While the TriP guys and gals are up in Maryland for the Showdown At the Seagull. I hit the road (in a car) headed for the center of our bureaucratic wasteland - Washington DC.

A few notes on the u4.0 vs. u4.5 thing in Salisbury - The Vegas bookmakers are working overtime to lay some fair odds on this thing.

Will the guys do it? - 7:4 in favor of

Will the gals do it? - 7:4 against (I guess prior experience gets the nod)

If they both do it, who will beat the mark by more time? 2:1 the women


OK that said and done. I realized DC is one of my least favorite places to drive. Despite some nasty weather on the way up :

I made good time. That is until actually entering DC. After crossing the Potomac not once, not twice, but 3 times (on 3 different bridges, ty) I made it to my pricey DC Hotel. I pull in with 2 bikes on the roof and a number of white gloved dudes in formal evening wear quickly descend upon me and my vehicle(s) to get me checked in and out of the way. After a fair amount of persuasion (hell it took some SERIOUS persuasion and a threat or 2) , I was able to convince them that I would not stay there unless I took at LEAST one of my bikes up to the room. Now I've stayed at a few places here and there, but maybe I'm more of a Super8 or BestWestern sort of guy. A bed, a TV with a remote and some HiSpeed Internet access is fine.

Then, on the way up to the room the dude with the white gloves sees this :

and says . "So, you must be a Dallas Cowboys fan!" ummmmmmmmmmmmmkay

All these bells and whistles are in my view just a waste of resources that could be spent on bike parts. BUT, like they say - "When in Rome....."

So here I am ready to go register and volunteer some setup time.

Looks like its going to be a rainy weekend, the odds are probably changing for Seagull.........

More to follow.

JB