I went to Interbike East and all I got was a hole in my arm..

And a tetanus shot, a weird rash, bruised ribs and a hangover. That's the long story short. Below are a few pics of the event including man about town Noah Jacobs, the Santa Cruz tent, a really yellow Schwinn Madison and some nice GT 'cross bikes.

I planned on taking a bunch of pictures of the bikes I test rode (Santa Cruz Stigmata, Haro 650b etc.) but the trip to the walk in clinic took precedence. I'm not a douche(at least I don't think so) so I have no qualms stating that I do not crash all that often. When I do it's usually a problem. Someone else also had a problem on Tuesday and they took it out on the poor decrepit chain link fence that lined the sandy trail cut by IBike staff. After walking the trail on Wednesday I realized that whoever hit it prior to me hit it pretty damn hard. From what I can discern I hit the now exposed fence post and was ejected from my On One at mach 3 to my left side. This placed me in the vicinity of the ground, and it's rash producing cover, in around 1 second. It hurt and I did not like, no sir, not at all. But being the moron I am I got up, ran up the steep hillside, and jumped on my bike and rode back toward the expo area. By the time I ran into Frate, Lynn, Mike and Noah my left hand was covered in blood, but it really didn't look so bad. I figured I was OK since I wasn't carted off in an ambulance, right?

Cut to the walk in clinic where the good doctor has his tweezers 2 inches deep in my forearm and, yeah, it's looking bad, or at least not promising. Thank you inventor of Lidocaine! I also learned that I had either bruised a rib, or two, and/or really strained my left pec muscle (yes, I do have those). A few rides later I can say with certainty it's a case of bruised ribs. I can ride just fine thanks, it's just those top end, I feel like I might puke/poop myself type of efforts that make breathing painful. Hence no Beer Cross for me today. 2.5 hours of Arcadia trail, Mt Tom and some others I don't know the names of eased my suffering. Lincoln Woods helped yesterday as well. The weather was just too damn nice to waste it paying someone else to ride around their fields like a fool, all while dodging folks who take themselves too seriously anyway. It does finally feel more like 'cross season though, Thursday's road ride was chilly! Time to break out some cheap-o toe covers for sure.

So, the pics of IBE aren't that exciting but you get the idea; lots of bikes, bike dorks and bike riding to go around. It was a really good time and hopefully Providence will host it again in the future. There's a few random shots of a small water hole/kettle pond in Arcadia as well.