BentLovers & Friends
This year’s Birthday Challenge week started on Thursday, like last year, with a well-attended clinic on Riding Faster and Riding Further. In order to improve our riding, we covered everything from the physics to the fuel. We hope some of the information passed on will help you. Thanks to John and Troy for input from their Bacchetta team experiences! We are hoping to have these Ride South Workshop Clinics more often. Thanks to Captain Johnny for the loan of his PA system, too! Please let us know if you enjoyed this one.
We began the slow cooking of the pork loin with some oak and cherry wood charcoal about 3 in the afternoon on Friday. The customer appreciation pre-ride party was to begin at 6, but we had the ping pong table warmed up way before. As folks began to come in, it was fun pitting various ping pong teams against each other. The spirit of competition spreads to everything, it seems! Great! Cool Water Cafe brought in some most-excellent chicken penne pasta Alfredo, tasty anti-pasta, peach melba tea, yeast rolls, fruit and veggie trays, etc.. The pork loin disappeared with the delicious Jezebel sauce made by Lane, as did the brownies, and we could have treated another bunch of hungry folks with the food left over before we shut down at 9! Thanks to Captain Johnny for entertaining us with his songs and guitar playing! The unexpected pleasure of Scott with all his harmonicas was a real treat and the duo was fantastic! Thanks guys!
The frosty fields were picturesque, as we drove down to Prentiss early Saturday morning . . . anticipating! A good crowd was visiting at the Prentiss trailhead, preparing for a chilly start of the 2010 Birthday Challenge. Thanks to Lee McCall who called the group to order with a new PA system! The Color Guard presented the Flag to a beautiful rendition of the Nation Anthem and a prayer for a good event . . . and indeed, a good event it was! There were about 100 folks at the start, and we discovered later about 20 riders could not make the 9:00 start. From this rider’s point of view, we think the Friday night fuel was sufficient because, this day, folks were flying up and down the LLT! Thank you Lee for all the well stocked rest stops! We missed visiting with many of you, since we took the Greenspeed Glyde velomobile out for a (significantly warmer) PR voyage to recruit some more ride mates for you. Hope it works! Congrats to all who made the effort! We hope you met your challenge Saturday, and will continue to ride throughout the year! More importantly, we hope you had a good time!!
This Saturday we will continue the Rise & Shine Bread Rides, so plan your day around the 7:30 AM launch and the hot bread at 10! This is prime riding season (what isn’t?) so come on out and join us every Saturday! The next BIG event is the Signature Ride which is the last Saturday in March. We hope you will sign up early! The Ride South shop will be closed Thanksgiving weekend so stock up on your Christmas gifts now. We have gift certificates, too.
Thank You,
Jim
