Amgen Tour of California 2009

Yesterday I get a call at work... It's my mom, letting me know she's leaving work early to go to Old Town Clovis to see "Lance Armstrong" ride again! Of course I was jealous, so when I got off work at 2:45, I zipped over and got Jennah from Babysitter Carol's... and zoomed over to the "festivities." There was NO parking anywhere... it was estimated that they would ride through to the finish line in about 15-20 minutes... and then the Parking God blessed Jennah and me. We found a SPECTACULAR parking spot (thank you Vita Lady that was leaving her glorious parking spot at just the right time). We leaped out of the car and with Jennah gripping the tray of her stroller, we flew past zillions of people and got front row, where my parents had stood for hours to get (they were about 75 yards from the FINISH line). The excitement was awesome. Event workers were handing out yellow boxes of yellow sidewalk chalk. They let people onto the street to write on it and leave well wishes for the riders. I've never seen so many people dressed in yellow! It was so neat!!! Anyways, after about 40 minutes and lots of "how far are they now?" buzzing through the fans... motorcycles and leader cars started zooming past us at incredible speeds. They had warned us not to put our arm out into the road (past the blockades) because the bikes would be going very fast. But honestly... how fast could that be?!?! OH MY GOSH!!!... When the bikes came down the road (finally)... it was SOOO fast that the sidewalk chalk writings flew up in a dust cloud under their tires. You wanted to yell for them but started to cough out yellow dust immediatly following. It was thrilling to feel their wind on your face. Jennah was just in plain shock. She started shaking and just staring to see what others were doing. Her reaction summed it up. It was breath-taking, startling but AWESOME!!! So glad we went... got great parking and got to be so up close!!! I wish that I had a video to post... but unfortunately the Video Camera God was not upon us yesterday... these still and stollen internet pictures will just have to do :(
FYI:
The world's top cyclists compete in the 2009 Amgen Tour of California, a 750-mile race from Sacramento to Escondido. Among the racers to watch are seven-time Tour de France champ Lance Armstrong, who races for the first time in the U.S. since emerging from retirement, as well as Floyd Landis, who was stripped of his 2006 Tour de France title, and two-time defending race champ Levi Leipheimer.