Fallin' Behind

Well, we have gotten our first taste of Fall down here in New Orleans, and I can't say I've heard anyone complaining.  Last week's Saturday Giro had a good turnout and stayed pretty fast for the most part, and the weather was warm and breezy.  The Wife's sister was in town from Dallas, so we spent some time down the French Quarter, stopping for coffee at Envie, walking down to Frenchman Street (named for the Frenchmen that the Spanish governor with the Irish name "Bloody O'Reily" executed), and later heading over to Magazine Street for a somewhat lengthy wait for lunch at Cafe Rani. Sunday's Giro turnout was relatively small.  It was just as well, since I had to turn around early to get back in time for a quick brunch at the Ritz.

Last week was more or less a blur, riding-wise.  A cool front came through and by Tuesday morning the pre-dawn temperature had dipped just barely below 50F.  In order to minimize the shock, I went out with long tights, two jerseys, arm-warmers and a wind vest.  I can't say I was ever particularly hot.  The next couple of mornings were similar, although I skipped Wednesday and turned back early on Thursday because of time constraints, and went out fifteen minutes late on Friday for a nice solo ride.  It's nice to do a solo ride once in a while.  They always seem to turn out the same, though.  I tell myself I'll just do an easy spin, but after a few miles the speed starts creeping up and eventually I have to sit up a coast for a while so it doesn't turn into a time trial.

At some point during the week I updated the NOBC History page with some old photos that Bob Perrin dropped off.  This was stuff from the Tour de Louisiana and La Boucherie Gran Prix French Quarter criterium, circa 1973.  It was a little disconcerting to find myself in one of those looking like I was a college student (which I was).  Seems like just yesterday.  I remember the wool jersey and how it felt, and smelled, in the middle of the summer; I remember the leather helmet; I even remember the socks. A few teammates, including Boyd Fink, Chris Todd, Randy Holmes, Mike Schramel, Jim McFadden, and Dave Weatherly are in there.

So anyway, by Friday afternoon I was pretty much ready to call it a week.  Fortunately, we had tickets to the annual Red, Whites and Blues wine tasting over at City Park where there was a lot of food of which I didn't eat much, and a lot of wine that I sampled fairly liberally, only one of which I couldn't make myself swallow.  Whoever got the idea that wine could be improved by flavoring it with chocolate must have been drinking some really bad wine. The whole thing is really just a couple of hours long and is highlighted by a raffle for a ton of wine, which once again none of us won. Out in the garden they had Meschiya Lake and the Little Big Horns, which I really enjoyed.  They may not be classically trained musicians, but they sure sounded good to me.

Tomorrow morning I'll be doing the Tour of Jefferson ride, which should be fun since the weather will be close to perfect.  Some of us are planning to ride to the ride, which involves taking the Canal St. Ferry to the foreign land known locally as The West Bank, which is not, technically, west, at least around here.  We may have to make a last minute change in our departure time - still working on that.