Don't Miss This Ride!!

[Aint Doody]

We finally have our website up for our Memorial Day Week-end Ride. It's the CROC (Century Ride of the Centuries). It's really fun. The name comes from the fact that we ride past Century Farms--farms that have been in the same families for 100 years or more. Susan O came on our ride last year and really enjoyed it. You can check out our website and register online. It's www.cyclependleton.com We are in Eastern Oregon--the dry side of Oregon. It's not really a charity ride--we just try to have a super ride for cyclists. I guess the charity would be for those who ride it! Anyway I hope if some of you TE ladies come, you'll look me up. I'm the Southern woman who lives in Eastern OR!

[bikerHen]

This looks great! Pendleton is an easy drive from Spokane, so I may just have to do this. I could use it as my last training ride before the LRRH, which would be the following weekend. Or do you think that would be over training? Anyway it sound and looks like great fun! I'm giving this one some serious thought! BikerHen

[Jen]

Oregon looks awesome. I'm moving. Are the taxes high, housing?

[Jo-n-NY]

Oregon looks awesome. I'm moving. Are the taxes high, housing?

I second that ~ the pics were great!!

~ JoAnn

[Aint Doody]

I'm glad y'all are taking a look. It is an easy drive from Spokane, Bikerhen. By the way, we used your tattoo as the inspiration for the socks we're giving as part of the entry! I won't give away the actual design.

As for taxes--property ones are substantial. However, we have no sales tax in OR! That's a real plus. I think housing is pretty close or slightly below nat'l average in Eastern OR. As I said--this is the dry part of the state. The summers are wonderful--humidity hits maybe 20% on a "muggy" day. (I'm from the Deep South and get so amused when people out here comment on a muggy day! They don't have a clue!!) And because we're so far north the daylight lasts a long time in the summer. (It's not so special in the winter for daylight.) And where I live we're only 30 miles from the closest XC skiing and about 2 hours from a couple of small downhill ski areas. I love it out here. (You'd think I worked for the Chamber of Commerce!)

I really hope some of y'all will come to our ride.....

[Andi]

The pictures are great. I'm anxious to share this info with friends. Told my husband this is the ride for us next year as we already have plans this year - darn it( . What is the maximum numbers of riders you allow on this ride or is it open to everyone?

Thanks for sharing. Look forward to hearing how the ride goes.

[bikerHen]

Hey AD, I'm honored! I checked out the ride on your beautiful web site and it looks just awesome but . . . I'm thinking there are to many rollers/hills for me to take on the week before my century ride. Or maybe I'm just being a weenie. I'm still kinda thinking about it though, it sure looks fun. BikerHen

[Aint Doody]

We do limit the ride to 250. We want to keep it intimate. And the Bar M Ranch can't handle any more than that! The Bar M is really special. They have a hotsprings fed swimming pool. And the hot tub is a big, ole galvanized washtub. The setting for it seems like something out of the movies. The actual building was a stage stop in the 1800's. It has a huge fireplace in the living room. Ooh, and can those women out there cook! There was a tame deer--Billie--who would come inside. Had to keep shooing her out--she wanted to go through the food line! I guess Billie is still there. The wheat fields are beautiful and green that time of year; the canola fields are a carpet of canary yellow. You can even see some of the wild mustang horses out on the hillsides. And all this is just the Bar M part!

The first part of the ride is totally different. It goes along the Umatilla River with high rim rock above your heads--and passes by a small ranch with emus. The baby ones should be hatched out by then. k

Then you hit the little town of Echo. There are some wonderful old homes there. The population of Echo might be 200 people. There is one house that has some very unusual yard decorations. I just cannot give that away--it's a surprise!

All the roads have very little traffic. And the rollers aren't too bad--you just get to practise your granny!

I guess I've sorta gotten carried away! Sorry!

[salsabike]

Hey, Aint Doody, you might want to add this ride to the Cascade Bicycle Club (Seattle) events calendar: http://www.cascadebicycleclub.com/Ea...oncascadeevent

It does look really great and we may try to come out from Seattle to do it if there's still room once we decide.

[Aint Doody]

Thanks, Salsa, for the suggestion. I added it to the calendar. We've got a surprising number already signed up from the Seattle area. Come on down! I'll be the one driving SAG on Sunday in a white Dodge minivan, hollering out encouragement out the window at all the cyclists. (I'll ride on Sat. and Mon.)

[Aint Doody]

We still have some room in our ride. It's going to be terrific. We've even made themes for our SAG stops. I'm going to be in the Hawaiian SAG stop on Sat. We have 2 8-ft. palm trees (paper) and some other stuff. We'll be wearing hula skirts and playing ukeleles as we refresh the cyclists along the Umatilla River! Don't miss out!

Susan