ABCs in a Day/Mike & Reed's Trip Home
June 26, 2009
Photos by: Bunny, Mike K and Reed
ABCs in a Day/Mike & Reed's Trip Home
by Webmistress Marian
I am still in recovery mode from the ABC's of Touring in a Day ride on Saturday- it was so much fun! It was terrible Friday night...ever KNOW you have to get
up early and you are staring at the ceiling at midnight? I guess it's like
being a little kid the night before Christmas...being a biker the night before
ABC's in a Day!
What's more is that this was Ed's first ride as a member - he picked a big one!
We woke up Saturday morning a few minutes after 5 as the alarm didn't go off!
After a mad scramble, we arrived at Faultline at 5:35, ready to go.
TNT was handing out raffle tickets and DFR told me "Yeah, we're raffling you off
while we have the chance." LOL Anyway, we got a briefing and away we went!
I was very impressed at the efficiency of the photo process. We'd arrive,
Pappy, Bunny and Miles were already set up, and we'd just go one by one, someone
would hand us the HOG magazine, smile, click and next!
We knew we were in for heat, so we were all prepared. I had frozen a camelback
(left from my days of bicycle riding) the night before and that provided me cool
liquid refreshment the whole day. It did become brutal...but we forged ahead
and made all of our stops.
At one of the stops, Robbins, there was a rose bush that had grown up and was
covering the name of the city and zip code. Elaine pushed the roses aside but
got pricked a bit, so Pappy came over and wrapped his vest around the bush and
pulled it to the side. I guess next year we should bring pruners...<g>
Once we started climbing up 70, it cooled off and oh, the views! It is nothing short of gorgeous up there. We arrived at the Gold Pan at 5:35pm with 325 miles under us. I have to tell you, there is nothing like that shower after a ride like that. I even had grit in my eyelashes! I thought I would feel like the walking dead but I was fine. A little sore maybe, and a bit sunburned but otherwise fine.
We had 'cocktail hour' and TNT began giving out prizes. Seems he and Aileen have been doing the ABCs for so long that they had 2 sets of all sorts of things National HOG gives away, so he brought something for everyone which was awesome. Then we went off to dinner and the fatigue hit like a wall of bricks. I think it hit everyone at the same time...on the walk back, I met two felines who were sitting in a window named Trouble & Mischief and their owner. Leave it to me to make cat friends...
We rose early Sunday morning and I learned that a large gray cat had slept under my bike. That's funny since my bike is named after a very large, gray cat. Anyway, Ed and I decided to hit it early because we knew we were in for some intense temps. So we sad our goodbyes and we were off. We took off out of town on 89 which is gorgeous, and then instead of doing what we should have done, continue on 89 to 88, we turned onto 80. I had no idea that road was so horrible. Ed hit a huge pothole and lost a side panel. Live n' learn I guess. It's narrow, has some turns and steep grades, and people drive like flipping lunatics, exceeding 80mph. So it's either suffer in the right lane which has been gnawed at and shredded by big rigs wearing tire chains, or get in the left lane and go faster than what is safe. No thanks!
In Auburn, I put my cool vest on and it was so hot that by Vacaville, it was dry.
It was a great time and I want to do it again next year!!!! Thanks to Donnie Ray for the great ride and to all who made it go off in such an organized way.
-Webmistress Marian
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ABCs in a Day/Mike & Reed's Trip Home
by Webmistress Marian
I am still in recovery mode from the ABC's of Touring in a Day ride on Saturday- it was so much fun! It was terrible Friday night...ever KNOW you have to get
up early and you are staring at the ceiling at midnight? I guess it's like
being a little kid the night before Christmas...being a biker the night before
ABC's in a Day!
What's more is that this was Ed's first ride as a member - he picked a big one!
We woke up Saturday morning a few minutes after 5 as the alarm didn't go off!
After a mad scramble, we arrived at Faultline at 5:35, ready to go.
TNT was handing out raffle tickets and DFR told me "Yeah, we're raffling you off
while we have the chance." LOL Anyway, we got a briefing and away we went!
I was very impressed at the efficiency of the photo process. We'd arrive,
Pappy, Bunny and Miles were already set up, and we'd just go one by one, someone
would hand us the HOG magazine, smile, click and next!
We knew we were in for heat, so we were all prepared. I had frozen a camelback
(left from my days of bicycle riding) the night before and that provided me cool
liquid refreshment the whole day. It did become brutal...but we forged ahead
and made all of our stops.
At one of the stops, Robbins, there was a rose bush that had grown up and was
covering the name of the city and zip code. Elaine pushed the roses aside but
got pricked a bit, so Pappy came over and wrapped his vest around the bush and
pulled it to the side. I guess next year we should bring pruners...<g>
Once we started climbing up 70, it cooled off and oh, the views! It is nothing short of gorgeous up there. We arrived at the Gold Pan at 5:35pm with 325 miles under us. I have to tell you, there is nothing like that shower after a ride like that. I even had grit in my eyelashes! I thought I would feel like the walking dead but I was fine. A little sore maybe, and a bit sunburned but otherwise fine.
We had 'cocktail hour' and TNT began giving out prizes. Seems he and Aileen have been doing the ABCs for so long that they had 2 sets of all sorts of things National HOG gives away, so he brought something for everyone which was awesome. Then we went off to dinner and the fatigue hit like a wall of bricks. I think it hit everyone at the same time...on the walk back, I met two felines who were sitting in a window named Trouble & Mischief and their owner. Leave it to me to make cat friends...
We rose early Sunday morning and I learned that a large gray cat had slept under my bike. That's funny since my bike is named after a very large, gray cat. Anyway, Ed and I decided to hit it early because we knew we were in for some intense temps. So we sad our goodbyes and we were off. We took off out of town on 89 which is gorgeous, and then instead of doing what we should have done, continue on 89 to 88, we turned onto 80. I had no idea that road was so horrible. Ed hit a huge pothole and lost a side panel. Live n' learn I guess. It's narrow, has some turns and steep grades, and people drive like flipping lunatics, exceeding 80mph. So it's either suffer in the right lane which has been gnawed at and shredded by big rigs wearing tire chains, or get in the left lane and go faster than what is safe. No thanks!
In Auburn, I put my cool vest on and it was so hot that by Vacaville, it was dry.
It was a great time and I want to do it again next year!!!! Thanks to Donnie Ray for the great ride and to all who made it go off in such an organized way.
-Webmistress Marian
