Last night Bill, Kris and I rode the 35 miles over to Lawrence, on the River Road, to attend the much anticipated Sunflower Holiday Party. I didn’t have the best pre-race ride over, but maybe I got that out of my system. It was way colder down by the river than by my house, so we all froze a little.
The Sunflower party is a really great gathering of Northeastern Kansas outdoor enthusiasts. Dan Hughes, the owner and party mc, does a ton for cycling in the area. He and his crew at Sunflower have created an “old-time” outdoor shop. Bike shop plus camping, adventure, etc. It really is a destination. If you happen to be in the area, you should go through Lawrence and check it out. Plus, the rest of the city, it is unique for Kansas.
Right now, I’m just about ready to pack up the van, with all the equipment, and do the 350 mile drive to Jinglecross in Iowa City. There are 3 races there, 2 UCI C2’s and a C1 tomorrow. I think they have over 2000 entries for the entire weekend. Pretty great. The race tonight is at 8 pm and is “the hard” way up Mt. Krumpet. That means not on a bike. The run/slog will most likely cripple me for the rest of the weekend. It is rumored to be extremely muddy there, plus the forecasted temperature tonight is for the mid 30’s. I guess perfect for cross, other than racing in the dark, which I do enjoy.
Okay, a little behind schedule so I should just cut this short now. I’ll keep you updated with the weekend adventure.
Downtown Lawrence at night.
The front entrance of Sunflower.
I think there were close to 500 people there last night.
Downstairs is the bikes, upstairs other stuff.
A frisbee golf section.
And dog section. Gotta love a business with an entire selection of outdoor stuff for your dog.
Dan’s gravel bike.
He’s won the Dirty Kanza 4 times.
Any shop that has one of these, a Phil Wood spoke cutting machine, is a pretty good shop.
Jinglecross from 10 years ago. Jason McCartney, me and Shadd Smith. This was the 2nd year of the race. Shadd won the first year.
Have fun in Iowa. I miss Sunflower and Dan – great shop, great folks all around.
Steve, Always a great time at Sunflower Holiday Bash ! Lawrence, Kansas is indeed unique for Kansas as is Iowa City for Iowa. Sunflower Outdoors makes it all even better. Safe Travels, have fun and thanks for keeping us all toasted…I mean posted !
Good luck with Jingle Cross – great racing. I think they had over 2000 with the preregistered.
Come on, don’t be so PC. Just call it what it is- A CHRISTMAS PARTY! How many muslims live in Kansas anyway?
The shop actually calls it the Customer Appreciation Party.
Don’t know if you’re kidding or not, but in any event yours is a tasteless comment in response to an otherwise tasteful post.
@Euro: Don’t know if you’re kidding or not, but in any event yours is a tasteless comment in response to an otherwise tasteful post.
Yeah, I agree that’s a stupid comment about the shop party. Please leave your bigotry at home.
Steve, good luck at Jingle Cross and next time I’m passing through Kansas I’ll try to stop at Sunshine Outdoors. It looks like a nice store.
Meh
It’s not bigotry anymore when it’s a fundamental war between us vs. them. They want it, we’ll bring it.
Very True RGTR. The liberals just want to ignore it and make us look like bigots for expressing our hate for muslim terrorists. Too bad they will die right alongside us when Achmed and Abdul walk into another random office building and shoot the place up.
Well euro, we should all be ok cause you right wing nuts are all packin the heat right?
A Phil Wood spoke cutting tool is important if you build wheels, but no one does that anymore.
Wrong James. I will be looking out for my family. You and your tree hugger peacenik buddies are on your own.