back to reality

man...i have absolutely no idea how to sum up the past few days. it was difficult to know what to expect when you take a decent size group of really good friends, completely separated from for 10 years give or take, then throw them back together in a couple hotel rooms with a casino and a bunch of bars. it was a riot. its amazing how quickly you can get past or just skip the 10 years worth of catching up and just be back to hanging out. christ, i don't think most of us have ever even drank legally in davenport together. the entire weekend was a complete success...no one ended up in jail or the hospital. thursday night brought a good gravel ride before leaving decorah then a few beers in d-port, friday brought a solid solo ride at sunderbruch followed by whitey's, happy joe's, a tour through the village of east davenport bars, then downtown for a few more bars that included a seemingly never ending string of shots. highlight of friday night might be the street food vendors...or waking up with the floor of the hotel room covered in taco pizza toppings. saturday brought 11a.m. breakfast skillets at village inn, a very nostalgic trip to lindsay park and officially getting the entire gang back together. everybody met up for some beers, single malts and templeton in the hotel room before collectively heading over to the boat and teaching me how to play craps. quick grab a shuttle to a river bandits game for our bobble heads and a chance meeting with a young gentleman who closely resembles the comic book guy from the simpsons. back to the hotel for a drink before making our way to a restaurant far too classy for our group, but we were given a private room that resembled bruce wayne's library so we were fine. $450 later (a dinner bill quietly picked up by the chiropractor in the group) we were headed to a bar for a couple shots and some red bull before returning to the casino. little did we know that we were going to be treated to the most righteous death metal band to ever come out of bettendorf, iowa. holy god it was awful. pound our beers and head back to the casino. a few hours at the craps table with some of my best friends was perfect. iowa law dictated we had to stop drinking so we unleashed an all-out 2a.m. assault on the infamous magic mountains of ross's 24 hour diner. there was not a sober person in this diner and most cannot finish one of these heaping piles of french fries, meat and processed cheese. impressive was watching one in our group finish his in seemingly record time while a second ate the equivalent of 2 magic mountains while repeatedly passing out between bites and having to be woken up to continue eating. eventually pulled ourselves out of our cave and said our good byes on sunday with promises of not waiting another ten years to do this again. maybe a 2010 gathering in chicago? sunday also found time to meet up with adam and his brother in-law dan for a couple hours of trails. awesome to ride with them. and now...back to reality.