Tulip Pedal April 14

Hi, I am registered for the Tulip Pedal on Saturday, April 14, a charity event ride in La Conner, Washington. Will any TE members be there? There is a 20 mile ride and a 40 mile ride through the blooming tulip fields. I plan on biking the 40-mile route.

http://www.skagitems.com/tpedal_main.htm

I will be driving up from Oregon the day before and staying at a hotel in La Conner. My husband is an invalid, so I need to bring him with me, and I will leave him in the hotel suite to watch television while I am on the ride.

I haven't experimented with it yet, but I hope to take the wheels off my bike and put the bike in the trunk of the sedan, rather than put the bike rack on the sedan and have the bike get stolen when I stop for a meal.

If anybody wants to ride with me or meet up with me or just say hello, I will be the lady on the pink Pilot with the pink and white helmet.

Darcy

Wow, Darcy, that looks like a beautiful ride. I wish I were closer to be able to do it, but alas, I will have to pass it up. I hope you have a wonderful ride...I love the spring flowers...their blooming really ushers in spring. I have crocus blooming now and if our warm weather continues, I will have daffodils blooming very soon. I have early tulips getting ready to bloom also...

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Originally Posted by DarcyInOregon

Hi, I am registered for the Tulip Pedal on Saturday, April 14, a charity event ride in La Conner, Washington. Will any TE members be there? There is a 20 mile ride and a 40 mile ride through the blooming tulip fields. I plan on biking the 40-mile route.

http://www.skagitems.com/tpedal_main.htm

I will be driving up from Oregon the day before and staying at a hotel in La Conner. My husband is an invalid, so I need to bring him with me, and I will leave him in the hotel suite to watch television while I am on the ride.

I haven't experimented with it yet, but I hope to take the wheels off my bike and put the bike in the trunk of the sedan, rather than put the bike rack on the sedan and have the bike get stolen when I stop for a meal.

If anybody wants to ride with me or meet up with me or just say hello, I will be the lady on the pink Pilot with the pink and white helmet.

Darcy

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Lock your bike to t he Rack Darcy, then they can't steal it.

Hi Darcy,

You are going to LOVE this ride! Joe and I did it in 2004 . . . here are a few pictures from that ride:

2004 Tulip Pedal . . . Joe and me.

We may do it again this year. Our daughter wants to ride it. She has become quite the "addict" and loves road riding. She is looking through the 2007 Bike Tour Guide (which we picked up at this year's Bike Expo) and she is picking out rides she wants to do this year. And the Tulip Pedal is one of them. I told her we'll have to wait and see because her dad, my dh, is out of town the week before. But I think the chances of us doing it this year are pretty high. I will definitely look for a pink Pilot and a woman wearing a pink and white helmet if we do come up to ride in the Tulip Pedal!

Sue

I really want to do this ride, but I'm not sure if I'll have that weekend free. If I do, I will definitely contact you! I'd probably do the 40 mile.

I hope you will be able to make it too, knottedyet! And I hope dh gets back from his out of town trip early enough and rested so that we can ride it too. I'm keeping a positive outlook for this ride!

Mr. East Hill and I will be in Yuba City, for the Ride Around the Buttes!

Got to visit his mum...figured the ride was a bonus :D .

East Hill

Oh, wow. That looks like a gorgeous ride. I would want to do the 40, I think. I will be living in the Portland area by then so I'm off to mapquest it to see how far it is from me... ;)

It will be great if there are TE people on the ride.

I like the event rides. The Tulip Pedal is how I ride, meaning I stop to look at the flowers and appreciate the beauty that surrounds me. I do it on my daily rides because I ride on the farm roads, and there is always something beautiful to see. When I stop, I use the time to drink and munch a few bites and move my rear off the seat. Then back on the seat I go and pedal off down the road.

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Originally Posted by mimitabby

Lock your bike to t he Rack Darcy, then they can't steal it.

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Mimi, my TE friend Suzie got her bike stolen last year while it was locked to her vehicle rack. The thieves are brazen. I don't want to take a risk on getting my Pilot stolen. I love this bike too much, and it would be very expensive to replace.

Susan, I love those photos. I am bringing my compact camera, so I hope another cyclist will take a photo of me against the background of blooming tulips. You looked like you really had a wonderful day with lots of special memories.

Darcy

Duh, you're right Darcy, but you can get a pretty heavy lock to put on your car (that you would not want to carry on your bike)
Having said that, I wouldn't leave a nice bike unattended in a car rack either.

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Originally Posted by DarcyInOregon

Susan, I love those photos. I am bringing my compact camera, so I hope another cyclist will take a photo of me against the background of blooming tulips. You looked like you really had a wonderful day with lots of special memories.

Darcy

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I will definitely have a camera too! So if we go I will definitely keep my eyes peeled :D for your pink pilot and you and then we can get a picture together!

And like mimi said . . . Please keep your eyes on your beautiful bike! People can be so . . . grrrrrr you know what I mean!

Darcy, I would love to do this ride. I live about 25 miles away from tulip country, but I've never been during the blooming season because of traffic. This sounds like a fun way to get around that problem. I've already signed DH up for 2 other spring rides, so I'm sure he will think a third ride is pushing it, and I wouldn't want to do it alone. I would also be perfectly happy with a stop-and-smell-the-tulips pace with opportunities to snap photos:D

I did not register in advance... so no T-shirt unlesss I wanna buy one. (that's ok, I don't wear t-shirts much)

I'm planning to show up on the day of the ride and register then. I have a friend who is planning to ride it with her kiddo. If they do go, I'll ride the 20 with them. If I go alone I'll probably ride the 40.

Keep your eyes open for a gold bike and a rider in screaming yellow.

I think I'm going up for this, but probably only the 20 miles for me...unless my body happens to be feeling *really* good that day. ;)

Just so everyone is prepared, the weather forecast for the ride as of today is rain showers, with a high of 54 degrees and a low of 43 degrees.

If the forecast looks accurate on the morning of the ride, I will wear knickers under my winter tights and with rain pants as the top layer. On the top I will wear a thick long-sleeve jersey and the rain jacket. If the sky looks like it might rain, but maybe not for a few hours, I will have the rain pants rolled up into a tight wad and carry them in the back pocket of the rain jacket. I can always stop the bike, get off, and put on the rain pants if it starts to rain.

Darcy

I don't know if I will do the ride or not.

I'm wishy-washy.

I might be going too!

Leaving tomorrow around 7 AM. It's about a 2 hour drive to La Conner from my house so I guess we'll be there between 9 and 9:30. If you see me on my red 2200 trek shout out! I will be riding with my hubby on his blue 2200 trek and my daughter riding her blue specialized elite. I hope the sun pops out. I checked the weather and it says rain tonight but stopping tomorrow morning?! I hope so.

I'm not going. My LBS may have figured out how to created a low-gear compact double (48-32) for Flossie. Need to take her there, and need to save my $$ if I'm gonna try to get that compact double done.

I am leaving for La Conner within the hour and staying at a hotel in La Conner for two nights. I plan on riding early. It does appear on the latest weather forecast that rain isn't expected until the PM, so I will ride as early as possible because the PM can mean one minute after noon. I am leaving my invalid husband alone in the hotel suite, so if I ride early and get back, I will be gone while he is doing a lot of sleeping still and he won't miss me or need anything. I still plan on riding the 40 miles because I ride that distance quite a bit on my daily rides.

Darcy

Glad to see some others are heading out to this event. I'm going for the first time this year -- bringing my 11 year old, my 8 year old, and my 5 year old in the trailer. Needless to say we'll be doing the 20 mile ride. I'll also keep my eye out for the pink Pilot. And, yes, they're predicting rain :-(.

Meredith

It was an exceptional ride. I hope others will go next year.

My trip odometer said the miles I rode were 45, not 40.

The weather forecast said "hit or miss rain showers." Well, the rain showers all hit me. I was dressed appropriately, but most of the cylists on the longer route were not wearing warm clothing or rain gear. I just don't get it. The temp was in the mid-40s for most of my ride, with the rain pelting down, and I really don't understand how other cyclists can pedal while wet and cold.

The route was gorgeous, and went along tulip fields, along an ocean bay, over some hills, through some tiny farm towns, and through some more farmland.

I've been biking out in the winter weather so the rain and cold didn't bother me at all. I was biking alongside two younger men for part of the route, who were not dressed appropriately. They got real cold, and would stop when they saw a barn alongside the road, get off their bikes, shelter from the wind, and stomp on their feet. Later they would pass me a few times, when I was stopped at a busy intersection waiting to cross. I caught up to them a final time around mile 38, and we rode together for a mile, and then I dropped them on a long incline and never saw them again. I think the cold got to them and they couldn't bike the last few elevation changes.

One funny part of the ride was when my route joined with the 20-milers during the last 8 miles or so. I was doing a lot of hollering out "Bike left" as I passed around the family groups. There was a young man riding solo ahead of me, wearing street clothes on a 10-speed. He was passing the family groups too. He heard me hollering out behind him, and he started looking back at me. I wasn't going very fast because of the congestion of quite a few bikes in that area, maybe 12 mph. Well this guy kept looking back at me and he started pedaling faster and faster, and it looked to me like he didn't want the female on the pink bike to catch up with him. Well ok, since I wasn't even doing much of any speed, I thought what the heck, and I twitched my gear up a notch, flexed my thigh muscles a little bit, and in a few pedal strokes I was even with him. I felt like I was hardly moving, but this guy was pedaling furiously. I turned my face to him, said a cheery "Hi!", and then I flexed my thigh muscles a bit more and off I zoomed. That was a lot of fun.

I had one older lady in her 70s or 80s pass me towards the end of the ride. I was stopped at a busy road again, patiently waiting for a break in the traffic, and this lean fit older woman zips up, flicks a quick look to the left and right, and dashes across the busy road. I want to be just like her when I am that age, out riding my bike, zipping by the younger riders, and not moldering in a nursing home waiting for death.

Darcy

Darcy,

Wow, you did great! My daughter and I rode the Tulip Pedal on Saturday. We did the 20 mile route. My daughter has not been riding a lot this spring (me too) so we opted for the lesser mile route. I could not believe how wet we got. A semi truck zoomed by me and I got a good dousing of road spray from his wheels as he passed me. I forgot to wear anything on my ears so they were hurting really bad. But you're right the tulip fields were beautiful. I had my camera but did not stop to take any pictures this year because of the weather. I did get a picture though of my daughter and me after our ride next to our truck. Soaking wet but still smiling.

This has been one wet and chilly spring. Hopefully it will be nicer next year.

Still drying off . . . Sue

The Tulip Pedal was a great little ride this weekend. We were lucky coming from Port Townsend in the morning got us to LaConner just as the rain stopped. The first part of the trip was muddy, but about 30 minutes in my partner and I stripped down to shorts, long sleeve shirts and wind vests for the rest of the ride. It was actually sunny and warm most of the ride. We started around 10:30. We had read the weather report thinking we were going to get the worst of it, but were thankful for our schedule in the end. We saw many very wet riders as we pulled into town.
I have to say however that the best part of the tour was the bad map and directions that led us and a half dozen others on a side trip to Samish Island. That should be included in future tours. It really was our favorite part of the route.
The only complaint I have is that the 40 mile route only included two tulip fields. Had I realized that I would have taken more pictures, but I kept thinking that the "good stuff" you see online was still coming. I would have been disappointed if I had done the ride specifically for the tulips.
Still, a really nice ride.

hey Nicole, you're new, welcome to TE!

tell us about you and your Orange bike. Find the "let's get acquainted" thread in "new riders" and tell us all about you.

mimi

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Originally Posted by nicole309

I have to say however that the best part of the tour was the bad map and directions that led us and a half dozen others on a side trip to Samish Island. That should be included in future tours. It really was our favorite part of the route.

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Hi Nicole, I know the spot where you went the wrong way. I came to a halt there, and waited for some other cyclists to show up, and everyone made a consensus to turn right. Right before the bend in the road, there was a faded marker in the road pointing to the left. You must have turned left based on the faded marker from a prior ride. But if the detour worked well for you, then that is great.

It was an awesome ride. I had my camera with me but didn't take any photos because I didn't want to get my camera wet.

Glad to know others had fun. That area of Washington State is quite beautiful, and I encourage others to go on the 40-mile or 20-mile next year, even if it rains. Except my trip mileage said 45-miles, so I don't know why they call it a 40-mile route.

Darcy