The Big Easy

A few weeks ago, I helped a friend celebrate her birthday in New Orleans. I was excited because it would be my first trip to New Orleans, but was nervous, because I can't hang like I could in the 'old days.' I know, it's pitiful. As they say in athletics, I had to "dig deep." My friends stayed here:





They enjoyed it very much; it's on a very beautiful part of Esplanade. I stayed just down the street at the Five Continents B&B. Unfortunately, my crap phone pictures don't do the B & B justice. It was so wonderful. Jess, who runs the place, was very welcoming. He offered a map with his top suggestions, a Five Continents card (so that I could just hand it to the taxi driver, if I couldn't remember the address by the end of the night), and the card of his preferred taxi company. Oh and the breakfast! So freakin' delicious. I'm completely sold on Five Continents. When I go back to NOLA, I definitely intend to stay there again.

This place, the Dufour - Baldwin House - was a few houses from where I stayed. From the front, it was quite impressive. I can only imagine what the interior museum and gardens look like.



Once, I checked in to the B & B, we took off towards Bourbon Street. I was parched, so I opted for a "hand grenade" drink. I asked the man behind the counter what was in the concoction and he replied, "I can't give out that information." That sounds perfectly legal and safe, so of course, I had one. After meeting up with other friends on Bourbon St. we set out for a night of fun. We walked by Jackson Square and took a look at the waterfront at night. Then made our way to Frenchman's St., as recommended by Jess.

Along the way, we saw this:



Really, NOLA? You'll only allow one? The next day, when we walked past the same place, they'd changed the sign to read, "one drink minimum." That's better.

Then, Frenchman's Street welcomed us with this:



A band of strangely clad musicians, playing the most eclectic instruments I've ever seen. One guy (wearing the saggiest pair of "tighty-whiteys" I've laid eyes upon) was playing what looked like a metal trunk. Another was playing something that resembled a beer bong/funnel. Um, at least, so I've heard. Of course, I absolutely loved it. I seriously heart anything odd or weird. What a wonderful way to start the New Orleans experience.


By the time we got there, we were pretty hungry. We stopped into a place called, "Praline Connection." It had really good reviews on yelp.

We started out with Alligator Sausage. It was so good, but really just tasted like any other amazingly seasoned sausage.



I don't recall what everyone had...I had rice, beans and okra. It was wonderfully spicy!



After a belly full of Cajun food, we found the Spotted Cat. It was such fun! I felt like I was in the movie, "Irma La Douce." Well, except for the whole, being a prostitute, thing. I was waiting for a strapping, young Jack Lemmon to come strolling through the door! :-)



Afterward, we went to a place called, "DBA," which was right across the street from the Spotted Cat. They had a zydeco band playing and a huge dance floor. Two local guys heard me saying how much I wanted to learn to dance to this type of music, and humored me for a bit. They ended up being a ton of fun. One of the guys was a cyclist, too. What. A. Blast! With another night to go. Watch out NOLA!

...to be continued...either sooner or later...

Thrifty Answers

Happy Friday! Here are the answers for yesterday's outfit. The 2 or 3 (I couldn't decide if one item really counted): The cream shoes, white suit jacket and the three string beaded necklace. The necklace was an antique store find. So, it's definitely used, but not technically a "thrift store find."

Here's how the outfit priced up:

Cream leather wingtip shoes - $3.98
3 string beaded necklace - $8.00
Linen Chadwicks of Boston pants - $25.00
Coral sleeveless shirt - $19.99
White George suit jacket - $5.00 (had to have it dry cleaned, which cost $6.50, so you could say that it cost $11.50).

Total cost of my Thrifty Thursday is: $61.97! Or, if you count the dry cleaning, $68.47!

Thrifty Thursday - A Long Time Coming

Although, I have more Thrifty Thursdays that are posted, most of those days are almost an exact repeat of a previous thrifty day. This week, it's a mix of old thrify items and new thrifty items. Hint, hint...who's been paying attention??

There are two (kinda 3) thrifty items included below. Can you guess which ones they are?

Here's What 80 Miles Looks Like

This past weekend, a 100 mile training group (of which, I'm a member), had a 75 mile bike ride. Due to a scenic detour, a few of my friends and I made it an 80-81 mile ride. We just aren't satisfied with the minimum, you see.

The weather was nice. Mid/upper 80s for most of the ride, with some cloud cover.

Here, everyone is chillin' at the last SAG stop.



One of my favorite cycling couples. They're still all smiles after 60-something miles!



Best. SAG Ever. They provided ice cold towels! Please refrain from jokes involving towels...thank you.



At one of the stops, this doozy caught my eye. Not the motorcycle - yawn...the helmet. Your eyes are not deceiving you. That is a sweet mohawk you see.



Here's my reaction when the guy wouldn't trade his mohawk helmet for mine. I mean, it goes with my bike and everything!



I know what you're thinking...and I agree. With a face like that, it is amazing that I'm still single.

Benefit Ride and Show for Local Cyclist Killed in a Hit & Run

As some of you are aware, a tragedy occurred in the early hours of Friday morning. Memphian, Chris Davidson was hit by a car, while riding his bike home. The car fled the scene and miraculously, Chris was able to ride his bike to his girlfriend's house a few blocks away, where he died - not long afterward.

Below, is the story from WREG (borrowed from Fix Memphis' site)

 

The HiTone is holding a benefit for Chris' family tomorrow, Wednesday, August 17th. There is a benefit ride, which will leave from the Peddler Bike Shop on Highland Ave., at 6:30pm, Wednesday and will arrive at the HiTone at 7pm for the benefit show.

Please come and show your support.

Cycle Memphis

This weekend was filled with bicycle rides. Two friends of mine and I woke up before the birds to drive to Rossville, TN and ride the Wolf River Cafe ride. It was hot and muggy (I heard that a few people had to abort the ride, due to becoming overheated), but the miles rolled by as I saw friends along the route. We even managed to meet a few new friends. Honestly, the ride didn't start out so great for me. From the beginning, I felt as though I was struggling to keep up with my friends. It's not a fun thing, playing catch-up. After a while, I just resigned myself to ride my own pace and enjoy the scenery - and not think about my friends having to wait on me to finish...since I drove. It was then, that I started to really enjoy myself. Also, I ended up finishing the 57 mile ride with my friends, after all!

The highlight of my day was Cycle Memphis' second ever ride. I missed the last ride due to being completely toast after a triathlon. Anyway, cyclists came out of the woodwork for an 8pm meet up and casual, 15ish mile ride. People showed up on their polo bikes, cruiser bikes, old school road bikes, mountain bikes, hybrid bikes...you name it, they were there. One of the hosts had a trailer hooked onto his bike with a huge speaker attached to his radio. So, about 80 of us were bopping down the street listening to some sweet tunes.

After the ride, people hung around and danced to the music, still playing. My favorites are they guy in the "wife beater" MFM volunteer shirt and the guy in the background who (I swear) looks like Tommy Chong. I think his actual name is Scott, but to me, he's Tommy Chong, or the Chonger...basically, whatever I fell like. :-) Can yo see him? I wish I had a better picture, with a close up of the Chonger. It's what I get for always using the camera on my phone.




If you're interested, Cycle Memphis meets the first Saturday of each month, at 8pm, around the gazebo at the corner of Cooper & Young.

Color Me Drooling

Ok, who wants to buy this gorgeous leather pannier for me?



My birthday's in T-8 days. I think I'm worth it...I actually wouldn't mind the red Dannebrog cruiser, either. I would look so smashing riding to the Farmer's Market, to work, or a fabulous brunch on that bike. "Big Bertha" (I sported her, here) would be sad, but, well...whatever.

Oh Chuck, Where Did You Go?

I miss that train wreck. Ok, I know I shouldn't encourage "da crazy," but consider it one of my guilty pleasures. I can't help myself.



So, what have I been doing to occupy my mind since Charlie's disappeared from the headlines and my T.V.? This:



It's called eiffling and during the Tour de France, Radio Shack gave prizes for the best eiffliers. Not to brag, but I won. You don't know about eiffling? I'm sorry. You're probably out there planking and/or owling. I don't want to be the one to tell you it's lame, but here's someone who loves both planking and owling. And we've established that she's an annoying a-hole, haven't we?

Triathlons and Training Rides, Oh My!

This weekend, I raced the Mighty Mite Triathlon with, Cat, a friend of mine. Here we are, before the race, showing our most intimidating, game face. Incidentally, my "game face" very much resembles "straining to poop and scratching myself." What? Isn't that everyone's "game face?"



I wasn't too keen on a point to point triathlon (there were multiple transition areas; you raced from one point, to the next, etc.), nor was I too keen on driving an hour for such a short race. However, I'd heard that the race was a lot of fun, so I thought, why not give it a go. If it's not my cup of tea, I don't have to do it again.

We arrived at the triathlon with plenty of time to spare; set up the second transition area, then went to set up the first transition area. We were told to park our cars in the grass at the bottom of a hill. Me, being the super smart girl I am, decided to leave my flip flops in my car, so I wouldn't have to go back to the transition area at all, after the race ended. As we were following people to the transition area, I asked, "does anyone know where the transition area is?" To which, a girl replied, "it's about a mile away." A mile away? What. The. Crap? Soooo...we walked a mile, uphill, barefoot. Well, at least we had an adequate warm up.

The race was short and sweet. They even had shuttles, near the finish line, to take racers back to the transition areas so that they could gather their belongings. Great, right? Well, in theory. It's not so great when your shuttle driver gets lost. Needless to say, the triathlon took entirely too much of my day to be such a short race. I can't wait to do it again next year. I kid, of course.

Sunday, I had a training ride for the Bluff City Blues Century ride this fall. My plan was to take it easy, since I had a triathlon the day before. There was one major problem with this plan:

1) When it comes to things that I really, really enjoy (cycling), taking it easy does not compute.

Anyway, the "plan" didn't go so well. I decided to grit my teeth and ride with the faster group. They were really nice to let me draft behind them, without sharing much of the workload. It was the fastest 61.5 miles I've ever ridden. Afterward, though, my legs were really mad at me.

Here's our voluntary "ride guide" and a couple of others at the second SAG (service and gear) stop.



Our bikes were magic. They took us back in time. Do you recognize this relic? No? Don't worry, I'll tell you. It's a pay phone. There was a time, before the age of cell (mobile) phones, when people used to use these.

Some of My Favorites, So Far

Just for fun, I found some of my favorite photos of the Tour de France, so far:





Of course, I had to include a photo of Johnny Hoogerland in the King of the Mountains gear that he wore for three days. Wonder if he'll don those dots again this tour...I hope so. After watching him buck up and finish the stage after being significantly slashed by barbed wire, I've definitely jumped on his bandwagon. You couldn't tell? I know, I tend to be quite subtle.

Tour de Freak Me Out!

Being the cycling enthusiast that I am, I am smitten to watch all of the uber talented pro's see who can make it to Paris first, in the Tour de France. Part of me also thinks that if I watch enough talented people, with impeccable form, maybe I can start to subconsciously, emulate them (here's hoping)! This year, though, has been more like the Tour de Crash. The weather's been really rainy, there are more teams this year, which also beget more team cars. Crashes come with the territory, unfortunately. This year there just seem to be more crashes with more people involved.

In Stage 9, there were two terrible accidents. One, in particular, was a horrible, avoidable accident that involved the breakaway riders. When I was watching this, I absolutely could not believe my eyes. This. In the Tour de France. Where riders ALWAYS take precedence. I heard that the media car didn't want to slow down to let Thomas Voeckler's team car by to give him more water. So what did the media car do? Well, take a look, but be forewarned, it's not pretty.

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Flecha and Hoogerland both went down, really, really hard. Miraculously, both riders got up, hopped on their bikes and finished the stage. Hoogerland (my new hero), after getting 30+ stitches in his bum and legs, even managed a ride on his day off, yesterday. If it were me, I'd be tempted to have the biggest pity party you could imagine. Then again, it is the Tour de France...maybe I'd find the strength to dust myself off and ride on, too.

Needless to say, all of these crashes are making me really nervous to ride. Also, this weekend was the first time I was involved in an accident with someone else. Usually, I'll fall because my bike goes the wrong way when I clip out of my pedals. That's right, it's the bike's fault, not mine. The result is mostly embarrassment and maybe a scraped knee, but nothing major. On a ride this weekend, someone lost focus for a second, then found themselves hooked to my rear wheel. They went crashing down; luckily, I was able to "ride out of it." There was a split second when I thought I would go down, too. It was a horribly helpless feeling. There was nothing I could do to keep my friend from kissing asphalt.

Apart from some road rash, no one was hurt, but it gave me a proper shaking up. Then, I went home to watch more serious crashes in the Tour de France. Color me a bit freaked out. I'm sure I'll get over it, but at the moment, I can't get it out of my head.

Here we are, pre-crash.



Yes, these are some of the Cycledelic Girl Gang members and brave fella's who rode with us. Hopefully, we'll soon have our jerseys, so we're all official 'n stuff.

Thrifty Answers

And....the answer is, the Nine West suit jacket. Here's how the outfit added up:

Nine West jacket - $6.00
Banana Republic dress - $29.99
Leather sandals (purchased at Steinmart, ages ago) - $25.00

Total - $60.99!