I Got 99 Problems, But a Post Ain't One

I must say this weekend was not as relaxing as I first had imagined. The float trip got off to an ominous start as we waited for the bus to deliver us to the drop-off point:

I for one was hoping anything that did happen during the weekend only happened by accident. What I do know for sure though is that jorts don't happen by accident. We'll discuss accidents a little later.

Besides our public service announcement, hats seemed to be all the "rave" prior to our departure:

Once we were on the river, a few of us engaged in the creation, or curation as BSNYC might say, of our very own wizard staffs. For those of you that read my last post, you will understand the reference to wizardry now. Anywho, I got the idea from one Stevil Kinevil over at AHTBM. It apparently is a new concept here in the Midwest. With that in mind, here is the first attempt, but not last, as we have now determined that float trips are not very conducive for engaging in wizard staff creation:

Is that a Bud Light Lime in there? No doubt.

The floating took much longer than I had anticipated and even included some bridge jumping. I must warn you though, the bridge wasn't really that impressive as it was a mere six inches off the water:

In all fairness it was a little more than six inches, but not much. The night was topped off by an expertly cooked meal of jerked chicken, corn-on-the-cob, and rice, all cooked by the executive chef at Pacha Mamas in Lawrence, KS. Here is his hand cutting the chicken that he cooked on an open fire:

It was delicious. Ok, enough of that, back to cycling.

On multiple occasions in the last few days I've seen different variations on the phrase, "If you aren't crashing/bleeding, you ain't trying hard enough." I'm going to take a stance here today and say that that saying is ridiculous. Clearly no one would argue that the opposite is true - "If you are crashing/bleeding you are trying hard enough." If that were the case, Christian Vande Velde would be the hardest working cyclist in the Pro Tour Peloton. Seriously though, I understand if the saying were, "If you aren't sweating, you aren't trying hard enough." I will completely agree with that. But while crashing is an inseparable part of cycling, it is not an indicator of effort. What is an indicator of effort is a sweet pair of jorts, and a love of all things safety.