The (bald, chubby) eagle has landed (Comments: 5)
Author: Jason Crane
Date: 22 August, 2009
Category: Albany, Jason Crane, Road Stories
So I’m in Philly. Well technically I’m in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, home of Montgomery County Community College and the temporary home of the 2009 LIVESTRONG Challenge Ride – Philly edition.
On my way out of town this morning, I stopped by Eastern Mountain Sports because they sell Sigg bottles and I needed two new ones for the ride. The guy at the counter said, “You’re heading to Philly, right?” Apparently he’d visited RocBike.com and recognized me.
(A small aside: A woman named Paula in Albany has a Surly Big Dummy! My son Bernie and I were at the Downtube and saw it. She came out and noticed my Packet Boat and we chatted. She also knew who I was from reading this site. Paula agreed to become a contributor, too. Which, with the RocBike Curse, means she’ll soon stop writing about cycling completely. Sorry, Paula!)
Anway…
I arrived here in PA about 4 p.m. and headed straight for LIVESTRONG Village, the assemblage of vendors and nonprofits who surround the registration area. Recent rains had turned the ground into what Team Fatty Philly Captain “Philly Jen” described as a “mosh pit.” But everyone was in good spirits, and I saw several other members of Team Fatty while I was registering. The registration process was very efficient. According to one person at the site, there are more than 800 volunteers signed up for today and tomorrow to make the whole event run.
I got a nice bag o’ swag — hat, t-shirt, messenger bag, water bottle, and maybe a few other things that I have yet to dig out of the yellow LIVESTRONG bag. By the way, if you don’t like yellow, I recommend avoiding these rides. Everything is yellow.
The Team Fatty event at the Doubletree Hotel was running until 5 p.m. I made it with minutes to spare, just in time to meet Philly Jen (who saw me walk in and yelled “Jason!” — I guess there’s a shortage of chubby bald guys on our team) and another guy from Albany who wasn’t either Bob or me. Nor was he anyone I’d seen before. Small world. Apparently the Doubletree had booted out half of Team Fatty citing “water damage” on two floors. Rumor has it that the damage was more likely caused by overbooking, given that Team Fatty was booted out of another hotel owned by the same company at another recent Challenge ride. Sounds like the airline industry.
In search of some way to kill the hours between 5 p.m. and 5 a.m., when we all meet for breakfast, I drove around a bit. I found a park advertising a free concert at 6 p.m., so I followed the winding road back to the park … where a small sign said, “Concert Canceled.” I decided instead to eat dinner. I tried hard to avoid a chain restaurant, driving around until I spotted a big sign for Bombay High Indian Cuisine. I pulled in to the plaza to find that the highway sign and plaza sign had been installed, but the seats, tables, lights, kitchen and staff had yet to arrive. Sigh.
I ended up eating sushi at Benihana. I can’t believe I just typed that, and if you ever tell anyone, I’ll deny it. After three years in Japaan, I’m a real snob about Japanese food, and Benihana to me is like the Taco Bell of Japanese food. But I ate it and was grateful for some air conditioning and green tea.
The author at Barnes & Noble, delaying his date with the Hotel Subaru
I’m typing this in a Barnes and Noble because I’m staying tonight in the Hotel Subaru, and it doesn’t have wi-fi. In fact, it no longer has XM radio either, because some damned squirrels chewed through the antenna cable. I must say, the Hotel Subaru seemed much more inviting when I was tossing my sleeping bag in the back of the car this morning than it does now. Not least because my Xtracycle is also in the hotel’s one room, and it’s a very big bike. There’s a lovely thunderstorm now, too, so if this is my last blog entry, you’ll know why.
(I’ve been making an audio recording of the trip, too, so look for an episode of the RocBike Review after the ride.
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