Reason #167 I Love Living in Durham

LocoPops! Craig and I went for the first time tonight and will be back often. I tried the mojito and Mexican chocolate, Craig the strawberry lime and root beer float. We even brought some chicken pops back for the dogs. All four of us agree - YUM!

Thanks for the tip, Liz!

Seeking New Subjects

My teeny new camera (a Canon SD1000) arrived last night!

I was thrilled, but as you can see from these first shots with it, my subjects are less than excited.

Anyone feel like posing?

Rite of Passage

Last night, I finally fulfilled a promise I made to Craig when we first started dating... I went to a Rush concert with him. As many of you know, Rush has never been my cup of tea, due primarily to a combination of their high-pitched vocals and sci-fi/heavy metal roots. I'll leave it at that for fear of receiving hate mail from Rush fans. For the record, I do appreciate their instrumental abilities and certainly their longevity. My favorite part of the show was Neil Peart's drum solo.

What I was not fully prepared for last night were the Rush fans. Certainly I, as the child of the self-proclaimed #1 NY Yankees fan, should not be surprised by intensely loyal, bordering-on-obsessed fans. But, oh, I was! It was more than the droves of people who knew EVERY WORD TO EVERY SONG or who high-fived and hugged their friends as each song began... it was the genuine WORSHIPPING of the band.

And what an interesting crowd... headbangers, geeks, freaks, music afficianados, long-haired teenaged boys, dads with their kids, rednecks, men with WHITE TUBESOCKS, a few women scattered about, tons of air guitarists, former (and current) D&D players... you name it! Of course, my favorite person in the crowd was my hubby, who tried very hard to play it cool, but who was obviously happy as could be to be seeing his favorite band for the second time in one week (and he's going to another show tomorrow night). Thanks, Craig!

Da Bulls

Craig and I decided to bring a little bit of the European tradition back to Durham with us. Last night, we rode our bikes on the American Tobacco Trail to see the Durham Bulls with our co-workers. We were very pleased to find bull-shaped bike racks right outside the stadium. Sure beats paying for garage parking!

As an added bonus, yesterday was Negro League Night. The living legends of the Durham Rams, Eagles, and Black Sox were honored prior to the game, and then the players signed autographs for fans. Very cool!

p.s. Sorry for the cell phone quality of the shots. I think I've got Craig just about convinced we need a small point-and-shoot for times when his camera is too big to carry... something like this.

Had Enough?

In the event you somehow haven't seen enough photos from Italy, you can click here to view Sarah's. She has some great ones, including this shot - the only documentation of what may have been the best gelato on our trip. It was in the main piazza in San Gimignano. Our cycling adventure was rained out that day, but this gelato made up for it. Molto bene!

Lost in Translation

This shot was taken at lunch during our second day in Italy. Driving from Bologna to Cortona, we were detoured off the highway through Bagno di Romagna. Since we were hungry (surprise, surprise), we stopped for lunch. While Sarah will always remember the town for the best meal she had in Italy (green lasagna), I will remember it for my best "lost in translation" moment.

A bit of history first. I took Italian in high school and barely passed it. I struggled with vocabulary, conjugation, etc... everything except pronunciation. Several times during this trip, I fooled Italians into thinking I spoke the language (well, at least until they saw the "deer in the headlights" look when I struggled to understand their response).

While walking towards lunch in Bagno di Romagna, a car pulled up and the driver asked us a question in Italian (I think it was something about the detour and whether he was going the right direction). Since I didn't know the answer, I simply responded with, "non parli Italiano." The driver gave me a puzzled look and drove away. It was hours later when I realized I had misconjugated and told him, "you don't speak Italian." Oops!

Fame

Craig and I seem to be developing a history of having our vacation photos appear on outfitter websites. You can view a few of our wedding shots at www.amemorableexperience.com, and now some of our Italy photos are being used by www.bikerentalsplus.com, the place where we rented our bikes (see email below). (As an aside, we highly recommend Bike Rentals Plus if you ever want to rent a bike in Europe. Be sure to ask for Igor, who's posing with us in the photo above.)

With this latest set of online photos, the legend of my eating accomplishments will extend further into cyperspace. On our trip, I was known by both fellow travelers and townspeople as The Girl Who Loves To Eat. I suppose there are worse things to be!

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From: Mark Andre

Craig:Thanks so much for the go-ahead! I worked with the lo-res photos that were on the Kodak gallery, and posted nine of them to

http://picasaweb.google.com/BikeRentalsPlus/CraigYoungTour

If you like, you can follow the link from "BikeRentalsPlus!'s Public Gallery" to "More Explus Photos..." to see customer/staff photos from some of our bike tours (we are just getting this going now, and the list will be filling in as we go).

Thanks again for your permission to use great photos -- it looks like you were having a lot of fun on your bikes!

All the best,

-- Mark

Flat Tires

Ah, Tre Cime. It's a legendary climb among cyclists, and was the finish of a stage of this year's Giro d'Italia. The 7 kilometer climb from ~1,500 meters to 2,230 meters averages 12.2% grade with a patch of 18%. Despite the grueling switchbacks and incredible views, I will most remember it for the THREE flat tires I got there.

The first flat happened right at the 6K mark, when I got my first glimpse of the summit. With help from Bill, I changed it quickly, gave myself props for my first ever change of a rear flat, and excitedly hopped back on the bike. It was less than a minute before I flatted again. Further inspection showed the tire was worn through, exposing the tube. There wasn't much I could do, so I pushed my bike up the last K to the summit (as shown in this photo), figuring Craig might have a theory on how to proceed. He attempted to patch the worn area on the tire and swapped the front and rear tires, figuring it best to take the bulk of my weight off of it. When he reinflated the tire, it bulged like an S. Hhmm, not exactly what you want for flying down the side of a mountain.

To make matters worse, a thunderstorm rolled in just after I reached the summit. Not only would I have to descend on a tire that might blow at any time, I would also get to do it on wet pavement with cars on the road. Oh, and did I mention that steep descents terrify me to begin with? I was shaking as I started down the mountain, gripping my rear brake as hard as I could. (I was scared of using the front one too much for fear it would hit the buldging tire and cause it to blow.) I made it down a few switchbacks to where Craig was waiting, used my feet to come to a stop, and told him with tears in my eyes that I was scared to death and felt like my brakes weren't working properly. He took a quick look at my rear brake and realized he hadn't closed it after he'd swapped the tires. (He swears it wasn't on purpose.) Relieved, I got back on the bike and happily reported that the brakes were working and I would make it after all. My words were still hanging in the air when I flatted for the third time.

It was then that we realized I was indeed stranded half-way down Tre Cime, in the rain, about 20K from our hotel in Cortina d'Ampezzo. Craig offered to ride back on his own ahead of Bill and Sarah and return for me with the van. I said I would continue walking towards the hotel, both to keep warm and to stay occupied. After making it to the base of the climb and through the town of Misurina, I continued on towards Tre Croce, another mountain pass just outside Cortina. I had made good progress (6.5 K/hr according to my spedometer) when I spotted Craig in the van coming towards me. I'd been so focused on summiting Tre Croce on foot, the first words out of my mouth when he rolled down the window were, "how much further to the top?" He gave me that "I-have-married-a-madwoman" look and responded, "just put the bike in the back and get in the van." I didn't protest.

I Love Digital

If the 200+ photos from Craig's camera only whet your appetite, you can view Bill's photos, including this one of our group in Montepulciano, here. Enjoy!

La Gente

No traveling adventure would be complete without meeting an interesting cast of characters. Here are a few of my favorites...

In Bologna, we were serenaded by this Fabio look-alike

In Cortina d'Ampezzo, one of our hotel hosts was Antonio Menardi, a member of the Italian curling team

In Rome, we managed to meet this crazy Spanish tour guide twice - at the Colliseum, we found her scolding people for being in the wrong line ("you are sly, you are very sly"), and at the Vatican Museum, she was encouraging people to quickly fill in the gaps in line so to prevent line-cutting

La Bestia

Meet La Bestia ("the Beast"), our 9-passenger (or 6-passenger + 6-bicycle) transport during our week in Tuscany. La Bestia highlights...

* At the Sixt rental car counter, the attendant gave the keys to Craig, shook his hand, and said, "Good luck, my friend"

* The first drive up the gravel/flagstone "road" (trail?) up to La Magnolia, our villa just outside Cortona - we had to pull in the sideview mirrors each time we made the trip

* While putting La Bestia into reverse near Casteligione del Lago, the transmission broke... I spent a few frantic minutes in a tanning salon trying to get the owner (who spoke no English and told me in Italian that I should have learned the language before coming to Italy) to help me call the rental agency... just when I finally got on the phone with an English speaking person, Karen popped into the salon to tell me Tom had fixed the transmission

* Upon entering the Bologna area with the gas tank nearly empty, we learned that all of Italy was hit with a gas strike, something about the service stations wanting to be able to sell at a higher government-set price... thankfully we made it back to the rental car return without having to push the beast

Ah, La Bestia, we'll miss you...

La Dolce Vita

How can you not love a country that recognizes the good life includes dessert?

We had a wonderful adventure in Italy... we cycled and ate our way through eastern Tuscany and the Dolomites, then got a huge dose of culture with a visit to Rome.

Molto bene!

I'll post a few more Italia blogs as the jet lag dissipates.

In the meantime, you can view photos from Tuscany here, the Dolomites here, and Rome here.

Ciao!