En Route

A few shots I took on the way to and from what was supposed to be the Post Modern Pentathlon (but wasn't, that's a separate post I think).

The Spain/Yacht tags on one of the Abernathy buildings in the West Bottoms, I happened to realize as I pedaled along that the 105mm lens would be just the thing to get that. It's way up on the fire escapes.

Then I spotted this gorgeous woman being photographed on the 12th Street Bridge. So I had to take a shot. Her photographer (who I think might also have been her boyfriend) returned fire.

I didn't totally nail the focus on this shot of another beautiful model I spotted on the way home. But I still felt like the shot was fun enough to share.

And finally, there was this lesson in don't procrastinate. There was some beautiful art on this wall and I meant to shoot it but every time I passed it I was on the way to work and I kept meaning to get it on the way home and forgetting to detour (my return route is just a little different on my commute). Then Meatman came along and tagged up in a most rude and disgusting way.

This isn't cute, it isn't funny and it isn't art. This is what it would look like if Donald Trump tried to be a writer. If Meatman wants to identify himself and meet me in person, I'm perfectly willing to beat him in the head with a U-Lock until he can only make vowel sounds and piss the bed. That's not a threat, but it is a valid offer, you useless piece of shit.

The Post Modern Pentathlon is Nigh

So my event is coming right up. Well, my friend Dustin from Midwest Cyclery helped, as did my wife. Back when it was just an idea, it seemed brilliant and incredibly easy, like just having the idea was it.

Midwest, Family Bicycles and Velo+ have all contributed prizes, big time. And MAPS coffee is contributing five gallons of cold brew coffee so we can all get jittery at the start.

Trashboat Regatta VII

I wasn't going to float the Regatta this year. What with planning the Post Modern Pentathlon, extra hours at work because it's an election year, building a boat just didn't seem to be in the cards. Plus, I did it last year so I reasoned it was Corinna's turn, I'd hang with Mo and take pictures. I'd arranged for the following weekend to be my bachelor weekend on account of aforementioned Pentathlon.

So then Corinna dug out the hot tub lid that has been down the river so many times now (it wasn't part of H.M.S. Charlie Foxtrot last year, but it was part of Safety Third, H.M.S. Detour, H.M.S. Road Closed, and the unnamed first boat we went down that was the trashboat analog to those massive cargo ships that made them build a new Panama Canal.

Corinna hauled the boat to Kaw Point with her bike, and me and Mo went there by car, floated the river and Corinna picked us up after. A team effort, she wasn't feeling up to the float, I wasn't feeling like towing a barge with my bike, and Mo was definitely keen on floating the river.

Mo answers no to pretty much every option we give her for activities. Going to the movies, getting a Sprite, these are exceptions to the rule, but generally she's a No Nelly across the board except for watching YouTube on her tablet. So imagine my surprise when we were tucking her in on Saturday and asked if she wanted to float the Trashboat Regatta. She'd done so two years ago, and it must have been a positive experience because she answered with a resounding 'Oh yay yay!' At that point, I couldn't not go.

So go we did. I bought a half a case of Sprite to go with a few PBRs in the cooler on board ship and off we went. Well, everyone left all of a sudden, even before Michelle said go, and we scrambled down and got in the water to demonstrate the power of Slow.

This is not the first time the trashboat I'm on has been DFL, not the first time it's been the slowest craft on the water. I don't know why, it seems like we're all on the same current but the rest of the boats just drop me like a bad habit.

I guess I'm extra glad the route got reset to Kaw Point to the park right past Pile of Debris Casino. Michelle had, for entirely sensible reasons, planned to have us put in on the Kaw at 7th Street and pull out at Kaw Point. Sensible, for sure, but compared to the Missouri, the Kansas River speaks in quarter inches. And given how slow I seem to float on the fast, dredged Missouri, I might still be 100 yards downstream from 7th Street if that launch hadn't been, in Michelle's words, locked up tighter than the Seventh Seal.

There are definitely dangers to the Missouri. You want to keep between the bridge supports, getting pinned against one of those is a Mistake. And getting over to the edge for the pull out, you need to plan ahead on that shit. But other than that, it's relatively tame for the stretch we float. And there are two jet boats full of firefighters just dying for something interesting to do like save your ass.

Friends on bikes followed us down the river as usual. And as usual, I had to call out to them, where is your boat? You can't be too broke to float the Trashboat Regatta, the rules say you can't spend over $100 and most of us are way, way under budget.

Lots of stuff people throw away is perfectly buoyant. And just ask my kiddo, there's not much more fun things to do of a Sunday afternoon than to float on some trash down the Muddy Mo.

Michelle did promise that the trophies would 'blow.' But I like mine. I liked mine last year, too, it's proudly displayed on my desk at work. This year's has the bonus that it included a bottle of Two Buck Chuck cab sauv. I'm not a big wine drinker, but when I do drink wine I like big, dry reds and this is one of those.

Tomato Tasting

It takes a lot to get me out of bed in single digit numbers of a Saturday. The chance to ride my bike 100 miles, to shoot a dozen models in a day, or apparently a tomato tasting.

The whole thing was fantastic as usual, and the BLT I had from Pigwich was one of the best things I've ever eaten.

I kept the 105 on my camera the whole time, it's an interesting lens to shoot with. One problem with street photography is when people get camera aware. The 105 makes me get far enough away a lot of times that people don't know they're being shot. Not always, if I go for a really tight close up shot, I'm still close enough to get noticed. But in a lot of situations, it gives enough breathing room that the subject will not notice me and fuck up the shot

They keep making this event bigger, and I guess next year they're talking about involving Knuckleheads' across the street from Local Pig and expanding things further. Fine by me, I have fun just tasting dozens of varieties with other heirloom nerds, but the bigger it gets the more fun I seem to have.

It's weird how many places I go like this and I have these groups of friends that sometimes overlap. Friends from one hobby or my job who show up at other hobbies or my job or something. I don't necessarily feel like I know all that many people, but sometimes I'm given evidence that yeah, I do.

But as far as shooting beautiful and interesting people, it was a target rich environment as far as that goes.