The Am3ricana Project nears the finish line, although I’m beginning to think there may not be an actual finish line for this one. Just stop off points along the way to gather myself and see where I stand. Once you get into it you see it everywhere, opportunity. This image from the Sharon, Vermont horseshoe pits, weekly, summer-long tournament. jJst about perfect.

I am lucky enough to live smack in the middle of best bike riding anywhere - for half the year, anyway. So, I’ve been trying to share this with as many friends as possible, that was the impetus for the UV Epic rides. We just ran v3.0 and it was indeed epic. What no GPS data can tell you is that about 75% of the ride was on dirt roads, which add another couple dimensions to the experience - not mention a ton of flats. But with the help of general stores and a strategic PBR/Perky Jerky/whoopie pie stash, the ride was about as good as can be imagined. We’ll run another one next spring, so stay tuned.

Thanks to NCPS for turning these rolls around crazy fast. I’m almost there, one more piece of the project to go. May even head back to the track one more time, grab some things I think I missed the first go round. Though, I find that if I go and shoot something like this more than once I see it differently and not nearly as well.

Not related at all to this (somewhat) gratuitous close up of Willow, but I’m constantly reminded of the old adage of the squeaky wheel and the grease. In the ongoing saga of my personal project shooting local activities that inspire massive amounts of love and devotion - snowmobile drag racing was the first installment - I found myself down at the Canaan, NH Fairgrounds shooting local dirt track car racing last Friday night. A couple polite requests later and I was roaming the “pits” - a dirt parking lot beside the track. The drivers and their crews couldn’t have been nicer and all in all it was as edifying an experience as I’ve had shooting in a long time. Once the film gets processed and scanned the magic will ensue.

Even three-time TdF champs unpack their own suitcases. When I shot Contador in the wind tunnel a couple years back he and his brother Fran rolled into the parking lot in their rental car, Alberto pulled out his suitcase, and he pulled out some fresh team kit. No entourage, no airs. I had shot him two months earlier when he was winning the Vuelta and in his native Spain he’s nothing short of a rock star in his public profile. He couldn’t go anywhere without being mobbed for autographs and pictures. So to see him in the U.S., going nearly unrecognized, was a poignant contrast.

Watching the TdF it’s fun to see riders I know throwing everything at a stage win effort. On stage 19 I’m watching my man Daniel Oss (Liquigas), the Italian with the non-Italian name, just blitz the final few km trying to take an unlikely solo win. And onr thing you probably don’t know about Oss, and certainly won’t be told by any commentator, is that Oss loves the heavy metal. No kidding, I’ve seen him throw the RJD devil horns. He’s legit.

From a little while ago, almost forget when, pre-vacation anyway. I think this summer will be broken down into pre- and post-vacation, having the break was totally perfect. One of the great highlights, of the year, really, was getting a proper Italian shave. Straight razor, hand-mixed shave cream, tilted back in the chair, hot towel. The works. A small moment but a moment worth savoring.

After the chaos of my schedule from April through the end of June a two-week vacation to Italy with the chicas was just what the doctor ordered. Complete perfection, in fact. Got some incredible riding in, ate my weight in salami, and drank the bottom out of a couple wine casks. Didn’t take all that many photos, just couldn’t bring myself to drag out the camera and point and shoot. But what I did take I’ll post over the next couple days. As well, I’ll try to update some work-related shots I’ve been neglecting. This was the last shot I took in Italy yesterday, before the gnarly flight back home - hello 3 AM!

Summer’s normally pretty nuts, but, damn. I’ve been away from home 42 days since April 1st and the onslaught shows no signs of abating. Which is a totally good thing work-wise but an equally crappy thing family and fitness-wise. You just never know, two trips to Charlotte within a single week, my first ever trips to CLT. Then I smoked the rear wheel on my mountain bike, then it rained, and now I’m looking at more travel. Awesome. But the light at the end of the tunnel is a vaca to Italy in July. Seriously.

Always a big proponent of the happy accident, I love the side shots I get while on location. This gent was out mowing his lawn as we were shooting on his street, didn’t even seem to notice what we were doing. But I pretty much needed to get a shot of him in his lawn mowing glory. It’s been a bike-heavy spring/summer so far, which is a good thing, but seeing what I see other than in the two-wheeled realm makes me want to keep pushing to get these kind of people in images. On the less positive tip, my lingering knee injury (torn right medial meniscus) will keep me off the mountain bike until I get the thing scoped. Because I need two weeks to let the knee recover post-op the surgery would punch a big hole in the summer, making me think I won’t be able to get it done until the beginning of October. Goodbye ‘cross season?