NEW THINGS!!!

Here are some things that I've either done, or will do soon, that are NEW!

NEW RACES: can I get a "U"? Can I get an "S"? Can I get a "U.S. PRO"??? Hell yeah. After 6 years of going to "nationals" I'm finally going to Nationals. The real one. The USA Cycling Pro Championships are held in Greenville, South Carolina  -- which, come to think of it, is a NEW STATE for me! For the last several years, US Pro has been held at the very end of September. This year they placed it right after the Tour of California. This could be good or it could be bad for Team Exergy: either the guys who just did Cali will be really tired, or really fast. I've got my fingers crossed for then being tired.

NEW AIRLINE WOES: wow. I've never had an airline bend me over so bad. Our flight out to Greenville, SC was supposed to go like this: Boise --> Denver --> Chicago --> Greenville. But due to thunderstorms, they called last night to inform us that the final leg of our flight (Chicago --> Greenville) has been cancelled. They kindly rebooked us on a flight departing the next morning. They did not, however, rebook the first two legs of our flight. See where I'm headed here? This left us with *ahem* A ~20 HOUR LAYOVER IN CHICAGO. Not only that, they still charged us for our bags, wouldn't hook us up with a free hotel room, or a flight voucher, or even a free gin and tonic on the flight (not that I wanted a gin and tonic at 6AM -- but it's the principal dammit). Not only that, they had to change the hydraulic fluid on the plane, then THEY BROKE THE PART AND LEAKED THE FLUID AND HAD TO GO BACK TO THE GATE TO FIX IT AGAIN AND WE LEFT TWO HOURS LATE AND WE MISSED OUR CONNECTION AND THEY STILL WOULDN'T GIVE ME A FREE GIN and TONIC AND NOW WE'RE SUCK IN DENVER WAITING FOR WHAT MIGHT DAYS ON END!
Jiminy Christmas. United used to be the cyclists' airline. Free bike vouchers used to come with every USA Cycling license. There was a little stand that sold cycling crap in the United terminal at the Denver airport. Oh how things have changes United. Cyclists of the world: fly Southwest. Fly Frontier. Fly friggin' Virgin Galactic for all I care. Speaking of Virgin Galactic, here's the little spaceship in action:


Space flight for the masses, coming right up.

NEW SHOE EXPERIENCE: I got my shoes shined. Yes, my Nike sneakers aren't exactly the kind of shoes you typically take to a shoe shine, but WHATEVER -- I WANTED TO SEE THOSE BABIES SPARKLE! Plus I was bored out of my mind and it looked kind of fun, what with those tall chairs and fancy foot rests. It looked kind of like a ride, or at least the closest thing I was going to get to ride in the airport -- cuz LORD KNOWS I WON'T BE RIDING A GODDAM AIRPLANE TODAY!

GO GO GO! Finally. They're boarding my flight.