Stp?

[LilBolt]

I've been on a buisiness trip all week, so I'm late to this discussion. Great ride reports...gave me flashbacks to the good, bad & ugly of the ride.

The good: volunteer support. They did a good job controlling the food 'distribution' at the stops. At first I thought they were being a bit mean restricting me to one PBJ, but I quickly realized there were a whole lot of riders behind me that still needed to have their PBJ's. I've done rides in the past that ran out of food/beverage before I got there, so hats off to the volunteers who had to control all of us & our big appetites. The other riders I encountered generally were safe, polite & considerate...better behaved than I remember 2 years ago. Cascade has done a good job trying to communicate that we have responsibilities as we are on the road. Although as a large group we 'took the road', I have to admit it was fun heading into Spanaway in our amateur peloton. OH...and lots of good pavement along the way (including the HILL, but excluding the long stretch of gravel south of Centralia), the Lewis & Clark bridge looked like it had been swept, and the mats over most of the worst of the rr-tracks.

The bad: bonking about 10 miles from St. Helens. DH finally told me to stop and made me ingest (you don't exactly 'eat' that stuff) a gel. That got me to St. Helens.

The ugly: headwinds & Hwy 30.

We started later than planned, spent too much time at a couple of the stops, and the tandem we were riding with had some challenges. The last 30 miles went really well for me (didn't hurt that I had DH's wheel the rest of the way). Got in just before 9PM. I had no saddle issues at all. Terry Butterfly is apparently my perfect saddle. Lots of comments about my "She Loves Hills" jersey. I met someone from TE in the restroom @ the college, but didn't get her name...darn! The best was a young volunteer who said "Team Estrogen...that's my favorite jersey today".

Sunday AM we had a great breakfast & watched some 2 day riders come in...that was fun! The Fat Tire guys pulled in just as we were leaving...hats off to them. The drive home was loooong. I had to get up for a 6AM flight to the east coast Monday morning...no rest for the weary. I was still hungry and actually ended up buying food on the airplane...shoulda had another gel instead.