Camping, a little more camping, and a few bike races in between

I'm recently back from the Tour of Elk Grove, or I should say I was home and am already on the road again. This time it's a VW campout (Buses of the Corn) and the Buckwallow MTB O-Cup race.

ToEG was great, and I'm glad I extended the trip for a couple of nights of camping before the race as they were quite relaxing. Everything went well except for the problem I had with the interior electrical setup. I have that fixed now, cost me all of $5 in parts but a lot of time fussing and testing and then rewiring.

One of the highlights of ToEG was the GC win by Francois Parisien of the Spidertech team. In 2011 it was the Canadian women who lit up the race but this year it was the mens race. Here are a few photos, I put a bunch up on my Facebook page and a full gallery on my website.

The CyclingNews galleries are all here, while the one on PedalMag.com are here.

Parisien

The drive home was split up with a short visit to another Westy owner who lives in South Bend. Pete and I know each other through facebook activities but have never met. My third driveway campout. Here's a shot of the door to Pete's man-cave...

I love that coexist sticker

So that brings me up to Monday... Tuesday was sleeping in, a shower and laundry. Wednesday was a visit with my mom up in Midland (Babe got a rest as I took the Jetta) and then Thursday was fix-the-wiring day. David B from the Vanagon list was incredibly helpful and patient. I still have a little more testing I want to do but it's working great. I have been monitoring the voltage on both batteries carefully and after two days it's behaving as it should.

I removed the silver relay to the right (it's the original 30 year old one that controlled the fridge, etc)

I had intended to head to Buses of The Corn on Thursday but I ran out of time and energy. So I spent the evening getting organized for the weekend and getting a good sleep (I've been feeling tired all week, ToEG is a demanding event). So BOTC on Friday afternoon with a bunch of friends. Jerry brought some of his smoked cheese (this one has a balsamic wash... tasty!) and much drinking ensued. And of course there was a bonfire, it's not a Potts camp-out without a proper fire.

This is the same spot that I parked in 2010... the first time campout for us in Babe

The 2012 sticker is reflective

A bunch of us are talking about going to Burning Man 2013

I only got to stay the one night though, I packed up the camper early and headed up to pick up Andrea behore heading up to Gravenhurst to get ready for the Buckwallow MTB O-Cup race. We're now camped in Port Carling relaxing and listening to the sound of rain.

Buckwallow race course... it's been raining a little

Buckwallow is known to be a dusty and rocky course...