A fairly lengthy story but I'd planned on going to PBP in 2015. Marcia and I were going to go for about 6 weeks, tour around France, I was going to do PBP while she hung around in Paris then we were going to fly home. I registered for PBP, had hotels, bag drop support, etc.
At some point, she decided hanging around in Paris wasn't fun (she'd been there numerous times) so she decided to go. Plan B: fly to Paris, do PBP and fly home.
Plan B didn't sound like much fun so I cancelled.
Instead, I ordered a custom bike from a frame builder who I won't name. He promised (guaranteed) delivery in early August so the plan became: drive out to the West Coast, pick up the completed bike, do the Oregon 1000K, screw around in Seattle for a week or so then do the Seattle 1000K.
Long story short, the frame builder sent me an email about a month before we were going to leave. Oops! not going to deliver the bike, might be in October, maybe not.
[Rant] what's so hard about the word "deadline"? [/Rant]
I told the frame builder he could stuff his bike. To his credit, he refunded my money.
I cancelled out of the West Coast 1000K's.
As it turned out, the Oregon 1000K had 40+ MPH rain and torrential rain. Of the 4 starters nobody finished day one. The Washington 1000K had forest fires and did a last minute route change that was mostly along US 101.
Long story short: glad I didn't go.
As it turned out, PBP 2015 probably had the best weather they've had in years and I missed it :-(
So I'm off to PBP this year. A lot of people I know whose opinions I respect said I should do it at least once so I am.
The bike is ready:
The bike is packed:
