Apr 15, 2007

Fat Back, 3 Cat Shame and Dr. Noodleman

Scooters in Granada are the most popular type of transport. Makes a lot of sense to me but their exhaust fouls up the air.
Alley's were laid with stone, often in decorative patterns.
View of the Alahambra from the Plaza of Saint Nicolas.
Rainbows during the semana santa procession, gave me a moment of disbelief in my disbelief.

Back in the states and unless the two scales I've tried are wrong there is an extra 5lbs of me to love. I don't understand how that could be since eating in Spain was a crap shoot. Breakfast was insulting to the the "hungry man" plate at Denny's. The biggest meal I could find was two eggs fried with a couple pieces of tomato and some bread. But the fresh orange juice was a quencher and the coffee played the appetite supressor.
Lunch,..I can't really remember having lunch more that once. A piece of pork and some fries. Simple but that was one of the best meals we had. Oh and I visited the Kabab stands post rides most of the second week. Best kabab's ever, with cabage, tomatoes, carrotts, olives, beets and of course either chicken or falafal. Ruben had a problem with these, because of his sensitive stomach, he has a problem with a lot of things.
Dinners were either Moraccan or Spainish and were usually pretty good. Paella is the famous Spanish dish that basically seems like oil soaked rice cooked with the ingredients from a stir fry allready in it. It's good and filling but I don't get the hype around it.
So the XS faired well in the travels and has gone straight to the top of my list of road bikes. Never have I ridden anything like that bike. Smooth like manteca, quick as a whip at Catholic school and it read my mind like a jedi knight. If it was a camera it would be a Hassablad, or Linhoff.
Before I took it back to its original owner I had to race it one time, so I drove to NY for the Battenkill-Roubaix, with high hopes. Everything went as planned in the Cat 3s, the roads were conforming to the tubulars I stuck on and I actually played the patience game. On the last 1mile climb I launched my attack, pulled Carter and Peter along with me and at the top we only had about 4 miles to go with a decent gap behind. We worked well together and with about a mile to go I blew. Carter and Peter took 1-2 and I got swallowed by the pack. Next time Gadget, next time. Speaking of Inspector Gadget, has it ever occured to anyone that IG and Dr. Claw are metaphors for the cold war enemies of the USA and USSR? If you assume that the USA is the eventual victor then I'm basically saying that we are bumbling idiots, continuously saved by our 12yr old niece and her dog.
Oh and I got my new 29er frame Friday. I keep going back to it and running my fingers over the beautiful Ti welds.