6 Days into the journey

8-31 1:06 pm. It has begun… I have my laptop with me on the trip and thanks to our handy converter that Melissa and Ian gave us as a we are plugged in and ready to document the adventure that has now been renamed “Right Place, Right Time Tour 08”. Synchronicity is already in the air and we all know new tail and new trail is inevitable. Bruce and I are on the road and heading west after an amazing homecoming in Nashville. Yesterday Bruce and I packed up and hit the road by 2:30 with a brief stop over at Biowheels to say bye to the boys and pick up a few more supplies for the road. Pedal to the metal after hitting traffic and Bruce and I pulled into Nashville just in time to have a pint or two at the Yazoo Taproom. All well that ends well and we caught up with the crew at Yazoo and the party commenced. The welcome could not have been warmer with out getting people getting naked and the love was in the air. Hugs, smiles and good beer flowed in abundance. Wow, so many good people and so little time but it’s quality not quantity that counts and I know I have some quality friends. The Yazoo boys and girls know me like no other and are always there to brighten my life. Brain and Brandy (the taproom power couple) sent Bruce and I on the road with 100 beers of Yazoo’s finest so get ready to party Colorado. Plans were discussed for hooking up the worlds with Thad and the Nashville/Southeast Crew over some pizza perfect slices and then we hit opted for the peace and quiet of the Mitchell Cabin outside of town and called it an early night. After a good night’s sleep and hanging with the folks we are once again on the road and heading west. The plan is to power drive to CO over the course of the next 24 hours and land in Winter Park tomorrow by lunch time to see the Krankworks Slopestyle finals. We will camp out near the resort and watch some pro dual slalom action on Sunday then get our ride on at the bike park then catch my roommates band High Windy Band at Fort Collins CO and stay at the band house on Sunday night. We have just left Kentucky and are one state closer to the good stuff. The car is full of beer and my souls on fire with the love from my crew for the last few nights. Defiantly off to a good start…

Saturday August 2 8:44 am MT. It’s all good. The mountains are insight and we are 30 miles from Denver. The past 24 hours has been eventful as the Subaru decided it had enough of the heat and 12 hours at 80 mph and melted a bearing in a belt pulley it quickly dumped the belt in to the 20 moving parts tearing it to sheds. The pulley was fried and the belt was gone and the ac / power steering / alternator would not work. We got off on the perfect exit and cruised right into an O’Rielys Auto Parts in nowheresville Missouri. Still 40 miles from Kansas City and 8 p.m. we worked with the good ole Midwestern boys and sought out a way to fix our situation without having the right size belt or a pulley within 20 miles of where the Subaru lay broken. A county fair was happening and the boys suggested the hotel across the street. Well Crankworks is happening in 12 hours so we were not ones to throw in the towel. We went to work thinking of any way possible to get back on the road. We took the bearing race out of the existing pulley and found a better bearing to put in. As for the belt we measured it and found another belt that was shorter but with the meat hooks on our Midwestern friend we made it work. We hooked up our new best friends with a case of Yazoo finest. These boys had never had anything but Budlight and were now giving it up and moving on due to the recent sale of Budweiser to a foreign company so hopefully we have made an impact on his life as well. We gladly paid our 24 buck tab for a bearing and a belt and were back on the road in an hour.

Back in the saddle I took the wheel at 9:30 pm and blazed a trail from Kansas City to CO. We made it to Colorado at 4:30 in the morning and poached a spot to take a two hour power nap behind some bushes. I lay out on the grass as I watched stars streak across the sky. I came one hour from making it a full 24 hour rock n roll no sleep adventure but quickly rose to first light and took my spot behind the wheel again and pulled off another hour or so before pulling over and making breakfast in a gas station parking lot.

Winter Park is just an hour away and the Crankworks finals go off live today so if your around and computer and I have time to upload this check it out. About to head towards Berthoud Pass that sits around 11,300. The slopestyle comp is in a few hours which gives us time to crack a coldie and ease in to party before dudes starting doing things that dudes should not be doing on bikes Between the 70 beers we have left, hanging at 10,000 ft, and two hours of sleep I think someone better ground me from the bike today as if I cut loose at the bike park it could be dangerous.

1:29 am August 4, 2008 At this moment I am a band house with High Windy drinking beers listening to Eagle Of Death Metal just outside of Ft. Collins CO and covering the events of the past few days. Bruce and I made it to Crankworks with an hour to spare before the slope style competition. It started raining 30 minutes into the competition and Bruce and I headed out to find a campsite. We scored the one of the last campsite within the 10 miles radius of Winter Park and set up camp and went for a ride with 2 hours of sleep in me. It was great a nice classic CO kinda trail along a creek and when the thunderstorms kicked in we decided it had been a long day and we headed back to camp to make some dinner and call it a long day.

We woke up early after freezing throughout the night the day time highs were around 70 degrees and I am sure it was in the low fourths at night. We got in a short cross country ride to kick off the day and to feel better about taking lifts to the top all afternoon. We wrapped up a short ride around the Winter Park Mountain Bike trails and made our way to the resort. A thunderstorm slowed things down a bit so we caught the pro dual salom comp and then headed up the lift. Got in several great runs then got the balls to hit the vertical wall ride used in the Crankworks Comp. The video does not do this thing justice as far as how sketchy it looked doing 20 mph towards a 6 ft kicker to vertical wall and the sad part is that this was the easiest stunt in the whole comp oh well guess I won’t be asked to the pro slope style comp next year. The Mountain did have some great trails with a little something for everyone. The downhill expert trails had a great flow and were not anything over the top. There were some good stunts and jumps but nothing bigger than I was comfortable with. Here is a little taste of one of the fun sections shot by Bruce holding the camera in one hand and navigating the lower jump section with the other. I don’t know which was sketchier. Anyways, the band is crashing out as they have a big gig in the venue that is located not more than 30 ft from where sit typing this. More details tomorrow.

Wednesday 8-7 2:15 Sitting outside on the plaza in Boulder CO. Got in a good ride in Ft Collins and hung out with the boys in High Windy for two days. The riding in Ft Collins was fun and exciting. They had a skills park at the trail head equiped with a pump track, skinnies and dirt jumps. I will upload a video or two once I have more time and a faster connection. Heading to See Micheal Franti and Spearhead at the Fox Theater tonight and going to try to ride this afternoon. Little to no sleep has been the name of the game so eventually I hope to catch some rest now that our time with band is behind us. It has been an eventfull past few days and I am looking forward to cooler temps and bigger mountains as we head West to Crested Butte tomorrow. All the best people. I will be posting photos when I get a better connection. The downtown WIFI connection is not wanting to work with me...

Peace, love and bicycles.

Jut Rut