With many of my friends, it's difficult for me to pin down the moment of our meeting. Whether it's because of time, sleep deprivation, massive booze consumption, the end result is the same: origins are as big of mysteries as destinations.
I think Kai and I met at the 2006 European Cycle Messenger Championships in Helsinki, Finland. But maybe not. Maybe I met him at the 2006 Swiss National 6 Day in Zurich. It doesn't really matter. What matters is when he came to NYC in 2007 for the European Chumpionship, he made himself a second home. Quite literally in fact, living on my couch for 3 months.
He loves riding his bike.
"So what?" asks the fictionalized amalgam of every messenger I know.
He loves it more than you do.
How can I quantify or qualify such a claim?
Easy. After taking the podium in every messenger race for the last two months in NYC, he's leaving on a 8 and half week, 5,000 mile solo tour from New York City to Panajachel, Guatemala. That's across half the US, most of Mexico, and a bunch of Guatemala. In the summer. And he doesn't speak a lick of pinche Spanish (maybe his native German will take him further than we expect). In short, he may be crazy.
So, last night we saw him off in fine style. A group dinner at the Long Island City Crab House. It's a pricey night out for a bunch of bike messengers (How many pitchers did you say we drank?) but well worth it.
)
Kai and Austin
)
Bret and Jason
Dan and Marco
We all wish him godspeed and good luck. We'll keep you posted on his progress as we hear about it.
No comments:
Post a Comment