You Wouldn't Believe

I started out for an 8:45 AM flight from Philly to Phoenix. I ended up on a 6:15 flight. I suppose the gory details of US Air incompetence are not really important. What is important is that I spent an entire beautiful day at the airport, arrived in Phoenix to late to give the speech I was engaged to give and, obviously, too late to spend a leisurely day riding.

But there were some moments of note. So I'm sitting in the airport waiting area and a guy walks up to me and says:"Excuse me, but you look very familiar. I'm sure I know you." So I ask him who he thinks I am and, imagine how floored I am when he asks, "do you have something to do with bicycles"? Thinking that perhaps he is an avid blog reader, I tell him that I do ride but, modestly, that I'm certainly not famous. He asks whether I'm a frame maker. Turns out he knows nothing of this blog (let's keep it that way) but really did just think I looked like some frame maker. But we talked and, in fact, were seated next to one another when we finally got a flight out. He's an avid rider, a member of the Philadelphia Bike Club and a all around nice guy. He was reading "Cycling over 50" and I was reading David Shields'"The Tour." Not only that but a Rabbinic colleague whom I met at the airport for the first time and with whom I spent most of the day as we were both heading to the same place, also turned out to have a cycling background and filled me in on her post-collage trip across country. Quite a community we have at that.

Finally, the good news is that I reached Phoenix and more miraculously, so did my luggage including the Citizen bike. Tomorrow is for riding.