A little background on who we are:
For several decades there has been a strong street-skating presence in Houston, TX. Multiple groups have formed with various levels of interest in fitness, recreation, comaraderie, and beer. There are presently at least half a dozen skating groups in Houston, including Inline Swine, Skate Hawks, Urban Animals, Roller Derby, and Skate Trash, as well as impromptu groups who get together on a few days' notice for bar skates, theme skates (Blonde Skate, Prom Skate, Luau Skate, Bra Skate) and a strong presence in the Houston Art Car Community.
I joined this skating community a few years ago after 20 years of skating on my own. Three years ago I took an amazing vacation to Germany with my family, and last year I went to Paris to skate the Paris Night Skate. I had for some time planned to combine the two and take a Zephyr tour to skate in Germany, and I even had a few friends interested in going with me. Then Zephyr's 2010 schedule came out, and the Mosel trip wasn't being offered! Well, my friends and I wept in our beers for an hour, and then decided to recreate the tour on our own. We quickly realized that, for the same cost as the more organized tour, we could add the Paris Friday Night Skate and a couple of days on the Rhine, as well! This less formal plan really appealed to us--there's a strong independent streak running through the Houston Skate Community, and we liked the idea of relying more on ourselves than on a tourguide and a sag van--even if it meant no one going on the trip spoke a word of German! Once the expanded itinerary was announced, more people became interested.
I still thought that when it came right down to it, I'd be going alone or close to it. But then people actually started plunking down money and committing to the trip! We're using a friend's travel agency to organize the hotels--some of which are the same as the Zephyr tour, several of which I've stayed in before, and at least one of which is a complete shot in the dark. Each promises ★★★ accommodations and private bathrooms for each room, and each has a restaurant with a reputation for great food. Except for the three days in Paris, all meals are included in the trip--hearty country breakfasts, packed lunches to take with us, and gourmet dinners where we'll repack on the calories we've burned by skating 30 miles a day!
The group includes 5 couples and 5 singles, 6 men and 9 women, 11 Houstonians, 2 Philadelphians, 1 (okay, what does one call a person from Montreal?), and a Dane currently living in Washington, DC. Interestingly, there's only one married person going on the trip, and she's going on her own! Some of us know each other very well, and some don't know another person on the trip other than their boyfriend / girlfriend. Some are strong skaters, some are going to really be pushing it to handle the miles, and 2 1/2 are doing the trip on bikes. [update: We've added one more person at the last minute, a woman named Blossom from somewhere in New York, I believe.]
We've got a great group of people going with us on our trip, and I look forward to you getting to know each of us a little better through the pre-trip portion of this blog.
Next up, I'll talk a little about what I hope to share with you on this blog, and then some details of the trip itself.
Until next time!
Steve
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What an incredible adventure with some of the coolest guys & gals in the world and many thanks to Steve for all his hard work & ideas in making this a dream come true!
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