If I don’t watch myself, I might be able to call myself a bike rider soon. We actually rode 7 hours this weekend, and we’re going longer tomorrow. I’m excited and loving it.

I rode most of today with our friend, Mile (mee-lay), from Banja Luka. Mile is a friend of Michael and Marijana and subsequently a friend of ours. He’s an awesome young rider. He put it to me something special today, but I made it home in one piece and had an awesome time. 

Tomorrow, Ashley and I are going to try the tandem and make Mile chase us all around Istria. The plan is to do a hilly 120km-ish loop and maybe stop for coffee or something at our friend, Renzo’s place in Pazin. That’s the good stuff.

Even better? I’ll be done with the Tour of California after tomorrow morning. I’m so happy about that.

We had an awesome weekend with Michael and Marijana again…as always.

I’m ready for a relaxing, bike-focused week in Istria. It sounds perfect. The weather looks like it’ll cooperate as well. That’s a first. Ok, off to bed.

Ashley and I are hanging out at the awesome computer store, HG Spot, in Banja Luka, Bosnia right now. The weather is absolutely winter outside (we got about a foot of snow two days ago), so we’re keeping warm and playing on our computers.

Wait, did you say computer(s)? Why, yes I did. The old Dell is just getting a little too old for all this traveling and hustle and bustle. The Dell won’t be retired, no no, it’s still more than good enough for working at home, but now, we’ve got an AWESOME new netbook – the HP Mini-Note. I’m super excited about it and can’t wait to start working on it, but for right now, I’m still on the Dell and Ashley is playing on the new one. ha.

We’re headed back to Istria tomorrow. We’ve had a ton of fun here and have met some fantastic people. I can’t wait to get back when the weather is a wee bit more amenable to being outside. 

We keep talking and at least once a day we comment that it’s hard to believe that we’re in Bosnia. It’s just one of those things – when we list the places we want to go, Bosnia never ever came up. It just seemed inaccessible, not possible. I’m really happy to be here. Ashley is too. We’re really looking forward to coming back.

Speaking of can’t wait: I can’t wait to get back to bikin. Even Ashley is ready to go bikin. I don’t think she’s going to need any coaxing next week. 

Alright, back to work. California is keeping me quite busy. Only a few more days to go…

Ok, I’m really going to fall into a moment of absolute bike dorkness, but Gord Fraser, one of the winningest sprinters in American pro biking history wrote to PEZ about my ridiculous Tour of California Stage 1 report. I thought that was pretty cool. With that in mind, I feel bad about the drivel I’ve written (or haven’t written) over the past few days, but that’s just the way it goes. I had fun with that report…it only really came about though because of the dial-up internet. It took 10 minutes for each photo group to download, so I had nothing to do in the meantime except write silly words. So I did. I’m glad I did. It’s one of those few articles that I’m actually proud of. If it’s possible to be proud of bike racing writing. Ah well. Anyhow, Gord Fraser’s note:

Hey guys, 

I don’t think I’ve ever written to a website before, but I had to commend Mr. Gruber’s article of stage 1 at the Tour of California.  It had me laughing out loud (and much to the pain of my broken ribs!).  Hope there’s more to follow!

Morocco was fun. It really was. I love the country, love pretty much everything, even the lack of indoor heating. We left from Fes last week and flew back to Bergamo. We spent the night in Bergamo then started the journey across Italy.

This would be no typical journey across Italy to the Promised Land of Istria, no no, this one went through Rossano Veneto and the home of Wilier Bicycles, makers of this year’s World Champion’s bike. Cool stuff. I stopped by there, picked up the bajillion euro bike, met Ashley in Trieste, and just a little while later Michael and Marijana had us safely tucked away in the backseat and voila, just like that, back in Croatia.

We had yet another great weekend with gorgeous weather and good biking…and then…we packed right back up and made the four hour drive to Bosnia! Michael and Marijana invited us to Banja Luka for the week to see the town, travel down to Sarajevo, attend some really cool meetings (more on that in a little bit), and generally just see a great, new place.

Ashley says hi, Jered says that the Tour of California needs to end early, Ashley says hi again.

Yes, I know, where are the pictures. I have thousands on my computer if you want to come look.

We’ve been in Morocco for almost two days now. It’s wonderful. The town of Fes is probably the most unique place I’ve ever seen. It’s an insane labyrinth of tiny little winding streets filled to the brim with every type of store you can imagine and topped off with every type of person trying to get a little something from you. It’s quite the assault on the senses…I don’t mean that in a bad way at all. Fes just kind of rises up and smacks you across the face and says, Welcome!

The place where we’re staying (at…just kidding) is wonderful, quiet, friendly, has awesome food, can’t ask for much more. Pension Sekaya.

We’re heading out later today to a town just outside of the Rif Mountains, Chefchaouen…it’s called the Blue City. I’ll let you guess why. Yes, a lot of it is painted blue.

In other news, I’m colder here than I am in Innsbruck. It’s pretty mild – 50s or 60s during the day, but there’s no heating so the indoors are frosty to say the least. I can always see my breath inside. I’m getting used to it though.

Alright, just wanted to check in…lots more to talk about, but I’d rather go take some more pictures and go bike riding.

Speaking of which…the Paths of King Nikola has set up a training camp in Montenegro where you can stay for 12 euros a day for full room and board!!! Insane. We might try and get down there if it is at all possible.

k bye.