I see that the ebay auction by the LAF for two tickets to the Apprentice Finale on the 15th in NYC stands at $510 now. You also get to have breakfast with Adam, one of the contestants who was recently fired. There’s one bidding day left, so if you are an Apprentice fan (I must admit that I am hooked on it this year), you can find it on ebay by clicking on the Link at the bottom of this post. I’m surprised that they haven’t had Lance on there as an unannounced guest in some way!

Since the cycling scene is still pretty lackluster, I dug back again into my 2003 reports:

July 25, 2003

A couple of days ago I said, "Robin, where are you?" Well, today I ran right into Robin Williams at the entrance to the Village. He was with Jeff Garvey, of the LAF, and some other guys. We did the usual huggy-kiss thing and he quietly headed into the Village area. That quiet lasted about two minutes, and he was spotted. Of course pandemonium broke loose and he suddenly had an entourage of about 30-40 press and fan folk following him around. Robin is so nice to people - he stops and talks with regular people, signs autographs, and poses for pictures.

Robin was like the Pied Piper of Comedy, and a huge crowd followed him over to see Lance at the team bus. He was in there a long time, and I heard later that he had them in stitches, laughing the whole time. I guess he became Directeur Sportif and gave the team outrageous, hilarious pre-race instructions that would have had them all in trouble. What a great way to warm up for a race, roaring with laughter from Robin's zany humor.

I also had a good laugh later this evening during dinner. I went into a place called Pizza Pai - (yes, Pai with those two dots over the ii) and the hostess came over to speak English with me. And I had thought I was doing just fine with my pitiful, yet persistent attempts to speak French menu-ese.

The hostess, Marina, told me that she had spent a year in Michigan at school - she came to the US without knowing any English at all. She said everyone was so nice and helpful to her and that she misses the US. We started talking about how we use such different words to describe things in our two countries.

She started laughing and told me how she had gone into some huge store in Michigan, and embarrassed about her poor English, had asked where the Toilettes were. The clerk gave her directions, and she hurried over there. She said she had to go really bad, and almost died when she realized the clerk had sent her to the area in the store where the toilets and bathroom fixtures were for sale! Her first major lesson in the US! She was told in the future to ask for the Restroom or, as she said with her French accent, "To powder my nose." In France, one asks for the Toilettes, and they are most often unisex.

Today was a long driving day - tomorrow will be worse. After the major Time Trial ends in Nantes, I will go all the way to Paris for the next two nights. So tomorrow's report may be very late and very short! Go Lance - fly like an eagle tomorrow!!