June 9-10 -- biking and traveling

Aaron and I headed into the city (Philadelphia) early on the 9th, found a parking spot at the Art Museum, assembled our bikes and headed over to the sign-in area for Aaron's race. He then went for a warm-up ride along Kelly Drive while I followed a similar route, but came back along West River Drive which is closed to traffic on the weekend and today was hosting the time trial race that Aaron in which Aaron was about to participate. He was rider number 102 so I watched the riders coming towards me to judge where they were in the starting spots then found a spot by the side of the road to take a picture of him going by. After he went by I then proceeded to an area close to the finish line so that I could get a photo of him on the way back. It's a fairly short course so the entire thing does not take very long. He bettered his time from last year by one minute which he attributes mostly to equipment changes ... helmet and bike. It's amazing how much difference equipment makes, i.e. being aerodynamic for a time-trial. It is not as important for regular races where you spend much of your time riding in a pack drafting with the group.

Aaron then changed frames back at the car and we went for a ride out to Valley Forge and back to the city. It was a beautiful day and we encountered many of the pro teams heading out on the same course as we were returning. They need to keep their legs in shape for the big race on Sunday so were doing a cruising ride.

After we got back to the car we headed over to Performance Bike to return the excess parts that I had accumulated for the ride across America and had not used. Then, back in Exton we had lunch, showered and went over to Lowes to pick up my plywood, tie-downs, tarps as well as some plumbing parts for Aaron -- he has some leaking shut-off valves and a leaky frost-free outside faucet. He replaced the washer in the outside faucet which still leaked and then spent an hour or so trying to clean the seating area deep inside the faucet which had built-up a deposit which was cutting into the washer and letting it drip. He Almost ... Almost ... fixed the drip. Inside we were successful in fixing one valve (replacing the packing) but the other valve had the knob facing downwards and it was rusted. Not wanting to break anything we simply tightened this one up and seem to have fixed the problem. We'll see.

Sandy picked up Angelika and brought her back to Stef's for dinner ... a green salad and a pasta salad (I always like salads for dinner) and cake.

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Sunday a.m. Aaron and I were up early heading down to Conshohocken, which is were we get on to the rails-to-trails bike path into Philadelphia. I used to ride that trail when we lived in Radnor, biking the 3.5 miles down to the trail. It's about 12.5 miles into Philadelphia via the trail which takes us through Manayunk. We signed up for the fun ride, which follows most of the the bike race course and started off shortly after 7am. As usual, Aaron did it twice around and then met me at the bleachers that were setup on Ben Franklin parkway by the race starting point.

Many people ride the circuit without paying the $45 fee -- there is nothing stopping them since it is on city streets -- but I've always paid the fee to whatever charity it represents that year, which also gets you food and a t-shirt. For that kind of money you could buy a better event t-shirt and better food ... but oh well. We noticed that the event was not as well attended this year and large groups were riding by the starting point heading out on the course. The actual race was not as well attended either, if you judge by the number of people at the starting point -- but all in all, when I think of the number of people out around the course watching the race it was probably not much different than other years. The weather was cool and cloudy for the first couple of hours which probably reduced the number of people sitting in the bleachers for the race start.

We did our usual -- watched the race start at 9am, the men do three short circuits then head out on the longer course. We watched the women start at that point and then headed over to the exhibit area to see which sponsors were supplying goodies -- a different selection this year and more general suppliers, eg. Verizon, vs sports-specific like Powerbar or Velonews. After spending a few minutes at the exhibits we headed over to the Manayunk Wall to watch the women do their final time up the wall and then the men. They both follow the same course but the women do not have the short circuits at the beginning and end and only do 4 times around the longer circuit while the men do 10. We then made our way gradually back to the ride start, stopping a number of times along the way to watch the men.

Aaron had spotted a place by the starting/finish line where we could actually watch the race end -- normally we are in the bleachers about 100 yards before the race end and with bunch sprints it is often hard to see what actually happened. This time we grabbed a spot about 100 feet after the finish line and waited the next 1.5 hours for the end of the race -- this is not as boring as it sounds -- the men went by 5 or 6 more times and we could watch/hear the proceedings out on the course from the announcers and the big screen. We actually got to see the race end -- the CSC rider beating out the T-Mobil rider in a small group that broke away from the bunch in the last few hundred yards. I grabbed a picture -- this year I was just carrying the small camera -- but have not looked to see how it turned out yet. I'll post a couple of pictures tomorrow perhaps.

After the race we rode our bicycles back to Conshohocken, went back to Exton and shortly after Sandy and I headed over to Bob & Sarah's for dinner. It was great to see them -- Bob Haver was there too -- I have not seen Bob Haver for a number of years. How time flies -- Bob retired in 98 -- it does not seem that long ago -- we're all getting old (and loving it).

Sarah had prepared all the fixings for Fajitas; Bob barbecued the chicken and beef; and we had an excellent dinner. We made it an early night though, leaving a little after 9pm -- it must be age (ours) and the treadmill (Bob & Sarah & their kids) that they are on. Bob's kids have school and all the normal activities of teenagers so they are quite busy. Bob travels all week so Sarah carries the load. Bob Haver left even earlier -- his wife Irene has MS and is not doing very well so she did not attend and he needed to go home to her. They have been dealing with that for 30 or so years.

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It's Monday -- time to pack the car and head north. Sandy is packing the blow-up bed as I type and it is now light out so I'm about to go out and load the Ditra on the top of the car. Hopefully this will work ok as it's a long trip and this is expensive stuff. Our plan is to go straight to the BMW dealer in Oakville and pick up Sandy's car. Sandy will stay overnight with Joyce and go to the St. Lawrence Market in Toronto tomorrow morning before coming up to the cottage. After seeing her off at Budd's BMW Abby and I will continue our journey -- hopefully getting there in daylight. That should not be a problem this time of year -- we plan to leave around 7am and with a 12 hour trip we'll get there at 7pm. In June it does not get dark at the cottage until around 9:30 pm.

... wish us safe travels ...