Empire State AIDS Ride #5 gets on the road soon...

[MM_QFC!]

I'll be taking plenty o' pics and it'd be great to get a pic with Shellyj to share with y'all too...we'll see.
Trek, thanks for your supportive auto-signature - cool beans!
Tailwinds for all!
Mary

[maryellen]

Hey Mary, having done this ride in 2005, I share your amazement in discovering just how many hills/mountains there are in NYS. As Marty told us, there's no way to cross the Hudson without going over some serious hills.

[MM_QFC!]

Hey, Maryellen - sure wish you were doing it again this year and yeah, Marty's a real comedian; whenever I get flip with her (which is constantly), she tells me that she can easily make a special route detour just for me - thru the Adirondacks too!

[shadon]

and ShellyJ...I still get choked up when I think of:

The woman I saw nearly every day of ALC, standing somewhere along our route, holding up a sign that read "You are my hero".

The kids outside of Santa Cruz who had pipe cleaner flowers for us.

I hope you can get out there somewhere along the ride and cheer on the riders! I'm gonna send my Mom a note..I wish she and my Dad would get out somewhere along the ride and cheer them on!

Ride On!

[MM_QFC!]

Thanks, Sharon...I'll be carrying your good wishes and also, have lots of road angels to go along for the ride on my handlebars...especially, as I can always hear my brother whooping and hollerin' with me on the downhills and his loving encouragement in my ear on the long, hot climbs...
Mary

[short cut sally]

Mary, I hope you get to read this before the ride. From what it looks like, Monday will be the day. I was planning on Geneva but my DH thought that the Penfield one would be just as easy (besides- I can go to a bike shop on my way back if I go to Penfield ). SO, I am not sure which stop I will be at but it will be one of those. Probably the Penfield one...looking forward to meeting you..will your team members be riding together for the whole thing or will all of your fellow members go at their own pace? It has been blazing hot here, hopefully you will have a cooler weather week for your ride..Have a safe trip out..shelly

[MM_QFC!]

Hey Shelly - will look for you while pedaling sometime on Monday then...the Penfield stop is actually called Town Hall field and it looks like it's on route 286/Atlantic Ave; do you know the area? Great idea to stop at a LBS, if you get the chance; I would too!
Our PS Breakthrough Rider team actually has riders and volunteer crew from all over; we rode last year as the Puget Sound riders and were all from Washington state, but this year we're riding for the AIDS Research Institute at UC, San Francisco with it's more global approach to vaccine research and cutting edge programs, so we now have folks on our team from the Bay Area, and New York city area too.
We all leave camp each morning together - at about 8AM and don't get strung out on the road until later in the day, so you'll see groups of riders in all sorts of configurations - since we're all either enjoying re-connecting with returning riders, visiting on the road with longtime rider buddies or enjoying getting to know new rider friends!
It'll be great to meet you and I also am looking forward to seeing my cousin at our overnight stop later that day - fun!

Yes, I've been aware of the heatwave there and have been on enough AIDS rides in all sorts of weather and other conditions that I'll hope for the best, but work to enjoy whatever we get during ride week...

OK, time to get to work on packing those 2-gallon Ziplocs - just in case!
Mary