Here's a few more scenes from Cirque '05, sadly done now for another year.
First, I was mortified to realize Saturday nite that I hadn't taken any pictures so far, I had been so busy yakking with my old friends. But Chris Kostman of Adventure Corps bailed me out by posting a couple hundred shots of all three days. Thanks Chris, and I encourage anyone else with pics to put them up. Looking at the shots is often the best reminiscence. Dale has a link up to Chris's show:
http://www.classicrendezvous.com/
This Cirque was different for me, not so giddy and frantic as my first two, but just as joyous. The first big difference was that I stayed at the Microtel. At first I felt like I had been condemned to Siberia, but by golly the lobby filled up with bike kooks just like the Battleground, and I was able to get to sleep at only a mildly unreasonable hour, too, important due to the fact that I actually had some miles in my legs this year and was eager for the road.
There seems to be dominant themes to Cirque (with innumerable blendings of both schools):, relaxing first or riding first. (The talking and looking is about the same for both groups.) For us Yankees with our legs pasty from the long winter and tummies flabby from sloth, Greensboro in May is wonderful. The weather this year turned out perfect, although we played chicken with bands of roving showers throughout. I rode all three days and felt hardly a drop, and never felt uncomfortable with my wool jersey and arm warmers. Great change indeed from back home, and the rolling country roads were delightful. Fixed Friday was a bit light on machines due to the clouds, but the pace was delightful, and Ray Etherton on a borrowed blood red Peugeot PX10 and I on my trusty Gitane TDF chatted throughout. It's amazing how many folks have had either a Peugeot or a Gitane at one time or another. Saturday the Jersey Boyz aimed high, going out with the fast group, but we managed to hang all the way to the end, although Roy H. dropped back to help with a broken spoke (no small matter with a 24 spoke wheel: they had to dismount the rear brake to get clearance) and Mike Schmidt and I were clinging grimly to the tail of the peleton at times (a talking pace includes swearing, gasping and wondering where everyone went, right?). Most of the listees skip Sunday to work the swap, but the Tour d'Guilford a wonderful route. I did the 34 miler and loved it, both the riding and the talk. I rode with Amir for a few miles while we discussed our collections. Then the riders scrummed up to decipher the map at a confusing intersection. When we broke up and restarted I chased like crazy to catch the pack in front only to discover that the yellow jacket I was pursuing wasn't Amir. (Amir, the fifth bike is a Stan Pike.) But we all got back to the Rec Center safely for the wonders of the show.
There's so much more that went on that I despair of being able to tell it, but I'll pass on two more nuggets to give a flavor of the weekend. At the Saturday dinner our table was enthralled by Senior Chief Robinson's (?) reminiscences of his days sailing submarines with the US Navy (sub-sub polar crossing, practice depth chargings with real depth charges (!?!) and maintaining that most vital piece of equipment, the ice cream maker). Then there was Steve Maasland's jaw dropping as he saw Mike Barry's restored Paderio. Steve told me that this bike was a rusted out hulk prior to Mike's ministrations, and look at it now:
http://www.adventurecorps.com/
So I'm eagerly waiting for more pics, and already planning for next year. 1,000 thanks to Dale, so generous to make this event go. I only wished it could go on longer.
Tom Adams, Shrewsbury NJ
__________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com