Our club was proud to represent strongly at the First Midwest Open Bike Polo Tournament, held November 13-14, 2010 in Lexington, Kentucky. With 12 poloists and a small army of mechanics, trainers, medical staff and cosmetic technicians from the B-pool at the world-reknowned Aveda Institute, our four teams arrived in Lexington beginning Thursday late at night.

I drove with Ramon and Wade, pulling the first long stretch to Dubuque, Iowa before turning over the keys to Wade. We hit the road a bit later than Greta, Dustin and Landon, but managed to catch up to them in Indianapolis for a quick rest with our Indy friends.

After a few more hours on the road, we made it to Lexington and navigated to our lodgings. Upon arriving at the hotel, we began to break the rules almost immediately with 6 people in the room and a pile of bikes outside.

Friday morning we were able to sleep in, and as we were getting going, the remaining two teams arrived looking haggard from their overnight journey.

Some of us headed to the courts and the rest remained at the hotel. We talked to Nick and Grant about food and most of us headed down to a great breakfast spot with a silly name: Doodles. Cheese grits, get some!

After that, Landon, Greta, Wade and I cruised around Lexington checking out old stuff and nature. We visited the bike shop Pedal Power and got some pizza at one of two hippy-ish establishments we would visit over the weekend, Magic Mushroom. This is where we met Sharly.
[flickr-gallery mode=”tag” tags=”mobpt,tourist” tag_mode=”all”]
After dark, we went back to the courts and played some pickup, then headed over to the Sidecar to pre-register and get some beverages. In addition to being the coolest tiny bar I’ve been in, they had a decent beer selection and cheap beans and rice. We ran into lots of polo friends old and new. After we had dispensed with pleasantries and adjusted to our surroundings, we derbied the DIY bike shop that was about to open in the back. The shop is called Broken Spoke and they’re doing cool stuff, sorry we had to go and smash into stuff.

As we were leaving, it was announced that Al’s, the bar next door, was having a two-for-one whiskey shot special. When in Kentucky…. So much for getting to bed early.

Be sure to continue on to Part Two: The Tournament Begins.