BIKEMONKEY

When I heard that the A Team was being made into a movie, due out in theaters in July of this year, it got me thinking about how popular tv show series, especially those that run for many years, are, in a bizarre, parallel way, similar to the annual action that takes place on West County roads during the Grasshopper Adventure Series. In its 12th season, the Grasshopper has grown in stature and popularity, all the while maintaining many of the same solid cycling characters who act out similar plot lines each year that never seem to get boring. Some characters fade, never to be seen again. Others resurface, thought to have been “written off” or killed in some strange accident, stronger than in years past. Iconic TV shows like Hogan’s Heroes, MASH, Dukes of Hazard, Cheers,The Jeffersons, The Odd Couple ran for years, only getting better with time. The cycling drama that has unfolded on West County roads for the past eleven years has also only gotten better with time even though the basic scripts have remained the same, as well as many of the major actors. To honor these shows and the practice of remakes, for better or for worse, I decided to republish a personal piece about the Cazadero Grasshopper that was in our second issue of Bike Monkey. My hope is that it might, with a few new photos thrown in, get people excited for the Grasshopper’s twelfth season.

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In 1776 the Spanish Catholics of the Franciscan Order built the Mission of San Juan Capistrano, most famously known for the cliff swallows that leave their winter homes in Goya, Argentina, and make the 6, 000 mile trip to Orange County, CA to nest and spend the summer. This migratory pattern has been happening for centuries. The mission also holds the distinction for housing the oldest continually used building, a chapel that was built in 1782. It could be said that a migratory movement of a new kind, one founded by monks of a different order, is quickly approaching its yearly arrival as it has for over a decade.

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Why spend all of new years evening refreshing Bike Monkey’s website so you can just inevitably get frustrated and crash the servers again?  Relax…  Go enjoy your friends.  We’re postponing registration until SUNDAY afternoon.

Happy New Year everybody.  See you at our new Boggs website in a couple days…  http://boggs.BikeMonkey.net