New grips!

After hearing rave reviews online about these grips, I bought a pair of these silicone beauties


And then I rode up to Proveusyieux and into the hills above

Wild boar sausage!

from mom.  Delicious!

COLD

And mom is here!!

cleaning

Mom and I were cleaning out Kenji's closet, which was pretty sad.  I did find this amazing cycling hat from the 90's though

Sunglasses at night

New knife

So fantastic.  I love every aspect of it from the octagonal  rosewood handle to the hand-forged Aogami Super Steel blade.

Alex has a girlfriend?!

Going home

I had a really good seat on the plane -- right at the transition between where they can't cram three seats into the row anymore, so I had plenty of legroom and even managed to sleep a little.  Amazingly, United still has planes without individual screens in seatbacks.  What a joke of an airline.  I was, however entertained by these glove bluetooth telephone headsets:

In Frankfurt we taxied out to the runway but then had to wait for the de-icing trucks to drive out there because it had started snowing

Wedding

went to the shooting range with Terry and Ben (shh!) then to the crystallography wedding in Stockton

Headland ride

which was really nice, and then caught up with Steve and Chip which was excellent… even if I went to the wrong cafe!

Tacos and Cycling

maybe not the best combo

also, Four Barrel/Flowerland coffee

Bartavelle

With mom

Then on to the Hockney show at the deYoung.  I loved the charcoals and watercolors, but was not very excited about the rest (iPad, video etc).

KIRALA

Amazing, as usual.  Mom had to tell the owner that Kenji passed away, but otherwise it was wonderful.  I tried to order some Denshu sake  but they were out.

Shopping

Went Xmas shopping with mom at REI, the North Face and Target.  Mom tried on almost every down jacket in the place and we found a cool one, but it was not on sale, unfortunately.  Later, we saw a Lambo with huge plumes of smoke emanating from it

New bridge

I assembled the Breakaway and rode along the waterfront and up onto the fabulous new bike path along the bridge.  Very cool

Farmer's market

with mom.  We picked up this excellent granola

Ian pointed out that it kinda looks like he pooped the granola out, but that's okay

Last day in Red Rocks

And we went to the Black Corridor and then the steep crag next door.  Fun, but crowded!  From there it was a slightly mad dash to the airport and onto planes.

Sunny and Steep

Went to Sunny and Steep and got sandbagged by the guide:  the col approach is really a stupid way to get there.  We warmed up on a 10 to the left and then I nearly had a heart attack on Mr Choad's Wild Ride, but managed to hang in there.  I then got up Gimme Back my Bullets with a hang or two but decided not to try again and did Gimme Back my Bullets on sight, so yay for that.  We finished up on "Scorpions".  Then we walked out through the spectacular wash with polka dotted and striped sandstone and through the Kraft boulders

Cragging

Started off at the Tsunami wall,  then up to Jane's Wall where I fell off Idiot's Rule!  the shame.  Then on to a newer crag Called Ironman.  It wasn't in our guide, but looked coot.  We later found out that the route we did was called Iron Maiden, which was really fun.  We accidentally sandbagged someone who was coming up the hill though and said it was .11a.  Then we hopped in the car and headed up to the Holiday wall, where I fell of Saddam's Mom (WHAT IS GOING ON!?), and then did "When the cat's away".  Both were very fun.

then it was the surprising long drive out along the scenic loop

VEGAS

Today: Lyon->Frankfurt->Denver->Las Vegas.  As usual, the airlines made it as unpleasant as possible to fly -- no surprise there.  There is nothing worth mentioning except for the slightly amusing contrast in the way people in the Denver customs line were dressed.  There were two flights that had just arrived, so it was a mix of people in heavy winter parkas (from Frankfort) and flip flops, shorts and T-shirts (from Cabo).  I think the Cabo people were in for an unpleasant surprise, as it looked cold outside in the thin Denver air.

On the last flight, I had a window seat and would periodically see an evanescent bright flash on the ground that would disappear as soon as I saw it.  It took me a while, but I finally figured out that it was the reflection of the full and bright moon off of ponds and lakes on the ground.

I met up with Ian, and we waited for an HOUR in the Dollar rent-a-car line (note to self, never rent from Dollar again).  Then it was a short drive to the Luxor, where we ate amazing Texas BBQ brisket for dinner.  Unfortunately, there was no fridge in the room, so we improvised:

Packing

Quick ride to le Gua

Jardins des Dauphins

I hobbled into town with Chloe and the kids… very high water in the river today.

and then to the Jardins des Dauphins, which were wonderful, and the kids surprised us by walking all the way to the top without very much complaining.  As a reward, we took the boules back down

Bike crash!

crashed my bike on the bridge over the Vence (in between Quaix and Clemencieres).  It was a slow slide out on wet (icy?) tarmac.  Nothing broken on myself or the bike, but lots of road rash, mostly on my hip.

The one positive thing is that I discovered a great way to treat road rash: Tegaderm!  It works miracles.