ALL 5-0 PHOTOS CAN BE SEEN HERE Road-worn and weary after the Dakota 5-0 blitzkrieg. Late night van-hustle return trip with stop in LuVerne for mean spread of burgers & brats from Team Walgrave was pretty cool, pretty neat. We didn't get home until close to 2 am, which makes for early mornings in the coffee biz. In case you were wondering, no, I did not get to ride the 5-0 as my ankle just would not cooperate. Pain threshholds were somewhat kept in check thru the assistance of budweiser, vicodin, ibuprofen, Organic Herb brownies, etc. But it has been over a week now, and the fucker still throbs. I've heard all the suggestions, exhortations, etc. to R.I.C.E. it, but working behind a bar makes that problematic at best. Watching the roll-out and subsequent climb up to the Tinton trail was cool from the back of Perry's quad-cycle. I got some good shots, but it was bittersweet knowing that these clowns would spend the next 5+ hours riding some sweet singletrack and I'd be doing nothing of the sort. You go thru all sorts of emotions with injury and right now, mine is somewhere between black cloud of despair and a thirst of Bukowskian proportions. After swearing off the nicotine for many weeks, I backslid tremendously into a permanent haze of black-lung overdose. Smoking is very glamorous, you know... Speaking of smoking, Hollywood passed Smokey Bear like he was standing still...