Almost exactly 2 years later, we're headed back. As usual, @
nlerner instigated, many followed. Even if that ain't true, it's a good story. After two years of starts and stops, we're chomping at the bit to hit the road.
This issue of Spring Training includes some recividists as well as some noobs - new to Spring Training, but old faces nonetheless.
- @rccardr, aka Doc stepped up as Capo this time. Rather than stuff us all in an RV for a week, he found a palatial AirBnB in Tucson to work as our base camp. He's flying in from Virginia. Doc seems to be everywhere. Two things are equaly true - he's my bike riding hero, and I hate him for living the life I'd like. Well, less than 1 year till retirement and I won't hate him anymore. There was a time period a few years ago that I saw him at vintage bike events so often I thought he moved to the West Coast.
- @nlerner is here just as much for his easy going temperment and riding ability as well as his well known ability to make the weather favorable just by his presence. Even though we live on opposite coasts, I've gotten in five multiday tours, an Eroica California and a Cino with him. We worked at the same LBS as I did eons ago, although about 6 months apart. He's leaving from Boston, Mass.
- @Spaghetti Legs is returning, happy that he doesn't have to share a queen sized mattress in an RV with me this time around. I still remember driving an enormous Winnebago around near the Santa Clara, California Caltrain station looking for this random guy that signed up to stay several days in an RV with 4 other guys he had never met. Since then we've met up a few times for multi-day tours and Eroica California. He needs to do Cino, even if I have to send @northbend to him so he can do his hypnosis thing - "you really need to do Cino." Oh, and he's an actual medical doctor, so we've got our doping under control.
- @SquireBlack took an early retirement from a computer science professorship at Portland State, just as many have done when all classes went online the past year or so. He's quickly getting on my nerves - "hey Mark, want to ride The Gorge this Wednesday?" Soon, Andrew, soon. He was on that Magic Bus tour for Eroica Cali in 2018. We all found out that you need a guy like Andrew on a tour. Andrew was the only one who could figure out how the RV worked - something about "read the directions." What kind of b.s. is that?
- @VRJAKE is a fellow Portlandian, someone I've gotten to know a bit the last couple of years. He did Cino last year (see a theme here, folks?) and is ready to return. He lived in Tucson not too long ago, so we'll lean on him for local knowledge.
That's six of us in the Palazzo Southwest. We're adding in @
Soup_Please as a harbor pilot. He's local to Tucson,
writes a great blog about cycling as well as being a noted author on southwestern US landscaping. He fell under @
northbend's Cino spell last year and
lived to write about it. He's planned all the rides and a few eating and drinking adventures.
Now that I've spilled the beans, the rest of the knuckleheads will probably soon deny they're doing this.
Damn, rereading this it looks like a Cino thread. It's not, but I promised @
mountaindave I'd pimp the heck out of it so we can fill the roster and have the A+ lunch and dinner again.