‘Parlez vous Francais’ was the language of the day on Sept. 18th in Oscar. ‘Tres’ bien’ cookie comments were heard over and over. Chris Janne and
her Tour de France theme was a giant hit with riders and curious Ballard Countians alike. The locals thought she was setting up a knock-off shirt shop early on. She could have sold all Randy’s jerseys probably for $10 a piece!!

But let me digress. The first item on my agenda that day was the drawing for the Lance signed book and poster. I want to thank all who bought
tickets including Jean Truitt. She really wanted the poster but the nature
 of raffles and lotteries is such that it just doesn’t usually work out the
way we want it to. I strongly suspect Michael Myrick had his heart set
on it too since just playing around afterwards I pulled his name three
 times out of ten! The Lance Armstrong Foundation was kind enough to donate those items to us and all proceeds go to benefit the COTA fund. Carson drew the lucky winner’s names (and I should have had her read them since I didn’t have my glasses on). The first winner was Emily
Loomis who works up in the LBL and always helps us during our rides and
is also a mountain biker. Chandler had already determined the first draw would be for the book. The second winner was Steve Wilson’s mom
Shirley, though it took me a minute to get the name right!! I had just told Steve, “If your Mama wins, that’s just as good as you winning!” I’ll have
to find out if I’m right about that. Thanks again and congratulations to the winners!! Don’t forget to buy tickets for the wheels which will be given away at the annual dinner. You can pick them up at Bikeworld.

My next job was to help Chris Janne with the Oscar rest stop. She had already transformed the old corner grocery into a crossroads in France. Sunflowers, posters, the Superman train and all kinds of great memorabilia made our stop a crowd pleaser. The homemade cookies were ooh-la-la!! I had barely arrived at Oscar though when a lost soul was dropped off by a pickup truck. Steve Wilson standing in the road totally discombobulated. Despite Alan Hook’s attempt to get Steve’s attention when he missed a turn, he missed it anyway and ended up somewhere he shouldn’t be. Fortunately, there aren’t alot of speed traps on the back roads and we
threw his bike in the car and flew to Hinkleville to catch the ‘nonstop’ century train. We made it before the train reached the station.

Back at the rest stop we sent our riders off with full tummies, feeling a
little better than when they arrived. Nurse Chris is a miracle worker!! And
 if we would have thought about it we would have had Kenny Roof set us up with a little French wine tasting and perhaps some nice baguette!! Mon Dieu, what were we thinking??