i just wanted to add my welcome to the list.
One of my goals next year is to start a weekly ride for newbies, our club ride is too long, and too fast for beginners so they all quit after the first week.
I plan on riding my 16 year old Schwinn mtn bike that I bought used 6 years ago.
I have no time for bike snobbery. A person buys the best they can afford at the time.
I am sure if you start riding in groups the snobs will show up (most of the ones I have met have been male, imagine that) One kid (in his twenties) had the audacity to ask how much we paid for our bikes, I just replied " the most I could afford and I love my bike"
he replied his was "only $2000, his $6000 [such and such bike] was at home" I thought "whatever - go get a life, you are a little desperate if you feel the need to impress two 40+ year old ladies out on a pleasure ride"
I too had an inexpensive trunk rack that I picked up at a garage sale for $10, for short distances it worked well, I was pretty nervous taking the bikes on a 100 mile commute, we made it but I stopped and checked it alot.
Just be careful
wasn't it Pooks who said cycling is like crack - pretty soon you are cutting back on grocery money to buy that next pair of shorts because you just have to have a better chamois for the metric century you are doing that weekend.
Good luck and keep us posted
May the rain gods dry up in your neck of the woods and move on over here - we are in the middle of a drought
It's about the journey and being in the moment, not about the destination