Vegas. The trip there was pretty uneventful, and I was pretty excited to be going to interbike as I have never been before. After chillin' with Joey Doloey of OCR racing in Burbank, I arrived in Vegas and got to the Palms hotel. The show was pretty much what I had expected. It was pretty cool to see how sleek all of the companies booths were.

The race venue was pretty cool too. My race absolutely sucked; I think I finished third from last, but it was still loads of fun. There was a great crowd, plenty of hecklers, etc. It was really good to see some of the SoCal regulars doing well. I think our local scene is going to be really good this year.

Anyways, the flight home was a little more eventful. I got to my gate about an hour and a half before my flight was scheduled to leave and got on the plane on time. After falling asleep after what seemed to be a longer time than usual at the gate, the pilot brought the 20+ planes to our left that were waiting to take off to our attention. Apparently Vice Pres. Dick Cheney had been in earlier, which stopped all incoming and outgoing flights. Great. So after 1.5 hrs (almost twice as long as the actual flight) on the tarmac we were in the air. When I got home I updated myself on the news and stuff like that. One of the first things I read: "Bush promises to take steps to reduce air traffic congestion and long delays that have left travelers grounded."

Teh.

So, tomorrow is the first race of the SoCal series. I kinda have my tail between my legs after Vegas, and after seeing how good the other guys have been doing I'm not expecting much. It will be a good time either way.

I got a sweet job for some shirts from a company in N.Y. that makes skiing gloves and beanie caps. This one is on a t-shirt. I think it came out pretty sick.


As I said before, I'm going to have some bicycle oriented designs up here soon. Can't wait to get that done.








Chance

My face, it burns.

I've been doing a lot of stuff not related to bikes with all the extra time from the lack of training right now. I spent the Labor day weekend at Channel Islands. It took about 4 hours by sail to get there from the mainland, and I decided to take a nap on the deck with no sunscreen on. Although, I did have my sunglasses. A few hours later, I woke up and looked like something between a lobster and a raccoon. Sweet hikes, kayaking and pier jumping were to follow.







My Uncle Matt had been visiting at the time, his trip prompted visits to skateparks, and a day trip to LA, and Santa Monica via train and bus. As somewhat expected, we met some interesting people while riding the public transportation in the LA area. One guy offered to "wipe the smile off my face in the name of Jesus" and kindly informed me that the devil had manifested himself in me. He also referred to me as nothing other than "white boy." Good times.


We managed to document some of our skatepark visits. The aspect ratio is wrong, but you get the picture.

You can see "my" ride in the back of the second to last shot. I saw mile 222222 today.

Real training started yesterday. School started too.

Wear sunscreen, and don't smile in LA.

Chance