5.29
Saturday

I checked out of my room in Bastonge and made my way to Houffalize.
I ran the dusty, technical course and got tons of shots around the town. Setting up, vendor tents, etc. Interviews with Todd in front of the GT tent, JHK on a little bridge overlooking the stream that flows behind the church, Filip who, for being the world champion, is always gracious, open and gives me all the time I could ask for. Even his camera-shy brother, David, eventually let me film him talking about Filip’s bike that he custom painted. Right next door to Filip’s trailer was Poala Pezzo’s RV and trailer. For those who don’t know, there has twice been mountain biking in the Olympics and twice Poala has won the gold. She has Mike Jordon-like status in Europe and a flair indicative of an italian diva. Her english is almost as bad as my Italian but I approached her anyway. After babbling on about the movie and how great it’s going to be her mechanic stepped up and started to translate for me. She said it was a good time so I set up the camera and started my interview. It was tough since I had to act interested in all her answers even tho I knew not a word she was saying. I also couldn’t play off her answers and lead them into other questions. I hope I can find a good interpreter.

Once I got back to the TREK ranch, which is 10k out of Houffalize in the rolling cow pastures I got my things settled in to my closet. I’m just happy there’s a bunk bed since there simply would not be enough room for a bed and my bags. I can stretch my arms and touch the walls on both sides. Since we’re right beside a pasture there’s lots of fly’s everywhere. The bathroom has a tub with hose to a showerhead. No curtain. Man, when will Europeans get clued into shower curtains???

That night I finally got to show Sue and Jeremiah the trailer and they seem stoked. I hope they realize a little more clearly what Ken and I are trying to do. It’s not easy getting them to believe in the project. Much like the sponsors we keep trying to get funding from. BTW- still no word and Kenny sent out over 40 pitch packages the other day. Someone has to be interested. I hope.

Tried again to get to sleep early. But remember what I said about the day before a big race?

This entry was posted on Monday, May 31st, 2004 at 3:50 pm and is filed under Journal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.