I just realized I have not posted in almost 20 days! Got back from that trip and have been go go go! Did some deliveries...













Did a couple Monday Radio Shows Live (see facebook for the podcasts)...





with Ale on bass during the blah blah blah...



DJ Livia on the mixer and organizing the amazing opportunity...



Me and Franny 2 Hands, aka: Franny Blacksmiths, aka: Dick Volpaccino on the mics



Fund Raising to Keep Art DIRTY!...



Did some Karaoke. KISS to be exact, it was horrible!...





Worked on some bikes....



Posed for some photos to help the tour leaders learn to love the new hybrids...just another 2 weeks at the office I suppose.



And Tattooed some wheels with their new warranty serial numbers...



Until tomorrow when starts my lovely 2 week vacation with my Dearest Friend Tammy Elaine Nugent...



...seen here ingesting the kind of food I would never eat in a manner I found both hilarious and slightly repulsive - but its kinda why I love her to pieces.

This is her very first trip out side of the USA and I can not WAIT to see the look on her face. I remember my first trip out, Amy and I went to Paris just to wander a couple days and then train down to Spain, my first trip to Barcelona, a city I have since been enamored with. I remember the running joke of our winter sojourn in the streets of Paris was that I was too busy gape-ing up at all the old buildings and the trimmed back winter trees, feeling trapped in a black and white movie to notice the inevitable thousands of piles of Parisian dog shit that I walked in EVERYWHERE we went. I seriously had to leave the boots out the window of that first hotel after the third day. There was even a map I drew, a dotted line broken only by various piles of steamy poo (not to scale).

But I digress...Tammy will be doing at least one guest blog post while she is here, if there is time, so watch out for that fresh and unique perspective that only someone named her can provide.

Till then I have lists to double check for the third and fourth THOUSANDTH times to make sure I have everything planned out and perfect.

good talk good talk...
Scotty

gonna keep this short...

...as short as I know how.
All in all, 411.92km (255 miles) on a 29.25kg (64.5 pound) bike, three regioni, 3 rivers, a couple lakes, some illegal camping, a hostel, a swim that left me sore, poetry in the ride journal, at least 13 espressos and as many pastries, and almost as many photos (422) as epiphanies...TOO MANY to post them all.
Here they are, with a couple quotes from the ride journal...enjoy.



all you need...and probably too much.





the drive...



waiting at the train station for Robert, the German Tour Guide, he trained down to pick up the van which is how this amazing opp came about in the first place, a ride I had been thinking about since seeing the guide book last year.

lets start with a self portrait shall we...





Germans drinking beer at noon is a great way to start a big ride!







































The town of Rovereto would be my first stop...







The Hostel was nice but I'm camping next time



I skipped the itenerary and headed on a new agenda, in the long run adding an extra 100km, but adding all this too...













First view of Lago Di Garda





"In front of me a castle along a dirt river path, a glance over shoulder reveals the mouth of the great canyon of Riva Del Garda, a spectacular 3 days aboard a bicycle."













"Loni and I are posted up in the shade in a park in the harbour of Garda. Beautiful! Ducks bark, the cicadia song almost louder than the whirly-click of passing freehubs, and waves lazy-lapping lake waves gently kiss the break water shoreline. An occasional car starts up and it's diesel burp putters uphill or a scooter whines down from the steeps above. Families chitter, kids laugh and I doze off beneath the poplar trees."









"The best way to dry your stretchy-pants overnight on a bike ride through Italy in the summer, is to wrap them up in an envelope, affix the proper postage and mail them to the fucking Gobi Desert! Seriously its humid here, bring two..."





Dinner of Romagna tough guys, Melon Proscuitto, and beer














Into Mantova past the lily ponds.











And joining up with the Po River









the tiny town of Sermide would be my home for the night, bum camping next to a dirty mosquito infested river bank. Not before a couple beers and the free spread of food for aperativo. I was definitely the greaziest dude at this aperativo...







sunset and sunrise on Il Fiume Po







Did you know as a kid I had such a boner for the medieval period I would wear a robin hood costume around the house...I still get a chubby when I see castles up this close.



yeah..."all you need is LONI!"





"monuments of doubt crumble against the subductive plates of my own cowardice and inexperience, the resulting quake shivers through my very core forever altering the landscape and skyline of my soul."













That's the self portrait AFTER!
Hey Jesus, how big was that ride anyhow...



this big...



and thats pretty big...
S.