Oh, indeed, that’s the question right there.
Bicycle Week continues at El Rancho Pendejo with a long-distance peek at the National Bicycle Tourism Conference in my old hometown of San Antonio, Texas.
BRAIN’s Steve Frothingham, a very busy fellow indeed, is down on the scene and learning all about the bicycle tourism, including the Bourbon Country Burn, an event I might’ve leapt at a few years back when I was still a drinking man, assuming that any reputable publication’s editor would have been loopy enough to send a copper-bottomed tosspot to it in the vain hope of getting anything in return for the investment in time and treasure beyond a phone call from jail and a plea for lawyers, guns and money.
The BCB went from 200 participants to more than a thousand in three years, sez Steve to me, he sez. So they must be doing something right. (See “Which distilleries will I see,” above.)
The Adventure Cycling Association has boots on the ground, too, so look for a report in an upcoming edition of Adventure Cyclist.
Tags: Adventure Cycling Association, Adventure Cyclist, Bourbon Country Burn, National Bicycle Tourism Conference, Steve Frothingham
Mad Blog Media 
November 8, 2019 at 2:10 pm |
Speaking of lawyers, guns, and money, saw the Michigan Rattlers the other day, opening for Justin Townes Earl. And they did a mighty fine cover of that WZ classic. That’s a song that doesn’t get enough air play these days.
November 8, 2019 at 5:01 pm |
Lord, I miss WZ. I miss lots of people. I might miss these people less if some other people went missing.
November 8, 2019 at 2:59 pm |
Distillery run? That’s just wrong. Repeat after me, coffee, bikes, and beer, repeat as needed.
November 8, 2019 at 5:05 pm |
It actually sounds like a small-d democratic version of an elite outing that Scot Nicol of Ibis considered Back in the Day® — a single-malt, single-speed tour of the great Scottish distilleries. He was going to make the framesets (chromoly back then, painted in various hues of whisky, natch) and as I recall there was to be a special bottle that required a special cage, from King, I think.
I don’t believe he ever pulled it off, but it sure sounded like fun when he outlined to me at Interbike one year.
November 9, 2019 at 1:09 am |
Reminds me of a promo we tried to do a few years back. Inviting a journo from a (then) well known cycling magazine to join us and write a review. When the proposal included a specific request for “open bar” from the guy it was a red flag. I could imagine this clown guzzling down expensive bottles of Barolo…the guzzling itself would be bad enough but on our dime as well? “Sorry old chap, not with us!”
November 9, 2019 at 7:00 am |
Never provide an open bar for the working press. It’s like serving up blood bags to a cloud of mosquitoes. And once they’ve emptied the bags, they start in on you.
In fact, talking to the scribbling sonsabitches can be hazardous even for a fellow scribbler. Case in point: My man Hal is not happy with the way he and some of his fellow burro racers were depicted in Christopher McDougall’s latest book, “Running with Sherman,” which grew out of a series of columns McDougall wrote for The New York Times.
Or maybe the notion of the book came first, and the columns were just chum for the literary waters. “Heeeeere fishy fishy fishy. … got a delicious book proposal for you here. …”
I have no idea how the book business works from that end, though I watched Herself wrangle the other end as a bookseller Back in the Day®. It seems a screwy industry even by comparison to newspapers or magazines, and by “screwy” I mean someone is getting screwed.
November 9, 2019 at 8:10 am |
I remember another journo when we worked for someone else who seemed to hang around at dinner to help everyone finish their vino and then retire to a corner and polish off a few bottles on his own each evening. Dunno who was paying for those, but I can guess. As to the book biz, my wife’s been wrestling with some publishers recently and knows very well who they are trying to screw over!