The last nights in Italy were amazing!
Had dinner with friends from town, saw a show with work homies, smoked shitty cigars I bought, ate some more, and drank some vino, joked about how many different colours of my bosses undies I got to see this summer, shed a tear or two and off to the airport at midnight to start the journey home with a little nap in my bike box fort in BLQ airport.
Arrived in Fort Collins by way of Denver... and Chicago... and Frankfurt... and Bologna...even WITH the 8 hour time difference the flights totaled an actual 24 hours in the sky and in airports I have no mental map of. Quite the adventure actually, changing terminals, claiming and re checking luggage (which included a bike box), going through customs, passport checks in which my ability to talk through circular breathing without stopping ensured the nice lady wanted me gone more than she wanted to make a thorough check of my entry stamps, delayed flights, underground shuttles, oversized baggage claims and a missed shuttle put me back in the Fort around midnight monday nite. Exhausted and not wanting to burden friends who didn't even know I was coming in I grabbed a room at the lovely Armstrong hotel, which has the most comfy beds in the universe! Slept like a baby, left my luggage there, hit the storage unit to survey the work ahead, had a coffee and cake with Molly North bike advocate extraordinaire, and surprised the Professor at his weekly "board meeting" at Eliot's Bar on tuesday nite.
The next week was spent catching up with friends, eating bacon...
(cooked on wood fire no less), enjoying some surfside pizza, and the usual shenanigans the friends here get up to. There were gallery openings with cool bike art...
... the usual bars with the usual suspects, a KILLER mountain bike ride on dry trails in the upper 60's (that's mid 20's to my euro audience)
...a lot of organising and selling of things from the storage unit,
...and last weekend the Goldwaters Invitational Croquet Tournament and VIP Waffle Breakfast on Mathews Street.
yes, that IS a bacon cheddar waffle about to happen...
The croquet tournament was pretty RAD! BRAVO to the Professor for hosting the first annual, Sam Moes, who took home this years winner's coat amidst the smokey fires of the closing ceremony...
Sam will thus be hosting on the next solstice and passing the coat most likely to a hungry Angie who chased Moes to the bitter end hurling her weight in profanities! We had a little after party celebration that turned into an impressive fireworks display when the sun went down.
Click this link and watch the video, keep an eye out for the green flash that landed right by my foot, a fireball comes right at the camera! Later a 3 stage firework didn't exactly make it off the ground and when it exploded we all got a little shrapnel of paper in the face. Kids, do NOT play with explosives, its better to leave that to Bret...
Its been great to be back. With the unseasonably warm weather, and the Professors shenanigans its been all smiles and no frowns. It was tough leaving here back in march and I felt sad, unsure of the unknown, and was totally unaware of the summer that was in front of me. The whole experience has allowed me the clarity and security to come back here to my friends and really truly enjoy them for who they are. As much as the clothes don't make the man, this group of Awesomes is just as good on the inside as they are fancy on the outside.
I'm gonna miss them when I leave for SD in a week...
S.
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