A Whole New Vernacular

On a whim, I left Houston in the wee small hours of the morning on Saturday morning to drive to Austin for the grand opening of Mellow Johnny's - Lance Armstrong's new bike store. I'm not THAT big of a Lance fan - I think I did it more for inspiration as I start to train for his rather difficult bike ride come October. I made it there in plenty of time for their 7:00 AM opening. I really thought there were be lines of people just waiting to get in. There were maybe 6-8 people waiting patiently. Wow, Austin really is a laid-back town. So, I drove around Austin a little - got some great photos of some famous neon signs.

After the opened the doors, we all scattered around the store like children looking for eggs on Easter morn! It's a rather small store. I have to admit it is quite cool. I lolligagged my way around the entire store at least 4 or 5 times just looking at all the good stuff. While there, I learned quite a lot of new meanings: fixie (a fixed gear bicycle), Mellow Johnny (taken from the french words for yellow jersey - malliot jaune), and juan pelota (a term the spanish called Lance - I'll let you figure that one out).

But man o man, the lack of sleep and long drive caught up with me pretty furiously. I got to the point where I could barely keep my eyes open! But I wanted to hang around until at least 12:00 because Mike Ward would be there for a book signing - and I thought Lance might make an appearance.I went back to my car around 11:00, rolled down the windows, laid back the seat, and promptly fell asleep for 30-45 minutes. I woke up just in time to head back in, run to the restroom and see Mike Ward sign books, play his guitar, and speak about biking and music. Alas, no Lance.

So, I decided to cut my losses, head over to Wahoo's for a quick fish bowl, dash over to REI to check out their sale, then head on back home.

All in all, it was a very spontaneous trip. Just the thing for a lazy Saturday. And I think the trip did the trick - I'm even more enthused about the upcoming LiveStrong ride.

Photos link at left.

All for now,
Lisa