Constant state of flux

So lets just start with the bad... That is my knee all dirty with plenty of dried blood. Yes I did have a little crash last night on my bike, yes beer/sparks may have been involved just a little bit. I admit my riding skills may have been a little impaired, but I would like to place blame upon this guy.

He (Roger?) and I were riding back to the soap factory from Grumpy's NE and we took a "short cut" through a parking lot. Turning left off of that cobble stone road down by St. Anthony Main, there was a bunch of loose dirty/gravel which I couldn't see. Roger just plowed right over it, I on the other hand had the wheels of the Merckx slip out from under me and landed hard on my left knee. No major damage, just some road rash, nothing I haven't done before. Luckily as I am sure you are all waiting with tense anticipation, the Merckx is just fine.

Lets rewind to the begining...

After getting the free breakfast at the t-rock, I headed home for a little while, did some laundry and got myself nice and hydrated. Like I said yesterday, the bike is nice and shiny, quite the beauty. I headed back to the t-rock to meet and ride with Bryan, Pink Pigtails, and Lando (i.e. Frodo). I got there just in time as they were all standing and about to leave when I rolled up. We took it nice and slow to CRC, they had all just had a couple of drinks and some food. Anyone who frequents the place can attest that being in such condition after the t-rock just isn't that condusive to fast bike riding. Pink was riding the pugsley as well, 3.7" tires while they can roll over just about anything, aren't the best for speed. I didn't care, I was just enjoying being on the bike.

We pulled up to CRC and there was the starting of a crowd showing up. At this point there was maybe 25-30 people, nothing to scoff at, but no where near the numbers that would eventually arrive. The free beer didn't start showing for about 15 minutes, so I bummed one off of my bro and took some swills off of Bryan's sparks. The people starting showing up, something fierce. Next thing we know there is well over 100 of us, probably closer to 200 just hanging out attacking the free premium when I was opened.

This pic doesn't really show the full magnitude, but you get the idea.

We all started up Bryant, headed the direction of the greenway.

There got to be a little bottle neck going down the entrance to the greenway, especially with the tight turn at the bottom nobody really was pushing it, probably for the best.

I noticed I had a severe lack of beer, so myself and 3 other bikers who I sort of know all busted ass to the front. We were not able to pull in front of the pace bike, or else risk a fate of being a victim of some serious derby casualty. The only person who I saw that got attacked was Lando, but that was a little more down the road. We stopped at MGM just off the trail and filled our bags up with a case of PBR and about a half dozen sparks. I didn't mean to, but I think I actually got all that beer for free. I used the card and people just started shoving cash into my hands, I tried to give some back but no one was accepting it. At very most I spent 4 dollars on a bag full of beer. Now we were a little ways behind, so I put the hammer down and rushed down the trail towards downtown. It took a good 3 miles at a +20 mph pace to catch up, the lead was just that great. At this point we took the curly ped bridge.

On the other side we all pulled off into the hobo camp.

I caught these two making out, I have the feeling that there might be a jealous crosscheck somewhere.

I used to see this guy down at Coastal all the time, he was spinning at the Montana later in the day. Everyone just had a good time and enjoyed sitting in the city forest for a while.

We all rode downtown to 1x1 where there was a keg promised as well as a DJ and the slight possibility of some derby action. The keg fried pretty quick, I was too impatient to wait in line so although I had a cup I just drank the beer in my bag. I convinced Amy C to get her wares from her space in the building behind 1x1, though it was kind of like pulling teeth to motivate her. Not sure what the problem was, 200 bikers and her undies and t-shirts with bicycle stuff all over, talk about knowing your market.

We went to the Montana at that point, where there wasn't as much derby action but skid comps, more beer and general trouble causing.

From the Montana we started riding towards Behind Bars. I got a flat on my rear wheel (damn cheap ass continental tire), the siblings all stopped and provided moral support (and CO2) while I wrestled with the tight bead of a new tire. At Behind Bars, I borrowed a floor pump and drained out all the CO2. I think I might have been close to out of beer at this point, more a deal of giving them away than drinking myself. Josh was kind enough to let me use his bathroom, just 2 doors down. He also gave me a couple of beers which was very kind. As we were walking out of the parking lot, we see everyone yelling about this kid who was stealing someone's bike. The poor kid didn't make if far away from such a big group of bikers, and zito(sp?) just held him and told him that we were calling the cops. There was no intention of actually doing so, but just that ten minutes had to be enough to scare him into thinking twice about stealing another bike. Funny thing, the bike the kid took was Josh's, and probably (his words) the cheapest piece of shit of the hundred or so bikes there.

We left BB and headed to the soap factory, at this time it was a little dark. Roger was leading, but I was right behind keeping up on the dirt trails on the road bike. That is twice this week I have done minor off-roading on a bike not at all suited for it. We were all thinking that the Soap Factory was going to be the same deal, free beer and general party atmosphere. Turns out there was a 15 dollar cover, though I didn't know this and I just burst past the guards and set my bike on side and walked in. There were some of my ex-b-wood employees that started laughing and I swear I heard them say "That's Phil for you", what the fuck does that mean? Well it took me just a couple of minutes before I noticed that no one else was coming inside, so I left. We all just hung out in the street and did some dark very drunken derbying, of which I was drunk enough to think was a good idea. Lucky I don't think anyone got in any serious accidents, but I wasn't paying close enough attention. We all started shouting (by all I mean myself and some girl) about how lame it was to have to pay 15 dollars, so someone came up and gave us a talking to. Bad bikers, bad.

So after that I just rode to Grumpy's with some people, at which point I realized it was a terrible idea to drink anything else. I even turned down a free pbr tall boy and opted for riding home instead. I had my little accident on the way, and saw evil chuck and my friend Sam at the Soap Factory. Sam was leaving and she lives in my 'hood so we road together blood spilling down my leg and everything. Sam was nice enough to feed me some cold Luce, which at that point was quite needed.

All and all it was one hell of a night, probably ranks in the top ten, at least in recent memory.

This morning even I woke up not feeling that wasted or hung over, lucky I cut myself off when I did. I was in good enough shape to ride downtown and buy some produce from the farmer's market before riding back home. I stopped by Freewh eel to buy a new rear tire, I just hate theat continental on there, they gave me the employee discount which after tax was like 23 dollars for a 30 dollar tire and 2 five dollar tubes. Awesome. Bought myself a little KimChi and the fixins for some spring rolls, so Felipe is gonna be eating good tonight.

P.S. you can see all the pictures here http://flickr.com/photos/cheffelipe/