Sunday, April 1, 2018

Tucson Bob

Interesting story, well to me anyway ha ha! I worked at General Dynamics way back in 1980 thru 1992. I didn't pick up a bicycle till 1990 'ish. A hybrid. This guy Tucson Bob worked at General Dynamics as well. He and another of his buddies asked me to tag along on a bike ride. Yorba Park to the beach and back, the 44 miler.

I went along with them. They were on road bikes and I was on the hybrid. Man, I had to pedal my butt off while they were cruising it seemed. It was a good workout but I survived. That was when I realized that a roadie was more of what I needed! :-P

GD closed down in 1992 and some of the main players went to Tucson with the company. Bob was an engineer and was offered a position in Tucson, new home for the company after selling to Hughes Missile Systems.

 So Easter Sunday I took Gina to a champagne brunch then stopped by Central Park in Rancho Cucamonga to see if there were any places to snap a few pics of Gina.

I went into the restroom for a pit stop. As I was washing my hands, this dude walked in wearing cycling duds. There is a trail right above the park so I figured maybe he was riding up there. His outfit made me think at first sight he may have been riding a recumbent.

So you know me, I always strike up a conversation about bikes. So I said, "Oh, a cyclist I see!". He looked at me and said yeah. I then said my wife and I have been riding for some time. Then he told me he had just left Santa Monica on Saturday heading to Chicago traveling the oh so popular Rt 66.

Then I looked at him and said he looked familiar. He looked at me and looked somewhat puzzled. Then I recognized him, did you work at GD? Then he really looked puzzled ha ha! What was that? 25 years ago?

He said yes then I said Bob! Yup! Then we chatted a bit more and reminisced about old times, old friends, coworkers and cycling.

Nice tour he's got going on there! I took a couple pics then he showed us to his rig. Pretty nice Seven with some fancy hubs and generators. He showed me his maps, spoke of his plans then he rode off into the sunset. Oh wait, he was heading East, not West. Sorry about that, the line just always sounds good ha ha!

We exchanged some info and he has a blog documenting his trip. maybe check it out if you get a chance! ;-)

 http://tucsonbob.blogspot.com/







The brunch!








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