Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Rain? In Vegas? Really....

Outdoor Demo? Uh....not yet!
So, we awoke to Day 2 of Vegas schlepping and whaddya know? It had been, and still was raining. A lot.

Thunder grumbled as we left for Bootleg Canyon while a debate broke out as to whether or not we'd actually be able to ride this day. But, before that we stopped again at Von's grocery store for a "foodie drink" and a banana. Then it was off to Great Buns Bakery for more killer pastries and health nut cookies.

Really. For goodness sakes, go and find this place on Flamingo and get yerself some. It's cheap, good, and did I mention it was really tasty? Go there!

Okay, enough about bakeries. Now as we went towards Boulder City, it got darker and rained harder. Flooded ditches and road shoulders were commonplace. As we pulled up into the demo parking lot, we saw a few forlorn riders in shredded plastic makeshift ponchos getting soggy. Nope! We weren't going to be like them. We were sure it would blow over.

As good as it got, which was good enough.
Finally the water stopped falling and we were off to grab some bicycles and hit the trails. The sandy, gravelly ground was like a soggy bowl of Grape Nuts to walk on for a bit, but later on trail conditions were primo.

We had a good day. I felt really good. Yesterday I struggled, but the cooler temps and shrouded sun were just the ticket for me to get some harder riding in.

Outdoor Demo was essentially all about 29"ers, carbon hard tails and full suspension, and big hit, AM/DH 26"er rigs. I have to say that fat bikes were flying around all over as well. Not just a novelty, but really a small niche now. That was encouraging to see, because I think fat bikes are a ton of fun, really.

Well, the day ended with a killer burrito and tapping on this keyboard until Ben Witt joined us for the evening. He's crashing on our floor for a couple nights so he can catch Interbike. Yeah, we're boring. I know! But this is all about working, and I'm an interminably slow typer. Whaddya gonna do?

2 comments:

Scott said...

It's great how the report turns into a story! "...a soggy bowl of GrapeNuts..." Love it!

Captain Bob said...

Look out Vegas! You three will be tearing up the town!