Stage 16!

A picture is worth 1000 words! Here are some of the 250 pics I took! Aren't you glad the wi-fi sux here!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=83502&id=1038297795&l=9125e8d2bc

France 20090721

Race day! Rest day!

Finally we get to watch a stage! Since it’s rest day for Kim, I decide I’m going to take the bus to St. Pierre where there was the second sprint of the day. By the time Paula, my caboose companion saw the mountains, she was all about option 2--watching the stage. We picked out our spot just past the hairpin turn just past the sprint. Go back down to the center to find a grocery store…no HEB here! What we thought was a convenience store was the grocery store. OMG the size of the grocery store was half the size of the back storage at Artisan, 1/3 the size of the classroom in McCAllum, maybe the size of the conference room at Affinegy. Anyhow, ordered some meat & cheese from the deli, found other necessary items (bread, chocolate, coke), now to scope out bar to watch the rest of the race once it passes. First 2 bars didn’t have a TV (one had signs for the TV that lead us to a basement with no TV. Oh well back to our spot.

I think the pics say it all about my first watching experience!

Before the riders get there, there’s the Csravan! I long parade of cars and floats that throw swag to the people on the street. Complete w/ music and announcers saying stuff I don’t understand! This is where the crowd gets the red polka dot hats and the green PMU hands…I’m now the proud owner of 2 hats and 2 hands!

Highlight of the day had to be when a lady from the US on a trip for her 20th wedding anniversart was the proud new owner of an Astana water bottle thrown to her by Lance. I hear this ‘hey Texas! Lance threw me his water bottle!” We talked about how it needed to replace the wedding picture on the mantal. Finally I asked to see it, her picture is somewhere.. We talked about never washing it, then I asked it I could touch it. Not only did I get to touch it, but she poured some of the water in my hand and I drank it!