Since attending my first CdC last year, I have been looking forward to this one. In retrospect, the trip has been anticipated for months! And that got more intense as the date drew near. I watched the weather.com for a week and a half, I packed 4 days prior to leaving (despite which I still had to do trip prep til near midnight Wednesday and some Thursday morning, and was later getting out of town than expected), and cleaned bikes, etc. Talking to others, I find this is a shared experience, and waay more intense for those with lots of bikes to bring and those with vendor tables. The festivities start upon arrival Thursday evening, with check in at the Battleground Inn (BI), the center for most of the fun at the event, even though Dale's wonderful shop is just a few blocks away. Scott Goldsmith and I first met up with Mike Self (both from Cinti., OH) and were wondering who else was there and who was going to dinner. In the lobby we were confronted with Richie Sachs, Peter Weigle(sp?), Chris Kvale, and John Barron. Now if you were to hand pick a few list 'hitters' to have a dinner with, could you do better? Introductions and re-introductions, and we wound up at the Outback for food and talk and laughs. While I am sometimes am in awe in the presence of these bastions of art, craft and knowledge of the sport and equipment, at no time do these guys ever make you feel out of place. They are humans of the first order and it is a pleasure to share a love of bicycles and friendship with them. This is true of all the CR people we have met, and I want to thank Dale and the other attendees for making this great event and chance to learn, admire and make friends. That's how the weekend started, and from there it just got better. This could get long, and I actuall hve to do some work this Monday AM, so I will try to report more later. But some highlights:Rides around Greensboro (with a great amount of interurban greenspace) with attendees on classic rides, many fixed-gear.Seeing Cycles de Oro's workshop area; this is the most organized shop I have ever seen, and the mechanics know what they are doing. Thanks to them and Dale for tweeking my rear wheel back to true, gratis!Imprompto bike shows at the BI.Meeting Grant Peterson and Curt Goodrich and many others.Aldo Ross's '49 Bianchi.Fun Seminars (no snoozers).Thanks Dale! More later.Ron (Still Reeling) GurthCarmel, IN (10 hrs from Greensboro)
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