Quote Originally Posted by skinimini View Post
TCTrek, I did the same ride today--45 miles on the Up the Creek Without a Pedal. This is the longest ride I've done since I started biking again about a year ago. It felt so good, despite the downpour about 3 miles from finish. Saw some really cool Thanksgiving-style turkeys (I think they weren't really impressed with bikers), saw a couple of really-big dead snakes in the middle of the road, and met some incredibly nice people. The dogs were well-behaved, as were the motorists in this part of GA. All in all, this was a really close-to-perfect ride for me. Lots of encouragement from experienced bikers, as well as from the community.
Wow! Small world! Well done on your first ride! We saw those turkeys too... there was a pure white one with his feathers all puffed up.

This same ride last year was my first "road" ride. Prior to it, I had only ridden on the Silver Comet Trail, Alpharetta Greenway, etc. I did 45 miles last year, too, but walked up 2 or 3 of the bigger hills. This year, I made it up all the hills on my own steam :-) I have a photo from that ride (I was not clipping in at that time). It's amazng how much progress you can make in a year, even when you are over 50!!