Bling!!

I'm not sure what the allure of the belt buckle is but this is the buckle that Mesa Cycles is giving away to all first place finishers this weekend in Potosi. It's actually made by a friend of mine who lives in Buena Vista, Colorado. His name is Jim Butler but everyone (and I mean everyone) knows him as "Jimmer". Odds are super good that you could stop someone on the street and ask if they knew him and they'd say yes. I once interviewed for a teaching position at BV high and during the interview we actually started talking about him. He's a super talented guy when it comes to anything mechanical or fabrication. The next time you're in BV take a look at the metal signs in town for the bank or various other businesses. He made them.

Quick Jimmer story....I had never actually met Jimmer before but Heather and I were in BV on vacation and we were going to head up to Ptarmigan Lake to spend the night. We were driving her 2wd Xterra over some pretty nasty roads but my driving skills led me to believe that I could drive up walls. We got well above treeline and into some switchbacks when I got stuck. I decided to back up a bit and change my line. I asked Heather to look out her window and tell me how much room I had. Panicked...she said she couldn't even see the road. I got out and sure enough I had us high-centered on the edge and the vehicle was literally teetering. I told her to get out on my side quickly. She did. Long story short...we got a ride back into town and I called Jimmer. Of course he had to finish helping some other poor soul out before he could get to my dumb ass but he was glad to help. He selected what vehicle would properly perform the extraction and had us out in no time. Then him and Judy insisted that we come back to their house so they could fix us dinner and give us a bed to sleep in.

Anyway...they're super cool buckles. I'd love to have a buckle from the Leadville 100 but, personally, I don't find the course there to be all that inviting what with all the fire roads and all.
I have no clue what the other teams look like for next weekend but if it's anything like it was when I lived there....strong riders will be the majority. People out here usually give me a strange look when I talk about how hard core St. Louis is with regard to cycling. They just don't know. There are FAST people in St. Louis.

Picture doesn't show up so here'e the link:
http://mesacycles.blogspot.com/