[Groop] Sergio's upcoming Con appearances

[comics230 at cox.net]

a nice long hot shower with dual shower heads both using their massage settings

Nice...

John T

---- Tone <Tone at moon-shine.net> wrote: 
>             When Yodazone and M.E. told me Sergio would be at the
> Baltimore Comic Convention on September 8th and 9th I got excited, but
> maybe after I tell you guys what I did you will say I got over
> enthusiastic. :-)
>             Before I was informed of Sergio's upcoming appearance in
> Baltimore I had known there was a Rail-to-Trails bike-way starting in my
> city of York, PA and ending somewhere south of the Maryland border, and
> I had been thinking about doing a ride on it, but I just never looked
> into it. When I heard about Sergio's visit there in a couple of weeks
> though, that obviously gave me quite an incentive to do some more
> research.
>             I printed out a couple maps of the rail trails I found on
> the web, and typed out directions for the rest of the path to the
> Baltimore Convention Center by using Google Earth as a guide. The route
> seemed pretty straight forward, but it is 58 miles one-way and I have
> not been riding as much as I use to before ending my job as bike
> messenger in NYC back in December. I presumed I was a bit out of shape
> and did not know how long it would take to bike down to Baltimore, so I
> wanted to do a reconnaissance ride before the day of the convention to
> see how realistic it would be for me to bike down there.
>             Well, yesterday I did just that. In fact I did double the 58
> mile length because after getting to the convention center I biked back.
> Apart from finding out how practical it would be for me to ride down to
> the convention center, I also used the possibility of buying tickets in
> advance directly from the box office as an excuse to do the ride. Of
> course advanced tickets can be bought through Ticket Master, but they
> charge a fee of about $5.00, so I wanted to see if I could save a couple
> extra bucks. :-) Naturally with the luck of Groo on my side, when I got
> there I found out the convention center does not handle the sale of
> advance tickets for public events, but they do have a box office on site
> for the sale of any remaining tickets on the day of an event.
>             By the way, for those of you, who can not imagine what it is
> like to bike 116 miles, do not even bother! :-) I will tell you I left
> my place at 6:23am, and I arrived at the convention center in Baltimore
> shortly after 1pm, then I finally got back home right around 8:15pm. I
> figured out each way probably took me approximately seven hours with
> roughly a half-hour's worth of breaks included. If that was not rough
> enough though, 1/3rd of the time it was raining, another 1/3rd the time
> it was drizzling, and the rest of the time there was either spotty mist
> or dry clouds. How is that for more Groo luck? At least I have a cargo
> bike, so I was able to carry a bunch of extra rain gear and supplies.
> However, my big-assed cargo bike is a single-speed, so I had even more
> Groo luck when going up and down the hills in Maryland.
>             Yesterday by the time I got home, I was telling myself there
> was no way I would do a bike ride down to Baltimore and back in a day.
> Last night I was wet, my toes felt numb, my legs were like Jell-O, one
> of my knees hurt significantly, my thighs were aching, my butt felt
> bruised, my back & neck felt sore, and my palms felt beaten to a pulp
> from all the bumps in the road. While eating dinner I was telling my
> wife I thought it was more realistic for me to only ride the 58 miles to
> the convention, then have her drive down in our minivan to pick me up
> along with my bike and any/all of the Groo stuff I might want to buy.
> That way I could spend as much time as I wanted at the convention
> without worrying about what time I would be getting back home, then my
> wife and I could most likely go out to eat a nice meal somewhere in
> Baltimore or along the way back home.
>             Now it is 6:00pm the next day. I have had two good warm
> meals, a nice long hot shower with dual shower heads both using their
> massage settings, and a long pleasant night of sleep. On top of that my
> wife massaged my hands, arms, shoulders, and back, then I also used a
> heavy-duty vibrating heated massager on my thigh muscles. Right now my
> palms still feel a bit tender, my butt feels slightly bruised, my thighs
> still ache a bit, and that one knee only hurts a little. yet I find
> myself wondering whether wrapping some kind of padding on my handle bars
> and attaching my removable extra gel-padded seat cushion would make a
> big difference on my next trip to Baltimore. I even find myself asking
> whether the difference would enable me to do the complete 116 mile
> two-way ride. Does simply thinking about doing something foolish warrant
> the phrase, "Did I err?"  :-) I guess I will tell you if I go through
> with another attempt. ;)
>             Ride safe,
> _TONE_
>