A bit o' California from Colin!

Yesterday was about the closest thing to a "California-like" ride I've done. It was nice a brisk in the morning with a very slight 5-10mph northwest wind. I tried but couldn't peel myself away from the Team Time Trial until the live coverage finished and so it was later than I'd hoped to get on the road for a ride. I hammered out 40 miles or so and made it home just in time to grab the small hound and head to Sioux Falls, SD to pick up Colin.

I've known Colin for almost as long as I've been riding bikes. He built up my very first version of a road bike (it was an XO-1 and I wasn't clued in yet about 700c wheels for a small rider. Heck back then, there just weren't any!) He was like 18 or 19 and he thought my Bridgestone was as cool as can be. And I thought he was the "bee's knee's"! Anyway---fast forward 10+ years and he is a teammate and dear friend of this "Taylor" twosome.

True to form (Colin has this "good karma" touch about him), he arrived with some temperate California sunshine and 2 lbs of Major Dickensen's Peet's coffee! One of the cool presents we got for our wedding (or actually two of them) was this very cool auto-bean-grinder that can ground up a lb. of beans (from Chris Insinger) and then...to make the coffee we got a swanky new coffee maker (from David and Cindy K.) So I ground up some beans and made a fresh pot, while Colin put his bike together just in time for Mike to ride home from a "day at the office".

I showered and got dinner planned, while Mike and Colin (and the two Dave's) went for a ride in the amazing California like dry and sunny but not hot weather. Then we BBQ'd and enjoyed the evening edition of the Tour de France. Rick and Kim Olsen came by for the show and it was a very fun evening.

Colin left this morning to get on the road to Wisconsin for the Superweek extravaganza. And...it's feeling like a warming trend of back to normal hot/humid weather is on the way. He probably took it with him. I rode early though and it was lovely---but it's sure HOT now!

Hopefully Colin will stop off after the racing ends and take us up on some R&R before he heads back to California.