The 2013 Brompton US Championship this year was quite an interesting event. I had arrived to Minneapolis with Todd (of MetroGnome Music) on the Friday before the BUSC, did a week-long tour of the Midwest before returning to the Twin Cities.
The first interesting event happened prior to the start of the BUSC festivities. We returned our rental car on Friday, hoping to take advantage of the excellent public transportation system in Minneapolis (which we did). Our first destination after dropping the car off was to the famous Matt's Bar for the "Jucy Lucy" (a cheeseburger where the cheese is melted inside two beef patties, like a jelly donut). We didn't make it out to Matt's that day (we had to wait until Sunday).
As we stepped off the blue train, it started sprinkling. After 5 minutes of walking the sprinkle turned into a massive storm. Actually, it was more like an EPIC storm. Large trees were knocked down and breaking cars and houses. Electricity was knocked out west of the Hiawatha highway (which includes Calhoun Cycle). This pretty much ended our Friday.
Saturday began with us cycling to Calhoun Cycles and picking up our registrations.
It was nice to see all the different styles of Brommies that converged at Calhoun.
Unfortunately, the electricity was still out from last night's storm, and would remain so for several days.
The first ride of the day was a multi-modal trip out to Coon Rapids Dam. The trip was about 25 miles or so. We witnessed a lot of destruction that was caused by the previous night's storm… we had to dismount a couple of times to climb over trees that had fallen on the bike path.
Eventually after a fun ride we got to the dam and had lunch.
After lunch we took the Northstar Commuter Rail back. It was prime Brommie posing time!
We returned to Calhoun Cycles for a little bit of a break before heading back out. The afternoon ride took us to the Stone Arch Bridge and Guthrie Theater.
We were expecting to be able to use the restrooms at the Guthrie, but unbeknownst to us they were closed for a rare private event. We also got to ride a bit on the Midtown Greenway and learn a little bit about the Beez Kneez.
When we returned we were treated to pizza, a concert by Michael Morris of Dewi Sant and a raffle, where I won a little mini-bike bag and a pair of WoolieBoolie socks.
Here are some other blogs that have recaps of the day:
If you were at the BUSC and have pictures, please share them on the BUSC flickr group pool.
I'll be doing a recap of Sunday (Raceday) as well... hopefully it won't take me as long to post it!
I'll be doing a recap of Sunday (Raceday) as well... hopefully it won't take me as long to post it!
Nice post, Fernando. Looks like y'all had a great time.
ReplyDeleteI like the photo of the row of Bromptons.
Peace :)