October 27 rides, Saturday

[mimitabby]

Silly - I wasn't at the front - I was somewhere in the middle - but it wasn't that kind of ride anyway. It was our "meet the team" ride, so we were keeping it social and we split up into groups to make it more managable. We had a pretty good turn out of 20 or so and we had a nice day for it. Just the south loop + Mercer the long way. The fog was lifting, by the time we left, but I forgot to turn off my blinky light (I did not want to be rear-ended on my way down - it was that thick! up here at least)..... sorry to anyone who was feeling a seizure coming on!

Eden, what about the gals we saw 10 minutes later on the road, they were way way far behind!! you were definitely in the second group, but there were a lot more BEHIND you than in front of you (I'm only saying) So did you see us?

[Susan126]

That is the amazing thing about living in the Seattle area . . . the fog! One place it can be sunny as all heck and you drive 5 miles (or down a hill) and you are suddenly in whiteoutville! Same here yesterday. We woke up to sunshine and clear blue skies! I yelled to Joe, "Hey it is beautiful outside let's go for a ride!" So we decided to do a mountain bike ride. We packed up the bikes and our stuff into the truck left our house and went down the hill from Bonney Lake into Sumner and we were hit by a solid wall of fog. Keeping our hopes up we continued into Puyallup. Still fog, then we hopped onto I5 and it started clearing. We reached the Tacoma Dome a bit foggy but thinning. Crossed over the Tacoma Narrows Bridge and BLUE skies again. We reached Port Orchard and Banner Forest and had the best ride! It was so warm and sunny. We said we should have gone for a road ride. And looking outside my window today it looks like it's going to be another nice day. So today it's a road ride day!

[Eden]

Eden, what about the gals we saw 10 minutes later on the road, they were way way far behind!! you were definitely in the second group, but there were a lot more BEHIND you than in front of you (I'm only saying) So did you see us?

I did - I didn't recognize Raleighdon, but you are unmistakable on the orange bike - I even yelled Hi Mimi, but you were probably gone by then -
Our 16 y/o team member asked me if I knew you and then asked why you weren't riding with us

[BarbaraAlys]

BarbaraAlys here, new to the site, but thought I'd tell you all about my ride on Saturday.

There was an organized ride, Fort Worth Fresh Air ride, to increase cycling awareness in Fort Worth. It was a free ride, planned as an approx 11 mile ride that was for community, not racing. The ride organizers apparently thought that the year before the riders had become too spread out along the route, so this year there was a pace car at the front and a sweep car at the back. When ever the back car felt the riders were too spread they could call ahead to the pace car and have them slow down. This resulted in 300 people averaging around 8mph along the city streets, almost always bunched up as thickly as the start of a ride!...lol. It was fun, but about halfway through I thought "man, after this I need to go for a bike ride!".

It was a beautiful day, cool weather and lots of sun. The ride I took after the rally added an additional 13 miles to day day, most of that with a head wind, so I did get a good work out after all.

The best thing about the day was I got a friend to do her first organized ride, and now she is hooked. First thing she said at the end was 'that was great! We need to do more of these!"... She rides my butt off, so will leave me in the dust on these rides, but it's great to see her have so much fun.

BarbaraAlys

[PinkBike]

welcome barbara, very cool about your friend getting hooked on the organized ride. and 300 people is quite a turnout!