Across the border

So I'm up at Chrissy's house in BC for a few days. Crossing the border was a nice feeling. It's not quite the same as exiting an airplane that's just flown over an ocean, though. Still, this isn't the States and there are a lot of reasons why that makes me very happy. What I have noticed here is that there is a lot of UK influence around. Canada still maintains a noticeably strong tie to the Empire, which for me is somewhat of a double edged sword. There seem to be a lot of "British" pubs in downtown Victoria, but I'm not sure how many of them serve English beer.

I rode my first BC trails yesterday. I have to say that it's an awful lot like Colorado, except for the enormous drops and big jumps that are scattered among the trail system. As Judd put it, "Cross country trails here are like downhill trails everywhere else." He's not far off. He and Chrissy took it easy on me though. Once again I've managed to get myself into quite a fix hanging around with two pro riders, one of whom is a pro downhiller. Still, they've been coaching me to try some new things, including my foray into the foam pit tonight. I don't know if I'll ever be able to hit big dirt jumps, but maybe this will help me with some small stuff.

Last week at the Trek HQ was extremely busy. We were on the go all the time, and had no personal time, unless you count the 10 minutes before we went to bed. A few of my days started at 4:30am and lasted until nearly midnight. I'm having a hard time catching up on sleep. There were a couple of high points during the week though. One was seeing Bob Roll and hanging out with him some, and the other was meeting the folks from Trek UK. I've put a bug into as many ears as possible on their side to let them know that I would like to come and work on that side of the pond. I've gotten a lot of support from my boss here. I think she can tell how much I'd like to be there, and truth be told I have really enjoyed working for Trek. It's a relationship that I don't want to end simply because I'd feel happier living somewhere else. I'm hoping to leverage the two things.

Speaking of living somewhere else...before last year I spent the better part of four years trying to move to Colorado. Now I'm there (sort of) and I still feel the urge to return to the UK. I'm not sure what you people did to me while I was there, but something must have been in the Kool-Aid! I dunno, maybe the grass is always greener on the other side. In this case it certainly is, metaphorically and literally.

Bring on the end of October!