This business of not being able to go to Cirque and hearing all you guys talk about it is really getting to me. I even dreamed about it last night...
Today, the Tour De Georgia finishes its second stage here in Columbus and I've been really excited about it for weeks... in a few minutes I'm leaving to spend the day with friends at the finish line and to watch the race on the big screen TV they've set up. However, last night while sleeping, I found myself there as well, wandering around the exhibits and taking in such things as Shimano's new 10 speed group mounted on a display bike at the Giant booth and the US Postal Service booth where they exhibited a collection of nearly every stamp, US and foreign, that pictured a bicycle. But the real surprise came when turning a corner by the back of the Civic Center and seeing a vintage bicycle exhibit... manned by people who I did not recognize right off, but soon realized were all CR members... a guy feverishly filing a lug had to be Brian, and next to him was an endless line of Hetchins watched over by a man who must have been Peter because he spoke with a Massachusetts accent. Roy was there with his Cinelli and we had a nice chat about P-38's, and I drained my checking account on bike catalog reprints at Chuck's booth. Ann was there but she wouldn't talk to anybody because she was busy hanging parts on her new Monte. Lou was signing autographs (on photos of him in his youth leading the peloton... apparently, among all the "Lou's autograph" messages on the CR list, nobody bothered to tell me that Lou was at one time a well known racer with a TDF stage win to his credit). And I got to meet Ken Toda who was taping everything. It wasn't until I got to Dale's booth (where he had an old Schwinn covered in gold leaf, a REAL Cycle d'Oro) that I found out what was happening... Cirque had gone on the road! Due to the race being the week before Cirque, some of the members had decided to play like Dead-Heads and "follow the Tour'' so to speak... so after I had the pleasure of seeing them in Columbus, they would be off the next day to set up 'miniCirques' at the other stage finishes in Rome and Gainesville and Atlanta... then on to North Carolina for the real Cirque.
Imagine my disappointment on waking up and finding out that it was all a dream... Guess I really need to pay closer attention to what I eat before retiring. And it made me even more depressed because, dang it, I STILL can't go to Cirque. Oh well, next year, right?
Of course there's still today... I have this tiny hope in the back of my mind that when I get to the race this afternoon... you'll all be there.
Best wishes,
Bob Hovey
Columbus, GA