Covered Bridge Ride.....BRUTAL!!
Cindy and Kerry.....I am soooo disappointed I wasn't able to meet up with you guys. Once we got up on the mountain where my brother-n-law lives I lost service on my cell phone. I thought maybe once we got to the park Sunday morning I might have service then. No such luck. :( I actually just received Cindy's voicemail today when we got back into Mechanicsburg.
As far as the ride.......MAN THOSE HILLS WERE BRUTAL!! Texas hills are not near that steep or don't go on forever like they do here. My DH and I both did the 33. He was going to do the 63 but decided to stay with me. I was really glad he did since my bike decided not to go into the lowest gear on a couple of the hills. We would pull off the road and my DH would manually have to move the chain to the lowest gear for me just so I could make it up the hill. It was insane. The ride itsself was really breathtaking and I loved the covered bridges. I thought it was great that they had someone taking pictures as you came through some of the bridges. I can't wait to see those.
Although the ride was really nice, my DH and I were really disappointed in the organizing off this ride. We really felt let down. First of all we registered when we got there and then were told we didn't get a t-shirt unless we had pre-registered. Needless to say that upset us because nowhere on the website did it mention that. Then they didn't have bib numbers or maps for the riders which was very unusal. Also there was no official start. You just got on your bike and went whenever you were ready. Anyone could have entered that ride without paying and the organizers would have never known any different. We paid $50 to ride and have nothing to show for it. I have a scrapbook where I keep all our information of our rides, along with the bib numbers and maps. This is one ride that we'll just have to wait for the photo. Of course, other things that were really wrong with this ride was the fact that the roads were not clearly marked. We and about 20/25 other cyclist took the wrong path 2 different times and had to find our way back. It was unreal. Our ride turned out to be 38 miles instead of 33. Then as far as we could tell there was absolutely no sag support or medical anywhere to be found. Not one time did they pass us on our ride. We were told after the race, by the organizers, that they were there but we never saw even one on our route. Luckily we never needed them, but we did see others who did. Did either of you ever come across any sag support?
I know it sounds like it was a terrible experience, but all in all we did enjoy it. Even though it was freezing that morning it didn't take me but about 10 minutes into the ride to ditch my jacket. Those hills really made you work up a sweat. Cindy, you said on your voicemail that it was around 1:30 and you had finished the ride and were getting ready to leave. I believe we finally left the park around 12:15. When we realized there was not an official start we jumped on our bikes and went, which was around 8:30. So we may have finished sooner due to that. We didn't stick around for lunch afterwards either. We had family waiting on us so we didn't want to spend too much time at the park.
Anyway, again I'm really disappointed I didn't get a chance to meet either of you at the ride. I can't wait to hear how y'alls ride went though. Please post pictures if you have them. Maybe we can figure out a time where we could meet and ride while I'm in PA. We will be here through the 30th before heading back to Texas.