Tuesday, May 02, 2006

Silver City RV Park

So... we left Alkaburkie yesterday morning and made it to Silver City early in the early afternoon We grabbed some Subway and found our RV park that is offering free tent spots to racers. I was expecting some KOA dump, but it turns out that it's more like a small oasis/park in the middle of Silver City. It's a fenced in area, filled with trees and long term campers/retirees that are here full time. In the middle is a small grassy oval that I get to set my tent up in. There is an electrical hook-up right next to my tent, free showers, cheap laundry, and you guessed it, free wireless internet. It's a little ridiculous, but I barely feel like we're camping. There is plenty of shade to sit in, I have a sleeping pad, sleeping bag, body pillow, and two bed pillows, so my tent is every bit as comfortable as my bed at home, and the weather couldn't have been better thus far. It's probably 70 degrees right now, and it got nice and cool to sleep last night. Hopefully this holds out through the weekend. The locals of the park are also super friendly, and all to eager to meet new people. One old guy stopped by as we were drinking coffee this morning, and talked for a while. He didn't have much to say, but apparently enjoyed standing around. Soon the owner of the park was there too, talking with us about the race, and not a half hour later the maintenence guy (who lives here and works with his wife) was diving into his story of the cafe he once ran. Needless to say, everyone is very friendly.

Yesterday after setting up camp, we rode out to the TT course to get a look at it. It's a lot harder than I was expecting, but that's a good thing. The way home however presented some interesting challenges. I decided to stop at a gas station for some chocolate milks, and was pleasantly surprised to find that they offered Peanut Butter Chocolate Milkshake flavored milk! I bought two. I decided I'd drink mine on the ride from the convience store to our RV park, only to realize they were sealed with foil. I wrestled the foil off with my teeth, then being the good citizen I am, held the bottle in my teeth while I put the foil in my pocket as not to litter. It was about this time, when I hit a rough section of pavement, one handed, with a milk bottle in my teeth. I bit down (a little too hard) and the bottle popped out of my mouth, covering me in the best tasting milk on earth. We rode the course again this morning and I feel like I have a pretty good handle on how to race it, plus I took the milk back to our campsite before opening it today. Tomorrow will tell me if I actually do know how to ride the course, or if I'm just kidding myself. I think we're headed off to packet pick-up in a few minutes here, then tonight we may ride drive the Mogollon climb. Other than that life is pretty low-key here, and I must say, I'm loving it. It's so nice to be out of class and not have to worry about that anymore. Here I can focus 100% on riding and recovering. I've already finished a book (The Alchemist) and I'm gonna start another when we get back. (Thanks Matt). I'm not sure what I'm going to read next, but I brought plenty of options.

Since there isn't too much to do here, I may try to update again this afternoon. This is all for now though.

*UPDATE*

Picked up my race packet after a little tour of Silver City (I got lost), but I managed to wreck my TT bike right in front of the bike shop with no less than 3 people staring at me the whole time. Pretty Cool! I hit some little ledge and must have been standing up, because the bike went straight backwards. Needless to say, I felt like an idiot, and best of all, I broke the lever off of my right hand shifter. I can still shift with the stub, but if any of you reading this are in Silver City, and have an extra 9sp bar-end shifter, hook a brother up. I think another Scrubway stop is in order right now. Thanks for reading.

2 comments:

Evan Sandstrom said...

it happens to the best of us, i fell over in the shop the other day, luckily nobody saw me

Anonymous said...

Koch fell over at least seven times on his ride home from the Rio last night.

In other news, I think my girlfriend is going to break up with me today. Whose shoulder am I supposed to cry on when you're way down there?

Drive back, now.